LYRIC
Jace wasn’t around to give me any form of advice. So, I had to go to Maddy.
“Oh, Lyric. Could you stop worrying about Jaris? Nothing could possibly happen to him. I’m sure he’s fine, Maddy grouse “So, why isn’t he home? Even Nerion didn’t know where he went last night.”
“Stop mentioning that name.” She glared daggers at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Please, I’m being serious here. I don’t know, but I kind of think something might be wrong with him. Don’t you think we should ask questions?”
“Eww. No. I don’t care what happens to him.”
Now I was starting to actually get pissed.
“Fine. I’ll just do it myself.”
I left her room. Fortunately, when I got outside, I met Kael talking to some guards. This was looking like a search party. “Hey. Is there any news on Alpha Jaris?” I approached him when he’d dismissed the men around him.
“No. We haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
I picked up on pattering footsteps approaching, then turned to see Maddy rushing toward me, her face set in a frown. She was still wearing the same outfit from her room–a short jean skirt with a crop top.
“You’re stubborn, you know that? You keep making me do things I don’t want to.”
I ignored her and turned back to Kael. I was actually grateful he was responding to me after what happened yesterday. “But didn’t you all leave together yesterday morning?” I asked him.
“We did. He just… insisted on going somewhere alone. And we haven’t seen him since then.”
Unease clawed at my chest. “Where was he going?”
“He didn’t say.”
Yet the look in his eyes told me he knew something else.
“Kael, come on. Tell me what you know. What prompted him to want to go here alone?”
He hesitated for a moment before he sighed. “We found another body yesterday, like the one we found that night. It had the same pattern. He suspects Caden. So, I’m thinking he must’ve gone there yesterday.”
Oh, gods.
“We drove there last night, but there was no trace of either of them.”
“What pattern are you talking about?” Maddy questioned.
“Their blood is drained in a different way. There’s no bite marks, just a claw cut on their wrist.”
“Fuck,” she took a step back.
My attention snapped to her at once. “What’s wrong?”
But she wasn’t even looking at me. Her eyes were on the floor as she raked her fingers through her strands
“Fuck. No. No.”
“Maddy, if you know something, say it,” Kael popped with irritation.
Still, she didn’t say a word. She just turned around and stormed into the house.
****+
MADDY
“Mum!” She yelled as she stormed into her mother’s room.
The woman was on her massaging chair, napping while a maid was getting her nails done. She startled awake at the sound of Maddy’s voice.
“Get out,” Maddy growled at the maid. She wasted no time and hurred on of the room.
Luna Isolde was confused. “Maddy, what is-”
Successfully unlocked!
“How perfect, mother?” Maddy crossed her arms, her voice dripping with malice. “Here you are, getting your nails done while both your sons are killing themselves!”
Isolde sat up. “What are you saying?”
164
“Are you even aware that Jaris has been missing since yesterday?”
“Missing?” She frowned. “I–I just thought he was busy with something. I didn’t hear anything about him missing. There is no way someone like him can go missing!”
“Oh, really?” Maddy chuckled bitterly. “Caden triggered his urges. Jaris is a mess right now. He’s fed on our people for two days and had no control over it. He’s becoming the monster he once was. And you; you’re just here, getting your nails done. How convenient.”
“Maddy, I had no idea!” She sprang to her feet. “Jaris doesn’t open up to me. How I supposed to know these things?”
“But I told you to try and meet with Caden! The moment I heard he was back, I told you to try talking to him as a mother. But
you
wouldn’t listen.”
Isolde’s face turned spiteful. “You know I do not wish to speak to him. He killed my husband!”
“No, he didn’t. Jaris did.”
“Oh, shut up. You keep arguing about this. Jaris never killed your father. Caden did.”
Maddy shook her head, not ready for that very argument.
“Well, if you’d set your pride aside and talked to him as a mother, I’m sure things would’ve been different by now.”
“And what makes you think he’d have listened to me? Even as boys, Caden and Jaris never listened to anyone. Not to mention now that they’re all grown–ups.”
Maddy shook her head. “This–This is all fucked up. A kind of war we’ve never experienced before is coming.” She fisted her hands. “You should’ve just spoken to him, mother. It’d have gone a long way.”
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