The Night I Chose My Enemy

The truth behind the throne

KAELIRA’s POV

When I recognized my uncle's silhouette in the trees, I freed myself from Caedric's grip, and ran to him without hesitation, the ceremonial gown clinging to my arm.

"Uncle!" I broke my voice in relief and terror. “Thank the moon, uncle, you're here—“

Vaelor didn't move. He stood quite still among the trees, a knife in his hand, watching me, like a man watching the rain.

I didn't notice. My hands were shaking as I was too busy to grab at the front of his coat. “Something is amiss with Caedric,” I said hastily. “Uncle…what’s happening? Caedric brought me here and this is not the manor… uncle… I am scared… uncle did you know he would do this? Is that why you followed us? I don’t trust him anymore uncle.” I said all in one breath.

"Kaelira—" my uncle started.

“Well, something has to be done," I cut him off, my words now tumbling. “He's my mate, Uncle, he's supposed to watch over me, he's not supposed to take me out into the woods like—like— please, you need to punish him, you need to call the guard, whatever this is, whatever he's thinking of doing, he doesn't dare challenge you—“

"Kaelira." This time, his voice was sharper and silenced my tongue. "Stop talking."

I blinked at him. "Uncle?"

He looked at me for a long time, and I saw a change in his expression, just like a c***k in the ice under calm water. His eyes lost the warmth which had been there since I was a girl and a coldness which I had never noticed in him before, in twenty-two years, took its place.

“There's nothing wrong with Caedric," he said.

I laughed slightly, incredulously. What “do you mean there's nothing wrong? Uncle, he attempted to—he's not himself, there's something about him—“

“There is no misunderstanding," Vaelor said, his voice as even as a child's, almost gentle, as though he were trying to explain something simple to a child. “Everything that is happening tonight was planned, Kaelira," he said.

It became very still in the forest.

“Planned,” I said slowly, as though it would change its meaning if I repeated it enough times. "Planned by who? By Caedric?" I turned my head around and saw him standing quietly for a couple of feet away, his face expressionless. “Uncle, I don't know what this plan is about , I'm your niece, I'm Ronan Ashthorn's daughter. I'm the rightful heir to this pack, whatever it is that they're doing right now, you have to fix it, you have to—"

“I never loved your father.” Came his cold reply.

I stopped breathing.

"What?" I whispered.

You might not know this, but …” Vaelor went on, as if he did not just admit to hating my father, his brother few seconds ago. “We were brothers, we were assumed to be close, because that's what brothers are supposed to be, but I hated him, Kaelira, before the war ever started; I hated the way our father looked at him like he had the moon in his hands while I stood two steps back, oblivious.”

I said, "Stop it.Don't talk to me like that, are you under any threat?”

“It was not some tragedy that befell our pack,” he said, not looking at me, "some cruel twist of fate, the war, that took your parents from you.” He leaned his head slightly to one side. “It wasn't fate, Kaelira. I planned it. All the alliances that rose against him, all the battles that brought him to a place he never expected he would be was all planned by me so that the throne would finally be mine.”

“No, I shook my head, stepping back. “No, that's not true, you're lying, you loved him, you told me stories about him, about the two of you as boys, you cried at his memorial, I saw you crying—"

“I told you what you needed to hear," Vaelor said, simply. "Years have made it easy to produce tears.”

Again I said, "You're lying!" but now it was louder, and I was feeling desperate. "You're lying, this is some kind of—some kind of test, isn't it? Please let me know that this is a test—

“You were supposed to die with them.” His voice didn't rise. It didn't need to. “That's what I was going to do, Kaelira, but the council swooped in before I could finish what I started. They unknowingly stopped me from killing you outright, after everyone else already knew you'd survived the attack that killed your parents, they provided you with the best security I have seen in years… and your death in my hands, would have raised far too many questions. So I waited.”

My legs were weak under me. "Waited for what?"

“For time" he said, "for you to grow. Because a woman's death can be mourned a hundred ways and a child's death can only be mourned one way: No one would ever think to look at the loving uncle who raised her especially not when he had protected her all his life!”

I could not have said it any better, "You raised me," I said, my voice breaking apart. "You held me the night I found out they were dead. You sat with me for hours. You gave me Father's pendant tonight you told me they'd be proud of me you said—“

“An act,” Vaelor said, and for the first time, there was a hint of boredom in his voice. “Well it looks convincing enough, doesn't it, because you didn't ask any question about it at all, not in all these years.”

"Stop." I put my hands to my ears like a child, like if that would somehow make the word go away. “Just stop, stop saying these things—"

I turned and ran.

I didn't think. I had no intention of going anywhere. I knew I had to be somewhere other than in the man's face who had just confessed to murdering my parents, but as soon as I took three steps, Caedric had moved in the only direction that was clear to me: toward the road.

“Caedric”, I gasped, stumbling to a halt in front of him, trying to find some resemblance to the man who had walked me through the ceremony hours ago, polite and composed. "Please. Whatever he's told you, whatever he's promised you, you don't have to do this. I've done nothing to you; I've done nothing to either of you—"

He passed me, and looked at Vaelor.

My uncle said, "Finish it.”

Before I could even see Caedric move, the sword went into my side.

“Vaelor!” I screamed the only name I had known in all these years as my knees gave way and I fell to the cold damp ground of the forest.

“Don’t call my name.” My uncle hissed as he spat on the wound , bleeding.

I felt my blood soaking through my gown, warm against the cold air of the night, and I was unable to speak, gasping as I looked at the canopy of trees overhead.

I turned my head around just a little, far enough to see the two men standing over me, my Uncle, as calm as ever, and my mate, who was still holding the sword he'd just plunged through me.

Before Caedric could even move back, Vaelor had struck him too .

It was too quick for me to grasp at first; my uncle's knife darted, raised at the moon and held for a split second before he cut Caedric's throat.

Caedric's eyes went wide. He produced a grunt, a wet and choking noise, and then he fell at my feet, the blood mixing on the forest floor.

Vaelor stood over us and wiped his blade against my gown, as though he was doing nothing more than running an errand.

“There shall be no witnesses.”