Chapter 150: The Night of Reckoning IV

The silence that followed was almost unbearable.

Mara remained standing in the middle of the Hall of Ashes, her shoulders trembling beneath the thin fabric of her servant’s dress. Her head was bowed, but her eyes kept darting from the black stone floor to Selene and back again.

She didn’t understand what was happening to her at all! Every answer she’d prepared before entering this room had been perfectly clear in her mind.

She was supposed to defend Selene.

She was supposed to tell them that Della had entered the Workrooms. That she’d seen her tampering with the banner. That Selene had merely asked her to correct the lie she’d told before.

That was all.

Yet now her own mouth had betrayed her twice, and her wolf has been restless.It was like the more she tried to force the truth back down, the stronger the invisible pressure inside her became.

But beneath the fear was something even worse...the growing certainty that she was about to reveal things she had spent months burying.

That she didn’t want a single soul to know, not just about Selene but about herself.

"Speak!" Malachi commanded, and it felt almost as if she had been compelled or something.

She looked up immediately, tears bursting out of her eyes as her throat began working on its own again, "Selene is responsible for a lot of things, Alpha,"

Selene’s grip tightened on her dress.

"And...she had ordered me to do a lot of her dirty work,"

"I’m listening,"

"Selene—" Mara sniffed, "Selene had instructed me to kill a lot of people before, especially those who stood in her way of getting anything,"

Malachi was silent this time, and so was everyone else.

"She...ordered me to kill Cordelia, the head seamstress the day of the interrogation, so that the older woman wouldn’t have to chance to confess that Selene had a hand in what happened to the banner. Selene had asked her to claim that she had seen Della... sneaking into the Workrooms that afternoon,"

Selene’s breathing had turned ragged. It was loud and nasty and her wolf was almost scratching at her chest restlessly.

"The night when Della confesses to tampering with the banner, she ordered me to go and meet Della in her cell and convince her to escape the castle. R... rowan, your beta helped us escape that night, but he had no idea that I had alterior motives for Della,"

Malachi sucked in a deep breath.

"I made her run into a rogue, as per lady Selene’s orders and then...I left her to die,"

The whole room was holding their breath.

"By the time I returned that night, it was late in the night and lady Selene instructed me to accompany her somewhere. We ended up...at the abode of Elder Ravaryn,"

The old man seated shifted on his seat a little bit.

"Lady Selene was the one who reminded the council of the buried law of Servitude. She wanted to use it to serve as...a form of backup that would ensure Della’s cruel death in case she survived the rogue attack,"

This time, Malachi slowly turned and looked at the woman he had trusted with everything at some point in his life. Then, he scoffed with a dark expression colouring his face.

"Is that all?" Malachi’s hands turned into fists again.

"No, Alpha," Mara shook her head, "There’s more,"

"Say it!"

"Selene, two days ago she—"

"No!!!" Selene was on her feet again, her eyes flaring with a dangerous glow, "No!!!" She screamed again, "It’s all lies!! She’s lying to you all!! I didn’t do anything!! I’m inn—" She stumbled between her words, and her throat clamped down on her own words altogether, "I...I’m guilty,"

Malachi didn’t even shake at all.

"No!" Selene quickly gripped her throat with both hands, "What is happening to me?" She looked as terrified as she was confused, because she had been sure that whatever had been happening only affected the Barretts!

But it had somehow... caught the maid, too.

And now...her?!

Does that mean it’s not the food? Then what could it be?!

Malachi finally glanced back at her.

She was gonna say the truth about everything sooner or later, but for now, he had a few questions that needed immediate attention.

"If!" Malachi boomed angrily, turning back to face the nobles, "If Della never did...any of that, why did she suddenly admit to... tampering with the banner and killing Cordelia on the night of the interrogation?"

Everyone stiffened quickly, most especially a particular couple. Malachi’s gaze settled on them.

Leopold had swear covering his whole body now from everything he had been hearing, and he had been dreading this particular moment from arriving. His heart already felt ripped out enough with the way Beatrice had been glaring at him for a while now, and then he clenched his teeth in anger.

But the moment he felt a presence before him, all that anger dissolved into instant panic and fear again.

"Leo," Malachi whispered, "Would you kindly tell us all...why Della took the blame that night?"

"Brother, I have no idea," He replied quickly.

Whatever it was that had been happening to the rest of the nobles in here, he would do everything in his power to make sure it doesn’t catch up to him.

After all, he was also an Alpha.

Alphas have more resistance to these types of things.

"No, you do," Malachi crouched down and met his brother’s eyes, "You definitely do, Leopold," Malachi looked at his brother’s Adams apple that kept bobbing up and down uncontrollably,"

"T...this isn’t right, Brother!" Leopold spat angrily, "You can’t just do this to us. You’re...you’re making us all say things that...that can never be true!"

"No," Malachi growled, and then his eyes turned red again as he stared hell into his brother’s eyes, "I’m making you all spill the truth that I have blind to all these months. Now, proceed with the truth!!"

The first thing Leo did was reach out for his wife’s hand to hold, but Beatrice instantly crossed her arms together.

Leopold’s hand remained suspended between them for a moment, and then something inside him cracked.

It was such a small gesture, but it hurt more than any wound or neglect he had ever received. He stared at her crossed arms, then at the woman he loved more than anything, and shame flooded through him.

He had promised himself he would protect her secret no matter what it cost him, and he had failed her.

"I don’t know," He said to Malachi, and then his throat suddenly burned.

Leopold froze.

"Tell me why Della confessed." Malachi repeated again.

"I don’t—" The words died, and his jaws trembled, "No..." He then pressed a hand against his throat, panic finally entering his eyes.

"You know." Malachi whispered, "Leopold, what did you do??!" He snarled.

"I made a pact with her," Leopold admitted with his own mouth, or rather, one that was moving against his will, "I told her I’d rescue Lian from IronRidge if she took responsibility for everything."

Malachi felt a storm crash into his body, and he almost stumbled backward and fall on his butt.

FUCK!!

"And you intended to honor that promise?" He finally asked again, gritting his teeth.

"No." The confession seemed to tear something out of him again, and he let out as strangled cry like his wolf was being tormented by something strange from the inside, "I...I never intended to rescue him. I only needed Della to believe me."

"You said you formed a blood pact with her. You should be dead if you didn’t keep your part of the promise,"

Silence.

"The pact was never Valid," Leopold said quietly, "I...I used fake blood. Animal blood." He slowly turned and looked at his wife, "I simply wanted my wife out of that interrogation room before she—"

Malachi understood perfectly.

He didn’t look at his brother anymore. He didn’t have any more questions for him. And he was mostly afraid that spending one more second close to Leo could cause his limbs to move on their own, and his brother’s — and everyone else’s head would end up dangling on each of his fingers before the night was over.

Malachi stood back up, his eyes darker than the shadows now.

Then, he walked back to the shivering maid standing in the middle of the room, "Continue from where you stopped, Assassin,"