Chapter 168: A Rogue Tamer?

The bed was nice and soft.

The room was enormous and beautiful, and it came with a stocked kitchen and a small bathroom.

Della looked around the marble walls and floors. The design was intricate and deep, and it gave off the vibe that this place had been built for someone important.

An Alpha? A Queen? A Luna

It was the Eastern building of the Nightveil palace. The place where no one ever visited. The place Cassian had asked her to stay in.

The former her would have found it all overwhelming, and she would probably be seeking a way out of this. She would feel like she wasn’t worthy of staying someplace, but this new Della had her legs spread out the large bed, and her eyes closed.

The moment she had sat on it, her body had sucked out the warmth it had carried and now it felt like she was dying on the cold ground. Not that she cared.

With her eyes closed, she was only thinking of two things. The dead people she cared about.

And the living ones she was going to dismantle and watch them shed tears of blood.

By tomorrow, Conan would have sent a messenger back to IronRidge and a wedding date would be set. By tomorrow, Beatrice would gladly accept her father’s decree, while secretly plotting how she would kill Conan.

The girl would kill an Alpha before she says NO to her father. Desperate for him to accept her. Desperate for scraps of his attention.

And as for Selene, well, she was becoming more and more powerless by the day. Having a wolf like Asteria was insane, including the powers it came with. Della could literally hear every single thing happened in the entire castle, and even all the way down to the villages and marketplace if she focused well enough.

And because of that, she had heard Cassian and Selene’s conversation yesterday. After they had left the garden, she had stepped into the place.

No one had seen her.

She’d picked up the dead butterfly carefully, gently, as though it was still alive, as though it were something precious.

She carried it to the nearest flower and placed it gently beneath the petals, shielding it from the wind.

She remained there for a moment, staring at the dead thing. Her expression didn’t change, but her thumb brushed once over the crushed wing.

"I’m sorry." She finally whispered, and then she had walked away.

Just then, she heard Cassian’s silent steps approaching this side of the castle. She knew he has been in his study attending to many pending matters all day, because she constantly picked up the sound of scrolls being opened and closed, and the scribbling sound of writing with a feather.

Her eyes opened, and she sat up on the bed, waiting for him to arrive.

Seconds later, he was knocking on the door.

She answered it, and looked up at him.

He stared back, "Hello,"

She moved aside and let him in, then she shut the door again.

Cassian stepped into the chambers and looked around the place. There was something achingly soft about his gaze, and he gently squeezed his hands together nervously.

"How are you settling in?" He asked, turning back to look at her. But she was standing standing by the door anymore.

He turned again, and saw her standing by the window next to the bed. She was fast.

"Just fine," She said, staring outside. The giant lake was the view she caught from here.

He looked at her again, and a sigh almost escaped him. Every time he saw her, another part of him broke off and transformed into hatred for himself, and for everyone who had hurt her.

She looked unmoved. Unbothered. Uncaring.

"Why are you here?" She asked.

And she looked empty. Especially her eyes. The look in them was so bad that he could barely hold her gaze for more than two seconds.

"Malachi told me everything about what happened to Gideon,"

The name ’Gideon’ caught her attention, and she instantly whirled back to Cassian. That was the moment he saw a flicker of worry in her eyes, "Did something happen to him?"

"Gideon? No!" Cassian replied, "I mean he told me about the Ritual that went wrong and how Gideon now lives, breathes and oozes Moonfire,"

"Oh," The look was gone again, buried behind heaps and heaps of the empty void again. Then, she turned back to the lake.

"Two nights ago, two neighboring Packs were attacked by rogues and burnt to the ground with Moonfire. I wondered where someone would have gotten such huge amounts of Moonfire from, then I remembered Gideon,"

Della silently watched the lake. She didn’t even blink. If someone was burning down kingdoms with Moonfire, that’s a win for her. There’s less wolves to insult, curse and wish death upon her in the world.

Not that she cared anymore. But they could all die with the puny care she might still have.

"That’s great news," She replied.

Cassian’s brows creased for a moment, then the loomed transformed into another almost-escaped sigh. Of course it was great news to her. After everything the world has done to her, she would be rooting to want it all burnt to the ground.

"Please, I need your help," Cassian said.

"I’m not going to help you with any wolf just because I can touch Moonfire," She stated.

"No, no, not that kind of help. I just want you to tell me if there’s anything to know about this,"

He didn’t really think she was the one responsible, right? Although it’d make total sense if he suspected her.

"The last time I went to see Gideon, barrels of Moonfire had gone missing," She told him, "Gideon leakes Moonfire. He keeps the leaked ones in barrels all around the cave he is kept. Someone has been coming to steal some of them,"

"Then it can’t be a wolf. Wolves can’t touch Moonfire,"

Della had the same thought.

"A human?" Cassian suggested again, deep in serious thought. It’s not like there’s another Rotblood who is alive right now.

"Did you say that rogues attacked before the packs were burnt down?"

Cassian looked back at her, "Yes. They’ve been moving in a coordinated manner for some time now. They are gaining intelligence, somehow,"

"Could someone be taming them?" She asked again.

"That’s... impossible,"

"I once saw a woman sitting on the back of a rogue,"

Cassian’s eyes bulged open.

"Back at Human town. I was attacked by a rogue. I killed it. Then I saw a silhouette of a woman. She was staring at me. My instinct told me she had sent that rogue to me...to test me in a way. And when she saw that I had killed it, it seemed she had gotten her answer and turned and left,"

That was a lot of information.

A woman actually riding a rogue?! Who could it possibly be? Who could have tamed a rogue?!