Chapter 1054 - 1054 Chapter 39- Trinity – The Truth Is Revealed (VOLUME 6)
Trinity
The move of Warrick was completed almost immediately after we left. I actually sent Artem there to collect him, and he was apparently pretty intimidating toward the other Alpha. However, Artem is a High Noble in my kingdom, and Nigel is just an Ancillary Noble. He couldn’t hold a candle to Artem’s power or rank. And with Star going with him, her magic would be more than sufficient to rescue the young man from the weak Alpha.
With Warrick’s situation under control, I needed to take care of the other issues at hand. I needed to have the six new prisoners interrogated before they were sentenced to their cells in Athair mòr’s new prison. For that job I needed to assign some people that I could trust. Some people that I knew would be really upset that Talia had been hurt in this whole process. And who better to ask than Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Vincent and Gabriel. And of course, I needed to talk to Arthur once more as well. I needed to know how he had gotten through Vincent and Gabriel? How he had managed to not get caught with them looking for enemies everywhere.
“What are you talking about?” Arthur said when I went to talk to him. “I didn’t do anything.”
“How did you make it past them?” I growled at him. “They know when someone is out to hurt us.”
“But I didn’t want to hurt Talia. I wanted to get her to love me and become her husband. Then we would be king and queen. I wanted to make her life better.”
“Then you are delusional.” I glared at him. “Because her plan isn’t to take over my kingdom. She has one of her own.”
.....
“You’re sending her to hell. You’re the monster here.” He shouted at me. “How could you?”
“This was her decision, not mine. She chose to do this. And if she didn’t want it, I wouldn’t force it on her. She is capable of making her own decisions.”
“LIAR!” Arthur screamed at me. “You just don’t love her. That is why you are throwing her into hell.”
“I guess it was because you thought that that you were able to get past them.” I shook my head. “You were so delusional that you thought you were saving her. That, or you’re just a really good liar.” I glared at him.
“I admit that I lied about things, but not about this. I was trying to make her life better. You wanted to throw her away.”
I decided to stop talking to him and scan him with my magic. I needed to know how he had duped my guards without anyone suspecting him. I hadn’t thought that anything would turn up though, so imagine my surprise when there was a blip on my magic. There was something there on his skin, and it was enough to enrage me.
“What the hell is that?” I pointed to his neck just below his shirt collar.
“What are you talking about?” He seemed utterly perplexed by my fury.
“There, under your shirt. There is a mark. It looks like a rune.” I squinted at the magic that was pulsing off of him.
“A rune? Is that what they..” He stopped midsentence and I latched onto his words.
“Is that what who.. go on and finish what you were saying.” I called my magic toward me and let myself glow with it. “Don’t stop there, Arthur. Tell me what you need to say.”
“U..uh..uhm, w..w..well, th..the elders. They drew something on me, but I never saw it. It disappeared into my skin. D..did they draw a rune on me?” He started to feel his neck and looked like he was about to cry. I didn’t think that he was lying to me, he smelled too honest at that moment. Alright, so he didn’t know. But what was this rune?
I studied it a bit more, trying to unlock the mysteries of it all. It looked to me like one that was for hiding things. And it also had elements of truth and deception. So, if I was reading it right, it was hiding the truth and deception from me and the men that were capable of seeing it for me.
“Why did they use a rune? How did they know to do that?”
“W..w..well, they said that the killers from the summer used them. They said that they were powerful and untraceable.” I didn’t know what to think about him at the moment. I didn’t know if he was telling me the truth or not. The asshole could be a chronic liar and I would never know because of this.
“Let me just remove it. Then I will find out what is really going on.”
The rune was destroyed when I slashed it with a claw. There was a small mound of blood that welled up, but I didn’t care. I could already see that the rune was losing its power. And within a few seconds, it was gone completely.
“OUCH!” Arthur had cried out when I scratched away the magical rune on his neck. “That fucking hurt.” His hand was clamped over his neck to stop the blood. “I can’t believe you just fucking did that to me. How cruel can you get?”
Now that the magic was gone, I was able to see the boy clearly. I could tell that he practically reeked of lies and manipulation.
“So, that was it, huh? And who put that rune on you?” I narrowed my eyes at him and watched him try to lie to me. His stench, the way he looked, all of it started to come to the light.
“It was Edward, I swear. Him and William were the ones that wanted to do this to me. This whole plan was their idea. I swear it.” It was clear that Arthur thought that the rune was still in effect. He was lying through his teeth and thought that I was going to believe him.
“Really? So, this whole thing was their idea? Are you sure they’re not innocent?”
“No, they are guilty. This whole thing was their plot from the beginning.”
“Uh huh.” I nodded at the vile boy. “You see, Arthur, I can see your lies now. I can smell them. That rune is destroyed. You probably didn’t know that, did you? And I am starting to think that you are just trying to pin this on them so that you and the others can go free. I don’t see how you think that is going to work, but you are an idiot after all.”
“I AM NOT AN IDIOT!” He screamed at me. “I WAS ABLE TO FOOL ALL OF YOU! THAT MAKES ME POWERFUL AND INTELLIGENT!”
“You’re a damned fool! And you’ve been caught. Give it up and tell the truth now.”
It took a little more back and forth, and a little threatening, but I managed to get Arthur to start telling the truth. And according to the tune he was singing now, this whole thing was a plan he and his cousins came up with. The two elders, Henry and Charles, were in on it because they boys asked for their help. And the plan from the beginning was to pin it all on Edward and William. They were supposed to make it look like they were innocent until the two elders practically forced them into the whole plot. And the reason for that was because William and Edward were the most virtuous of the pack elders. Without the two of them in the way, they might be able to do more despicable things in their village. I knew right then and there that I was going to need to revamp that whole pack. By the time that I was done with it, I wasn’t even sure if Nigel would be a part of it, let alone running it.
I told the others about the runes, and had any of them destroyed during the interviews. The truth came out from the others as well, which backed up what I had learned. Four of the six arrested that day in England were being sent to the prison, but Edward and William were being released and sent back to the pack. They would be preparing things for a complete overhaul. Not that I had a lot of time to be working on that at the moment. I had the reveal coming up and so much going on in my own little bubble that I couldn’t be taking the time to sort out this pack.
Knowing that I needed to wait until later to fix Nigel’s pack, I told him that I would be sending a spy soon. He wouldn’t see them, but they would be watching. And that I would know if he broke any of our laws. They were all to be on their best behavior, lest they incur the wrath of the queen.
There was no spy though. That was just a ploy to get him to behave and listen. I would get back to them when I had the time to. And right now, I definitely didn’t. However, I had needed to take care of this little incident. This involved my daughter and my kingdom directly, and I would do what I needed to protect them both, especially my daughter. She had needed me, and I was there for her. I would always be there for her.
At least it was over now though, and we were able to move onto other more important things.