41

I listened to her excited heartbeat, which calmed down again after agonizingly long seconds. He was with her now when I should have been. I could have shown her one last time how much she meant to me.

"I'll just make sure she's okay." I looked at Cyril, who took Elisane from my hands. She wriggled in his grasp, evoking no more sympathy from him than from my council members, who came back and stalked around her.

"Only time counts, Caspian. Luna hasn't spoken her last word yet," said my friend and all color drained from Elisane's face.

"You chose your queen?" stunned her words came from her blue lips.

"I should have made the right choice from the start," I addressed her. Her body remained motionless in Cyril's grip. She could ask about her brother, but she didn't and wouldn't, knowing her.

"It was the wrong decision," she poisoned. It was the only thing she could spray, poison. "She loves someone else and you mourn her."

"Who would I be if I took that from her?" I asked her, looking into her eyes one last time. Dead, loveless eyes that never wanted to find love, they only ever longed for power.

It was a world I shared with her for a long time, but I wouldn't anymore. It would take sacrifices, perhaps too many, but who would I be if I couldn't prevent it.

"Time will bring our Queen to us, Elisane," intervened Cyril, stroking his black cloak while holding her outstretched arm in his other hand.

"You're the scum of the family," she teased him.

"Maybe, but only in your eyes. Your brother has already turned his back on you and you will close yours today. Choose your words wisely, Elisane." Cyril was her cousin and I didn't like being in his shoes.

"What lies did you tell him?" she snapped at him.

"Yours," he answered curtly. Cyril never showed feelings, but deep down, they were there. Otherwise he wouldn't have fought for Elisane's credibility for so long. He may have come to St. Vincent of Ice at the behest of my best friend, Callum. He fulfilled his responsibilities when he came here, as well as when he came to me and told me what he had learned about my brother Casimir and her plot.

He knew what it was like to give up someone who means a lot to you. He had done it himself long ago. He held a part of his family in his hands, from which his eyes silently and quietly said goodbye.

"The Council will decide," I said tersely, turning away from them. I didn't have to ask the council to get their legitimacy to condemn someone who threatened my Erasthai and her queen.

The hardest part for me was admitting to them that Tara was far from my queen. Maybe never would be by my side Now she had decided against me, but as Cyril always said, time was relative.

"He doesn't need to! It's your decision!" Cyril replied.

"Stop!" I stopped him. Tara would be safe, I made sure of that a long time ago. I might not have known what I was doing then, but it all made sense. A sense that oracles never gave us when they showed us the way.

Cyril threw Elisane over the ice and some Alpha's still gathered around us pounced on her. She was now easy prey to show her devotion to me.

The council members gathered around us and transformed back when Elisane was out of range, forming a circle around me.

"What is the meaning of this, my king?" Jeremiad asked.

"Our queen is in the hands of a wolf," snorted Adem.

"What does time have to do with it?" Nieva asked in disbelief. Her words just rained down on me like the uncertainty in their voices.

"The Ring chose her," I began. It was a coincidence, one that didn't figure in my plan, one that just fell into my hands. It was something they couldn't believe any more than I could.

I stretched my hand towards her. He showed a ring, Lonely, with a single Lycan head encircling my finger. Everyone knew that the counterpart would never choose the wrong owner. No one would ever question the magic of witches.

"I ask you to wait until time brings my counterpart back to me," I told them and they looked at the ring silently for a second.

"You're asking a lot, Caspian!" Jeremiah murmured. She had just watched over my Erasthai on the mountaintop and she wouldn't be here now if she weren't feeling well.

"That means war," Nieva shook her head.

"That can be avoided. Make Elisane your queen. War is no solution." Adem retreated a few steps.

"She must die," said Jeremiade, looking at Adem angrily.

"We don't kill anyone for no reason," he replied.

"She can't get away with it and both King Caspian and Grayson have every right to do so. That's our law," she countered. But it wasn't as easy as her words came out.

"It's all useless in the end," Adem shook his head. That was exactly the problem, which I still hadn't solved in my head.

Her words kept falling over themselves. They didn't leave out anything I hadn't gone through in my head hundreds of times myself.

"Tara is my Erasthai," I interrupted the torrent of words. "The Ring chose her. It was nothing I could have stopped." Everyone around me fell silent. Even the alphas that were still here sat on their hind legs.

"The war's already here," Cyril interjected again.

"Your money that never reached us!" One of the Alphas transformed in order to speak, despite the cold.

"The Rogue Assaults," next.

"The encroachments of Casmir's followers," one whispered and more and more transformed without saying anything. Every individual braving the cold to wordlessly raise their voice made my council sit up and take notice.

"I'm Jaxon Matthews. Casimir's Assassins have been decimating our pack for a week and they won't wait for your permission to invade yours!" He said it out loud, which many others who were not faithful to Casimir had long since caught up without them knowing it.

"We are aware of that," Cyril came to my side. "We have sent out Lycans into all packs, including those close to Casimir. Supporting an Alpha's decision to support Casimir will not be to the detriment of bystanders. Cyril was primarily addressing the young Alpha's who do not care about their fathers' decisions could.

"Yet too many will die!" Beta Jaxon Matthews spoke up again.

"Like the last few years and none of you have noticed until now," Cyril replied, stepping between the rows. Now the last one changed too and stood trembling in front of us in the cold that surrounded us.

It was my turn to say something, but my voice failed the first time. My words didn't even come close to my vocal cords.

"Many will die if they choose the wrong path. It is up to you to guide and support them. They are your packs. As in the past, we will not interfere in your decisions. Do not meet they continue to be wise." Cyril walked between them, everything was said.

They turned back into their wolves one by one, as only they could brave the cold for more than a few minutes.

Cyril stood near me, waiting. He folded his arms behind his back, the soldier he's always been.

I, on the other hand, looked into the questioning faces of almost a hundred beta's and alpha's who would inherit their fathers. I wonder for a second where I've been the past few years and suddenly the answer wasn't difficult for me anymore.

"War is a silent boil that simmers among us. Nothing we do today will stop it. Elisane is just one of many, as is my brother Casimir. I turned on him loudly the first time and it fell to me easier than I feared.

"Elisane's family will take action against anyone who does not speak out against me today. No one will be disadvantaged because they are afraid. No one has anything to fear from me, no matter what they decide."

"So war," Nieva, my most loyal council member, stepped beside me.

"The heart of your Erasthai will beat as long as I live," Adem rose.

"Overthrowing Casimir won't be easy," Jeremiade stepped up to Cyril and gave him a questioning look.

"I don't know where he is, that won't stop me from finding him," Cyril answered her.