carried across 65

 

65 King Aldric’s Plan 

Irina 

The first grey light of dawn bled through the narrow window of my guest quarters. The stone walls of the room were freezing, radiating a deep, biting chill that no amount of firewood could completely chase away. I sat on a hard, backless wooden stool in front of the vanity table. The silver backing of the mirror was peeling in the bottom left corner, warping my reflection. 

I stared at my own face. My skin was pale. The powder I applied yesterday was cracked and streaked down my cheeks from crying. I looked ten years older than I did when I left Valdris. 

My reflection was warping in front of me, and all I kept seeing was the dirt ring. I kept seeing Sera. 

I replayed the violence over and over in my head. I saw the exact moment Sera grabbed that massive northern girl’s wrist. I saw her thrust her hips up. I heard the moment she broke the bone.. 

But the broken bone was not the terrifying part. 

The terrifying part was the girl choking, her eyes wide with terror, actively trying to surrender. She tried to say the word yield. And my daughter-my quiet, compliant daughter-did not pause. She did not show an ounce of mercy. Sera drew her arm back and drove her fist directly into the center of the girl’s face. 

She hit her again. And again. And again. 

I saw the blood spray across Sera’s pale cheek. I saw the girl’s nose cave in. I saw the skin split open, exposing raw, red muscle underneath. 

Sera did not flinch. She did not look away in disgust. The conviction on her face scared me more than the blood. There was absolute, unfiltered violence written all over her features. She wanted to destroy that girl. 

I pressed my palms flat against the cold wood of the vanity table. My hands were shaking. 

How did this happen? She had only been in Ironmaw for a week. A person does not learn how to butcher another human being in seven days. You do not learn that kind of cold, calculated brutality overnight. 

I had to question it. Did Sera already possess the potential to hurt someone like that? Was that darkness always sitting inside her, buried beneath her polite smiles and perfect curtsies in the Blackwater palace? I carried her in my womb. I raised her. I taught her how to pour wine, how to lower her eyes, and how to survive the cruelties of men by staying low, and quiet. I never saw the monster I saw in that ring. 

Or had this frozen wasteland grown the monster inside her? Did the Alpha infect her mind the moment he dragged her into his bed? 

A sharp knock on the heavy oak door cut through my thoughts. 

“It’s me,” Lord Torin’s voice said through the thick wood. 

I dropped my hands from the table. I pulled the edges of my thin silk robe tighter across my chest, 

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shivering against the cold air of the room. 

“Come in,” I said. 

The heavy iron latch clicked. Torin stepped inside. He wore a dark wool tunic and thick trousers. He quickly pushed the door shut and locked the deadbolt behind him. He looked around the room, ensuring the Valdris maids were gone. We were completely alone. 

He walked across the stone floor and stopped right behind me. I saw his face in the warped mirror. He looked exhausted. Dark circles hung under his eyes. 

He looked at my reflection, taking in my pale face, my messy blonde hair, and the trembling in my 

shoulders. 

“We will fix this, Irina,” Torin said. His voice was low and steady. He reached out and placed his warm hands on my bare shoulders. “Do not worry. You should just be grateful she actually survived the fight yesterday. She is alive. We can still save her.” 

I shook my head slowly. “Aldric will not save her.” 

“She is his daughter,” Torin argued, squeezing my shoulders. “He will not leave her here in this state.” 

“She is a tool,” I said flatly, turning around on the stool to face him. “I am a tool. You are a tool. Everyone in Valdris is a tool to Aldric. He does not care if she bleeds in the dirt. He only cares about the borders.” 

Torin frowned. He dropped his hands to his sides. “The alliance is secure. The marriage will happen.” 

“Aldric does not just want an alliance,” I said. I kept my voice low, afraid the stone walls were listening.” Aldric wants to start a war. He wants to conquer the Western and Southern territories. He has been planning it for three years..” 

“He cannot fight the West and the South,” Torin said dismissively. “The Valdris army is not large enough.” 

“He knows that,” I said. “That is why he needs the North. The packs in the Northern territory are the most powerful forces on the continent. Ironmaw alone could slaughter the Western armies in a month. Aldric does not want to fight Ironmaw. He wants to point them at his enemies and let them do the butchering.” 

Torin stared at me. He was a political advisor, but he did not sit in the king’s bedchamber. He did not hear the things Aldric muttered in the dark. 

“Aldric was friends with Viktor Volkov,” I continued. “He knew exactly who Fenris was. Fenris is not a king. He is simply a weapon. Viktor built him to kill. Now Viktor is dead, and Aldric believes Fenris just needs a new general to tell him what to do.” 

“Fenris does not take orders,” Torin said. “You saw him in the yard. He threatened to cut my tongue out.” 

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