Chapter 157
Evelyn’s POV
“Evelyn?” Kane’s voice sounded far away in my head. “Are you listening to me?”
No. I wasn’t. In fact, I could barely focus on anything aside from those documents I had stumbled upon earlier. Not to mention that my head had become clouded with guilt for not having told Kane the truth.
I did my best to push it all to the back of my mind and carry on with the task at hand. Over the course of the week, I continued our usual training sessions as well as delving deeper into the case study.
When it came to the rogues’ behavior, I still felt as though there was a pivotal piece of information that I was missing. And I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
I reached a point where my head was going in too many different directions at once.
“Hmm?”
I blinked back the blurriness in my eyes to glance at Kane, whose expression was a mixture of concern and slight amusement. “I asked if you were listening to me,” he repeated. “I’m trying to inform you that your last dodge was a little slow.”
“Oh,” I muttered. “Sorry…”
He tilted his head, giving me a wary look. “There’s something on your mind,” he acknowledged. “Tell me. Are you still worried about the war?”
I let my knees bend, allowing me to sink to the mat on the ground. Crossing my legs beneath me, I rested my head in my hands. “Yes and no,” I answered. “Of course, I’m worried about the upcoming war. No matter what, we both know that it’s going to be ugly, and many people are going to get hurt. But, at the moment, that’s not what’s really bothering me.”
Kane sank to his knees and rested his hand over the top of my thigh. “What is it then?”
“It’s about the feral rogues,” I said. “I’m finding it difficult to build a viable case study when we’re not even fully certain about what truly caused their wolves to become feral. We’ve concluded that they were injected with something, but what?”
He cast his gaze over the room while contemplating my question. He scratched the back of his neck and raised a quizzical brow. “Well, we can easily rule out Nightshade. No matter how minuscule the dosage, it would likely kill them.”
I nodded in agreement. “Same goes for Hemlock and Snakeroot,” I added.
“What about Horse Nettle?” he asked.
Again, I shook my head. “It’s too similar to Nightshade. Not to mention it would have easily shown up in the toxicology report.”
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What we were, essentially, looking for was something deadly enough to poison but not kill. My whole body suddenly went still. “Oh, my Goddess.”
“Evelyn?” The panic rose in his voice. “What? What is it?”
“Why hadn’t I thought about it before?” I muttered to myself. “My Gods, I feel so stupid. Of course…”
I shot up from the mat and quickly made a break for the entrance. Kane was hot on my trail behind me.
“Okay, are you going to tell me what just popped into your head?”
“Wolfsbane,” I said bitterly. “It has to be Wolfsbane.”
His eyes grew wide as the realization dawned on him. He snatched my hand and led us back to the house. “Come on. Anything we have on Wolfsbane is going to be down in the archives.”
The lower levels of the house were musty and not the cleanest by any means. The inch layer of dust covered every table and bookcase, causing the back of my throat to itch.
“Sorry about the state of the place,” Kane said sheepishly. “I admit, it’s been a long time since anyone has really used the archives.”
“It’s alright. As long as we find the information we need.”
Kane and I were able to locate a few files and books on basic Botany practices. We spent almost two hours skimming through what we’d taken out, only to come to the same frustrating conclusion.
“All I was able to gather from these files is that you’re better off buying this crap off someone else rather than trying to grow it yourself,” he noted dryly.
I scowled down at the books. “The thing is, Wolfsbane is highly illegal.”
“So, we’re talking black market,” he stated grimly. I gravely nodded while he sat back in his chair. “It seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a measly plant.”
I shook my head. “My guess is that whoever’s behind this knew that they didn’t have a choice. Most other poisonous plants have a high tendency to be either too lethal or easily detectable. Wolfsbane is not only odorless, but just using a little of it can go a long way.”
His brows furrowed. “But what I can’t seem to comprehend is why anyone in their right mind would agree to have Wolfsbane injected into their veins,” he remarked.
I shrugged. “You have a point. Rogue or not, everyone knows the dangers Wolfsbane poses to a wolf,” I said. “Unless…”
“Unless?”
Another terrifying thought crossed my mind. “Unless these rogues weren’t even aware that they were being drugged with it.”
I watched Kane go completely still in his seat. “We need to tell the others.”
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Leaving our dusty study table behind us, we headed back up the stairs and summoned Henri. Kane had him gather a few of the commanding officers, too. He believed it was necessary for everyone to hear our findings.
Once everyone arrived at his office, he gave me the floor to explain our recent discovery. Naturally, a few of them had their doubts, but when it came to my previous concluding argument about the rogues being unknowingly drugged, they all fell silent.
Henri was the first to speak up. “That would signify that someone is controlling them.”
I nodded my head. “Yes.”
“But that would essentially mean that they were willing to follow under someone else’s orders,” one
officer mentioned.
“That doesn’t exactly sound like something a rogue would do,” another said mockingly.
Kane let out a vicious snarl, which drowned out the snickering. No one dared make a sound.
I narrowed my eyes. “Think about it. Imagine if someone came to you and tried to market the idea of promising your wolf enhanced abilities. Faster. Stronger. Nearly impossible to be taken down. Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity?”
This time, none of them made a single comment.
“Now, there are a few possible theories to consider. But one thing is for certain, there is at least one person behind all of these rogue attacks, because they had to have been the ones to develop the serum in the first place.”
“Someone who’s been orchestrating them from the beginning, it was never mindlessly done,” Kane
added.
“But why create the serum in the first place?” Henri questioned.
I glanced around the room. “Perhaps it was because you’ve been doing too good a job to keep them under control. Whoever’s behind this wanted to make things significantly more difficult.”
“She has a point,” one of them said roughly.
“So, now what?” another asked. “Even if we’re certain it’s Wolfbane, what’s the next course of action?”
“It’s not as if we can question any of the rogues to confirm what’s been going on on their side,” Henri pointed out.
I bit the corner of my mouth. “What if there was a cure?”
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