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“No,” Micha whispered. “B-but he’s trying. That’s all anyone can do.” He walked over to Arden and dropped to his knees. Slowly, he lifted Arden’s head and the dragon growled at him. “Just walk away, Janek. Hasn’t there been enough pain and death?”
Bash stepped forward and an icicle shot through his thigh. He cried out as the others rushed toward him. Bash held up a hand, panting as he waved them off. Freezing coldness spread through his leg and he panted, but he refused to go down in front of this man.
“Micha is clearly idiotic.” Janek moved fast and the resounding crack echoed on the battlefield as Micha’s head turned. Bash growled no one hurt Micha, but another step forward and he’d be taken out.
“I should have known you would betray me. You’re too easily manipulated.” Janek kicked Arden once more and grabbed Micha’s hair and dragged the nephilim away from him kicking and screaming. “If it came down to it, your precious dragon would kill you without a thought. You’re nothing to him,” Janek said as he looked at the rest of them. “So tell me, do you stand on the side of justice? Or on the side of a man who slaughtered a little girl?”
Bash’s stomach tightened. Arden had told him what he’d done, but he never guessed that it involved a child. He tried to separate his love for Arden from what was right, but anyway he looked at it, he couldn’t side with someone like Janek.
“You all get to choose,” Janek said with a laugh as he pushed his hair back. “Choose Arden and die with him. Or choose the right path and go on to live your lives.”
Bash knew where he stood, but as he gazed at the others and saw the range of emotions on their faces, his heart dropped. All he could see was them being ripped apart at the seams as they all went their separate ways.
They would never be the same again.
Something had torninside of Arden. He felt it moments ago, but the wound was taking its sweet time healing. As he laid on the ground, his nails dug into the dirt. Janek could deal as many blows as he wanted to, but the truth was that nothing hurt as badly as his men’s silence.
Arden couldn’t even look at them. Hearing that little girl’s name on Janek’s tongue made his blood run cold.She was his daughter?He’d never known Janek had a family. Why had he hidden it?
Because he would have been labeled a traitor.
The truth of the situation dawned on Arden. If Kyree was his daughter, she was from the eastern clan of wolves; their enemies. That meant the woman he was with and their child would have been on the opposite side of the fence. Everyone knew it was forbidden to cross those lines, especially when war was raging.
And Janek had done just that.
Arden pushed himself up on his elbow. “You knew we were going to war with them; why didn’t you get them out?”
Janek sneered. “No, I knew we were going to war, but I didn’t think it would extend that far into the east. But you just couldn’t help yourself. You kept advancing, you kept striking and killing!” He slammed his fist into Arden’s face. “And I was stuck on the back lines, completely unaware of just how far you were going to go.”
Guilt swirled in Arden’s belly. Janek was right about one thing; he hadn’t known when to stop. It was his fault for not ending the violence a lot sooner. But all that had been on his mind back then was…
“Conquest,” Arden struggled to get out. “All I saw back then was glory, honor, and tradition. I never would have done that, Janek. You know that. Why would I purposely hurt a child?”
“Purposely or not,” the man said. “You did it. In the end, that’s all that matters.” Micha squirmed in his grasp Janek shook him. “Be still, you little bitch,” he growled.
Arden dragged himself to his knees. “Let go of him.”
The man scoffed. “He betrayed you and you want me to let him go?”
“Fuck.”
Arden gazed over to his men. Where there had been a wild, black creature before Spooky now stood there, his hand hovering over his mouth. He stared at Micha as if he was seeing him truly for the first time, as if he didn’t want to believe it at first.
“Let him go,” Arden repeated as he drug himself to his feet. He ignored the eyes of Janek’s companions and focused fully on him and Micha. The angel was sniffling, tears rolling down his cheeks. And just like always, the sight of it made Arden want to pull the angel into his arms and hold him tight. “You got what you wanted from him. Whatever you promised Micha in exchange for my head, give it to him and let him go.”
Janek laughed. “We’re beyond that now. Micha, you should have fled when I left you on the ground.”
“I won’t abandon him,” Micha cried. “None of them!”
“Disgusting. You’re all so in love with a monster and a traitor,” he said as he turned to the others. “So, pick a side already.”
Arden glanced from the trembling Micha back to his men. For the first time, he faced them head on, but he didn’t speak. Any word he spoke would feel false. Because the truth was that he had done what Janek said and while he regretted it, the truth was still that he had done it.
“I stand where I’ve always stood,” Eldon said. “And that won’t fucking change.”
“Me too,” Bash grunted. “What he did was horrible, no one’s throwing that aside. But in times of war, tragedies happen. And I won’t condemn Arden to death for that.”
Spooky stepped forward. “Arden, I would never abandon you. Not after you saved me and so many other people. I’ve seen what you do for others. Your past is your past.”
