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“The loss of my dear brother, Darius, was very hard on me,” Sergei said. Adrian thought he heard his voice cracking, his back uncharacteristically hunched. “But Victor foresaw it before it even happened and exposed the traitor Luna, who stood right beside his bloodied and expiring corpse.”
Sergei stopped walking. He turned, a tear streaming down from his one good eye.
“Tell me, Adrian,” Sergei said, his tone now lighter and more melancholy. “Have you ever lost anybody dear to you?”
Adrian stood upright, thinking how best to reply. “I found my father years back. He had died in his sleep after a decades-long battle with cancer.”
“I’m sure that was difficult,” Sergei replied.
But Adrian shook his head. “Not nearly as hard as losing a brother, I would imagine. I am so sorry. Darius was taken before his time.”
“It was very difficult,” Sergei said. “Thank you, friend.”
Sergei reached over, patting Adrian on the shoulder.
“Now I think we should keep moving. It’s not much farther.”
Sergei turned, the tapping of his walking stick resuming.
That’s when Herald spoke. “Do you have any evidence that Luna was responsible for the death of Darius beyond her being at the scene of the crime?”
The tapping of the walking stick stopped.
Adrian could feel himself casting a death glare at Herald, shaking his head. There was a time and a place.
“I do not care for your beta, Adrian,” Sergei said, his back still turned.
“I apologize on his behalf,” Adrian said. “At times, he speaks out of place.”
“It just seems like you’ve launched an awful lot of accusations at her,” Herald continued. “And kind of a coincidence you just happened to find her standing over Darius, right when and where Victor said she’d be.”
Adrian dreaded watching Sergei turn toward them, looking over his shoulder at them.
“Your beta seems awfully defensive of a fugitive,” Sergei said. “Is there something you’d like to tell me, Adrian?”
Adrian shook his head frantically, now realizing that they might have to run.
But there was no running. As fellow shifters, they would be able to smell them anywhere.
Adrian and Herald both walked backward toward the tunnels. “We meant no ill will,” Adrian said. “I’m sorry. My beta needs to learn to hold his tongue sometimes.”
All the while, Sergei approached them, moving faster than they could walk, the tapping of his cane signaling every step.
“If your beta must know, we found the corpse of the girl’s father not long after we’d chased her out of the pack,” Sergei said. “And how does your beta explain that?”
Despite the terror in his eyes, Herald was unshaken. Adrian wished he had duct tape handy.
“You mean they found her father deadaftershe fled? How long after?”
“Several days later,” Sergei replied.
“And it’s not strange to you at all that she planned and carried this out days after she ran away with nobody smelling or sensing her at all?”
Sergei’s aggressive advance toward them stopped.
“And when would you say that Victor left exactly?” Herald asked.
“Not long after the girl’s father died.”
