CHAPTER 16 Julian's Real Game

Marcus stared at Julian like he was seeing a ghost.

"You're supposed to be halfway to the border by now," Marcus said, his grip tightening around Elira's arm. "That was the plan. You cause a scene at the gate, I finish things quietly, we meet at the old mill afterward."

"Plans change," Julian said, echoing Marcus's own words from a moment ago, a thin smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Especially when I realize my partner's been keeping secrets from me."

"What are you talking about?"

"You never told me about her." Julian nodded toward Elira, still frozen in Marcus's grip. "Two years of paying you for information, and you never once mentioned you had your own reasons for wanting Aurora dead. Your own grudge against the Alpha."

"It doesn't matter," Marcus snapped. "It got the job done."

"It matters to me," Julian said, taking a slow step closer, ignoring the swords and bows pointed at him from every direction. "Because I've been sitting in the shadows for two weeks watching you build a plan around my wife that I never actually approved."

I stared at him, my mind spinning. "Your wife," I repeated. "I stopped being your wife the night I signed those papers, Julian."

"Semantics," he said, not even glancing at me. His focus stayed locked entirely on Marcus. "The point is, I came here tonight expecting to watch you scare her a little. Rattle her nerves, maybe. I did not agree to murder."

"You're worried about murder," Marcus laughed bitterly. "You watched rogues slaughter a caravan and didn't lift a finger."

"That was your mess too," Julian shot back, his calm cracking slightly. "You told me it would look like rogue wolves. You never told me you'd actually kill six innocent traders to sell the story."

Cassian's soldiers shifted closer during the argument, slowly closing the distance while Marcus and Julian argued, too absorbed in their own falling-out to notice.

"Enough," Cassian said sharply, stepping forward with his sword raised. "Marcus, let Elira go. Julian, whatever twisted little partnership you two built, it ends tonight."

Marcus's eyes darted around the clearing, finally registering how close the soldiers had gotten. Panic flashed across his face.

"Stay back," he shouted, pressing the blade harder against Elira's throat. "I mean it. One more step and she dies."

"You've killed enough people for one night, Marcus," Julian said quietly. "Let her go."

"Since when do you care?" Marcus snarled. "You wanted Aurora broken just as badly as I wanted my share of the gold."

"I wanted her back," Julian said, and something in his voice cracked, sounding almost human for the first time since he'd stepped out of the shadows. "I never wanted anyone dead. I'm not a killer, Marcus, whatever you think of me."

"You're worse," I said, unable to stop myself. "A killer at least owns what he's done. You just stand there pretending your hands are clean while everyone around you does the actual damage."

Julian flinched like I'd struck him.

Marcus used the distraction. He shoved Elira hard toward Julian, sending them both stumbling, and bolted toward the treeline at a dead sprint.

"Stop him!" Cassian shouted.

Two soldiers broke off immediately, chasing Marcus into the darkness. An arrow flew past me, close enough that I felt the wind of it, and I heard Marcus cry out somewhere in the trees before the sound of a body hitting the ground reached us.

A moment later, one of the soldiers reappeared, breathing hard. "He's down, Alpha. Alive, but down. Arrow through the leg."

"Bring him back here," Cassian ordered. "Tie him well."

While the chaos settled, Elira scrambled away from Julian, shaking badly, tears streaking down her face. I moved toward her without thinking, kneeling beside her.

"It's over," I said gently. "It's over now."

"I killed people," she whispered, staring at her own hands like she didn't recognize them. "I told myself it was only about Lyra, but people died because of choices I made."

"You'll answer for that," Cassian said, his voice hard but not entirely without mercy. "But you'll answer for it in front of a proper tribunal, not bleeding out in these ruins tonight."

He turned his attention to Julian, sword still raised, eyes cold as winter stone.

"And you," Cassian said. "Give me one reason not to run you through right now."

Julian raised both hands slowly, his earlier confidence completely gone now, replaced by something small and frightened.

"Because I can give you Elira's real plan," Julian said quickly. "The parts even Marcus doesn't know."

The clearing went still.

"Explain," Cassian said.

"She wasn't planning to just kill Aurora tonight and disappear," Julian said, glancing nervously at Elira, who stared back at him with wide, betrayed eyes. "She told me herself, weeks ago, when she first reached out asking for my help. Aurora dying was only step one."

"What's step two?" I demanded.

Julian hesitated, and for a moment I thought he might actually stay silent out of some twisted sense of loyalty. Then his eyes flicked toward Cassian, calculating, desperate to buy himself mercy.

"She has someone else working inside the royal court," Julian said. "Someone close to your father, Aurora. Someone feeding information about troop movements and border weaknesses straight to a rebel faction that's been gathering in the north for months."

My blood ran cold. "My father. You're saying someone close to my father is a traitor."

"That's what she told me," Julian said. "Aurora's death was supposed to weaken the Bloodmoon lineage and throw the Sterling territory into chaos at the same time, buying the rebels enough confusion to strike both borders while everyone was distracted mourning a dead princess."

Every head in the clearing turned toward Elira.

She said nothing at first, her face pale and hollow in the moonlight.

"Is that true?" Cassian demanded.

"I never lied about Lyra," Elira finally whispered. "Everything I told you about my sister was real. But yes. There are others involved. Bigger than me. Bigger than Marcus." Her voice dropped even lower. "Bigger than you can imagine, Alpha."

"Names," Cassian said sharply. "Give me names."

Elira's lips pressed together, trembling, and for a moment I thought she might actually refuse.

Then her eyes lifted, fixing on something behind Cassian's shoulder, past the ruined pillars, back toward the dark road leading to the Iron Keep.

Her face went white with terror.

"It's too late," she breathed. "He already knows we've failed."

Everyone turned to follow her gaze.

Far in the distance, along the ridge overlooking the keep, a single torch flared to life in the darkness. Then another. And another, until an entire line of flickering lights stretched across the horizon like a slow-moving wave.

Cassian's jaw tightened as he stared at the growing wall of flame in the distance.

"Riders," he said grimly. "A lot of them. And they're heading straight for the Iron Keep.”