Lahat ng Kabanata ng Vying For The Alpha's Heart: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

The Great Hall smelled of judgment and stale wine.Eltonia knelt in the center of the cold stone floor. Her wrists were bound with rough hemp rope, chafing her skin. She kept her head high, though her knees were bruising against the hard granite.She refused to look like a criminal. She looked like what she was: a woman wrongly accused.Philia sat on the Alpha’s throne, one leg draped over the armrest, looking utterly bored. She was twirling the diamond teardrop necklace around her thick finger nonchalantly. "So," Philia’s booming voice echoed off the high rafters. "We have the thief. We have the loot. Why are we still talking? Bring me the block.""There will be no block!" Oreon roared.He stood between Eltonia and the dais, with his hand white-knuckled on his sword hilt. He looked exhausted; his hair was escaping his braid and his eyes were wild. He was a King trying to hold back a landslide with his bare hands."She is innocent," Oreon declared as he looked at the gathered crowd

"Sulfur?" Holly repeated, her eyes blinking rapidly with tears suspended on her lashes. "I... I didn't say sulfur."Oreon took a step back and released his hand from the door handle. The cold certainty that had gripped him moments ago began to shake. "You did. You said it choked you before the alarm.""I said smoke!" Holly shrieked, throwing her hands up. She scrambled to her feet and held her silk robe, looking small and terrifyingly fragile. "Smoke! Ash! It was everywhere! I was a child, Oreon! I was terrified!"She paced the room, wringing her hands. Her breathing was coming in hyperventilating gasps."Why are you twisting my words?" she sobbed. "Is this what you do now? You interrogate the victims? First, you let that... that thief steal my mother’s legacy, and now you accuse me of knowing about the fire that killed my parents?""You said blue dust," Oreon pressed, though his voice lacked the earlier edge. "You were specific.""I heard stories!" Holly wailed and collapsed onto he

Holly stood over Eltonia’s unconscious body, breathily heavily.The panic that had gripped her moments ago, the hysterical tears she had shed when she thought she was caught, evaporated the instant Eltonia hit the floor.Holly smoothed her torn silk robe. She looked down at the girl bleeding on the cold stones of the pantry. Her expression wasn't sad. It wasn't remorseful. It was disgusted."Look at you," Holly sneered and nudged Eltonia’s limp hand with her slipper. "Sleeping on the job. How typical."She nudged the shards of the broken porcelain vase under a shelf with her foot. She couldn't leave Eltonia here. Oreon was just in the next room, asleep on the couch. If he woke up and found his precious "mouse" bleeding in his pantry, he would tear the castle apart until he found the culprit.No. This needed to look like a confession."You wanted to leave so badly?" Holly whispered as she grabbed Eltonia’s ankles. "Let’s help you pack."It was grueling work. Holly was not built for man

The hour before dawn was the darkest. The castle was silent, save for the snoring of three hundred Stone Ridge soldiers and the heavy tread of the sentries on the wall.In the darkness of the scullery, a council of war was taking place."Fire?" Lyra whispered, looking gloomy. She wiped her hands on her apron, looking from Oreon to Kael. "You want me to set fire to my own kitchen stores?""Not the kitchen," Oreon corrected, keeping his voice low but urgent. "The external grain silo. The one near the East Wall. It’s mostly empty sacks and dry hay right now. It will burn fast, bright, and loud.""Philia’s army is obsessed with food," Kael added stiffly. He stood in the corner, looking at the floor. "If they think their supplies are burning, every soldier in the courtyard will run to save them. It will leave the path to the tower clear."Lyra looked at Kael. Her expression didn't soften. She looked at him like he was a stranger who had walked into her house uninvited."Fine," Lyra said, t

Holly’s feet kicked frantically at the air. Her face was turning a mottled purple, and her hands never stopped clawing uselessly at Philia’s leather gauntlet."Drop her!" Oreon commanded, stepping forward, though the Stone Ridge soldiers leveled their spears at him."She is a pest," Philia snarled, tightening her grip. "I am doing you a favor, Oreon. I am taking out the trash.""Stop! In the name of the Council! STOP!"Abram came running from the colonnade. He wasn't running with the grace of a noble; he was running with the desperate, sweaty panic of a man whose secrets were about to be choked out of a dying woman."Lady Philia!" Abram gasped and grabbed Philia’s armored elbow. "You cannot kill her! She is... she is not responsible!"Philia looked down at the advisor with disgust. She didn't let go of Holly. "She planted poison. She lied to a warlord. That feels responsible to me.""She is sick!" Abram shouted as he pointed at Holly’s bulging eyes. "Look at her! The hysteria! The par