Chapter 87: Kane Was Meant To Die
Marry Alara?
Cassius still couldn’t bring himself to believe that the old woman had suggested such a thing. He was already drowning in anxiety over the fact that Alara had survived the ordeal in the first place which meant a mountain of fresh problems had just landed on his plate.
If she managed to regain consciousness and spill the truth to Kane, his friend would cut off his head without a second thought.
He knew precisely what Kane’s wrath looked like. The King had been unnaturally quiet lately, and it was only a matter of time before he exploded.
When Cassius confessed what had transpired to his father, the man had thrown him out of his quarters in a fit of rage and bitter disappointment.
Now, Cassius sat on the edge of his bed, burying his face in his palms. He hadn’t slept a wink all night, nor had he even bothered trying to lie down. The most he could manage, aside from endlessly pacing the floor, was sitting paralyzed on the bed.
He racked his brain, trying to think of anyone who could save him if Alara lived to speak but no one came to mind except his father, the very man who had warned him countless times to stay far away from Aunt Freya.
He should have listened. He hadn’t, and now the reckoning had arrived.
Cassius snapped to his feet as hushed voices drifted in from outside his tent.
The most prominent voice belonged to his father, while the others clearly belonged to royal guards.
A moment later, the tent flap parted, and a man bearing striking resemblance to Cassius stepped inside.
A thick coat of black fur draped heavily over his broad shoulders. His sharp, amber-brown eyes cut through the dim light of the tent, and the moment his gaze locked onto Cassius, his expression darkened into a deep, furious scowl.
"What on earth have you done?" Halvar demanded, glaring at his son as if he were on the verge of striking him then and there.
Cassius took a deep, steadying breath. Though terror clawed at his chest, he forced himself to meet his father’s gaze. "I... I sent for you to help me, Father, not to judge me. Please... do this for me, even if it is just this once."
"Shut your mouth!" Halvar’s anger flared instantly, his brow pitching into a tight, severe crease. "Do you even hear the foolishness coming out of your mouth? What were you doing alone in the woods with that girl in the first place? I cannot believe you were reckless enough to pursue her!"
"I was not pursuing her...she came to me, Father!" Cassius pleaded, desperate to make him understand that there was nothing romantic between him and Alara. "She summoned me to the woods, and I had no choice but to go because she claimed it was a matter of dire urgency."
"What could possibly be so urgent that she couldn’t tell you anywhere else but the deep woods?" Halvar asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous, low hiss. The only thing keeping him from roaring in fury was the lingering threat that someone outside might overhear.
"Alara came to tell me that Kane gave her a scrap of fur... to trace the scent of the assassin who attempted to murder his Queen."
His father’s dark expression vanished, replaced instantly by a look of sheer horror as the breath caught in his throat.
"I was terrified at first because I assumed she wanted to meet and talk about the past, but she didn’t care about any of that," Cassius admitted.
"It seems Kane never truly gave up," Halvar murmured, processing the news. "He doesn’t believe for a second that the boy we handed him that night was the real assassin."
"No, he doesn’t and he made that very clear to me today," Cassius said, a flush of embarrassment returning as he remembered the humiliation. "Kane struck me across the face. I shudder to think what else he might have done if his wife hadn’t stepped in to interrupt us."
"Does he suspect you directly?" Halvar asked, his harsh expression softening slightly as he looked at his son with a mixture of pity and grave concern.
"He does, even if he hasn’t stated it outright. I am terrified, Father, because I know precisely what Kane is capable of when he is crossed."
"We will find a way out of this," Halvar insisted, refusing to accept defeat. He had survived far worse trials than this. "I am stronger than this mess. We will emerge victorious, son."
"How, Father?" Cassius asked, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper as he fought to keep his own rising panic in check. "I told you from the very beginning that trying to assassinate the Queen in her sleep was a fatal mistake. Now, look at the consequences. We could have chosen a dozens of safer ways to handle her."
"Are you cowering now?" Halvar’s eyes narrowed into a sharp glare.
Cassius nodded without shame, wondering how his father could remain so composed in the face of ruin. "Should I not be afraid? If we are exposed, Kane will not hesitate for a single heartbeat to throw us both into the flames."
"We will not be caught, son. I feel no fear," Halvar said, his voice dripping with absolute confidence. "Do you have any idea what I am truly capable of?"
Cassius remained silent, staring at his father and desperately wishing he possessed even a fraction of that cold-blooded nerve.
"I served as Beta to Kane’s father," Halvar began, taking a step closer. "I killed both of his parents and engineered the entire legend of the curse and to this day, not a single soul knows the truth. Not even Freya will ever suspect, unless someone opens their mouth to tell her."
Cassius’s eyes widened in sheer horror. Speechless, he stared at his father as a paralyzing chill rushed through his veins, his mind desperately trying to convince itself that he had misheard.
Everyone in the tribe knew the harrowing tale. Storytellers claimed the Moon Goddess had grown enraged with Kane’s grandfather, unleashing a divine curse upon the royal bloodline.
According to the myth, Kane’s parents sacrificed themselves alongside the rest of the family to spare young Kane from her wrath.
"They all perished in their sleep... struck down by the Moon Goddess..." Cassius trailed off, his mind racing as the pieces clicked together into a nightmare. Realizing they had all been murdered in their beds, his face paled with absolute dread. "It was you... all along. So what of the Moon Goddess? Was it all just a lie?"
"The Moon Goddess has been me all these years," Halvar let out a wicked, echoing chuckle, taking relish in the absolute terror dawning on his son’s face. "I have always been the one pulling the strings in this tribe. And not a single soul has ever suspected a thing."
"The... the Moon Goddess does not exist?" Cassius asked, his breath catching in his throat, completely paralyzed by the sheer horror of the revelation.
"Oh, she exists," Halvar countered smoothly. "But she has been silent for a very long time, and I simply stepped in to deliver her ’commands.’"
"I can’t believe this..." Cassius murmured, staring at his father as if attempting to recognize the man who raised him. "And the tribe? How could the entire council trust you so blindly?"
"The people are sheep—easily led, easily frightened. With the high priest in my pocket, it was child’s play to fool them," Halvar said, striding over to a chair in the corner and sitting down with broad, proud shoulders. He looked every bit like a king who had orchestrated a masterpiece.
"And Kane?" Cassius let out a hollow, incredulous laugh as he recalled the agonizing years his best friend had spent cursing his own existence, genuinely believing he was the sole reason his parents were dead. "This is insane, Father... What was the point of wiping out an entire bloodline?"
"Kane was meant to die right alongside his family," Halvar explained casually, as though describing the weather. "But your mother took a liking to him when he was a boy. And because he was your childhood friend, I decided to spare his life."
Cassius knew his father was a ruthlessly evil man, but evil had layers and Halvar had just declared himself the devil incarnate.
"If I had known the boy would grow up to be such a persistent headache, I would have rewritten the story and killed him right alongside his parents," Halvar mused darkly.
"Does Aunt Freya know any of this?" Cassius asked, his voice barely above a whisper.