Destined for Deception ✔️

Chapter 19

Ellis' head shot up, as did Austin's and Conall's, and even Alder seemed surprised, though he didn't show it as clearly. He regarded her with clear scepticism, though also with more than a little fascination.

"You wish to negotiate a cease-fire?" Alder said. "I have trouble believing that, as I am sure you will understand. This has all the makings of a trap. Especially since it was not two days ago that you broke into the castle and abducted Jade. That in itself was an act of war."

This was it. The point of no return.

"I was framed for that," she said. "I did not take Jade."

"Aaron is adamant that he saw you."

"What he saw was an illusion. A shape-shifter, I think. Someone who looked like me." She hesitated. Alder didn't speak, didn't try to fill in the blanks the way Ellis had done. He merely watched her, waiting for her to start making sense. She kept her eyes on him, on his hard, calculating eyes, and slightly upturned lips, as though he was amused by the situation as much as he was hesitant. She had suspected from the start that he was the type of man who loved a good intrigue, but at the same time he was a family man, a leader, and he could not tolerate her playing games with him.

"A few weeks ago it came to my attention that our memories of the Shadow Walker battle were tampered with. As far as my people – those few that survived that day – could remember, everyone else had died, but that does not turn out to be true. It so happens that a woman named Cerise, another manipulator of memories and also my mother, survived, and not only that, but that she saved dozens of people form the battle field, building an army of her own." She paused there, imaging that they all needed a second to process this information. Would they believe her? It was insane, especially to those not accustomed to the workings and possibilities of magic. But then it was too insane for her to have made up, especially since it included a serious wounding of her own pride. She had let herself be deceived for fifteen years. The liar had been lied to. She had never liked irony less.

"You are saying that none of you noticed this deceit?" Alder asked. "You did not notice your memories had been altered, even though you have the same gift? And your father did not notice either, even though he is a mind-controller, not to mention your mother's fated mate?"

"It sounds unlikely, I know, but Cerise has perfect control over her gift, and she executed her plan brilliantly. After the battle, I judged my memories too painful ever to revisit, so I never examined them closely enough to discover her lies – until recently. And she made my father believe that he had watched her die, which is the only way she could have ever made him believe that he had lost her. Perhaps if he had thought rationally, he would have noticed that he did not feel the pain as pungently as he should have, but then it's not as if anyone had told him what it was supposed to feel like when your fated mate died. And he, too, was tortured by his own mind, so he, too, never dove too closely into the past. Had we been less traumatised, we would have noticed sooner, but it is what it is."

If Alder was fazed by any of what she had just told him, he didn't show it. "How many people does she have?"

"I don't know exactly. She wouldn't say. I assume at least fifty. And then I mean fifty highly-trained Shadow Walkers with magical abilities."

"Do you know her intentions?" Alder asked. "If what you are saying is true, then why did she stay hidden for fifteen years, rather than joining forces with you?"

"Because she does not want what we want. She let us live because we served a purpose. We're the distraction. She wanted you focused on us, so that she could work from the shadows in peace. I don't know what she wants exactly, but I imagine it does not bode well for you. The reason she has not joined forces with us, is because she knows that we would never let her rule. My father and I had too strong a claim on the pack, so she could never lead it as long as we were alive. This effectively means she has been trying to kill us for the past few weeks, which is why we have dropped off the map. She is the one who took Corbin from us and left him in your territory. I can't be sure why, but I imagine it was in part a taunt to us, to show us that she is in control. She is the one who took Jade."