Where It Went Wrong, A Red Queen Fanfiction: Completed

Chapter 26

I blink, trying to make sure that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. The person in front of me is Cal, but it isn't.

He has golden eyes, smouldering with a foreign emotion. Black hair is unkempt on the top of his head, but that is not what has changed. The familiar easy smile that I used to know has disappeared.

The low wail that is the owl's cry we all agreed on sends shivers down my spine. Cal, too, looks up from his hunched position with a confused expression on his countenance. As he spots us, his eyes burn with several emotions at once.

He opens his mouth to speak, but I raise a finger to my mouth. You must remain silent. His eyes widen before he nods solemnly, turning away like he was before. Pattering footsteps echo my heartbeat, signalling the arrival of our companions.

The General strides in first, his fashion coated with elegance and purpose. To my surprise, he walks right past me and towards the prison bars. Exchanging looks with those behind me, I almost don't notice how flames bounce from his hands.

Crawling over his veined arms, green flames grow like ivy. The ivy jumps onto the silver bars, melting them away. Suffocating them just as their wild counterparts would with weaker plants. Soon enough, the bars have disappeared.

Part of me wonders why Cal did not do this in the first place, but I can see the shimmering of an electronic wall that shields the bars from any harm from the inside.

He turns to us with a grin before he's hit with a barrage of questions. Holding up his hands, his old face twists into the expression that has the likeliness of a child's. "Have you ever wondered whether there was any more Calores? Besides the infamous half brothers, the King and the exiled Prince?"

More Calores? Even Cal looks puzzled. "How are you related?"

The General sends me a knowing glance. "Well, it explains my eagerness to get my relation, doesn't it, Lady Mare?" The younger Calore flashes his eyes up to me expectantly. "I am a brother to Tiberias VI, this one here's father. I'm his uncle. I was forced into the background of the military while my brother became King."

A shadow pair, just like Maven and Cal. If things hadn't gone the way they had, the brothers could have switched roles. "I was never married, but I've always thought of myself as a solo act."

Cal sits in shock on the prison ground, and his relative offers him a hand. He gratefully accepts it, and I can finally see the toll that prison has taken on him. Limbs are gaunter than usual, though they still hold muscle. Cal just looks famished.

But it doesn't take long for him to run for me, despite his lack of nutrition. "I promised myself that I wouldn't lose you again, but look what I did-"

All of a sudden, our moment is broken off with bellowing. Gluttonous and echoing in the fickle air, the sound is like a pack of bloodhounds braying for blood. Whether it is taken with mercy or wrath, it's the same. They do not care.

It rivals our whistle. The sound that was the pattering of footsteps is now a parade of elephants, multiplied by several times. Cal shivers, his whole body shaking. For a minuscule moment, his eyes dart back into his cell. Panicked, like an exposed animal.

Then he looks back at the Scarlet Guard and Norta's Silvers. His Silvers, ruled and shared by his brother. He looks determined now, but not in a way that I remember. The look does not falter as we see the Lakelanders filter in. They only look mildly surprised at the numbers that they are facing before they take action.

Like a replay of the Lakeland battle, the equals face off. I freeze momentarily before summoning my lightning in a cold fury. None of them are trying to face me, but everywhere I turn, I see somebody who would need my help.