ECLIPSE
"I was that one."
The words lingered between them, suspended in time and encased in a heartbeat like a curse.
For a moment, she forgot the copper-thick air, the looming stones, and the pulsing orange red glow in the room. She forgot even the scent of blood for all she could hear was the echo of his statement and what it implied.
If he had failed…then what hope did anyone else have?
She stared at the Bloodhound's scarred face. The candlelight carved his expression into something inhuman. Not heroic. Nor tragic.
He was portrayed as the very image of a man carved by choices darker than death.
Yet one thing remained clear; their motives were hardly the same. Hers was very emotional. His was just a mission.
"What happened?" she asked, her voice stripped of softness.
He studied her as if weighing what answer he should give her. A story such as his must have at least tens of versions.
"What do you think makes him almost untouchable?" He asked instead.
"He was born with a Supreme Wolf. And now that he has inherited the Alpha King title, he must have also inherited the ancient Arctic Wolf from the Alpha Queen," she muttered the facts like they existed in another world, "come to think of it, he now has two supreme wolves."
"You're wrong," he said quietly, "his wolf is not what makes him unkillable, it is the North behind him that makes him unkillable."
He moved towards a wall section that held different maps all together. He held up the candle to one particular map; incomplete it was, yet the attention to detail showed it was much valued.
"I got close enough to hear his heartbeat," he narrated as if trapped in a memory, "close enough to smell his breath. Close enough to believe he could die."
The corners of his mouth twitched, not a smile. "He proved me wrong though."
A chill crawled down her spine.
"This is the Arctic Keep." He said, pointing at the map. "Do you notice it's the smallest circle?"
Eclipse squinted at the map, noticing the details. The map was basically a total of five circles—each circle inside another like a fortress that went on and on.
She heard tales of how the NorthSteed ancestors built their palace with the kind of grandeur and secrecy that remained unmatched, but this was the first time she was seeing a detailed map of the place.
The Bloodhound traced his fingers over the map. "We outsiders like to call this place the Five Palaces. To get to the last circle which is where the Alpha King resides, you must pass through these four circles. And each one of the circles are guarded by the four NorthSteed Betas. From checkpoints, to official passes, you should understand that not many make it pass through the first fortress alone, much less the fourth."
Her heart raced faster—the notion that the palace was that hard to infiltrate only stoked her more though.
"Would it not then be better to attack him when he is out of the confines of the palace?"
The Bloodhound shot her a one-eyed stare. "And how many times have you heard that he left the palace, much less the North? Yesternight's ball was merely an exception to the rule… it was unexpected."
"You mean no one knew he was to attend the ball?" Eclipse asked, entranced by the map.
To think that the only way one could get to him was to infiltrate the well guarded palace was befuddling.
Surely he would never lock himself away forever. He must have interests, vices, women to warm his bed….
"Not a single soul knew," he stated without emotion, "Unlike the former Alpha Queen, he moves alone like a phantom ghost. Before we got information, he had already mobilized his elite archers and taken your pack."
She clenched her fists, a fresh wave of tears welling up although she swallowed it down. "It sounds like you knew he would make a move… just not when." She observed.
He stared at her, then nodded grimly. "He had marriage talks with the Lupine Pack. With underlying political tensions, his move was expected. We just did not expect it would be you, and your family's massacre."
So she was the only one who didn't know he was engaged to another. Running away from the masquerade ball like that, how foolish the people must have thought her to be.
"You asked me how I managed to survive assassinating him; but do you think I managed to escape him?" he spelt coldly, his face seeming even more ominous.
He took a menacing step closer to her while holding up the candle to illuminate her face. "Have you ever taken a life?"
Here it came… the real obstacle.
"I know what the Hollow do, and I shall make you understand now that I shall not take the life of the innocent!" She billowed, "In this matter you can never force my hand!"
She wanted to sound unshaken. She wasn't sure she succeeded
"So you can take the life of the guilty then?" He asked sarcastically.
She swallowed. "I can take Malric NorthSteed's life. That I am sure of."
"You still do not get it…." He scoffed. "To kill a monster, you must become one. Innocent or guilty, once you start taking lives, it all blurs together."
She tilted her chin up defiantly, walking deeper down this dark path that she had decided to take.
"Then send me the power hungry Alphas on your list. The oppressors. I shall take their lives as practice."
He smiled, the sight unnatural. "To cause a man to fall, you must fall. How deeper can you fall in this pit you now dig for yourself?"
"Much deeper than you would ever realise." She gritted the promise. "On this bloodstained path, I never expected mercy or absolution."
"Good. Because on this path, mercy is but a foreign notion. One slip, and you will end up no less like your family. And believe me when I say you will only have one chance to make your kill. Do you understand?"
She now understood. Vengeance was but an empty word if she didn't have the necessary resources to enact it. If she didn't possess the necessary skills…. Staring at the map of the Arctic Keep, the weight of what she was to do threatened to pull her down.
Those one hundred and two people who did not survive—some cold blooded assassins, some probably possessing a vendetta such as hers. To look at it quite keenly, she was not the first. Before that day, the tyranny of the North had been but a rumour to her, but now she had personally witnessed it for herself.
To everyone, Malric NorthSteed was the ultimate prize. Kill the last standing bloodline of the family, and the north will fall to their knees.
But her motivation remained unshakable behind the raw grief that had thrust her to this path.
She wasn't afraid she would lose her life. She wasn't afraid she would lose herself. She was afraid she would leave this world with avenging Rose, her unborn child, her brother-in-law and their pack members that died because of her.
That fear haunted her like a shadow. And it was just enough to propel her to blindly jump off the cliff.
"I understand." She answered, the words re-sealing her already sealed fate. "But do answer one question of mine; why does the Hollow still go after him despite previous proven failures?"
His expression remained cold. "Because we do not abandon wars, even if they take decades to win."