Talia's POV

I snuck out that night after listening to Tracy pour out a bit of her I had only partly heard of.


Watching her shed those tears made me want to avenge the death of her son. The first time she ever mentioned it to me, Talia, she told me point blank that Vance killed her child. Looking back, I didn't quite understand what she expected me to do with that information. It really put me in between a rock and hard place.

I was on my way to Landon, my legs moving faster than my brain could. I hadn't yet come up with a brilliant excuse as to why I was making my way to an enemy's house at ungodly hours, but I wanted to keep an eye on him, and it was the only way I saw fit. I couldn't enter the palace to convince Vance to check on Landon, so I might as well have done it myself

As I git closer, I began to feel chills. I knew I was doing something dangerous. Something that could put me in very bad trouble.


Landon sure knew that his baby sister, who he connived with his bastard girlfriend, Nadia, to put to death was now back.

He's not dumb enough to assume that I wouldn't have figured out what happened. And so I was expecting any form of resistance possible.


I inched closer and closer to him by the second. I could already sense him. He wasn't dead. Not like I left him with any fatal injuries. It was just a way I deluded myself into thinking that the universe would take care of my problems for me. I was running wild with imaginations of all fatal natural occurrences that could take Landon out of the scene. Soon, I arrived at the house. The very house I grew up in.

The house that felt warm on cold days because I slept in between my mom and dad. Tears started streaming down my face. It wasn't such an easy thing to bear.

I looked through a window with a drawn curtain and saw Landon sprawled out on the sofa. Whiskey and hard drinks to his left, cigarette and white powders to his right. It was such a stupid life to hold. What was once our beloved family home reeked of mold and disrepair, drugs and alcohol, unwashed bodies, dirt, it was so stinky.

Before long, a half clad girl walked out from the interiors somewhere and took all she could that belonged to the wasted man who was supposed to be my brother.

She even put her hand in his pockets and took every piece of paper that had exchange value.

It felt like such a crime to watch that go on. But there was nothing I could do.

I then thought of approaching her, looking like I was lost.

'Please, I'm on my way to the palace. Or anywhere, anywhere I can sleep." I said as soon as I got close to Miss Sticky Fingers.

'What is your ass doing out here so late. I don't know what you're talking about and I need you out of my way before I scream heaven down on you." She said quickly, and went her way, nervous and scared, turning back to look at me with every step she took.

I walked away from the house like I was lost and came back as soon as I was certain that she was out of sight.

Landon still hadn't woken up, but he stirred and changed position.

My big brother, who I was supposed to love and protect with all my heart, turned on me. At that moment, it felt so unreal. I almost couldn't believe myself. It felt like I made the past year up in my head.

Like if I could somehow accept that it didn't happen, I could walk into our house and rock his head, let him wake up to his head on my laps, maybe he would forget about it all too and we'd go back to having each other's backs.

He finally woke up, called out a name, I guessed was the name of the whore who just left with all his valuables.

As if on cue, he searched his pockets and sighed. It did not seem new to him. He drank all that was left of the whiskey in the bottle and dropped the bottle to the floor shattering it on his own legs.

A cry nearly escaped my lips. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. It couldn't be true. I was battling defeated people. It didn't matter to them who won or lost. They just want me to go down with them.

He stood up quite wobbly, taking deep breath before moving his legs. I remember seeing Vance hit his legs, I also remember how deep I fug my claws into his thigh.

I regretted it at that point. Seeing him in such a state made me wish I did not.

He screamed all sorts of curses as he tried to push the near dead leg along.

He tried till he was frustrated, which was just about two times, after which he pulled the white turned brown table cloth and sent all the glasswares flying into the air before they crashed and shattered to pieces, he was the last to fall back, on the sofa. He just sat and stared into empty space.

I patiently watched him as I was etched on a very thin piece of wood that I prayed wouldn't snap and draw all the attention I didn't need.

'Fuck this man." I heard him say as I moved my ears closer.

As stupid as it might sound, his voice felt like home. I felt an uncanny pull. If I could call off the whole thing, not minding whether Vance takes Nadia or not, I would have. I would have given anything to stay with my big brother.

He looked round, slowly at first. I wondered who or what he was looking for, till I saw a white cat crawl out of somewhere, the cat looking no better than he did.

Flashbacks were not helping at all.

I wondered what Mom and Dad would feel if they looked down and saw what had become of us after their death. It sure wasn't the kind of life my dad planned for us after leaving the throne in some kingdom he never liked to talk about.

Since I didn't exactly plan out anything to do, and it wasn't like I stood a real chance against Landon even if he was sick and wounded, I decided sitting and watching was the best thing to do. It wasn't such a bad idea to acclimate myself with his new vices.

I looked closer at the scarf on the floor near him and it looked quite familiar.

My head literally began to hurt from trying so hard to remember where I saw it.

It was barely minutes before Nadia walked out stark naked.

I was so thrown off balance. I was totally caught off guard.

I was so engrossed in what I was watching that I didn't hear the wood crack before it finally gave way. As soon as it made the loudest, nastiest, most unnecessary noise I had ever heard, both their faces turned toward where I was.

Landon definitely would not have known me if he saw me, but Nadia and I had locked eyes previously at the pack meeting and I didn't need her recognising me, and wondering why I was stalking her at such time, worse still, adding me to her list of people to exterminate.

'Who is that?" They asked in unison.

I dropped to the floor, bending as low as I could, below the window level and crawled through the most unsuspecting path. I knew I did not know my way, but it was lesser evil compared to being caught by Landon and Nadia.

I kmew her horrible self would still be cheating on Vance. Landon must really want all that Vance had, just as Vance did the wane. The battle line was clearly drawn between both men.

While I made away, I debated in my head whether or not to tell Vance what I had seen, so he could take care of Landon and I'd have one less enemy to face.