“Could you two stop for a moment?” Edith blasted, popping those deadly gazes like they’re knives darting towards me. And it was from the Malfoy guy. “Whatever grudge you have on her. Set it aside, Malfoy.”
“It is not just a grudge, Dieviry. She killed my mate!” He again yelled and pointed his fingers on me.
I cast a sigh and quit countering his stares when he suddenly strolled with those heavy steps and lengthy legs. In a squash of a second, Malfoy was in front of me with his fist upon the air ready to whack my face. Out of my control, his knuckles hit my face making me crash down the piles of wooden slabs.
“Get up, you bast*rd! Get up and fight me!”
Supporting my body, both of my arms hoisted on the ground as I raise my head. I throw out bland stares at him now held by two of his men, implying what he did was nothing but a play. “Why would I? There is nothing I can get from you,” I answered and gradually stood up.
“Let me go! I’ll kill that mordant b*tch!”
My lips twitched when I placed my hand on it to wipe. Damn, his fist was iron. I straightened up and started walking away from him to the other side of the table where Edith was.
“What’s the taste?” Edith mocked and chuckled that I only gave her a glare.
“You want some?” My hand raised and gestured my fist to her but she quickly glided on the other wing to get away. She cleared her throat and thumped the stick she was holding to somewhere below the table.
The opened airways on the make-shift tents closed and even the rays of sunlight were blocked to enter. There was nothing to see, not until the light from several ignited torches spread all over. Clearing the four beings surrounded, all five if I am included.
“We need the plan as soon as we can. I want all of your attention here,” Edith started, highlighting me and that Malfoy with her eyes pinned on both of us. I kept silent and collided with Malfoy’s still killing glares towards me.
“How could I if he still looks at me that way, as if anytime he’ll attack me.” My brow raised and pressed the swollen cut in my lips.
“There’s no doubt in that,” he answered with his hands clenching the edge of the table.
I smirked and bent my body closer to him, “Cruel.”
“B*tch!”
“Stop!” screamed Edith, slamming her rod on the surface of the wide table. “If you two don’t have any plans to settle down, better leave this place.”
My head tilted and straightened up, not moving away my eyes pinned on Malfoy. “Why? You might witness a battle between generals, Edith.”
I caught her rolled her eyes at me and pointed the rod in my direction. “You might want to cut off your arrogancy before I cut off your tongue. You are not in your territory, Adira.” Seeing me nod in agreement and take away my eyes from the werewolf general, she then shifted to Malfoy. “And you, I know what you feel but please. Set it aside, Malfoy.”
He emitted his audible breath and let go of the wood he was clenching about to break. “Here’s the map.”
Arose from nothing was a map. It spreads across the round table and every detail of it was so clear. A copy of the entire Claveria Haltera map but only the Kitezh north was on it. Mainly the lands of three werewolf territories; the Abberant, Madfur Okami, and the Shadowstone.
“The main frontier was situated lying trigon. Taking a chunk of the northern part of Nightwinder and Madfur. What happened this morning, the first and second line of defense was breached.”
“How many kilometers was the first line from here?” I chimed in, cutting Malfoy.
He took a quick glance at me and quickly returned to the map. “Twenty-six,” Malfoy answered sparingly.
“Mind if I know how many lines stood up for defense?”
“Hah! For what? You’re a spy—”
“General, I think we should work with her just this time,” one of his men interrupted. I turned to face him but his face was down, looking at the map. He has this long dark messed-up hair tied high and lifeless eyes. Like the typical wolf warriors, his build was undeniably hot.
“Says someone who got his entire family killed by vampires. Shut up, Kymil!”
Just a little bit more and I’m not going to hesitate to kick this guy out of the tent. I stretched my arms to my neck and yawned sleepily. “That is not the answer to my question. Mind giving me what I want to know? Because if you have no plans to answer me, then wake me up if the entire Abberant was already wiped out.”
I was about to take the lane to exit when Malfoy’s voice broke the second of silence. “Fine, just this time! Three. There are three lines of defense and we are located on the third, the last line.”
“After they’ve breached those defenses, I assume you managed to see their strategy.” My eyes returned to him but narrowed when he shook his head.
“I-I didn’t.”
Silence once roamed every corner of the space, until I laughed with my hand on my stomach. “How the heck did you became a general? Or, are you even one?”
“Adira,” Edith interrupted and swooshed her serious not-joking stares. “Only one here was a general, it was only you.”
The smile on my face started to fade and turned to Edith. “What do you mean?”
“Only cadets and amateurs were on this line of defense.”
“You said what?” Everything became serious. Even that inch of annoyance against Malfoy disappeared hearing Edith. “Where did you put your brains? Who decided this?”
“It was no one but the Alpha.”
This time, the guy next to Kymil answered me. He lifted his head and struck those dead brown eyes directly on mine. “He said it was for us to get our own experience of the war. But we’re not so stupid not to know it was because all our superiors were dead. Those people experienced in war and leading an army, they were all poisoned to death.”
“That easily?” I uttered, keeping my eyes on him. “What’s your name?”
I spotted how his hands trembled and his eyes tried to escape from me. “Someone who is skilled and has been in real combat won’t die so easily just because of poison. May I know when did they die?”
“Two weeks ago,” Edith answered.
“Then let’s say, why only this time did the first and second line fall when there are lots of days from the enemy to breach and enter after the generals died?” I asked and take my eyes away, and to the map.
“A week,” I heard Malfoy whisper. “We thought they had already given up or just taken a break.”
“What happened?”
Malfoy elevated his head and looked at me. “A week before this, the enemies stopped attacking us.”
The tentacles of serenity reigned for over five minutes. No one dared to speak and all their heads seems to have been attached to the map lying on the table. No one broke the silence, not until my lips formed a line and opened my mouth. “Indeed, because they are planning something. And there is someone here who clearly knows our plan.”
Reacting to what slipped off me, the guy next between Malfoy and Kymil abruptly raised his head and was about to run away when Edith’s rod struck something making every exit close and solidify like steel.
“Vander had sent a spy so clumsy and,” I smiled and threw a dagger from behind me to his neck. “A little bit stupid.”
“Why did you kill him?” shouts Kymil who quickly ran towards the now bleeding guy I hit.
“Why? Do you know him?” I asked.
“We could have known the enemy’s plans through him!”
“Eh? Have you forgotten we have someone who reads minds?” I answered, referring to Edith. “Mind that traitor later, we need to plot out a plan. I’m referring to you, Malfoy.” My stares dashed to his still unconvinced look.
His eyes were widened in maybe shock and his hands were shaking. “K-Kehli was a t-traitor,” he muttered with no trace of a question mark.
“So sad, isn’t it?” I butt in and flipped a piece of carved wooden medallion to him. “You two shared a common interest. But anyway, that’s the only piece I have retrieved from the burnt body.” I felt his again killer eyes, “Who knows, she might still be alive.” I gave him a meaningful look.
“Don’t start,” Edith interrupted and changed the way how the map looks. “Their aim was not just to breach but also to ambush the Alpha. They had known Diego was going to Shadowstone, perhaps that’s the reason they took the western borders.”
“Is that what you only got from this Kehli?”
“Too bad but yes, it is the only information I got,” Edith replied.
I sighed and nodded, “Then we can only infer defense and still not a firm counter-attack. I believe he’s not the only traitor here. Too bad but we have to kill them even the closest friend you’ve never expected.”
With a swift move, I simply pulled out another dagger and aimed at Malfoy’s neck. Knocking him dead at an instance. “I will be needing your help, Kymil.”