Doubt

All human relationships are based on mutual exploitation.

Doubt

"Simon."

The ghostly figure appeared beside me in an instant. My gaze was drawn to his face, and he nodded silently and put his hand on my wrist. I made a wordless agreement with Simon. He always takes little vitality in exchange for information, but it was okay.

Simon never took enough energy for me to experience any side effects, so I didn't complain. When he let me go, I set off again, but I didn't enter the room that had been designated as mine, I instead entered the one next to it.

Alex must have been getting ready for a bath, as his shirt was lying on the bed. He was looking at me rather dissatisfied, but I ignored it, just grabbed his hand and nobly dragged him after me to another room, which had been assigned to Rolo.

Rolo was sitting on the bed reading something, but as soon as I entered he folded the book and put it on the bedside table. Alex and I sat down on the floor — or rather I sat down and pulled him with me.

"What the hell is going on?" the wolf growled, "I wanted to take a shower!"

"You can shower later, we'll talk about the plan now!"

"Didn't we do that at dinner?" he growled.

"That's the hunters' plan, Alex," I pulled my lips into a sly smile, "I was talking about our plan!"

"Well, can start?", I asked Rolo.

Glancing towards the boy, I saw Simon peacefully hovering about two meters above the bed, leafing through the book Rolo had just read.

I figured I was still the only one who could see him since Alex hadn't had a heart attack yet and Rolo didn't want his book back. I didn't blame Simon for not trusting me completely yet, I think as a victim of a monster it's a miracle he's even willing to work with me. Moreover, he must have guessed that without the slight pressure of vengeful spirits, I would not be so eager to rush to the rescue of the humans the Fifth was holding captive.

"There's a cellar system about a kilometer and a half under Redchild's villa: I got in through that," the boy said.

"They keep humans in the cellar," added the ghost.

"I see," I said, "Where is the entrance?"

"It's in the woods on the estate, about ten minutes from the battlefield," he said, then wondered, "Though I don't know if you could get through the bars."

"Don't worry, we'll manage," I assured him.

"The cellar system is winding, it will take at least twice as long to get to the villa," he continued. "We'll end up in one of the abandoned basements, it's close enough to the King's chamber, only four corridors."

With a single glance, Simon let me know that I'd be saving the shitty humans if I wanted to enlist the aid of the ghosts.

"All right," I said, though the others could not have known that it was mostly for Simon.

"Here's the plan: once we've lured the vampires out, we'll try to stay alive..."

"How do we lure the vampires out?" Alex inquired suspiciously.

"With my blood..."

He didn't even let me finish, he was already preparing to scream my head off.

"What are you thinking? You want all the bloodsuckers to come after you?!"

"That's the only way the old man agreed to put me on the Alpha team," I shrugged.

"And when did you discuss this?!"

"Well, during the meeting, but that's not important," I brought the conversation back to the topic. "So, after we lure the vampires out, we fight with all our might, and Alex tries not to get too far away from me, right, Alex?"

The wolf snorted and buried his face in his hand, indicating that I had killed all his remaining brain cells.

"Rolo will hide in my clothes in his cat from," I continued, "Then we wait for the signal."

"What signal?" asked Alex, but he could already sense that he wasn't going to get a straight answer.

"Believe me, when the time comes, you will know," I said.

At this point, the wolf had had enough of the secrecy and made his point clear. But how could I tell him that even I wasn't sure what the sign was?

"If we see the sign, we'll take advantage of the confusion and get out of the battlefield," I said.

"How?" Alex made one last attempt to get information, and I had mercy on him. OK, I was going to tell him anyway, it was necessary, but he should feel exceptional for one small moment in his life.

"With this," I opened my palm, in which Alistair's ring rested, "Fae Magic."

"Hide me," I slipped it on my finger, and Alex's sultry look convinced me that I had indeed become invisible. Rolo's eyes were searching me fervently, and my heart took pity on them again, so I undid the spell.

Rolo's eyes lit up with excitement. "Can I examine it?"

I handed him the ring, and he began to twirl it between his fingers.

"It looks very valuable," Alex stated. "Where did you get it?"

"Yes, it is," I replied, "It's a family heirloom."

"Alex will stay close to me, and if he sees the sign, he'll take my hand and make us both disappear," I continued.

"What? Why me?" the wolf asked with a little shock in his voice.

"I will distract the King while you invisibly free the girls. You will need the ring," I explained.

"What do you mean, distract him?" he questioned angrily, "It's dangerous! And what makes you think he has the girls on his side? They could be in a dungeon or something..."

I was about to speak, but Rolo was quicker.

"Think about it logically! If you have hostages, it's worth keeping them close to you, they may not exactly be kept in the hall, but Shay may demand to see if they're okay and then they'll have no choice but to bring them in. And Shay will probably be okay since they don't want to kill him. The plan is risky, but it could work."

Indeed, it would have been too time-consuming to find the girls and free them one by one.

I nodded.

"We need to get there before the troops do. When they launch an attack on the Fifth, we'll take our chance and make a run for it," I explained, then turned to the boy, "In the meantime, you stay in the basement and free the people trapped there, and we'll meet back in the forest.

Rolo nodded.

Although Simon had shown no sign of listening so far, I could feel that he was memorizing every word. I took the ring back from the boy and handed it to Alex.

"Now, we're going to practice," I announced, "Put it on your finger and give it a command. It always depends on the person, so I can't really help you. Just think of something simple that comes immediately to mind!"

The wolf immediately made an attempt, but my lingering gaze made him hesitate. "I didn't disappear, right?"

"No, you didn't."

"Maybe fae magic doesn't work on me," he muttered, "I'm a werewolf."

"It must work," I argued, "I've temporarily shared ownership with you."

After that, he made several attempts, but after half an hour, all he had achieved was that the fingers on his left hand were beginning to fade.

"This won't do," I interrupted, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know..." he confessed uncertainly.

"I think I've figured it out," Rolo said, immediately drawing our attention to himself. "Don't try to disappear."

Although Alex looked rather puzzled, the statement lit a light bulb in my head.

"But that's the task, isn't it?"

Rolo sighed deeply.

"The ring doesn't physically hide you, does it?" asked Rolo, and I immediately nodded, "Rather, it merely creates an illusion that hides you from the gaze of others. Don't try to disappear, imagine the spell as a shroud or a mist!"

After that, Alex perfected the spell so easily, that it was as if he was born knowing it all. It was then that the thought struck me that Rolo was more mysterious than I had previously thought.

After Alex had disappeared successfully, he was so happy he couldn't stop grinning. He finally forced himself to be serious again and turned to me.

"When did you come up with all this?"

I put on a sly half-smile.

"What are you talking about? I planned to do this from the beginning."

(...)

I couldn't sleep, and I felt more tired than I'd ever felt. Ever since the girls had disappeared, I had been haunted by horrible nightmares every time I tried to close my eyes. Even staring aimlessly at the ceiling was better than that.

Suddenly I heard a soft knock, then the door opened a crack and a small figure slipped through. The emerald eyes almost glowed in the darkness.

"Did I wake you?" he asked quickly.

"No, I can't sleep."

"I can't sleep either."

After that, silence settled around us for a while, and I knew that if I didn't say something, Rolo would be standing at my door until morning.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm scared," he replied after a while.

I could have guessed that, but I stopped caring about other people's feelings a while ago. I've had enough of dealing with my own lately. Of course, he was afraid of the dark in a place filled by hunters.

"Can I," he said but stopped for a second, "can I sleep in your room tonight?"

I was surprised by the request, but finally nodded — then I realized he might not see that so I blurted out a reply.

After that, the boy moved and settled down in one of the corners.

"What are you doing?", I asked.

"Sleeping," he replied.

"Sleeping?" I said, surprised.

"Yes."

"On the floor?"

"On the floor."

I sighed deeply. I don't know how he came to the conclusion that he had to sleep on the floor when every single room has a fucking king sized bed.

"You can have half my bed," I offered, and he immediately snapped his head up, "What are you looking at? You'd better hurry up, I'm sleepy."

Then he came to his senses and walked with shaky steps to the bed, and then crawled under the covers as far away from me as he could. He was so far on the edge of the bed that I thought he might fall off the next moment.

"I don't remember much of the night the hunters came to us," he whispered, "Everything was red, the smell of blood and darkness... In the darkness, those white bone masks almost glowed..."

I didn't answer, but Rolo didn't need my words. I knew that there are times when all you want is to be heard. I didn't try to give him advice, I didn't try to make him feel better, because often silence is worth a thousand words of comfort.

"You're strange," he said suddenly, and I glanced at him.

He was now facing me.

"What do you mean?", I raised one eyebrow.

"I've been thinking about it for a while," he went on, "The first day we met, I thought you were going to sell me out to the hunters. But you didn't."

"You simply owed me, and Geri wouldn't have paid me for that debt," I interjected.

"Then when I saw your mask, I was surprised, but that wasn't the most surprising thing. It was that you saved me," he stated.

"I wanted you to find out the truth for yourself," I shrugged, which was hardly effective lying down.

"I know I was aware of that," he nodded, "But that doesn't explain why you helped me. Since then I wanted to ask why."

I turned seriously to the boy, then smiled wickedly. " I've forgotten."

"I thought you would say that," he sighed.

"Why do you care so much?"

"It's the nice people I fear most," he said, lower than a whisper, "Their smiles are false, their every word a mere calculation. If someone is too nice to me, that's reason enough not to trust him. But you never tried to betray me..."

"Tell me, your parents..." I began.

"Yes," he answered without a flinch, "their friends betrayed them."

"Now, this explains things," I replied as I was leaning on my elbow. "Yes, all human relationships are based on mutual exploitation, and monsters are no different."

They're nice to you because they want to exploit you, they're nice to you because they want to betray you, or they're nice to you to relieve their own loneliness, but it's exactly the same on the other side — therefore it is mutual. However, we are social creatures, so no matter how many times we are betrayed, we will always seek the company of the other. No matter how many times we are betrayed, it doesn't change.

"You're not afraid of me being nice, you're afraid of being fooled again."

"Thank you for summing up the mysteries of the darkness in my soul, Shaytan," he sneered.

"One thing I wish you knew," I added earnestly, "If you don't want to, you needn't fight. You owe me nothing."

Rolo's eyes widened.

"That's why you didn't make us swear an oath..." he stated, "and that's why my task is to free the humans."

I didn't answer, there was no need.

"Do you remember I said I haven't met a better packheart than you?" he asked, "Correction: I haven't met a douchier packheart than you."

He turned his back to me with deep resentment and did not answer even when I wished him good night. I sighed deeply and closed my eyes. I had thought a lot about the battle. I ran through the three golden rules in my mind:

1. Intelligence and information.

2. Need a decisive battle — effective planning.

3. Misdirection.

I ran through a lot of plans in my head until I finally found the right one. Still, I sometimes wondered about the morals of the final strategy. My calculating self encouraged me to make the best decision — but the devil in my heart would sometimes ask me an annoying question. Do you really want to involve a child in a war? Haven't your friends already suffered enough because of it? The answer was obvious.

That night, fatigue finally took over, and for the first time in a very long time, I slept soundly, accompanied by the anguished cries of Coffee and Jo.