The Dark One: Sequel Nox Haven Series

Chapter 21: The Traiterous Heart

**Caddie and Aleksander up above**

Caddie's POV:

A tortured scream emitted from the interrogation room. All thoughts of my mother evaporated as Mira and I inched towards the door. Placing my ear against the door, I desperately tried to hear their conversation. My thoughts raced as Aleksander released another bloodcurdling scream. My hands began to shake when I realized why he was screaming. Heidi was torturing him.

"They're going to kill him!" Mira squealed behind me.

"They are only torturing him because he may be the traitor," I hissed.

Mira scoffed, she seemed outraged that Aleksander could betray us. Bowing my head towards the floor, I tried to believe the words I had said. Shame gnawed at me as I secretly agreed with Mira. Aleksander was a lot things: arrogant, selfish, proud, and annoyingly attractive but he wasn't a traitor. Or at least that was what I thought. If I learned anything from my experiences at Nox Haven it's that nothing is what it seems.

"You can't be serious! I've known Aleksander my whole life, he's not evil," Mira shrieked like a banshee.

Blinking away my traitorous tears, I looked away from the ground and gave Mira a hard look. She looked  into my icy blue eyes once and quickly backed away from me. "Listen to that," I ordered harshly as Aleksander released another guttural cry, "My aunt wouldn't be torturing him unless he was guilty."

Shaking her head adamantly, she bit her manicured nails and tried to come up with another reason. Mira began to mumble nonsense as she paced the floor. She finally lost it, I thought to myself.

"What if he is the traitor?" She cried.

".... I kissed him on my thirteenth birthday!"

".... We used to sleep in the same bed when we were five!"

"I befriended a monster! He might even be worse than you!"

Her annoyingly high-pitched voice rang in my head until I couldn't fight my aggravation. With gritted teeth and clenched fists, I thought about an old trick I hadn't tried in a while. Please shut up, I pleaded repeatedly in my mind.

"I just can't comprehend-" her voice abruptly cut off to my relief.

Without Mira's constant chatter, the mumbled words spoken inside of the interrogation room became clearer.

"Stop lying!" My aunt bellowed.

I could only imagine the furious glare Aleksander must have been receiving; Heidi sounded like she was about to murder him.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Aleksander wheezed.

"Stop this nonsense! Aleksander is not guilty," Mr. Volkov pleaded.

Tranquility began to seep out of the interrogation room as Mr. Vilkov desperately tried to calm my aunt. An uncomfortable silence settled in the room. It seemed as if Heidi was going to relax, but I knew her better than they did. 1...2...3- I counted patiently. An inhuman growl echoed through the castle walls. Seconds later, it was followed by a high-pitched girly scream that could only come from Aleksander.

"Heidi there is no need for you to continue this madness the boy is innocent!" Mrs. Honor shouted over the chaos.

"P-please p-please stop," Aleksander pleaded.

Anger flared within me as I heard a bone crack. Clenching my fists I desperately tried to fight off my traitorous emotions. It shouldn't bother me that my aunt was turning him into a gooey pile of guts and intestines. But it did. He might be a black magic wielding, remorseless killer with the ability to feel the emotions of others- but so was I. I could deny the connection towards him until I die, but that didn't mean it would disappear. Pushing the door open, I marched into the interrogation room and ran over to the rocking chair.