The Midnight Watch

Chapter 38

Late update (oops) because this should have been up a week ago, but I've been sailing in the back of beyond without any wifi :'( It's a hard not life.

Oh, and buckle up your seatbelts, kids. This is the final chapter. Yes! I kid you not. This is not a drill. We are done! Finished! For evah.  So you'd better damn well enjoy it (and head on over to Unhappily Ever After if you haven't already). Luv y'all <3

Wyatt Rochester hadn't moved an inch. He lay where he had fallen, all twisted on his stomach. Some of his wound had crusted and scabbed, but the most recent teeth marks oozed blood in ever weaker pulses. Seeing this, Kai snapped his fingers and Becky was the one to obey the order. House Rochester, and not a drop of squeamishness in that girl.

She took off her own jacket and folded it into a wad, pressing it onto the wound with the weight of her body. Wyatt let out a breathless groan, but submitted to her doctoring. His hand clenched into a fist and weakly beat at the dirt.

We waited while his blood clotted and his skin knitted back together. It only took ten minutes. Then he pushed Becky away none too gently and stood up on his own two feet, one arm braced across his body to keep the wad against his shoulder.

He saw in Kai's face that his reckoning was about to be dealt, and cast a furtive look at the crowd of guards. "Can't we take this somewhere private?"

Kai smiled. "I've got nothing to hide. Do you?"

Wyatt was forced to shake his head as the guard jeered.

"Excellent." He turned aside from his stepfather in blatant dismissal. "Isaiah? Would you mind making your report?"

Isaiah's eyes — which were fixed on Wyatt — narrowed in a distinctly feline manner. A cat contemplating the fate of a mouse dangling from its paw. "Not at all, Kaeden. We harassed the bridges, as you ordered, but soon came to realise that all but seven of the traitor's guards had deserted or died. I saw an opportunity to end the rebellion, and I took it."

Dead? Those would be the casualties of the rogue raid. And deserters? The Llewellyn portion of his guards, once Leah and Logan had disappeared, I presumed. So Wyatt Rochester had been left without protectors, but he hadn't dared draft any more of the guard while the Shadowcat army sat between Holyhead and Evarlin. And now it was far too late. He had lost, really, the moment his children had been rescued.

He waited expectantly. "And?"

"And someone beat us to it. I found Jeffery Silveryn sitting in a circle of mutilated guards, with the traitor lying at his feet. I didn't think it wise to disturb him. But, as luck would have it, he followed us back. Looking for his grandson, I believe."

Wyatt took a step forwards on shaky legs. He swayed once, but held his place. And Nate and I took our own steps to remind him that he was a prisoner here.

"I surrendered," Wyatt forced out. "I surrendered, and this is the treatment I get?"

Everyone ignored him.

"Upon our return, we were ambushed by the guards dispatched to defend the bridge. Perhaps a hundred? The traitor ordered them to stand down, and I believe they are now camped on Holyhead awaiting further instructions," Isaiah finished. He lowered his head and stepped back, which meant report over. That was all we had missed.

"I surrendered," Wyatt Rochester insisted again. "I only disinherited Kaeden because he was suspected of conspiring with mainlanders. Then, this morning, new evidence came to light which suggested otherwise, so I recanted the charges and surrendered my position as regent."

Kai finally ceded, turning his head back to Wyatt. "And what new evidence would that be?"

He had no answer to that, but he didn't stammer, to his credit. Just stood silently, eyes pleading for any form of help.