Bite or Howl

Chapter 32

Phoebe POV

"Shut up!" I hiss. We're seated at the very bottom of the castle, leaning against one of the cobblestone walls as we wait for Lupus to retrieve a portal spell. Nick and Felix discuss the plan over and over, it rings in my head and gives me a headache. Felix and Lupus are meant to travel south and entertain some guards while Nick and I go through the Royal Garden and find Chase. The plan is so stupid and the chances of us falling are high, but it's the best thing we've got. Chase would listen to me, anyway. I hope.

The hedge beside me starts to rattle and some leaves slowly start to fall. I panic but hold back my scream. My palms drag me backwards, alerting Felix and Nick who'd finally shut up as their attention drifted to the somewhat alive plant hedge. Felix steps in front of me and his hand crosses over my upper body, yielding me away. Lupus then emerges out of the bushes with two small vials in his hands. His goofy smile opens up and I feel like punching him. I let my breath heave out and slowly sigh. Felix's arm trickles backwards and Nick shakes his head. Lupus catches onto our expressions and gives us a puzzled look. "You gave us a fucking heart attack." Felix mutters. Lupus shrugs and squats down, handing the vials to Nick and I. "Apparently you just break it in front of you and it should create some sort of portal that sends Chase to you. I just rummaged through the shelves so I don't really know." He mumbles. I take the vial from his hand and examine it.

Inside is a dusty mist that is pigmented a bright blue. It glows out in the darkness and blinds my eyes, causing me to squint and pull back. Nick meets my gaze and then turns towards Felix and Lupus. They nod and start getting up, walking away from us. Nick turns back to me. "You ready?" he asks, standing up and pulling his arm out for me. I take it without hesitation and pull myself up. "Let's do this."

════ *.·:·. ☽ ✧    ✦    ✧ ☾ .·:·.* ════

Preaching through the shadows of the castle, Nick and I crawl our way up to the Royal Garden. I trail behind him, following his lead. He crawls up the tall cobblestone wall and reaches the top while I gape from the bottom. It's at least 2 stories high and we agreed on only taking the long ways to prevent climbing. He looks down at me from the edge and motions for me to climb up, swinging his hand upwards. I look at him like he's crazy and shake my head rapidly.

"No!" I hiss under my breath, making sure I remain quiet. He rolls his eyes and gives me another pleading look. I take a deep breath out of irritation and start pawing at the stones. Their texture is rough and painful as I try to pull myself up onto then. I struggled for the first part, tempted to just jump back down but I kept going. My hands were covered in small cuts and scratches by half way as Nick reached down to pull me up. His grip was hard just underneath my arms as he pulled me up, painfully.

"Graceful." He muttered underneath his breath while I dusted myself off. I glared at him before starting to pace forward to the Royal Garden. The moon was brightly lit and gave us a beautiful light source. Surprisingly, guards were hardly anywhere near the balconies and the outdoor areas of the castle, giving Nick and I an easy approach. When we reached the Royal Garden, I let out a long drawn sigh and a huff of breath, tired of the crouching and swift crawling. Nick took off his backpack and opened the zipper, digging his hand deep into one of the pockets and reaching for the vials. He pulled them out and smiled in victory. I crouched down and rested my back against the balcony railing as I let my legs lay out. He points outwards and grins. I look up and see a pack of guards flooding out of the village and following two meddling delinquents that thunder in laughter. I smile warmly, seeing as how crappy our situation is right now, Lupus and Felix still find a way to breach their friendship and have a good time.

Nick looks around before handing me one of the vials. "Ready?" He whispers as I slowly start to stand up. I take the vial in my hand, my grip holding it tight. I stare into its contents and watch as the blue, glowing liquid mesmerises me. My gaze moves back up and meets Nick. "Three," He starts. I step back and find a place for the vial to drop on. "Two," He does the same, stepping further back and bringing his hand up, ready to drop the vial. "One." We both say in union before smashing the vial onto the cobblestone pavement and watch it smash into millions of pieces. It bursts in a silent explosion, knocking me backwards and sending me crashing into the hard, balcony railing.

My back cracks as I feel my spine being pulled into a painful angle. Then a bursting pain comes forward and threatens to kill me. A long, wooden stake that poked out of the balcony railing was exactly where I'd landed. It pierced into me and poked out of my stomach. It's sharp and pointed end broke inside of me, slowly starting to soak my belly in red liquid. Blue mist seeps out of the vials and covers my vision. "Nick?" I call out, quietly. I cough as the mist gets into my throat, fanning the area in front of me.

The mist is thick and pigmented so strongly, I can hardly see the person walking in front of me. It's tall and quite skinny. When I look up, I know it's not Nick. Because it's Catherine. Her heels click on the cobblestone pavement, creating a dramatic sound as she steps closer. "Well, well, well.." She says, drastically, her words spitting each time she takes a step closer. "Now, what exactly do we have here?" She grins as the smoke starts to clear. She stands about a few feet in front of me, looking down as she smirked in triumph. I glare up at her and try to apply pressure to my stomach as blood continuously oozes out of me. The thick, dark crimson covers my entire torso.

"Look at you, so weak." She mutters, kneeling down so she meets my view. She presses her lips together and grins. "I know all about you, Catherine." I grit out, ignoring the blaring pain inside of me. Catherine scoffs and stands back up. "Well good, I wasn't planning to explain anyway." She rolls her eyes. "Where is Nick?" I yell at her. She looks around and plays dumb, smirking as she fakes a concerned expression. "Potions are fun to mess around with, you know? The one he'd used booted him all the way up Mount Verona. Conveniently, where Chase is right now." She says proudly, pointing up at the top of the Mountains.

"He's quite angry right now actually. Since he thinks you're dead, he's gone wild. Probably gonna kill Nick." She explains, looking down at her nails. "You see, everything's coming together. He thinks you're dead, he'll eventually kill himself in his sorrow, leaving the throne all for me. Isn't that fun?" She giggles diabolically.

I hold back a scream of pain. "You are sick." I grit out, angry yet desperate for someone to come find me. With long, agonising minutes, I soon started to realise there would be no one to help me. Only Catherine. And I had to do something or I'd die right here, right now. "Catherine, why? You were so kind and humble. Why all of this? Just for a throne?" I then ask, my voice challenging and desperate. Catherine then folds her hand across her chest, her brown hair swaying from side to side behind her. "Isn't it obvious? There is no other option but the throne! I'm not gonna sit here for the rest of my life and act pretty. I've got so much more than that. My life isn't going as a waste, Chase doesn't deserve the throne. He's not fit for it!" She yells.

"The Black Witches helped me find who I truly was. I was only sixteen when I found out I'd been a mistake and wasn't even related to the man I called father. My mother burned all the possible chances of me having anything with her stupid choices." She stops talking and then chokes slightly on her saliva. In a deep voice, she says something that ruins me, sending chills all over myself. "So I burned her."

I stop for a moment, remembering how Chase had told me that his parents died in a fire. "Cath, this isn't the answer. We can figure this out another way-" I start but Catherine stops me. "And out of everyone, I thought you'd be the one person that understood how I felt. But I guess I was wrong." Her tone sounds hurt and disappointed. If she weren't so evil and sick, I'd honestly feel sorry for her.

"I thought you were so weak, Phoebe. But when I saw your wolf that day in Felix's dungeons, I was shocked. We're both worth so much more than just sitting down beside a king. You are the most powerful werewolf to ever step foot on this planet. We can be so much more, together. We can rule together. We'll burn down kingdoms together!" She yells at me. "I don't want to burn kingdoms with you, Catherine. Hurting innocent people is horrendous and you'd gladly do so?" I fight back, disgusted by her comments.

"We could've done it together, Phoebe!" Her voice bellows. "Chase is nothing! We are so much more." She explains to me. "Chase is the greatest king to ever step foot on that throne." I defend. Catherine scrunches her face and points her finger into her mouth. "Ew, love." She mutters.

She rolls her eyes down at me. "Phoebe, you are so incredibly strong." She then says, puzzling me. She walks around me, playing with my hair. I tried to flinch back but I was stuck with this stake inside of me. It poked outwards more whenever I moved, only daring me in more pain. She crouches down beside me and whispers into my ear, "But only when you're paying attention."

And before I could turn my head, she grabbed a knife from her pocket and drew it over me, slitting my neck open completely.

There was no time to scream. There was only darkness. And my last breath of air.