The Best Ally

The crystal’s dim glow flickered back to life, illuminating the cloaked figure kneeling in my cell. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I had half-believed the silence, the footsteps, even the lock’s turning, were tricks of my mind.

Then the hood fell back.

Golden eyes caught the light, fierce yet familiar. The wolfish features that peeked through his human guise—the faint outline of ears hidden by his dark hair, the sharpness of his jaw—were unmistakable.

“Orien…?” My voice cracked, disbelieving.

A faint smile tugged at his lips. “Not Orien. Not anymore. You know who I am.”

The truth hit me like a blow. My adoptive brother. The one who had vanished back to his homeland. The boy I had grown up with, who had sworn to me, before leaving, that we would meet again when the world demanded it.

“Tiberon.”

He inclined his head in acknowledgment. “Tiberon Leonarth Beastalia. First Prince of Beastalia… and still, above all else, your brother.”

I stumbled to my feet, heart hammering. “Why—how—are you here? If anyone finds out—”

“They won’t,” he said, calm but sharp, scanning the runes and the door. “The guards are asleep. Wolf Brigade trick. Don’t ask questions you don’t need answers to. What matters is this—” He leaned closer, voice low. “I won’t let them destroy you, Alex.”

The words broke something inside me. Weeks of silence, suspicion, the crushing weight of being alone—all of it cracked under the force of that vow.

“You… you believe me?” My throat tightened. “Even after everything? Even after what Serenya said—‘he’s not human’—even after the accidents—”

“I believe you,” Tiberon interrupted firmly. His eyes locked on mine, steady, unshakable. “I know you. That’s enough.”

He removed a small charm from his belt, brushing it against my cuffs. They hissed faintly, the suppressing runes dimming just a little. For the first time since my detention, I felt a flicker of mana stir in my chest—weak, but present.

I gasped at the sensation. “You—”

“Don’t push it,” he warned. “The shackles will still hold, but I’ve loosened them enough that your body won’t wither. They thought they could cut you off completely. I won’t let that happen.”

Emotion welled in my chest—relief, anger, gratitude twisted together. “Why risk this? You’re the crown prince of Beastalia. If they catch you here—”

“Then so be it,” Tiberon said. “Brother, when I left you in Cardonia, I swore we would fight side by side when the time came. That time is now. Someone here wants you broken, and I won’t watch them succeed.”

I sank onto the cot, clutching my head. “But it doesn’t make sense. Every incident—Selindra’s ward collapsing, Cedric’s wand, the exam explosion, Serenya’s kidnapping—they all point to me. Too perfectly.”

“Exactly,” Tiberon said, his tone sharp. “It’s a pattern. Someone’s weaving threads around you, Alex. Piece by piece, they’re building the image of a traitor. And everyone is falling for it.”

My stomach turned. I had thought the same but kept it buried, afraid to sound paranoid.

“Then who?” I whispered.

Tiberon shook his head. “Not yet. Too many shadows, too many masks. If I throw a name at you now, it’s just another lie. What we need is proof.”

“Proof…”

“Yes.” His eyes gleamed. “And you have the mind for it. You’ve always seen what others miss. Your magic only makes it sharper. But you can’t let them know about that—not here. Not now.”

My breath caught. “You know what it would mean if they learned…”

“That you can bind spells together? That you can make the impossible look like child’s play?” He gave a humorless laugh. “They’d call you monster before they called you genius. And they’d use that fear to burn you alive.”

The weight of his words pressed against me, but I nodded. I had always known.

We sat in silence for a long moment. The crystal hummed softly, shadows flickering against the stone walls. Finally, I asked the question that burned in me:

“Why come back now? Why risk yourself for me?”

Tiberon’s expression softened, just a little. “Because you’re my brother. And in Beastalia, that bond is more sacred than blood. When wolves fight, they fight together. When the world turns against one, the pack bares its fangs.”

He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a growl. “And make no mistake, Alex—they’ve bared their fangs at you. So now they bare them at me.”

Something hot and fierce kindled inside me. For weeks, I had been drowning in doubt, suffocating under mistrust. Now, for the first time, I felt the faintest spark of defiance.

“So what do we do?” I asked. “I can’t get out. Even if I did, no one would listen to me.”

“That’s why I came,” Tiberon said. He stood, his presence filling the small cell like a storm. “I’ll move in the shadows, outside these walls. You’ll think. You’ll watch. Together, we’ll find the cracks. And when the time comes, we’ll drag the truth into the light.”

I swallowed, my heart racing. “What if we fail?”

“Then we fall together,” Tiberon said simply. “But I don’t intend to fail.”

He turned toward the door, pulling his hood back up. “I’ll come again. Not often—too dangerous—but enough. I’ll leave signs. Small things, only you will notice. Keep your eyes sharp.”

Panic surged through me at the thought of him leaving again. “Tiberon—wait. Please. Just—”

He paused, glancing back. His golden eyes caught the crystal’s glow one last time.

“Hold on a little longer, brother. You’re not alone anymore.”

And with that, he slipped into the shadows, the door clicking shut behind him.

I sat on the cot, the faint warmth of mana humming in my veins, my brother’s words echoing in my mind. For the first time since being branded a suspect, I wasn’t crushed beneath the weight of despair.

The Academy still believed me guilty. The royals still doubted me. Serenya’s words still haunted me.

But I had an ally now.

Tiberon Leonarth Beastalia—the First Prince of Beastalia of the Beast Realm, my brother.

And together, we would bare our fangs.