Wren's POV
The iron cuffs bit into my wrists like teeth, and I felt every sharp edge of them, as the two enforcers dragged me through the corridor.
My heels scraped against the ancient stone floor, and my muscles screamed in protest as I fought against their grip, twisting and pulling with everything I had left.
"Let me go!" I shouted, my voice echoing off the walls and bouncing back at me, hollow and desperate. "I have rights! I demand to know what I am being charged with!"
Neither enforcer responded. The one on my left, a broad-shouldered man with a scar cutting through his eyebrow, simply tightened his grip until I felt the bones in my wrist grind together.
The one on my right was younger, with eyes that refused to meet mine, keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead as though looking at me might somehow contaminate him.
"Did you hear me?" I tried again, hating the way my voice cracked on the words, hating the desperation bleeding through. "I said I demand to know what I am being charged with! You cannot drag me through this academy without telling me why!"
"Save your strength," the scarred enforcer muttered, his voice flat and disinterested. "You will need it for the tribunal."
"The tribunal?" I twisted harder, trying to force him to look at me. "What tribunal? What are you talking about? I have not done anything!"
"You will hear the charge inside," the younger enforcer said quietly, finally meeting my eyes for a fraction of a second before looking away again. "That is all we are permitted to say."
"Permitted?" I laughed, and it sounded bitter and broken even to my own ears. "Permitted by whom? Who decided that I do not even get to know what I am accused of before you parade me through the entire academy like some kind of criminal?"
Neither of them answered.
Students lined the corridor on both sides, pressing against the walls like spectators at a public execution. I recognized faces as I passed, faces that had shared meals with me in the dining hall, faces that had laughed at my jokes, and faces that had studied beside me in the library until the small hours of the morning. Now those same faces stared at me with expressions ranging from shock to horror to something that looked almost like satisfaction.
"What did she do?" a voice whispered from somewhere in the crowd, loud enough for me to hear, soft enough that its owner probably thought I would not.
"They are saying it is a Code violation," another voice answered, hushed and urgent. "Something about the founders' vaults."
"The founders' vaults?" I shouted, twisting toward the sound of the voices. "Who said that? Who told you I went anywhere near the founders' vaults? I do not even know where they are!"
The students nearest me flinched back, and the scarred enforcer yanked me forward hard enough that I stumbled.
"Keep moving," he growled. "You are not helping yourself."
"I am not helping myself?" I pulled against his grip, my wrists burning where the cuffs cut into my skin. "Someone is spreading lies about me, and you are telling me not to defend myself? What kind of justice is that?"
"The kind where you keep your mouth shut until you are standing before the Council," he replied flatly. "Now walk, or I will drag you the rest of the way."
"The founders' vaults?" a third voice cut in from the crowd, older and colder than the first two. "That is impossible. No student can even access those."
"Apparently she found a way," someone else answered, and the words landed like stones in my stomach.
"I found a way?" I stopped dead, forcing both enforcers to halt or drag me off my feet. "I found a way? I have never even seen the vaults! I do not know the first thing about pack magic or founders' bloodlines or any of it!"
"Move," the scarred enforcer commanded, yanking me forward again.
"My brother," I tried, searching the crowd desperately for Elias's face. "Where is my brother? Has anyone seen Elias Kestrel? Does he know what is happening?"
No one answered. The faces blurred past me as a sea of strangers who had once been classmates, and none of them met my eyes for longer than a heartbeat.
"Briar?" I called out, my voice rising in desperation. "Briar Sinclaire? Is she here? Has anyone seen her?"
"She is not here," a girl I vaguely recognized from my advanced theory seminar said, her voice small and uncertain. "I saw her earlier, but she looked like she was crying and someone said she was taken to be questioned."
"Questioned?" I dug my heels into the stone, forcing the enforcers to drag me rather than walk. "Question about what? Briar has not done anything! She is my roommate, she is…"
"She is the one who reported the theft," another voice cut in, sharp and accusing. "That is what I heard, anyway. She is the one who told the enforcers where to find the evidence."
"That is not true," I said, but my voice came out weak and uncertain even to my own ears. "That cannot be true. Briar would never… she would not…"
"Enough," the scarred enforcer snapped, and this time when he pulled me forward, I did not fight him. I could not, because all the strength had drained out of me and was replaced by a cold with a creeping dread that settled into my bones and refused to leave.
"What happened last night?" I asked aloud, not realizing I had spoken until the younger enforcer glanced at me. "I remember studying, I remember Briar saying goodnight and I remember a knock at the door and then nothing but a void where memory should be."
"That is convenient," the scarred enforcer muttered.
"It is not convenient, it is terrifying!" I pulled against his grip again, desperate to make him understand. "Something happened to me last night. Someone must have done something to me. I would not just forget hours of my life. That is not possible but I do not…"
"You do not know what?" he interrupted, his voice hard. "You do not remember committing a crime? That is what they all say. Every wolf who stands before that tribunal claims innocence. Every single one."
"Then maybe some of them were innocent!" I shot back. "Maybe some of them were telling the truth and no one listened!"
He did not answer, and we kept moving.
The corridor stretched on forever, or maybe it just felt that way because every step brought me closer to something I could not escape.
