Page 169 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“Not well,” he admits. “But, I promised Arden I will keep an eye on her, so she won’t be on her own when he leaves for Silverlake.”

“And Arden?” I ask quietly.

“You know that better than I do,” Eric says. “He doesn’t show his pain too openly. Vander was his everything, though. I’m glad he will be moving with you to Silverlake. I think he truly needs to get away from here. Although, it means I’m losing my best assistant.”

“I’m sorry for taking him away from you,” I say with a smile.

“Well, I will be okay. Emilien and Leila are very capable. Besides, I decided to invite two other people as my assistants.”

“And who?” I ask.

He smiles. “Don’t ask a question you know the answer to already.”

His comment makes me chuckle. “Okay, you did it. I’m feeling better now. What do you want to show me?”

“I can’t help Arden, at the moment,” he says, “but I want to give you closure about one other thing that haunted your family.”

His words have me curious. I have a slight feeling about what he wants me to see, and I hope I am right. Indeed, Eric first leads me down to the last floor of the basement, and then to a room with several screens that show the images of surveillance cameras in the dungeons. And there he is! I almost don’trecognize him at first glance because he is just a shadow of himself. “Calvin,” I breathe out.

“Yes, we separated him from his lycan spirit. The poor thing was completely broken. I don’t know how Calvin did it, but he had tremendous gifts, which he probably used against his own lycan, too.”

“Did he say anything?”

“Yes, he told us how he was able to hide everything from your father. It seems like he had a witch work for him. She cast a spell on him which made it difficult for anyone to even detect him or his true nature.”

“Who is the witch?” I want to know.

Eric sighs. “He killed her after she helped him.”

“No way,” I mutter. “Don’t tell me he did that with all his allies?”

“He did. He disposed of anyone who wasn’t beneficial to him anymore. He also killed his mate.”

“He had a mate!” I exclaim.

“Very early on,” Eric explains. “When there might have still been a chance for him to turn a leaf. Going by the timeline he gave us, it was shortly after your parents took over as alpha and luna. He didn’t want to be bound to anyone though, so he killed her. I believe that by doing that and also with the help of the witch, plus his very own gifts, he was able to silence and suppress his lycan completely.”

It takes a moment for me to let Eric’s words sink in and to fully wrap my mind around them. “Insane.”

“We had our psychiatrists evaluate him. They diagnosed him with ASPD. This doesn’t mean that someone is automatically a bad person, but he—”

“He is a psychopath,” I conclude.

“He feels no empathy, no remorse. He took joy out of torturing others.” He pauses. “Listen, Aurelia, please make sure to tellthis all to your father. He needs to know how Calvin did it and that no one would have been able to see through his schemes. Uncle Elden needs to know that it isn’t his fault or shortcoming. Calvin used his gifts and connections in a way no one could have seen coming. We have barely scratched the surface and don’t even know how many of his so-called benefactors he killed after they weren’t of use to him anymore. I know Uncle Elden asked a witch to check on his ranked members when he took over the pack, just to be safe.”

“I know,” I say. “She didn’t detect anything unusual.”

“Either she was in on it, or the spell that was cast on Calvin was already effective,” Eric explains.

I turn my gaze back to Calvin. “He looks miserable,” I say with bitter satisfaction. “Really miserable.”

“That’s because he is,” Eric says. “I made sure of it.” A dangerous smirk curls his lips. “My gift works both ways. I can make a situation feel lighter, but I can also make a room of people feel like they’re suffocating in despair.” He pauses. “It’s over now. He is just an empty shell.”

I can’t deny that it makes me happy to hear that and see him like that. “What will you do to him now?”

“Let him rot in a cell until he dies. He has lost his lycan, and there is no retrieving it. He has nothing. He is a broken man.” He pauses. “Some fates are worse than dying, Aurelia.”

I watch the man, who assaulted and tormented one of my brothers and betrayed my whole family, with bitterness and grim satisfaction. “Maybe this makes me a bad person, but you are right, this gives me closure. I think it will give closure to all of us.”