Bonds of the Forsaken: A Reverse Harem Romantasy (Her Forsaken Mates Book 1)

7. Kaiya

AKing”s mission?

The anxious twisting of my heart rearranged itself into cautious excitement.

As far as I knew, no Science Division Agents had ever even been assigned a King”s mission. Those were usually given to the Investigation Division or Foreign Relations.

Gods. Frexin had been right. This mission must be huge! Big enough I could even ignore Jaiel being brought in for the briefing.

What kind of relic could King Torsten want me to hunt, though?

Barely holding back a grin, I stepped into the office.

It was as eclectic as Lady Frexin was, with strange mechanical objects lining the floor-to-ceiling shelves, which covered the walls. They were her personal collection of marvels.

It even included a few glass cases containing small relics she was somehow allowed to store away from the vault.

”Thank you for being prompt, Prince Kierstall and Miss Maderoth,” she said, looking between us, a wry smile twisting her lips. ”Please take a seat. We”ll need to wait a moment for our last guest.”

”I”m sorry, my lady,” I said, slipping into the spindly blue chair across from her. ”But while we wait, perhaps you could clarify why Prince Kierstall is here? I don”t see why we would need a diplomatic —”

The door behind us clicked open.

”Yes, yes. I will explain once Lord Dimiri gets settled,” Lady Frexin said, tapping her long green nails on the stack of files in front of her. ”In the meantime, I wanted to reassure you that King Torsten and I have discussed your assault today by Investigator Fordyth.”

Assault? I wouldn”t necessarily call it that —

”We”ve come to the agreement,” she continued. ”That his value to the Empire no longer outweighs this new propensity of his for disobedience.”

”What”s going to happen to him?” Guilt twisted in my chest.

”That”s none of your concern,” she said, narrowing her eyes. ”Your focus must remain on the relics. They are all that matters.”

I tried to push away the budding guilt. This wasn”t the time — not when the king had assigned me a mission. Turning, I watched as Lord Dimiri, an older man, made his way through the room.

He wore a fitted navy suit with a modestly tied cravat and a bowler hat to cover his curling gray hair. As he stepped to the desk, he removed the hat and tipped his head toward me in a respectful nod, those deep brown eyes bracketed by well-carved smile lines.

I hadn”t worked with him yet, but from what I”d heard, he was a good leader and even somewhat of a father figure to his team.

His gaze moved to Jaiel sitting atop a leather stool beside me, and something seemed to pass between them.

”Lady Frexin, Miss Maderoth, Prince Kierstall — I apologize for keeping you waiting.” He dipped his head slightly. ”We received some upsetting news from the Fae court that needed an immediate response.”

Jaiel stiffened.

Could it be connected to his family?

Lord Dimiri came up beside Jaiel, pressed a hand to his shoulder, then pulled out a chair and carried it to sit by Lady Frexin on the other side of the desk.

Rumors had it that Jaiel”s parents, the previous rulers of the Fire Court, had abandoned him to our kings. They”d claimed he suffered from some kind of dangerous curse.

All I”d seen was that strange power back in Gleyma the day we met two years ago. Eli had claimed the monster inside him could eat corruption.

I”d assumed it to be Fae magic, but after two years of secretly learning as much as I could about magic, it was clear the inky, almost living darkness that flowed from him was neither human nor Fae magic.

Perhaps the rumors were true and he was an experiment of some kind …

Either way, it had been the source of his Prince of Shadows title.

The two leaders exchanged nods and turned to us.

Lady Frexin leaned forward over her desk, eyes somber. ”As you both know, the primary goal for our Relic Hunting teams is to collect twisted artifacts left by the mages from before The Fall.”

We nodded.

”Well, as I hinted at earlier, Kaiya — your recent success in Karemi has indirectly led to the discovery of a powerful relic on the Isle of the Forsaken.”

My jaw dropped.

Holy hells. If I was going to the Isle, this mission would truly be a dream come true! Finally!

Though her calling Karemi a success made me a bit queasy …

Jaiel”s stool squeaked as he leaned forward. ”I assume that”s why I was brought in?”

Dimiri nodded, his hat casting shadows across his face. ”Since you”ve done several missions there, you will provide the connections and experience Miss Maderoth lacks.”

I turned to stare at the Fae prince, aghast.

For the past two years, Lady Frexin had refused my requests to do any Isle missions, citing it as too dangerous.

Yet can”t-keep-his-dick-in-his-pants Jaiel has been there — and more than once! What kind of diplomatic missions could there even be on the Isle?

And what was this about him providing experience I lacked? Unless the mission involved orgies, I sincerely doubted he had any experience I did not.

But I needed to know as much as possible before I could convince them to remove the Fae prince from the mission.

So, I forced myself to stay calm despite the irritation thrumming through my body as I turned to Frexin.

”What kind of relic?”

She gestured to Lord Dimiri and he nodded.

”We don”t know the specifics of its species or appearance,” he said. ”But we have reliable intel that it”s one of a kind. And extremely dangerous.”

His worried frown spoke volumes.

But what ”one of a kind” even mean for a living creature? How was that possible?

”Indeed,” Lady Frexin said, gaze directed at me. ”If our sources are correct, we believe this relic has the potential to be even worse than the Karemi Relic.”

A phantom pain stabbed through the fresh scar on my side, and I winced.

”Due to the extreme dangers on the island,” she continued. ”This has been a strictly military operation until this point. But every team Lord Dimiri has sent to investigate has returned empty-handed or disappeared entirely.”

Hells, if the military was having trouble — that was not encouraging. And since when did Lord Dimiri work with the military? Didn”t his team specialize in foreign relations?

”I know this is a lot to ask so soon after your experience in Karemi,” Dimiri interjected, his gaze heavy. ”But your work there makes me think you may succeed where my agents have failed.”

Guilt rose, hot fire in my throat. ”Yes, but Karemi —”

”Oh hush, Kaiya,” Frexin cut in, eyebrows raised in warning. ”We know it wasn”t a glorious success like we tell the public. But you found and captured that damned relic, did you not? And you survived the ordeal? As far as I”m concerned, that”s all that matters.” She smiled tightly. ”You are the right person for this mission.”

My throat ached with the need to object, but the words didn”t come.

I wanted the assignment. And if Dimiri knew the full story, it was unlikely he”d give it to me.

Plus, Frexin was obviously invested in me doing this mission, and she was not someone I wanted to cross. My friendly mentor was single-minded with her goals — a trait I respected her for. But it also meant she wouldn”t hesitate to remove any obstacles in her path.

The last thing I wanted was to become one of those obstacles.

Dimiri looked from me to her, then back again, before clearing his throat. ”Yes, well — the last team made a bit of progress before their communications stopped. It seems the relic is somewhere in the Heartless Basin.” He gestured towards a map on the desk by Frexin. ”It”s a dangerous swampland inhabited by creatures that have torn far too many of our agents to shreds. To complicate things further, the Guardian protects the beasts, so we”re unable to attack.”

”The Guardian?” I asked, looking up at him.

He nodded, and my jaw dropped.

Every child in the Empire knew the stories of the Forsaken Isle — home to the twisted, insane mages.

And every child knew the Empire was protected from those mages by a force called the Guardian — a mythical creature that roamed the waters around the Isle, preventing any Forsaken mages from coming over to the mainland.

But just as the claim that all mages were ”forsaken” was a lie, I”d assumed the Guardian was, as well. Just another convenient story the Empire told to justify collars on mages and keep the people complacent.

”So, does that mean —”

”Yes,” Lady Frexin said, finishing my thought before I could. ”The Guardian is very real. But the stories are not. This entity doesn”t protect us. It protects the inhabitants of the Isle from attacks from outsiders, even going so far as to prohibit entry to the Isle by those who lack magical affinity.”

I shot a glance at Frexin, realizing the implications of what she”d said.

Hells! My stomach lurched. I was a mage in an empire that called magic forsaken and put all its users in collars and chains.

She knew what I was. But did the kings know, as well?