Chapter 41 #2
Rolling my eyes away from Senri, I stare at Kate.
She looks irritable, with a curled lip, a frustrated scowl, and a twitching shoulder as she glares at the table.
Her hands, chained to the table, grip together until her fingertips redden.
Agitation works through her. I thought she would have more fear, but no inkling of it crosses her face.
“She looks like a fucking addict,” Pandora says, voicing my thoughts.
I turn to Senri and ask, “Has she always been like this?”
“No. Not until I told her you were coming to question her.”
I fold my arms across my chest and grimace. “What do you want me to ask, Pandora?”
“Why was she looking into the…” She eyes Senri, but he stares vacantly at Kate. “Ask her about the firearms she was investigating, as well as whether she knew about, um…my sister’s infidelities.”
Interesting. Everyone knows about Typha fucking Emmerton and sending it around, not only to gloat in the academy but also to Walkyer himself. Yet, if Kate knew earlier than we did, was she the one who told King Ragan? Did she push him to send us to slaughter them so suddenly?
Fascinating.
I enter the room. Kate rises, her movements robotic, as she raises her head to look at me.
Our relationship has been on the fence since I got to know her, but what solidified it was when she wanted to enter into a sexual contract with me, and I declined.
Thus, she went to King Ragan and tried to butter him up.
I’m unsure if it worked because I’ve never seen them cosy together—only the sex workers. But now I’m not so sure about that.
“Kate,” I say after leaning against the mirror that Senri and Pandora watch from. “What brings you to the Kingdom of Cloud? It’s been some time since we last saw you after you fled the castle following the reckoning of the Kingdom of Crystal.”
“I have business here.”
I glare at her. “Is it the same business you had in Oceanview Harbour?”
Her eyes widen. A slight movement that a good deal wouldn’t have picked up on.
Then Kate furrows her brows and looks at me with utter oblivion to cover her accidental leak of emotions.
It’s stupid, and her reaction bothers me.
She still tries to act dumb after we both know I can fucking see through her shit.
“Why did you go to her apartment?” I tilt my head to the side and narrow my eyes. “Do you also remember anything about wanting to know about firearms? Or maybe explicit videos of Pandora’s sister and…”
Kate turns her attention to the double-sided mirror. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
I grit my teeth. “You’re talking to me, and I fucking want to know why you’re so interested in her now. The way your eyes lit up suggests you know her.”
“I don’t know her, but I want her.”
“The fuck?” I hear Pandora from the other side, causing me to huff a breathy laugh.
“Why?” I say.
Kate’s eyes gleam in the fluorescent light as she says, “Do you know about the crystal hearts?”
“No. But enlighten me.”
She sighs. “I suppose my plans are falling apart already, and I doubt you will let me out anytime soon.”
“You can rot in here for all I care, Kate.”
Kate laughs. “I thought you would say that.”
Taking a deep breath, she begins, “Ice elemny hearts crystallise when you rip them out of their bodies, and they beat to the rhythm of the emotions they had when they died. Panic, fear, sadness, worry, hate…even nothing. They’re beautiful, the way they pulse in the palm of my hand.”
“And of Pandora? You wanted her crystallised heart?”
“Not just her heart.” Her silver eyes shine. “I wanted her wrath, but the only way to get it was to draw out her memories, then let her meet and kill someone who caused her endless suffering before I kill Pandora herself. It wasn’t part of my friend’s plan, but I never enjoyed working in a team.”
“Who’s your friend?” I say.
Kate arches her brow. “It doesn’t matter anymore. She’s never going to wake up. Forget it. This secret, I will keep.”
I never understood Kate at the best of times, but now I’m far from understanding a fucking word she says. She talks about crystallised hearts as if she has a damn collection somewhere. And now she wants my hunt’s heart? This menace of a woman I have imagined having my hands around her throat. Her?
“Can I see her?” Kate says.
“She’s mine,” I seethe.
Kate beams a cruel grin. “Look at you, Reen. Even without knowing, you’re following the path laid out since the beginning.”
Air elemny give me a fucking headache.
“I’m assuming she has her memories back,” Kate sighs. “That’s unfortunate. I suppose my plan wouldn’t have worked this time.”
“What plan?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. Every fuck I gave King Ragan holds no merit now.”
My eyes widen, and I cock my head to the side. “You fucked King Ragan?” I push off the mirror and take a step toward her. “For how long?”
She smirks. “Since you rejected my offer. He was so willing to get inside me after the Queen hid herself in her tower after birthing Emmerton.” Kate laughs. “And she must have felt everything.”
My brow twitches. Nothing anyone says can stop me from wrapping my arms around Kate’s head and jerking it to the side until I hear the satisfying crunch.
Her head hangs to the side, a crumbling mess of shattered bones.
Her wide eyes stare vacantly, but even in death, she holds her cruel smile of satisfaction.
Pandora thrusts the door open and says, “Why did you kill her? I had more questions!”
“She fucked King Ragan, so my mother felt everything he did to her.” I roll my shoulder and tweak my neck. “Besides, she was obsessed with my obsession.”
Pandora eyes Kate. “You’re right. Even without the answers, I can put the pieces together about what she said. And now that I know, I am disappointed.”
“How so?” I say.
“She banked on unlocking my memories because she wanted my heart. However, I unlocked them independently and gained my revenge, so her plan wouldn’t have worked. And I thought your obsession with wanting to kill me was crazy. She was on another level.”
“No one can kill you but me, Pandora.”
She barks a laugh. “And they say romance is dead.”