20. Chapter Twenty
20
CHAPTER TWENTY
BASTIAN
M y chest heaved with laboured breaths as a steady trickle of blood ran down to the pads of my fingertips, dripping onto the thick rug under my feet. I couldn’t discern the disruption of the patterns, everything in my field of vision was currently tinted in various shades of red. Shards of glass littered the floor; ruby now instead of their earlier crystal.
Gritting my teeth on the growls that I held in my chest, my hands clenched and unclenched. I wouldn’t be surprised if the sharp remnants were still lodged in my skin. The cuts now coating my palm in blood as I blinked hard in an attempt to return colour to the world.
It didn’t work.
As the drops peppered the rug that been here since before my fathers, fathers, father had occupied this palace, I could hear Cyra’s voice in my head. Calm, Little Prince. Focus your mind. I zeroed in on the fire poppies in the tapestry in front of me, counting each flaming bloom.
One, two, three.
Why wouldn’t she just give me some fucking answers?
Four, five, six.
Maybe a turn in the dungeons would get her talking?
When I’d counted to fifty seven and s till felt the need to melt that white-haired creature into a puddle at my feet, I knew it wasn’t working.
I’d given her a bed. Food. Even stopped The Darkness from taking her, and she couldn’t give me a straight fucking answer. She knew something, why else would the magik Nova had given to us lead us right to her?
How was she supposed to help us? How did she have magik? Why had The Darkness chose her to attack? I’d never heard of it doing that before. Just who the fuck was she? Did we do something wrong with the stone Nova had given us? Was there something in the house that we had missed?
All questions I couldn’t answer.
I would crack her pretty little head open and dig the answers out with my bare hands if that’s what it took. Would have done it just then had Kaius not got in the way. A fresh wave of fury at the outcome of that encounter had my hands trembling as I focussed on not setting fire to the centuries old décor.
Things with The Darkness were escalating, attacks were becoming more frequent. Fae were going missing all over the fucking place, not to mention the whispers of fathers disappearance that were getting hard to keep under wraps.
If I’d had another glass in my vicinity I would of thrown that too. Though considering I’d also just destroyed a three-hundred year old bottle of Tyrsi whiskey, I needed to step away from the glassware.
Anger was kindling to the flames that resided in my veins.
And it would seem our new visitor knew just how to stoke them.
I hated it. This slumbering beast that reared its head just to remind me how weak I was. Being out of control of my emotions was something I’d had trained out of me a long time ago, and I couldn’t afford to slip now. Not with father gone, and the kingdom now in my fucking hands.
The story that their King was away on an indefinite pilgrimage was starting to wear thin. There was only so long we could keep it up before the rest of the kingdom saw right through our bullshit. They couldn’t know he’d been taken.
My heart felt like it was ripping in half every time I thought about it. No one knew what happened once The Darkness took you, but the magik threaded through our family’s hold on the Royal Line, told me he was still alive. I didn’t know what was worse.
The official declaration was that, as heir, I was to act in my father’s stead whist he completed his holy journey through the kingdom. Sooner or later people would realise he hadn’t been seen at a single sacred sight and the questions would begin. Were already beginning in some places. It was why I’d stayed here to see out my indeterminate sentence as ruler. Less eyes.
There was no denying being out here in the country palace was better than being in Palace Incendo in the centre of Firenze. The Great Temple of Suri was so close I couldn’t move without bumping into a priestess, with their blackened skin and ritual chanting. The only one here was Cyra, which was fine by me, though I knew she would be pissed at my latest outburst. She’d probably run right off to the palace, to mother, and spill all.
It was good for the people to have their queen close by, it helped maintain the cover of father and uncle Viggo’s disappearance — and kept her out my way.
Though mother probably knew everything already, seeing as Cyra was the only one I trusted to tend to this… prisoner ?
I don’t fucking know what to call her.
I’d needed someone to ensure she stayed alive, and I wasn’t going to be taking her food.
And I certainly wasn’t going to entertain her ridiculous show of pretence. It wasn’t in me to back down, especially from a magik stealing human who had no fucking business being in this palace. I didn’t know what would have happened had Kaius not got between us, but I did know I hadn’t possessed the strength to stop it myself.
And that was something I couldn’t let happen again.
The world remained crimson as I moved on from the poppies, letting myself take in the tapestries that weaved their stories around the walls. I had loved this room as a child, spent countless hours with Tana coming up with our own versions of the histories they depicted. The stab of pain I felt when I thought about my sister doused a flame of my anger, replacing it with the heartbreak her memory evoked.
Tana’s face was everywhere. Her features painted into the portraits of our Fyr ancestors, or just in the multitude of paintings there were of her. Blonde curls and colouring so like my own that as babies our images are practically indistinguishable. It was why mother spent most of her time at the temple. She couldn’t face seeing her lost little girl down every corridor.
Couldn’t face seeing me.
Sometimes I couldn’t face seeing me either.
A part of me had broken when Tana had disappeared — the lost little princess.
She may have been older than me, only by a year , but it was still my job to protect her. And I hadn’t.
Losing her had been a catalyst to losing control of the incinerat flame that lived within me; that had controlled me for too long.
I couldn’t afford to think about her now. I had shit to do.
Turning my hand over I urged magik into the cuts, wincing at the tiny wisps of fire that forced out the shards lodged in my skin until they fell to the floor with the rest. They weren’t completely closed, but it would do for now. Wiping the leftover blood on my dark trousers, I hoped like fuck I wouldn’t end up sitting next to Lyssa but knew it was likely.
Kaius had fucked off somewhere, taking pity on her instead of being here where he was supposed to be. Highly inconvenient, considering he was the one with the report these fuckers were so eager for. Which meant I had to face them, alone. Ignoring the broken glass littering the floor, I crossed to the door behind my father’s chair, putting on the polished mask of a prince in full control as I did.
This antechamber was intimate, the prevalence of the dark wooden furniture and lack of windows didn’t help with visibility. Especially while everything I laid my eyes on was still muted in a film of scarlet. Why they hadn’t turned up the lights I didn’t know, but it was the first thing I did as I stepped through.
There were six chairs tucked around a table covered in a frilly cover my mother must have put there the last time she was here; a vase of dried flowers stood in its centre. Four were occupied.
As expected, Lyssa sat with the only two remaining chairs either side of her. The subtle glistening yellow of the citrine sitting between her huge tits, told me my vision would soon be back to what it should be.
My magik was still surging with rage as I took a seat around the table, roiling inside me in an uncomfortable reminder of a childhood with no restraint. A time I didn’t appreciated the reminder of.
I was over being in these small rooms, filled with annoying people, all with their own unnecessary opinions. Top of that list was, Amos. How father could stand being in his company for all these years was beyond me.
I was grateful they hadn’t yet insisted I use the grand room to conduct these meetings, but my patience with their incessant, repetitive questions was running thin.
No, I hadn’t found a way to track The Darkness’ movements.
No, I wasn’t going to join my mother for the Beltane festival.
No, I didn’t want to look at candidates for potential alliances between the Line of Fyr and the other great families.
I was so fucking glad I had kept our visit to Nova and her instructions quiet, which meant they didn’t really know what I needed from our white-haired annoyance. Praise be to Suri on that one.
“Well?” Amos asked the moment I’d sat. There was a sound barrier charm on the doors so they had no idea what had happened once I’d sent them away.
Thank fuck.
I hesitated a moment, coming down from my anger hadn’t given me time to sort through what had just happened. Let alone a way to spin it to these people.
“Nothing yet,” I replied, “but we’ll get the answers soon enough. One way or another.”
As his eyes narrowed a fraction, I could tell he wasn’t happy but considering — should father remain lost — he would be answering to me, he stayed quiet. A wise decision.
My eyes locked with my cousins opposite me, ones so like my own, and I gave a small shake of my head in indication I was no further in the search for our fathers than the last time I’d seen him. Heul was a lieutenant under General Fieval, sent here to convey their findings and take back Kaius’ to his unit. Next to him was Hortense, pushing his glasses back up his nose with his laptop ready to analyse any new information.
“General Fieval now has the full report for what happened in Delevore. There are four missing cases. Everyone else has been accounted for, alive or otherwise,” Heul announced, not wanting to be here any more than I did.
“How big was the village?” I asked.
Hortense’s fingers tapped at the keys, pulling up the numbers. “Four thousand, three hundred and forty-nine inhabitants. Well forty-five now.”
“Four’s not bad,” Amos replied, and I wanted to burn his fat face off.
Lyssa murmured her agreement beside me, and I suppressed a shudder. It was about the numbers for them. Not the real Fae they represented.
Four.
Four lost souls. Four more meals for The Darkness to do whatever the fuck it did with them.
“Four is enough.” My voice was rough with the anger that was still playing with me, the heat under my skin only slightly less uncomfortable than it had been when I’d been ready to torch the place.
“The disturbance was concentrated over the south-eastern section. From our findings there is nothing there of any interest. To anyone . Our preliminary finds, and witness accounts, indicate that this was The Darkness. We are just waiting on whatever digging Arasauk managed to do, whether they found some clues, a connection to other attack sites that we’ve missed,” Heul reported.
Delevore was small. A place of little consequence to the kingdom so what could possibly have been there to attract The Darkness’ attention?
“Do we know of anything that connects them?”
“Nothing yet,’ he said, scrubbing a hand over the blond beard that covered his chin.
“The Colonel will be here shortly to give his account.” I couldn’t tell him what the Arasauk had found, I hadn’t seen Kaius since he left the last meeting we attended, and we’d hardly had time to chit-chat in the moments I had seen him. I’d been too busy preparing to conflagrate my little white-haired problem.
I knew every detail would be given to Hortense to analyse and soon a thick folder of information would be stacked on top of the others. Crucial for analytics, but of no real help.
Turning to Lyssa, I asked, “The black salt, has it been ordered?”
“Yes, my Prince,” she answered in that strange hissing voice of hers. I wasn’t sure if she thought it was sexy — but for me, it set my teeth on edge. “I went with Vasper to ensure Agron created little fuss.”
Just as well, Vasper was a drip and Agron was a belligerent old goblin. But with Lyssa there he would more than likely do as he’s told.
“I need it delivered by tonight.” I doubted it would strike in the same place twice, but I needed to be seen as doing something. Anything.
Her sharp teeth were on full display as she smiled at me. “Of course my Prince.”
My knee almost began bouncing as I sat waiting for the door to open and Kaius to step through with the information we were waiting for. I shut that shit down immediately.
I couldn’t show any weakness. Not to mention it would give Lyssa an excuse to run her claws over me and that I couldn’t deal with right now. I could still feel her phantom touch and was glad we weren’t alone — and both her hands were above the table.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been there. Only distantly listening to the discussion of tariffs and importation bullshit Agron had tried to insist upon — an exhaustion from my earlier outburst taking too much from me — when the door finally opened and Kaius walked back in. His face gave nothing away, that ease with which he walked through life was there for them all to see.
He was just as good as me at wearing a mask.