Chapter 25 #2
“Hello?” I finally asked. My mouth was dry, and I tried to smack my lips to moisten it.
“Van!” Audrey’s body was draped over me, making me gasp from the sudden weight, “You did it. You’re safe. It’s done. Ilia thinks you’re dead.”
“Cool, cool,” I croaked. “Get off me.”
“Oh!” Audrey immediately removed herself, and I was finally able to open my eyes. Everyone was standing around me, curiously studying me. I felt like a science experiment.
“You will be back to normal within a few hours,” Caelena explained, staring at the nearby monitors.
She walked over and tapped a sticker on my hand.
“Keep this one for the rest of the day, and these.” She tapped another sticker on my chest, and another on the back of my head, at the base of my hairline. “These are your vitals. They’re good.”
“Thanks,” I yawned. “I feel exhausted.”
“Your body went through a lot.” Caelena squeezed my arm. “But it worked. Ilia didn’t spend more than thirty seconds glancing over you before telling us to dispose of you. When we snuck you back here, Audrey healed you. It took her about half a day or so, but she did it. You’ll be okay.”
I gagged because the thought of my unconscious body being anywhere near that man made me want to throw up. I only took comfort in the knowledge that Caelena was there, too. Protecting me during my vulnerable state.
“Awesome.” I rubbed my neck, careful of my vitals sticker. “Did you do anything fun with me while I was out? Puppeteer me around? Pose me like Weekend at Bernie’s?”
Caelena and Sergei gave me horrified expressions before Sergei bit out, “Absolutely not. I don’t know what the last thing is, but we did not play with your unconscious body, Vanessa.”
“Sorry, sorry.” I waved him off. “I was just making a stupid joke. Bad timing. My bad. I’m glad it went well.”
Everyone was quiet, letting me adjust, but I took the silence as an opportunity to stretch my muscles out.
I wasn’t in my own clothes. Caelena must have gotten me similar clothes to mine that were made in Hyvenmere.
The fabric was higher quality and breathable. Linen pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt.
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“Two days,” Caelena responded.
That made a spike of adrenaline course down my spine as I asked, “Any update on if Fergus’s men can get the sirens out?”
Fergus stepped forward. “My mother is suspicious of what I’m up to,” he explained.
“Which caused a little delay; however, she is choosing not to interfere.” The nereid royals knew how to ride a fence like nobody’s business, it seemed.
At least Fergus seemed to be willing to stand up for what was right, which meant he would be a great ruler when his time came.
“My unit and I have helped Fergus’s men route the tunnel system we’ll use to lead everyone to the ships,” Sergei said. “The females have been slowly packing and preparing their children for about half a day’s worth of travel through the tunnels, should the time come.”
“Thank you, Van.” Caelena squeezed my arm, sincerity in her tone. “Your sacrifice gave everyone time. It won’t go unnoticed.”
“Yeah,” Audrey gnawed on her lip. “Everyone was able to see Caelena present your body to Ilia from the security footage Sergei was able to steal. You probably don’t want to see what you looked like for a while, but all the adults in here saw Ilia deem you dead.”
“You’re right.” I nodded at Audrey and swiped my hands across my chest. “I don’t want to see what I looked like, yet. As of right now, what happened to me during the last two days is none of my business.”
Eventually, everyone gave me time to fully come to.
I ate a lot of food, because I hadn’t eaten anything in two whole days.
We game-planned what to do next. For now, everyone was still stuck here.
Another patrol was sent to the mountains after Caelena returned my body and Audrey started healing me.
The patrol didn’t linger, though. They simply spread out, found nothing, and returned home.
This gave Caelena and Sergei hope that Ilia and Amber were becoming less confident that there was anything to find in the mountains.
But half a day later, while we were double-checking my vitals in Caelena’s office again, Sergei strode in with a laptop in his hands and a sharp frown on his face.
“We have a problem,” Sergei muttered. His grimace was dramatic on his face as he pulled open a laptop and showed us all the screen.
I gasped at the same time Audrey tensed, and Liam groaned out a “Shit.”
On the screen was a video of Drustan.
Shackled, chained to a wall that reminded me a lot of a dungeon. It wasn’t dark. The dungeon-looking space was made from a light stone, making the image’s clear details easy to point out.
“What the hell?” Audrey whispered.
Drustan was thrashing against his restraints, yelling and growling as he pulled and pulled. His muscles flexed, his teeth clenched in frustration, but eventually, his body would go slack as he fell to his knees. He’d take a moment to rest before battling the restraints again.
“What the fuck is happening?” I asked. “Why is no one helping him?” I ignored how frantic my anger felt in the moment.
But my chest twisted painfully watching the video.
It was wrong. I kept clenching and unclenching my fists, unable to process the immediate rage I felt watching Drustan, chained and helpless.
Help him, help him, help him.
Caelena was scraping a hand down her face as she watched her cousin struggle. “Ilia shackled him in the dungeon.”
“Gods.” Liam shook his head, rubbing his jaw in thought.
Sergei cleared his throat and said, “This footage was recorded twenty-four hours after we presented Vanessa’s body to Ilia. When we were back here, healing her.”
On the footage, Ilia entered the cell, flanked by three of his guards. Drustan started thrashing more, and even though there was no sound, it was obvious he was shouting and cursing at his father.
Ilia stayed eerily calm, lifting a hand toward his son as his lips moved.
Drustan stilled, frozen.
“No.” Caelena gasped.
Ilia spoke something else to his son, and without hesitation, Drustan dropped to his knees with his hands behind his back.
“He did it…” Audrey breathed, horror lacing her tone. “How did Ilia figure out how to—” She cut herself off by slapping a hand over her mouth in fear.
“We have to help him,” I insisted with a frantic voice. “We need to get Drustan out of there.”
“We will,” Caelena promised. “But we need to be smart about it.”
On the screen, Ilia stepped forward and produced a knife for Drustan to take, who did so stiffly. Like an emotionless robot. With another simple command from Ilia’s lips, Drustan held the knife to his chest.
“No!” I gasped, stepping forward, shoving Audrey out of my way. “No, no, no.” I clutched my hair in my hands, pulling at the roots, "He can’t—he can’t—” But right when Drustan pressed the blade to his chest, drawing blood, Ilia commanded him to stop with a shake of his head.
Drustan obeyed, dropping the knife, and gasping as if he had been holding his breath.
Relief filled my lungs; tears pricked my eyes as I watched Ilia laugh and leave his son chained in a cell.
“Audrey,” I spoke with a familiar numbness coating my voice.
“Yes?” She asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“If you don’t kill Ilia…” I turned, giving her a good look at my face so she could see exactly how serious I was. “Then I will.”
Something shuttered over her eyes as she pressed her lips together. She blinked at me, squeezed my shoulder, and released her hold. Only then, when there was distance between us, did she dip her chin once in acknowledgement.
“This is bad,” Liam murmured, pulling Audrey back toward him.
“Your observation skills continue to impress, Li.” Fergus chuckled to himself.
“I’m afraid there is more,” Sergei spoke low, turning his laptop around to tap some more. “This was just aired moments ago, before I re-entered the tunnels.”
Ilia was standing at a podium. Reporters and cameras circled him as three microphones hovered over his face.
He wore his crown and his medals, standing tall.
His lips were tipped up in the smallest, most condescending smirk I had ever seen him wear.
To his right stood Amber, wearing her guard attire with the mask and hood down.
“For too long our land has been divided,” Ilia spoke, looking like every slimy politician I had ever had to watch give a press release in the human realm.
“The ongoing debate on whether the Mellhawn Gates must stay open or closed has caused contention in our beloved continent. Tynara, surely, must be disappointed in the divisive behavior of my fellow Hyvenmerians.”
Burning rage made my hands ball into fists.
He was masterfully weaponizing a belief system to confirm his own problematic interpretations of events.
“The halflings who have invaded our borders and taken up valuable space from honorable Hyvenmerians must accept the responsibility their reckless and selfish decisions have caused.” Ilia stared down his audience, and the determination in his gaze made me want to claw the smug look off of his face with my own bare hands.
“After discussing the issue at length with the Dahl and Ahlstrom royals, we have concluded that it will be best for all of Hyvenmere, if the Mellhawn Gates are destroyed, once and for all.”
Cold seeped into my gut. A burst of noise from the reporters holding cameras and recording devices closer to Ilia made him pause his speech for a moment to nod condescendingly at his audience.