Chapter 42
I’m led into a familiar room. My father’s meeting room. Beside him sits Meela’s father and Lyriel.
As the guards escort me in, my father smiles up at me from his seat.
The sick bastard.
He dismisses the two males beside him, and as her father passes me, I can’t help myself.
“They killed her,” I spit at him, as if he himself did it.
He stops, his expression revealing nothing. “It sounds like she was a traitor to her people.”
I spit in his face. “Fuck you.”
“Everyone out,” my father interrupts in a commanding voice.
Meela’s father exits, unflinching.
I won’t look at him.
“It seems you went on quite the adventure.”
I say nothing.
“Your time of being able to roam free and do whatever you want has come to an end, I’m afraid.”
I still refuse to look his way. “Why are you doing this? Because I fell in love? So what.”
“Hardly,” he says. “You take my indifference for ignorance, laziness. You think I don’t know what goes on in my own kingdom? My own castle?”
I look at him finally. Slowly.
“I know all about your little quest you’ve been on.”
I scrunch my eyebrows at him, revealing nothing.
“Why didn’t I stop you? So you can collect the items for me, of course. Why do you think I freed those prisoners for you so easily? I knew what they were up to. I thought they could help.” He smiles an evil, unbearable smile. “It seems I was right.”
I tilt my head in confusion.
“Oh, I don’t want to use them to break the curse, no.” An amused smile touches his lips. “I want to destroy the items for good. They’re too much of a liability, clearly, if a pampered princess and a few morons can track them down.”
Ice fills my veins.
No.
It’s just too fitting that the elf king would sit back and let someone else collect all the relics for him. I could almost laugh.
I can only hope that he doesn’t know exactly what’s tied to the inside of my shirt. The chain with Maethrel’s blood.
Maybe he doesn’t know as much as he implies.
“People are dying. All over the continent. It needs to end. Who cares about your precious power.”
He looks unfazed. The arrogant, despicable piece of shit.
“I care, actually. A great deal. We have a legacy to uphold here, power to maintain. Do you know how many regions would rise up and seek revenge on our people? We cannot have that.”
“The dragons are going to die. Just like the wolves and the humans.”
His smile makes my stomach churn. “I know,” he says.
“You’re sick,” I seethe.
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill your dragon friend just yet. Though I’d like to. He’s going to rot in a special dungeon until he talks. Starting with where that sword is.”
A momentary brush of relief takes over. Rhydra got away with the sword. And hopefully Raef too.
Not Meela, though.
“And me?”
“Will you tell me where it is?”
“No.”
“I thought so. You’re my daughter. I know better than anyone that the secrets you keep will never leave your lips unless you see fit.
I won’t waste my time with useless interrogations.
I have something else planned for you instead.
I can’t have you loose around here stirring up trouble.
But I also can’t lock my beloved daughter up in a dungeon. ”
I look at him, waiting for him to continue. Giving him no reaction. I’m too numb to care.
“You’re going to the island,” he says at last.