Chapter 23 #2
Malakai’s nostrils flared, and despite the cheerful lilt of his voice, a gravely undercurrent underlined it. “General, what can I do for you?”
“I’m happy I ran into you.” Eli gave a tight, almost smug smile, like he’d cornered a doe in the woods. But he was staring down at another predator. One bigger and stronger. “It’s like you’ve been avoiding me.”
“It’s my daughter’s coronation, General,” Malakai bit out. “Avoiding you would be the least of my concerns.”
“I need a word.” The emptiness behind Eli’s stare glimmered. Malakai seemed to trace it as Eli added, “It’s imperative.”
Adrien and Sebastian exchanged glances at the blatant disrespect—approaching the Imperial Beta without notice and demanding a conference.
“Very well.”
Adrien felt his features twist in surprise as the Beta rose with a light command for their accompanying guards to stay put before he left with Eli without protest.
What the hell was that about?
Adrien felt frustration roiling his blood. So many unsaid words. So many damn secrets. Not just around here—fucking everywhere. It wouldn’t be long until they built up to the point that one whisper may as well have been a scream that shattered the world.
As though in answer, the skies grumbled again, this roll of thunder punctuated by a tickle of the shadow along Adrien’s neck. It settled just above his pulse and beat against it… the way Raana’s heart had once drummed in rhythm with his when she was spread beneath him.
He grimaced at the spear of pain through his chest and resisted the urge to swat the shadow away.
Ta-dum… ta-dum… ta-dum.
“What do you think that was about?” Sebastian asked, leaning in.
“I don’t know.” Adrien’s gaze snagged on the Pack Hall’s pearly stained-glass window, a glittering gem amidst the swirling storm clouds—a watchful eye. An involuntary shiver trailed up his spine. “It could be anything.”
Sebastian had resumed picking at his teeth, letting out a low hum. “I overheard that Kai wants the warriors gone. They think they can handle the rogues on their own.” His voice wobbled slightly in question, given what Malakai had disclosed. “Maybe Eli wants to stay.”
“Why would he want that?”
“Who knows? He was also making a bid for my sister, and from all I’d seen and heard before, my father encouraged the pairing, even if nothing formal was done about it. Isla would’ve gone on a rampage.”
Adrien could only imagine. Not forcing Isla into anything was probably the best thing Kai could’ve done to win her.
Adrien glanced down at the food he’d ignored, skewering a cold, charred bell pepper with his fork. “Well, she’s clearly off the market now, but if Eli still wants to join the Imperial family…”
Sebastian laughed. “Not my type.”
Adrien smirked, lifting the roasted vegetable lazily in front of him, avoiding his friend’s eyes. “You know, you’ve been oddly quiet about Ameera.”
He met them now, watching Sebastian’s eyes flash and a grin he’d seen countless times since they’d come of age slide across his face. “Who?”
Adrien snorted. “You son of a bitch.” He brought the pepper back down to his plate. “You got her to sleep with you. How?” It seemed like there had never been a woman Sebastian had wanted that he hadn’t managed to tangle in his web.
“We didn’t sleep together,” Sebastian said, but that glint in his eye…
“She told you whatever it was would never happen again if you told anyone,” Adrien concluded.
“I will not confirm nor deny that statement.” He gave the area around them a once-over and then suddenly shoved to his feet. “Want to take a walk?”
Adrien found no reason to say no.
Sebastian clapped a hand down on the shoulder of each of the Imperial guards who had been with them.
They were relatively young, newer recruits that Adrien was surprised Malakai had approved to come along.
He felt like an asshole for not remembering or bothering to ask for their names.
“You two can take a load off. Eat, drink, and enjoy the holiday.”
One of them sat up taller. “But the Imperial Heir—”
“Made it across half the continent without drawing any attention,” Adrien cut him off. “We can manage without an escort.”
With his hands in his pockets, Adrien tipped his head back to the chilly night air, the scent of spices digging into his nose.
He was careful to avoid the laughing children whizzing through the streets, a few being chastised by their parents as they got too close to the river’s edge.
Some of them wore masks they’d decorated or beaded necklaces and bracelets they’d made—the former a tradition of the Equinox, and the latter honoring their new queen.
Others had their eyes aglow, claws exposed as they engaged in a game of tag.
It was reckless, dangerous even. They’d probably only just gotten a hold of their wolves.
Fifteen years ago, Sebastian, Isla, and he were probably doing the same thing.
A glance to his side, where his best friend stood, made the next breath that fell from Adrien’s mouth easier than it had been in far too long.
Goddess, he’d missed his friends. As selfish as it was, he hoped Sebastian would come home.
“So,” he began, his eyes tracing the luminescent crystal path before them, “is Ameera why you want to stay so badly? Because whatever you just fed your father about being here for Isla, I get it, but… Isla is the luna. She has guards, she has Kai, and she’s Isla.
I don’t think she’ll need your protection. ”
Sebastian opened his mouth. Closed it. He went quiet for several paces toward wherever they were moving before finally muttering, “I’m going to sound fucking crazy.”
“More than usual?” Adrien joked, but Sebastian yielded no other emotion. So, this was serious, then. “What happened?”
A wave of emotions cascaded over Sebastian’s face as he cracked his knuckles, stretched his neck, and observed the leafy-garland-covered storefronts as if they held answers. “I think…” He cleared his throat and swallowed. “I think my mother’s alive.”
Adrien stumbled, stopped, and then forced himself to keep walking.
His eyes tore over his friend’s face to find any type of mirth. But what kind of twisted joke would that be? That stone seriousness, now layered with doubt, still sat on Sebastian’s features.
Adrien hadn’t a clue what to say. “That’s…”
“Goddess-damn mad, I know.” Sebastian blew out a hard breath, that cocky, aloof persona vanishing entirely, replaced by something raw.
“I’ve… been down this path before, years ago, and I eventually agreed with everyone that I was probably in some heavy denial that she was just fucking gone.
” A crack slipped into his voice. “And I know it's almost been a decade, which is why I haven’t mentioned it to Isla or my father. But.” He paused and met Adrien’s eyes.
“Do you remember when I took off running in Abalys? When you and Isla chased after me?”
At Adrien’s nod, Sebastian continued, “I scented something near us. Something familiar to me. I couldn’t figure out why or where I remembered it from.
I just followed it, but then it clicked later that night while I was lying in bed.
It was the same scent that lingered in my room after she tucked me into bed as a kid.
When she read me stories and swore she’d protect me from monsters.
” His lip curled, and Adrien could almost hear his friend’s heart fissuring.
“It was my mother, Adrien. Goddess, Fate, Eternity, the whole divine unit as my witness. It was her.” He shook his head, his jaw tensing. “They never did find her body.”
A glimmer of hope in the macabre fact.
Adrien blinked, letting his friend’s words turn in his head, tossing them until they made sense.
Apolla being alive would be a miracle. It was… impossible. He remembered well Sebastian’s spiral when they’d been fourteen, wanting to voyage the southern territories where she’d last been seen. They’d almost done it, almost escaped.
“But your parents’ bond—”
“Fated bonds can fracture; we know that now,” he said. “My parents chose each other. If she ended up hurt enough to the point where she can’t reach her wolf anymore, then my father could’ve felt it like a broken bond.”
His tone was a cacophony of despair and hope.
Adrien answered tightly, carefully. “That would mean she’s been in the southern territories all this time. You think she would abandon your father? Abandon you and Isla?”
“No.”
The ferocity behind the answer nearly faltered Adrien’s steps. He shouldn’t have even suggested it. Apolla loved her family, loved her children more than anything, it seemed. She hadn’t even wanted to go on that mission his father had sent her on.
Cassius again.
Guilt gnawed at Adrien’s gut.
“I just…” Sebastian clenched and unclenched his fists. “I don’t know what to do, but I can’t ignore this. I need to be sure, so I’m going to find her.”
“How?” It was a genuine, earnest question.
Adrien would try to help in any way he could, and Sebastian seemed to sense that with the slightest lift of the corner of his lips.
“To start, I’ve been in Abalys nearly every night for the past couple of weeks.
Which is where I crossed paths with a certain warrior general, turned spymaster and potential beta. ”
Adrien’s brows lifted. Ameera as Kai’s new beta? Interesting, considering what he’d heard about her father.
“What do you get when two people trying to escape their baggage run into each other at a bar?” Sebastian mused vaguely.
Adrien breathed a laugh. “An attempt at distraction.”
He knew the punchline all too well. Only for him, it hadn’t been a bar but an inn with only one bed. Then, a Pack Hall…
His stomach pitted, and he couldn’t pinpoint one of his emotions. It was just too much. Too much pain, betrayal, then a small relief she’d escaped his father. But worst of all… longing.
Adrien cleared his throat, wanting to change the subject. “You’re sure you don’t want to tell Isla what you’re thinking?”
“She’ll think I’m nuts,” Sebastian said. “And it took her so long to adjust to the loss. No point in reopening a wound until I’m certain.”
Ta-dum… ta-dum… ta-dum.
Like an echo in his ears, Adrien picked up a heartbeat that drummed over his, felt it in the shadow pulsing against his neck. It writhed against him. Tried to… push him. Turn him.
Ta-dum… ta-dum…ta-dum.
Adrien stopped short, whirling around, his instinct rising to the surface as he felt a pull at something inside him. His eyes furiously scanned the crowd, sorting through the ocean of pack members. Searching, searching…
Ta-dum… ta-dum—
“Everything okay?”
Adrien jumped at Sebastian’s voice, and his shoulders relaxed slightly. He let out a hard breath, turning back and shaking his head as he rubbed that cool patch on his neck. “Yeah, I just thought I heard something.”