Chapter 31
I confirmed with the service woman on the ship that Pandora stayed in that room during her travels. While Alad speaks to her in more depth, and Astin moves down the hallway and scans the other rooms, I enter alone—the way I enjoy a hunt.
I’m confused about why I’m here instead of searching for Pandora Hart in the Kingdom of Storm.
Since the maids cleaned the room after everyone left, I shouldn’t expect to find anything in the room she stayed in.
I should head to the Sweethearts Orphanage instead of fucking frolicking around, desperate to know if my prey thinks as I do and finds this as entertaining as I do.
While inside the room, I first notice the mirror covered by a fitted sheet.
Strange. Interesting.
I open the kitchen drawers and eye the cutlery in its marked places.
My eyes narrow when I notice a knife missing after I've counted them all. It is not a sharp, could slice someone open type of knife. Pandora took a fucking butter knife. For what? Does she require it for something? Or perhaps it’s not that, and the maids misplaced a utensil?
I tap my fingers on the stainless steel benchtop and eye the wooden furnishings until my focus settles on the bathroom door.
My grimace deepens, and I enter the room while glancing at the light bulb above.
When nothing looks suspicious—a trait from Nancy—I open the cabinets, but there’s nothing inside that raises my suspicion.
I leave without a care. Closing the door behind me, something clatters from inside the bathroom.
A smile reaches my face, and I enter the bathroom again.
My focus settles on the sink and the fucking butter knife.
She left the window open a crack, which means she wedged the knife in there for a purpose.
If an air elemny like Astin or Alad had tried to enter through the window, she would have been prepared for it.
I’m enjoying this hunt even more.
* * *
Not long after leaving the docks, we arrive at the Sweethearts Orphanage. The lady squirms despite maintaining eye contact; her focus darts towards the door on my right whenever I pretend to look around. It leads to the back of the orphanage.
When I pay attention to the air elemny again, her hands press against her side, twitching as if itching to find a weapon. I move around the side, near the knives slotted into the wood, and arch my brow, almost daring her to try anything on me.
“I caught wind that you brought another worker to help with the children. You wouldn’t know where she lives, would you?”
“No,” the lady says in an oblivious tone. “But I am sure that, with your expertise, you will locate her with ease.”
My dislike of dealing with air elemny knows no bounds.
They think they are top shit. They believe they can do anything without consequences, which disappoints me.
Air elemny are as weak as any other, and their intelligence holds no merit when dealing with me.
My lips cannot help but instinctively curl at the thought of male and female air elemny wanting something from me and knowing they can gain it if they comply.
I lean against the counter, fold my arms, and say, “What do you want from me?”
“I will give you everything you want about this worker if you leave immediately afterwards and don’t dig further into the dealings of Sweethearts Orphanage,” she declares.
I twitch a smirk. “Okay. You have my—”
“I want a contract,” the lady says. “You know which one.”
“I’m not in the mood.”
“They tell me you never are, but you still do your obligations if it means gathering information.”
I lift from the counter and move around the kitchen.
The lady steps away from me and moves around the table until she realises where I am headed.
Her eyes widen slightly, and she takes a step forward before catching herself.
She doesn’t want me to leave the kitchen, and now I know why.
This woman doesn’t want me near the back of the house.
Pandora’s still here.
“Do you mind if I look around…?”
“Maya. And no,” she says through a locked jaw. “But would you consider my offer?”
“Half,” I say without thinking. “I won’t delve deeper into your smuggler’s lifestyle until after my hunt.”
“And my life?”
“Won’t be on the line until then.”
“Give me a contract, then.”
I step outside the kitchen and look at the back door. Alad’s heading towards the door and opens the fly screen when I say, “Write up a contract for Maya. She wants protection until my hunt is over.”
“Of course, Prince Reen,” Alad says as he bows.
As Alad writes up a contract, I glance down a small hallway and notice two doors.
When I open the side door, it leads to the basement.
Soft light glows from the bottom of the stairs.
I eye the lady and her tight-lipped stare before moving down the stairs.
She follows, worried about what I might find.
My focus snaps to the open window and the drizzle of rain dripping down the ledge before soaking into everything else. Pandora’s not here, but it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t entertain myself before heading to the ships and figuring out which one she slipped into.
It looks like a smuggler’s den, in a way. There’s a kitchenette, and one of the two doors opens to a storage area with a TV on a compact unit and a few folded-up camping beds and sheets across the shelves at the top.
After I close the door, I step inside a small bathroom.
I drag the curtain across and feel the wetness from someone who recently showered before I turn my attention to the small bin beside the toilet.
I pick up a crinkled feminine hygiene wrapper, but there’s no sign of any used products.
She likely threw them in the waste bin instead of letting them linger here.
“Those are mine,” Maya declares.
I arch my brow and say, “You come into the basement to fix yourself up?”
“A woman needs privacy in a house full of children.”
I drop the package and stand in front of Maya. She arches her chin and hitches her breath when I cup between her legs and feel nothing I could distinguish as a product used to prevent bleeding, at least not a pad.
I remove my hand, step away, and glare at the open window. “Maya, I’m not interested in that type of contract, and I will not spare your life as you want. I am not that generous.”
“It’s true what they say, then…” Maya steps away from me and sighs. “You don’t feel pleasure.”
I smirk. “Not in the way men usually desire. My pleasure comes from the thought of my hand sinking into another elemny’s flesh and watching them bleed out.”
“Very well,” Maya says. “I will tell you everything you want to know about Myra.”
“Myra…?”
A throbbing pain sharpens across my brain, and I wince, shying away from the memory of her pale hands pressing against my wound.
Her pink eyes glisten with concentration and a hint of worry as she overlooks the deep wound seeping with crimson.
She pushes snow against it to thicken the blood and prevent me from bleeding out and dying, leaning against the Sanctum of Glace, where Walkyer dances with Fross Hart’s eldest daughter.
I look away from Maya and glower at Pandora’s escape route before returning to Maya’s watchful gaze. “Where did she go?”
“I sent her to the Fountain of Silver. I told her there’s a passport waiting for her there, but I lied.”
“Why?”
“I sent out a hit on her. If she’s fled there by the time you reach her, she will already be dead, Prince Reen.”
I fold my arms and say, “Let me understand your motive, Maya. You told her where to get a passport. But let’s be honest for a moment, shall we? You could have created a passport for her here and sent her on her way to…where?”
“I told her that someone in the Kingdom of Cloud would take her wherever she wanted after August twenty-sixth.”
“But that wasn’t true.”
“No.”
“But she could find someone in the Kingdom of Cloud who works for Nancy?”
“Yes, but I didn’t contact them,” she says.
“You set up a hit instead because you want her removed, but not by your hands. You didn’t have the guts to remove this woman, so you contacted someone else?”
“I don’t want my hands dirty,” Maya says with a swift nod. “I was hoping you would come in a few days, and she would have been gone long enough to have no affiliation with her, but I underestimated your obsession when you’re hunting, Prince Reen.”
“You betrayed her trust,” I muse. “Fed her to the wolves when all this girl wanted was someone to help her.”
“We all do things to protect ourselves, don’t we?”
I shake my head. “No. Not everyone.”
I shove my fist into her chest and cup her frantically beating heart. Maya’s eyes widen, and spittle filled with crimson drips from the corner of her mouth.
“You know, I’ve never sold anyone out to save my skin because I can stand up for myself without betraying others.
For family, yes…I’d even throw my life down to protect them.
But what you’re saying, I cannot fathom.
And I hate fake elemny the most, and you come across as one, Maya.
” My hand tightens against her heart. “She entrusted you. She believed you would help her escape, yet you put her life in even more danger to save yourself when you have done nothing to warrant such protection.”
“You’re k-killing me,” Maya chokes.
“I am,” I agree. “You’re not fit to work with children. I believe we need an overhaul, don’t you think?”
I squeeze her heart. Maya’s eyes roll to the back of her head, and her body becomes limp.
I pull my hand out, blood dripping across the floor.
Maya hits the floor, and I step over her body and move up the stairs when Alad declares he has the contract ready.
Then he takes in the blood soaking across my hand and sighs. “What did she say?”
“She put out a hit on my hunt,” I say. “I want you to find every hitman in the Fountain of Silver and pay them triple what Maya offered for hunting down Pandora.”
Alad smiles. “Of course.”
“Don’t get too excited. I want her dead, but by my hands alone. That’s all.”
“It is still a step.”
I grunt my response, turn away from him, and head out the door. “Also, hire a new team to care for the children here.”
“I’ve already hired them.”
I eye him and turn away. “You knew I would kill her, didn’t you?”
Alad beams, “I am always prepared for the worst.”
We leave the orphanage.
Astin stands before the car, arms folded across his chest, looking at it with pure frustration. When I round the other side of the vehicle, I notice the flat tyre. Not only that, but Astin hands me his wallet as he tells me that the culprit took his money.
I twitch a smile, and a bubble of laughter builds until I breathe out a laugh.
This girl…this unawakened brat has an attitude. She could have fled. Sure, she could slash the tyres to delay us, but then she should open the fucking door and steal the money. Pandora’s making a statement and hunting her fills me with utter excitement at the thought of my hands around her throat.
I was right to set my sights on her. She makes it hard not to when she’s pulling stunts like this.
Pandora Hart. You’re genuinely my greatest hunt.