Chapter 12
Gedeon stood in his office, staring at the head of his elite guard unit. Titus was a Visitant with the ability to sway people’s emotions. It was useful amongst lesser mystics, putting them at ease around him and having them spill any secrets they may know.
“He’s gone, Your Grace,” Titus informed him.
One of his elite guards didn’t turn in his report last night, and according to the gate log, he never left The Capital.
“And we are sure he is not with some maid somewhere, drunk and fucking?” Gedeon asked, clasping his hands behind his back.
“Not to our knowledge,” Titus answered.
If something was amiss, he knew Caius was responsible. His brother’s release should have been a few days ago, yet Gedeon heard nothing of him. He had prepared for his brother’s possible retaliation. Planned on it, even.
His brother’s wrath was unmatched. It was ironic, really, how Caius was deemed the gentle child despite having the worst temper of the four Royal heirs.
But Gedeon was prepared. He had loyal guards placed within The Capital, as well as spies throughout the city.
One thing that both surprised and pleased Gedeon was that Adila seemed to want nothing to do with their brother. Caius was close with their sisters growing up, and as always, Gedeon was forgotten.
Forgotten by the Seraphim when his rightful position went to Caius, forgotten by his siblings, and forgotten by the world. He was merely the Royal everyone passed over.
The room brightened as Gedeon’s irritation grew. “Scour The Capital. If he is not found by the end of the day, report back. Tell the others to be diligent. Something is amiss.”
When Titus left, Gedeon filled his office with white-hot light. It would blind another mystic, but not him. Not the Lux King.
His power had grown stronger, and he’d spent years honing his skill to lethal perfection. He’d only just gained his light power after killing Atarah, and there was no way he could have killed Caius, but for five-hundred years, he worked to build his strength and control.
Gedeon felt ready to take on his brother when the time came, but with Caius hiding in Vincula, he wasn’t sure when that time would be. What was his brother planning?
Walking to a cabinet against the far wall of his office, he pulled a key from his pocket to unlock it and reached inside the cabinet to pull out a jar that glowed bright pink.
Caressing the glass, he murmured, “Hello, darling.”
The day he met his Aeternum was burned into his mind, and the feel of her blood coating his hand squeezed his chest. He hadn’t wanted to do it; she’d been so young.
A teenage girl with dark hair and bright grey eyes stared at him across the busy cafe. Her eyes were wide and curious, and Gedeon felt compelled to ask her why but refrained.
He ignored her and pulled out his cell phone to text one of his regular fucks. It was the reason he ventured into Erdikoa today. There wasn’t enough selection in The Capital.
“Excuse me,” a melodic voice said beside him, making him turn to see the pretty teenager he’d caught staring at him.
Something pulled him toward her, and he moved away. She was a child, and while he obviously didn’t feel sexual desire for her, he felt something odd.
“I—you…,” she started, fumbling over her words.
He quirked a brow. “Yes?”
Gedeon bit back a smile when she stood tall and lifted her chin. “You are in color, and I want to know why.”
Their surroundings ceased to exist when her words sunk in, and he was unsure if he was breathing as he stared at her. Asking her was pointless because he knew what it meant.
She huffed when he said nothing. “I have grey-scale sight. I see everything in—”
“I know what grey-scale sight is, darling. Most unfortunate for you, but I’m afraid I must be going.”
“No,” she rushed, grabbing his arm. He was glad he wore long sleeves that day because if she touched his skin, he was fucked. “I see you in color.” She waved her hands, motioning to his face. “Your eyes are gold. I don’t know how I even know what gold looks like, but I do.”
Fuck. This wouldn’t do. He didn’t kill his sister and frame his brother just to lose his position.
After hundreds of years, he thought the Seraphim deemed him unfit for an Aeternum.
Most Royals met their mates within the first one hundred years or so of their reign.
It’d been almost five-hundred years for Gedeon, and much to his dismay, here his mate stood with wide eyes and a curious expression.
No. He wouldn’t give up everything he’d worked for. “I don’t have time to sit and chat. Let’s meet for lunch later this week and try to figure it out. Say, Friday?”
She swallowed. “You’re old. I’m not going anywhere alone with you.”
The smile he fought to conceal broke free. “And you’re young. Too young for me, but I’d like to find out why you claim to have grey-scale sight yet see me in color.”
She bristled. “I’m not lying.”
“So you say,” he replied wryly. “While I have no interest in you outside of finding out your little game, I’d rather you not speak of this to anyone until we find out what’s going on, assuming you are telling the truth.
I’d hate for us to become an experiment.
” Noticing her backpack, he asked, “Do you have a pen and paper?” Without answering, she pulled a notebook and pencil from her bag.
“Write down your address, and I will pick you up.”
She chewed on her lip, considering his offer. If she was as smart as he expected, she’d say no.
“No,” she said finally, making his smile widen. “I’ll meet you here after school.”
“Very well, darling. What was your name?”
She stuck out her hand, but he ignored it, causing her to drop her arm with a frown. “Cora Raven. And you are?”
“Cora Raven,” he murmured, testing out her name. “You can call me Bane.”
After she left the cafe, he went back to the palace and investigated her. She was fifteen. Her parents were divorced, and she lived with her mother and twin sister, Aurora.
He cursed when he saw her mother was a Sibyl. Sibyls were written off as insane, but what they spouted was true. Thankfully, no one listened.
He pulled himself from the memory. The day he killed her was one of the hardest days of his life. Killing the other half of oneself wasn’t easy, but it had to be done. Something within him burned at the memory.
When he'd held the dagger to her chest, he'd had a vision of himself through Cora’s eyes and felt her fear. It had been a miracle he’d pierced her heart on the first try because the vision had rendered him blind, and when she died, it'd been excruciating.
Even though he'd wanted to fall to his knees from the pain, he couldn't. The Merrow he'd paid off had to drag him away.
The recent news about Cora’s sister took him by surprise. He hadn’t thought about her family since killing her. When Adila sentenced Aurora to Vincula, he wondered if her power wasn’t as all-knowing as everyone thought because Aurora was a fucking serial killer for aether’s sake.
It’s not the first time he questioned the validity of Adila’s abilities.
When he killed Atarah, he was young and impulsive.
She’d told him the day before that he could no longer live in The Capital.
She thought he needed to live amongst the regular mystics to lead a normal life.
Gedeon wasn’t immortal, or at least he didn’t possess the healing power of his siblings.
He was young at the time, only twenty-nine years old, and Atarah’s decree was just one more way his family alienated him. He decided they wouldn’t push him out, and that night, he planned her assassination.
He hadn’t planned on framing Caius outright; he only dressed as his brother in the rare event someone saw him but planned it to where the chances of anyone seeing him were almost non-existent.
Adila finding their brother guilty shouldn’t have happened, but when it did, he was giddy; his brother deserved death for what he’d taken from Gedeon. The Umbra throne belonged to him, not Caius.
But the biggest question, the one he was sure Caius wondered as well, was why did she find him guilty? Gedeon had a theory, but he couldn’t prove it. Adila could see the souls of all mystics except Royals. It made him think none of her abilities worked on Royals.
When one of the staff caught Caius standing over Atarah’s body, covered in blood and holding a dagger, Gedeon didn’t think there would be a trial. He’s a king, after all.
But there was, and by some miracle, their sister found Caius guilty.
Did she instead use the evidence presented when deciding Caius’ fate but didn’t have the heart to damn him to hell? And if her power didn’t work on him, how did she lock him away? The questions ate at Gedeon, but there was nothing he could do about it.
He shook himself from his spiraling thoughts and stared at Cora’s soul.
If only there had been a way to have her without eventually relinquishing his throne.
The only way would've been to convince her not to have children, but he couldn't risk it.
He'd known once their bond solidified, he would have denied her nothing.
Old storybooks mentioned reincarnation, but no one knew if the tales were true or not. He couldn’t risk it, and so here she rested in a jar, tempting him every day to set her free.
The door to his office opened, and he turned around, shoving Cora’s jar back into the cabinet when a maid entered with her cleaning cart.
She shrieked and placed a hand over her heaving chest. “I apologize for not knocking, Your Grace. I’m used to coming at night when no one is here.”
Anastasia worked nights, and judging by the bags under her eyes, she’d not gone home from her shift yet. “You did not get to my office last night,” he remarked, and she ducked her head, staring at her feet.
“No, Your Grace. My other duties took me longer than expected.”
He approached her and reached his hand out, wrapping it around her neck to yank the meek woman forward. Her eyes widened with fear as he squeezed.
She was a mousy little thing and not someone who would typically catch his eye, but he always loved women who frightened easily.
His warm breath fanned her face when he leaned in and said, “From now on, even if you come to my office in the dead of night, you will knock first, or I will cut off your hand.”
Why did his guards let her in without announcing her first?
A whimper escaped her quivering lips, inciting him to lick his own with a malicious smirk. He pushed her back and stuck his hands in his pockets, watching her with satisfaction as she trembled.
“Y-yes, Your Grace.”
“Go home.” He flicked his wrist in her direction and crossed the room. “Get some sleep and return early for your shift to finish your duties. I will have a staff member call your phone number on file to remind you to return early.”
“Thank you, Your Grace,” she said and grabbed her cart to hurry from the room.
The fear on her face was delicious, and he considered taking her upstairs. How loud would she scream when cold steel punctured her delicate skin? How many slices would it take before she passed out from the pain?
He finished locking Cora’s cabinet and cursed himself for allowing the thought of his mate to turn him soft, if only for a few minutes. The urge to release her soul was strong, but the need to keep her close was stronger.
He learned long ago that fear was more potent than love, and so fear is what he bestowed upon those around him.
There was a knock on the office door, and Titus entered, announcing Fiona, an Alchemist from the underground market in his employ.
“Bring her in,” he said as he sat behind his desk.
“Has something happened?” he asked when she walked in. Whatever information his spies brought to him was more imperative than ever now that Caius was free to move between realms.
Fiona hesitated. “I’m unsure, Your Grace. You told me to report anything unusual I heard regarding your siblings, and this seemed unusual.”
Gedeon motioned for her to sit. Was Caius in Erdikoa?
“I am not sure if this directly includes your siblings, but one of them must be responsible for it, and I thought you ought to know.” She was a wise woman fueled by moedas, and if she thought it would earn her more, it must be important. “Aurora Raven has been released from Vincula early.”
Gedeon stopped moving. How was this possible? “You’re sure it was her?”
Fiona eyed him warily. “Yes. I sold her intoxicant for a few years, though I didn’t know she was The Butcher at the time. She was waiting outside of the underground market, and when she spotted me, she said hello.”
Gedeon sat, stunned. Why would his sister release an inmate early, especially one as notorious as Aurora Raven? It didn’t make sense, nor had there been any news of it.
“Thank you, Fiona. You will be rewarded.” He unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and counted out a handsome amount of gold moedas. Handing them to the Alchemist, he said, “Keep your ears open, and let me know if you see her again.”
Her eyes widened at the amount he handed her. “Yes, Your Grace. Thank you.”
After she left, Gedeon picked up his office phone and called Titus.
“I need a detail on everyone Aurora Raven was affiliated with before her arrest. She was released from Vincula, and I need to know everything about her and her associates. Be discreet. If any of your men breathe a word about this, I will kill you all.”
Titus agreed and hung up. The light from the windows became blinding with his growing anticipation.
Aurora Raven was important to one of his siblings.
But which one?