Chapter Five
Dante
I didn’t need a shower, but it was the only thing I could think of to escape Vallynn’s vapid fiancé, Daena and her crony, Maera.
It was a small miracle they hadn’t brought the third musketeer along before I managed to escape Maera’s obsessive clutches.
I’d actually thought she was desperate enough to follow me to the fourth-floor coed bathrooms, but instead I found myself staring at a lean redhead.
The brief moment when our eyes met, electricity shot through me, and I knew I was looking at my mate.
She’d seemed embarrassed to be caught staring at me, but before I could reassure her that it was more than okay, Shadrie Nightshade stole her away.
The petite white-haired mage held a grudge.
Vallynn and I became real assholes to her when we became interested in impressing girls.
We’d both apologized, but Shadrie was having none of it.
I’d have to get creative if I wanted to get to know my mate as long as the little ice mage was around.
I took my time showering after my mate vanished through the door with Shadrie, working to direct my thoughts back to the most recent disappearances.
We’d missed them for so long, it was a wonder we’d caught on at all.
The memory of Vallynn’s ashen face and trembling hands as he told me what his father was doing fought its way to the surface of my mind.
He still hadn’t told me how he’d learned his mother was one of his father's victims, but even I'd been suspicious of her sudden retirement to the countryside. The Royals didn’t just retire. I’d grown up being groomed to protect Vallynn with my life; most of my kind served the royal family in the same manner.
I knew how things at court worked, and I knew the Queen.
She wouldn’t have left her son or her ladies behind.
I still woke up to Vallynn's haunted cries from the night he discovered what the King did to her. It was one of the few things I hadn’t been able to protect him from.
Vallynn was pacing the living area of our suite when I returned from the fourth-floor showers.
“The blonde banshee and her familiar gone?” I asked, causing him to stop pacing and look at me.
“There you are. Where in the seven hells did you disappear to?” Vallynn replied, ignoring my question.
“I went to shower. I had to do something to get away from Maera. Selir knows that harpy would have followed me if I tried to escape to my room or worse, the en suite.”
“Fine, whatever. You’re here now,” Vallynn said, resuming his agitated pacing.
“Vallynn, what’s wrong? Something has you out of sorts, and I know it’s not just Professor Walyon’s disappearance.”
He sighed heavily, raking a hand through his short hair before collapsing onto the sofa.
“You’re right. Daena informed me that the rituals to prepare for our marriage have been moved up.
” Vallynn grabbed a rolled-up piece of parchment from the coffee table and handed it to me.
“My father has sent word confirming what that soulless bitch said. My father has decided they will begin at the end of the academic year. I can’t bind my life force with hers.
I just can’t. But until we find a way to deal with my father, I don’t have a choice. ”
My brows raised in alarm. Vallynn was set to wed Daena after his schooling was complete on the king’s orders, with the extra demand that they complete the Fae soul bonding.
The rituals to prepare them both for binding their souls took time and focus when the couple weren’t fated mates.
The practice was something that fell out of favor because of the danger that came with exerting the amount of power, during each ritual, required to complete it.
Even with a Fae’s fated mate, it took a lot of power to seal the bond.
With a chosen, it took so much more. Vallynn would be nearly depleted and weak after each ritual required to forge the sacred connection.
That knowledge was enough for me not to envy the Fae’s way of solidifying their mating bonds.
I was grateful that, as a gargoyle, all it took was a claiming bite.
“We should bring my father in, if your father is moving up the timeline, he has to know he’s risking your safety. He wouldn’t do that unless he suspected you were already working against him.” I said as I moved to sit in the recliner opposite him.
“No! Absolutely not. It was clear from the way Daena was preening about it that my father is doing this to keep her father loyal. He doesn’t suspect me, not yet.
Even if he did, I am still his only heir.
He won’t risk my life, but any leniency I can have extended to you on that account won’t go further.
He will execute your father for treason—if he doesn’t drain his magic first.”
“Vallynn… You may not even be able to sway the king to spare me. That’s a risk I willingly took, but with more help, we’re more likely to succeed. My father could help us. It’s not like we haven’t recruited others already. How is putting me or them at risk any different than my father?”
“Because you were already at risk by virtue of your position, and they were all planning to act against my father already, Dante. Even if you had chosen not to help me—if I released you from your position—my father would have hunted you down to discover what you knew of my plans. The others who’ve joined would have failed and died for nothing.
They’ve thrown in with us so that their deaths can count for something. ”
“Vallynn… My father has experience with stuff like this. He would gladly risk his life if he knew what your father was doing.”
“I said no, Dante. Besides, I've heard from Linoran. He's keeping an eye on the dungeon for any new arrivals and may have found us a way around my father's warding to track him with the mirror.”
“That's a huge break. If we can spy on him with the mirror, we have a much better chance of identifying his targets and getting them underground before he takes them.” I replied, leaving further arguments for later. Vallynn had dug his heels in; there would be no swaying him to enlist my father’s help for the time being.
“I know.” Vallynn grinned. “He's also compiling a list of all the missing.
It should arrive next week. We'll need to go through it and see if we can find anyone we missed.
The ones we know are victims of my father have already started to show a pattern, but I feel like the whole picture is just out of reach.
Like, if we could discover some of his earlier targets that have gone unnoticed, we can figure out what connects them and why he's abducting people to steal their magic.”
“Do you realize how many supernaturals go missing at any given time? It's going to take us months to sort through a list of all of them, Vallynn. We're going to need help.”
“Selir sake, Dante. Why do you think I had Thrackborne placed as our new head of house?” Vallynn drawled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“It wasn't just for us to pass information faster.
Now we have a reason to visit his office whenever we need, and it won't seem strange for us to take papers along when we do.”
“Right.” I smiled, clapping my hands together as I stood from my seat. “And in between all the clandestine adventuring, we show out like we own the place. At least maintaining our cover comes with a side of fun. Starting with the annual start of term bash.”
Vallynn chuckled, the tension in his body easing slightly. “There is that.”