Chapter 14
Amos watched Amelia disappear up the stairs of the boarding house she and Clover had moved into when they turned eighteen. Clover lingered at the bottom of the stairs, then looked straight at Roland and smirked, wiggling her fingers in a smartass wave.
Little minx.
“Follow her.”
Roland trotted to his bed beneath the sofa. “No. If she doesn’t want you to see her, I’m not helping you.”
“Whose side are you on?” Amos grumbled. “And take off that stupid sweater.”
Amelia had started putting knitted sweaters on Roland, convinced he was too cold, saying they were from her friend Nick. From what Callum told Amos, Rennick had been writing her anonymous letters and sending gifts.
Amos wanted to punch the Mountain Prince.
“I like them,” Roland replied, a smugness seeping down their bond. “It’s cold here.”
“Your magic keeps you warm,” Amos deadpanned. “You won’t die.” Roland ignored him and closed his eyes. “Fine.” Amos exhaled sharply. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Amos.”
Amos cut the connection and blinked back into his surroundings. Familiar faces stared back at him from around the table in one of the many caves carved into the Dragon Village mountains.
They used it as a meeting point between those in the den and those living on the surface. They met more often now that Amos was set to take the throne in a little under five years.
It required meticulous strategy to kill as many highborns as necessary without gaining the king’s attention. The women were their greatest asset. None of these men believed women could be trained assassins. A fatal mistake.
Amos knocked on the table. “Is everyone ready to begin?”
“I’m here,” Isabella, the first woman Amos had sacrificed, blurted as she hurried into the room. She slid into a chair beside Rainer and batted her lashes at him. He winked back, and Amos fought a surge of jealousy.
Two years ago, Rainer had felt his mate bond break. Amos had offered to ask Charlotte to check the kingdoms’ registries for his mate, but Rainer didn’t want to subject her to his life of secrecy.
They assumed—hoped—his mate had married another. Marriage to another or death were the only two ways to break a bond. When Rainer turned twenty-five last month, the gods whispered Isabella’s name to him. It didn’t take long to realize it was their Isabella.
The two married not long after, and Amos wanted to shove them both off the mountain every time they made eyes at each other.
“I asked you all here because the next target will take a lot of planning,” Amos began, “but I needed to speak with Marcus and Ruth first.”
Sariah, a woman in her early thirties with dark, golden-brown skin, dark brown shoulder-length natural curls, and sharp black eyes, leaned forward in her chair. “Why? We make decisions together.”
“Because it’s Merrick Hammond,” Ruth cut in. Silence fell hard. Everyone knew the story of Clover’s mother and what this kill meant to the Ambroses.
Sariah’s eyes widened, then hardened with resolve. “I’ll help however I can.”
Sariah had been sacrificed when she was nineteen years old, and she quickly rose in the ranks of the Hydra. There wasn’t a skill she couldn’t master.
Amos tipped his head. “Good. I need a woman to incapacitate him and carry him out of the palace.”
She smiled viciously. “Gladly.”
“This kill belongs to Marcus. Anyone who goes only kills Merrick if their life is in danger,” Amos told the table.
“Rainer, we’ll need your glamour. Will you come?
” The biggest rule in the Hydra was that everyone had a choice.
Yes, Amos, Rainer, Ruth, and Sariah gave commands, but anyone could refuse or walk away. They never did.
Rainer looked to Marcus, who’d not said a word since Amos told him about Merrick. “You know I will.”
Marcus cleared his throat. “I have an idea, but there are kinks to work out.”
The team spent the next few hours going over plans until everyone felt comfortable it would work. As they were leaving, Amos halted and turned back. “Sariah, do you have the list of supplies for the den? I can pick everything up on my way to the post.”
Sariah dug a folded piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it over. “Thank you.”
“Oh!” Isabella rushed over. “Can you stop by the seamstress and pick up my new gaffs and padded breast bands? They should be ready.”
Amos glared at her. “I’m not picking up your undergarments.”
“My gaffs are stretched out, and I really need my new ones. You know I can’t go into the village or someone might recognize me. Please Amos.” She clasped her hands in front of her chest. While most of the village was Hydra or allies, there were still travelers who passed through.
He looked to Rainer for help, but the traitor held up his hands. “Better you than me.”
Amos looked at Isabella, his mouth curling into a wicked grin. “Fine. But I need a favor from your mate.”
“He’ll do it,” Isabella volunteered. “Won’t you, honey?”
Rainer glared at Amos. “What do you need?”
Amos clucked his tongue. “We need to speak in private. Will you do it or will you be joining me to pick up her things?”
Isabella poked Rainer’s side. “Say yes. I need your help at home.” Once they’d married, Isabella had moved out of the den and into Rainer’s house on the Ambroses' land. Happy fucking couple.
Rainer sighed. “Alright.”
“Walk with me so we can talk,” Amos said. “Isabella, he’ll meet you at home.”
Rainer pointed at her. “If anyone you don’t know shows up, do the trick I taught you.”
Isabella shot him a thumbs up. “I will.”
Once out of earshot, Amos turned to Rainer. “When we’re back from the capital, I need you to bring Clover to me.”
Rainer folded his arms across his chest. “Why can’t she come on her own?”
Amos took off his hat to run a hand through his hair. “Because she won’t come willingly.”
Rainer dropped his arms. “You want me to fucking kidnap her?”
“You’re acting like I asked you to hurt her. Yes. I need you to kidnap her.” Amos puffed out his cheeks with a harsh exhale. “She still won’t speak to me and I’m going fucking crazy.”
“You realize she might try to kill you for this,” Rainer cautioned. “Hell, she’ll probably try to kill me too.”
“If Isabella didn’t speak to you for years and you couldn’t go to her, I’d kidnap her for you,” Amos said. “Family is supposed to help each other out.”
“First,” Rainer said, holding up a finger. “I would never piss Isabella off enough to ignore me for almost four years.”
Amos tutted. “Never say never.”
“Second,” Rainer went on, ignoring him, “How exactly do you expect me to get Clover back here? She can kick both of our asses.”
Amos grinned. “I picked up a tonic at the illegal market last week in the capital.”
Rainer’s mouth dropped open. “You want me to drug her? Why are you smiling?”
“You’re not drugging her,” Amos corrected him. “You’re holding a cloth over her nose so she goes to sleep.”
“That’s the same thing.”
Amos tilted his head side to side. “I don’t think it is. Besides, I tested it out on myself to make sure it was safe.”
“They could have given you poison, you idiot,” his cousin said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Where would we be if you were dead?”
“You’d take the throne. Besides, I tried it out on a man who deserved to die first.”
Rainer muttered something under his breath. “Fine,” he relented, “but only because I don’t go back on my word, and I’d like to see the broken nose she gives you when she wakes up.”
Amos clapped him on the shoulder. “I knew you’d come around.”
Amos hung the last flower from the string in his room and stepped back to inspect the dissected bouquet.
“Why are you drying flowers?” Jennifer asked as she waltzed in and plopped into one of the two chairs in the corner of his bedroom. “Do you have a girlfriend who likes dead things?” Yes, I do.
“That’s none of your business,” he retorted.
He and Jennifer had formed a friendship, but he still didn’t trust her enough to tell her about Clover or the Hydra.
He might have told her his true mate had died and he was too scared to tell his father.
The story was weak at best, but she never questioned it.
“I bet you do,” she teased. “That’s where you disappear to all the time, isn’t it?”
“Also none of your business.”
Taking off his hat, he walked into his closet and hung it on one of the hooks. Next, he removed his vest, daggers, and belts.
“I don’t care that you’re sleeping with someone, but you can’t bring your mistress into our house. I don’t want to be humiliated in front of the staff.”
Amos poked his head out of the closet. “I’m not fucking anyone, Jenn, and I wouldn’t disrespect you by parading around mistresses if I was.”
“And I wouldn’t disrespect you with parading around a string of men either,” she promised.
He ventured back into the bedroom and sat in the other chair adjacent to hers. “If you have a boyfriend, we can hire him on so it’s easier for you to see him.”
Jennifer laid her head back with a dramatic sigh. “No man is stupid enough to touch the prince’s mate.” She lifted her head to look at him. “When will this charade be over anyway? You never answer when I ask.”
Amos sat back. “When I take the throne and my father is no longer a threat to either of us.”
“Your father expects us to marry when we turn twenty-two,” she reminded him. “I don’t want to marry you.”
He scrubbed a hand down his face, suddenly exhausted from the day. “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Oh, I wrote the letters you asked for.” She disappeared into his sitting room and reappeared with a stack of papers. “Are you ever going to tell me why you ask me to write these things?”
He’d discovered Jennifer’s ability to forge things one day when she bragged about being able to replicate her father’s handwriting.
There had been a few times over the years she’d written goodbye letters from men Amos needed to die.
Having letters claiming the men had run off with a mistress or were traveling to a different kingdom helped explain away their disappearances.
All she needed was something handwritten of theirs and their signature, and it was easy enough for Amos or Rainer to sneak into people’s homes to steal correspondences. Their royal glamour often came in handy.
Amos planned to broach the subject with the other leaders of the Hydra. Jennifer had helped him without question, and she hated the highborns as much as anyone else.
It would be easier to tell her than to have her glaring at him with her hands propped on her hips like she was now.
“Soon,” he promised, hoping it wasn’t a lie.
Merrick lay on the ground in the very spot where Amos’ father used to beat him until he could barely stand. Merrick’s hands and feet were hog-tied together, and the gag in his mouth bit into the corners of his lips.
Amos, Rainer, Sariah, Ruth, and Marcus waited for the man to come to.
“Can I kick him again?” Sariah asked. “It might work this time.”
“How much of the tonic did you put on the cloth?” Ruth asked her, leaning over Merrick’s body.
“I just dumped the bottle upside down on the cloth, then turned it right side up really fast.” Sariah shrugged. “He’s big, and I thought it would take more.”
Merrick’s head rolled slightly with a pained groan. Amos crouched down near the man’s head and slapped his cheek a few times. “Rise and shine, you piece of shit.”
The man’s eyes fluttered open, and the group gave him a minute to come to. They all wanted him fully awake for what they had planned.
Once the fuzz of the tonic wore off, Merrick’s eyes widened and he jerked away from Amos, thrashing around like a fish out of water.
“Untie him and secure his arms and legs,” Amos instructed. “I want him to fight you so he can feel what it’s like to lose.” He grinned.
Sure enough, the large man tried to get free once the ropes were off, but they’d prepared for this.
Amos picked up a large bag with their swords and handed them out. “Who wants to go first?”
“I will,” Marcus said, and Amos stood by the leg Marcus held and grabbed Merrick’s ankle to hold the limb in place. Raising his sword, Marcus slammed it through Merrick’s thigh and into the ground to pin him down.
Merrick screamed and jerked, begging them to let him go. Amos went to each limb, holding it so they could stake him to the ground.
Ruth lifted her booted foot and slammed it into Marcus’ chest. “You took my mother,” she snarled, “and you almost broke my sister.”
The man’s eyes widened, and he shook his head, trying to speak around the gag. At the mention of Clover, Amos’ hand twitched, wishing he could rip Merrick’s throat out for the pain he’d caused her.
Ruth took out her dagger and stabbed it through Merrick’s dick. When he screamed, Sariah kicked him in the jaw. “Shut the fuck up.”
Marcus leaned over Merrick’s face. “You took my wife from me. You raped and killed her while my little girl watched.” Merrick cried, his snot mixed with the dirt from Sariah’s boot.
Marcus felt the ribs over Merrick’s heart and positioned his dagger. “Tell Orcus hello for me.” With that, he shoved the blade through the ribs, and they all watched the life drain from Merrick’s eyes.
Rainer, Sariah, and Amos stepped away to give the Ambroses privacy. A few minutes later, Ruth appeared at their side. “I think we need to cut him up and carry him in a bag to the den’s entrance. He’s too big to carry whole.”
There was a den entrance hidden away at the base of the mountains just outside of the capital. Some people knew of it, but anyone stupid enough to venture there never returned.
Amos nodded his agreement. “There’s something I need from him first.”