Chapter 25 #2
None of Arnel’s texts and homemade books were hidden. Everything was in drawers and chests. It was as though Arnel was so convinced of himself and his ability to outsmart everyone that he was fully confident nobody would ever search his estate.
Consequently, we collected all of my uncle’s texts on potions he’d created with the God of Night’s help, as well as his experimental documentation that had eventually resulted in the potion creating vampires, instead of vamfeers.
And he had a list of his God of Night followers.
It was thousands of fae long. So many that my mouth dropped at the sheer numbers.
Kole thumbed through the pieces of parchment that listed each fairy. “Something tells me these fae will either be the ones that have gone missing and were ultimately killed by warriors in the Wood and at the palace. Or, they were willing to be turned and are waiting for Arnel to call upon them.”
“And those that haven’t been killed today by us could also still be hidden on this property.”
But while we knew we also needed to scour the Wood and surrounding outdoors, we focused on the documentation first.
From one of Arnel’s homemade texts, I was incredibly relieved to discover that I was Arnel’s first vampire. He had names of other powerful fae who he planned to turn in the coming summers, but I was his only true vampire thus far.
“Prim, look at this.” Sometime during the wee hours of the morning, Kole showed me another book he found. It outlined Arnel’s master plan. It literally spanned centuries, and when I came to the last page, of what he’d ultimately planned on doing, nausea made my stomach roll.
Not only had he intended to take my father’s throne, but following that, he planned to take the entire continent, and after that, the realm.
If he’d been allowed to continue and been left unchecked, within five hundred centuries, the fae lands—all of the continents, islands, and seas—would have bowed to Emperor Manafold.
“He even had a name picked out for himself.” I sneered, and disgust rolled through me. “And to think he thought this would eventually come to fruition.”
“If we hadn’t mated and the bond hadn’t protected me from you, it may have.” Kole took the looking glass and methodically scanned that book too.
We continued on into the night. It took hours of searching each room, but Kole and I used our inner magic to move at incredible speeds, allowing us to gather more information than most could.
I didn’t know if we had everything, but we’d uncovered enough incriminating evidence to prove to the courts how truly evil my uncle was. From here, the kingsfae could continue searching to see if anything else remained.
And after the books, lists, tomes, and scrolls were all carefully packed away, we discovered the remaining potions my uncle had. We found over a dozen vials, just like the one found in Verin’s room, in his potions room near the dungeon.
The sheer power emanating from the remaining vials nearly knocked me over, so much so that I held them at arm’s length.
“We need to give all of this to the Imperial Council so they can test it and verify that it’s the same, or similar, to the potion you and Jamie found in Verin’s room.
That’ll only further help prove our case. ”
Kole held the looking glass over the vials as I carefully stowed them in an unbreakable container.
Once finished, we ventured back upstairs and gazed out the windows. It was still dark, but dawn was less than an hour away.
“He possibly has more vamfeers somewhere on his property.”
Kole frowned. “That’s definitely possible, but if there are, how do we find them?”
I glanced toward the Wood, and Kole followed my line of sight. With my sensory magic activated, I could clearly see a group of cerlikans walking along the Wood’s floor.
A smile spread across my lips. “We’ll ask the wildlings. If anyone’s been able to see what’s gone on at my uncle’s estate, especially outdoors at nighttime, it’ll be the creatures that inhabit the Wood.”
Kole smirked. “Excellent idea, Princess.”
An hour later, just as the sun was rising and new magic spread across the land, we found the buried crypt hidden at the edge of my uncle’s property.
I still held the looking glass, and had not only recorded our walk to this part of Arnel’s estate, but I’d also recorded our conversations with the local wildlings who’d witnessed some of the darker elements at play upon this land over the previous months.
Stairs descended into the dark cavern below us, and sunlight poured down the deep shaft. Sword out and ready, Kole put his arm in front of me.
“I’ll go first.”
But I pushed past him. “No, you won’t. As a vampire, I’m already turned. The vamfeers couldn’t hurt me even if they slashed me with their black claws, but you’re another story. If one manages to cut you, you could be infected, and I’m not willing to take that chance. That’s an order, my love.”
Kole arched an eyebrow. “Yes, Your Highness.” He bowed, and I giggled at his cheeky response.
Sunlight spread even more down the stairs as the sun rose steadily higher in the sky. Between that and my magic, I was clearly able to see that the bottom of the stairwell veered right.
But I had no idea where it led.
I crept down it, Kole silently following, and when we reached the bottom, my eyes widened.
The path opened up to a huge underground crypt.
Hundreds of standing slots filled the expanse beneath the soil.
Almost all of them were empty, but near the end, dozens of vamfeers stood, their eyes closed, their arms crossed over their chests.
For all intents and purposes, they looked to be sleeping.
We walked toward them, our steps silent on the packed soil, but just as Kole raised his sword to decapitate the first sleeping vamfeer, all of their eyes collectively opened.
Hisses filled the crypt, and in a blink, the remaining thirty vamfeers had blurred to surround us.