Chapter 34
Slate
Amethyst’s office had dropped several degrees since my last visit a month prior. I shivered, but maintained my poker face, relaxing my stance in the way too cushiony chair.
“Thank you for your honesty, Nephew. I know it must be difficult for you to turn on your cousin and partner as you did, but you made the right choice,” Aunt Amethyst said with faux sympathy weighing her sharp features.
I shrugged. “I can’t allow his poor decisions to mar mine and my sister’s reputation.
” The acidic words burned my tongue and throat, churning my stomach at their betrayal.
But something was going on with Chrome, something nefarious that they hid, and the best thing I could do was protect his efforts and keep the insurgency concealed.
After I confessed to my aunt in the interrogation room, which turned out to be a scare tactic to get the truth with the threat of the Inquisitor, Amethyst led me to her office to continue our private chat.
The timing was spot on because someone had popped their head in the door, informing us they were bringing in a prisoner to be interrogated by the king and Grim within the half hour.
“So,” I asked, perhaps a bit too confidently considering my position, “where has Chrome been in recent weeks?”
Amethyst straightened, flattening out her dress. “He’s being dealt with accordingly. His fate is yet to be determined. Hopefully, my boy will make the right choices to redeem his favor with the king.”
“Is he…okay?” I asked, hoping that any bit of maternal instinct that resided in that cold soul of hers would rise to the surface.
My aunt swallowed, working to maintain her composed mask. “He will be. My boy is strong.”
My stomach twisted, and the blood drained from my face. What in the gods’ hell had been happening to him? Would he ever truly recover from this?
I exhaled and nodded, wishing more than anything I could do something to help him. Gods, if only I had joined them in the prisons to find the Endarkened. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened…
“I have another question. It’s a question being posed to Chrome currently, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask you as well,” Amethyst said, all trace of discomfort wiped from her exterior.
“Of course, Aunt.” My throat tightened, not ready for the question to come.
“Do you know if there was a reason why Chrome would’ve been down in the prisons alone and unauthorized?” Her penetrating stare pinned me to my seat, daring me to lie.
I knew the question had been coming, and it was the one I wanted to avoid more than anything. “I—”
With no warning, the building shuttered beneath us. Small objects from her shelves and desk crashed to the floor, shattering. My fingernails dug into the armchair’s leather as I planted my boots to the cold floor.
Amethyst’s eyes widened, her arms outstretched on the sides of her desk to stop her chair from rolling. “Gods…” she exhaled. “What the fuck?”
The rumbling and jostling felt like a small earthquake, and an alarm blared throughout the King’s Palace, signaling an attack.
I jumped to my feet. Something wasn’t right.
This wasn’t an Elemental attack. That much was obvious, especially considering Chrome’s power and that he was down in the prisons.
My heart raced, pumping adrenaline through my bloodstream at a questionable pace. “I’m going to get my gear.”
Amethyst rose to her feet, staggering on wobbly legs, despite how graceful she tried to make the move appear. For the first time in my life, I witnessed fear bathing her sharp feline eyes. “Go.”
I dodged the fallen debris on the floor, crunching on the broken glass and other objects in my rush to the exit. When I pulled the door open, a guard stood on the other side, doing his best to appear stoic.
The guard looked past me and cast his unsettled gaze on my aunt. “There’s a breach, ma’am.”
I skirted around him, unbelieving of his claim. This had something to do with Chrome, and Amethyst knew it, too. Fuck, I hoped he was alright.
If only I could get down there and see for myself.
My phone buzzed in my pants pocket as I hurried through the hallway to the stairwell. The elevator was sure to be locked down, so I prayed the stairs weren’t clogged with panicked Kinetics.
Onyx "Shithead" Valor
Meet Royal in the lobby.
My steps faltered at the text. Royal? Why the hell would I do that?
Me
Why?
Onyx "Shithead" Valor
Just trust me for once.
I growled in frustration as I descended the steps to the lobby against my better judgment.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I shoved past random Kinetics who rushed to find their way to an emergency exit. Fucking cowards. Gods forbid if we were actually under attack from Elementals, this lot would be fucking useless despite their bravado. Isn’t this what everyone trained for?
I didn’t wear my gear, but for moments like these, I always kept blades strapped to my body. Although, if Chrome was the cause of the chaos, then I wouldn’t need them. Regardless, at least I wasn’t exposed.
I stretched my senses out, using my ability to give me a better idea of the situation that lay ahead.
The door slammed open with a shove as it bounced off the wall.
Focusing on the auras’ light waves, my vision became inundated with reddish-orange glowing forms. Some were dimmer than others, but most glowed bright with fear.
It was too much as they all began to bleed together. I couldn’t pick apart who was who, but I knew Chrome wasn’t present. Reining my magic back in, I returned my vision to normal to seek out Royal Okrafor.
Why I wasted my time with this, I wasn’t sure. Onyx might’ve known something more than he’d let on in the text.
After searching the sea of colors bouncing with vibrant hair, I finally spotted her rich cerulean bob. Right, she’d recently chopped off her long locks to her chin. Royal’s back faced me as she stood alone by the wall, staring out the revolving glass door, her posture rigid.
Kinetics bounced off me during their quests to find their loved ones in their panicked states. Fucking weak.
I tapped Royal’s shoulder from behind.
Wheeling around, her deep-set eyes rounded, her lips parting in surprise. “Slate. Oh, thank the gods.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking past her, constantly searching the lobby for a flash of chromatic hair.
“I don’t—don’t know! Supposedly, we’re under attack! Slate, do you think Onyx is okay?” Royal asked, tears brimming her bottom lids.
“Onyx is fine. Everything is okay,” I tried to assure her through my distracted tone.
“How do you know? Have you talked to him?” Royal looked distraught at the implication that he’d reach out to me and not her.
“No, just have a hunch.” I shrugged.
A little girl cried out for her mom, and a man squatted to pick her up, immediately carrying the child away.
I squinted, suspicious of the act, until I found the man passing off the little girl to a woman with similar features.
The thick black liner and mascara lining Royal’s eyes stood out as she glared at the busy Atlanta street.
I frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Shaking her head, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Nothing.”
Something niggled at the back of my mind, telling me not to let the subject drop. “Royal. It’s fine. You can talk to me.”
“I just…” she sighed, dropping her gaze. “I just don’t get it.”
“Get what?” I tilted my head as if I needed to hear her more clearly.
“I was promised…” she said, covering her face with her hands. “I was promised to be rewarded for my loyalty to the crown.”
An icy breeze swept over me, my arms growing heavy. “Royal, what are you talking about?”
“The king…” she started, refusing to make eye contact. “He promised me higher status if I acted as his eyes.”
The world began to slow, spinning at a glacial pace as immediate theories began to form in my mind. “What did you do?” I asked, my voice low, working to keep the threat out of it.
Royal opened and closed her mouth. “It just makes me sick that the sad excuse of a princess gets to be heir to the throne when she is literally the most hated person amongst her people. Like, why shouldn’t I capitalize on that?”
Pushing aside my anger at the blatant disrespect to the princess, I clenched my jaw. “For the love of the gods, Royal. What did you do?”
“I spied for the king,” she rushed out, finally meeting my gaze. And despite how much she tried to force guilt in her eyes, I saw through it. She didn’t regret it for a single second.
“Say that one more time?” I asked, weirdly surprised by her treachery.
“The rooftop meetings. And learning that Chrome was going to the prisons to find the Endarkened…”
The air in my throat choked me. Of course, Onyx had told Royal about his plan to accompany Chrome to the prisons for the Endarkened. “What did you tell the king, Royal?” My voice could barely be heard over the chaos around us.
With a shrug, she said, “Just what Onyx had told me and what I’d overheard.
” I pinned her with a blank stare, spurring her on.
“The king had been wanting to know if there were any secrets that Chrome had been keeping from him. When I showed up at the rooftop for your little secret get-together on Friday the thirteenth, I gathered that the king didn’t know much about that, so I relayed that fun bit to him. ”
I leaned my head back to face the ceiling, forcing out a hard breath. “For fucks sake…” I whispered to myself, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“And then, when Onyx told me about this super top-secret mission he was set to go on with Chrome, I knew something was up. He is only a guard. Not even a full-fledged guard yet,” she said, as if Onyx hadn’t just become the King’s Guard this week.
“So, why would he go on missions with the legendary Chrome Freyr? You know? That raised some questions for me. So, I played it smart.” A smirk twitched at one side of her face as if she were proud of her deduction skills.
Fucking Onyx. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut.