Chapter 45
Disappearing
Raiden
A few moments prior.
The door swung open, though nothing was there except two fallen guards and spilt blood along the dark floor. I stepped over top of them, holding the door open for Silvana, Bastian, Zima, and Paine.
We’d discussed the plan prior to leaving, so words weren’t necessary. Splitting up had been an idea, but we decided against it. It would involve splitting up with my queen in order to keep us in contact, and I’d smashed that plan before it could even begin to form.
She wasn’t going to be out of my sight.
“Be careful, my queen,” I whispered through the bond.
“You be careful,” she shot back. The sass clear even in her whispered words.
I watched as she winked at me, her daggers out as we walked down the hall and towards the steps that would lead us up into Keres’s first throne room.
Paine and I led our group, followed by Zima and Silvana, with Bastian taking up the rear.
The guards out front and along the wall had been easy to remove.
I’d just disposed of them the same way I had with Viktor, leaving nothing behind but dust to scatter along the wind.
With us inside the castle now though, it was different.
Not everyone was an enemy and some of them needed to be rescued.
“Don’t forget to keep an eye out for Heliot’s daughter.”
“As if you need to remind me to watch out for a woman in need of my help, Shadow Lord. That is my favorite job, after all,” she replied.
Morgan had been taken from him years ago, but Cora assured us that the last time she was here and not trapped within a tower-based dungeon, Morgan had been very much alive. So we’d search for her.
The throne room contained four guards, all taken down quickly between us.
The hall had another rotation of two walking along the corridor. Gone.
A door opened as we walked, a shocked guard coming out. He reached for his sword, but Silvana had a dagger at his throat before he could pull it even halfway free.
“Where are the women Keres keeps?” Her tone was low as she stared up into his eyes.
I had to remind myself that this wasn’t the time to contemplate where in the castle I could sneak her away to.
“Up the next set of stairs. There’s a thick wooden door with a lock. They’re all there,” he mumbled as he tried to push her arm away, but she slit his throat, coating the edges of the wound with her ice magic for good measure.
“Perfect. Let’s go,” she said with a smile. “And keep your mind clean, please. I’m trying to work here.”
I chuckled as we went up the stairs he’d directed us to, only stopping short when a familiar face peered at me. His eyes murky and unseeing as his decapitated head sat upon a spear outside the wooden door.
Zima stepped forward, her fingers outstretched as he gently closed his eyes, the emotion clear in her own.
“Rest easy with the Fates now, Rusor. You were brave beyond your years,” she whispered.
“May he find peace he never knew in this life,” Paine muttered.
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Raiden, do you mind?”
Nodding, my shadows released, covering the male and the weapon entirely, leaving nothing behind, only to move on towards the door. Flaky debris dispensed as we walked over the threshold. Unsure what I’d been expecting to find on the other side of the door, but this hadn’t been it.
Even in the memories of Silvana’s I’d been through, this wasn’t a place I’d ventured into.
The space was the same size as our chambers in Darkmoor, but the room was crafted into a circle.
The walls, which should be stone as they were on the outside, were painted a solid gold.
Windows lined each wall, minimal space between each.
They appeared to have long sheets shoved to the side of each opening, as if this was their only protection to the sun during the day.
There were no beds, no other walls, just miscellaneous blankets and various sized pillows along the floors. But in the middle of the room were a group of about thirty females, their eyes wide as they stared at us.
“Where are the rest of you?” Silvana broke the silence. Clearly the first of us to grasp for words as we took in the scene before us.
One female stepped forward, long blonde hair falling over her shoulders. Her dress was cut just above her knees and she appeared older than most of the vampires here. “They’ve been… disappearing.”
“Disappearing?” Paine spoke up from the other side of me.
The blonde stared at him, her lips in a firm line as she nodded.
“He knew we were coming, Raiden.”
Silvana’s anxiety spiked through the bond as her eyes met mine, but they returned to the group once more as she smothered the feelings just as quickly.
“Okay, is Morgan here?” She slipped into the nurturing caregiver without hesitation.
A tall female with long dark hair and green eyes stepped out from the back of the group, a small wave towards my queen, to which she replied with a smile.
“Perfect. Your father is eager to see you. So here’s the plan. We’re going to kill everyone here and get you guys home,” Silv explained.
“And if we don’t have one? A home, I mean,” the blonde questioned.
Sorrow filled the bond once more as she spoke. “Then we’ll make you one.”
We secured the females, Zima and Silvana promising to be back for them soon. Clearing the rest of the space was easy. Between the shadow work from Bastian and me, the guards didn’t stand a chance. Zima spoke up when a guard or household staff belonged to her. The rest perished without a word.
However, the scene rapidly changed when we made it to the throne room once more.