Twenty-Five
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Samkiel. One Week Later.
“I ’m telling you exactly what I saw. They were out there one minute
and gone the next. It sounded like a convoy rolled over my house and
then just silence.”
I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose as the small man placed his hands on his hips.
Vincent shuffled on his feet as Imogen returned a framed picture to its place.
“I understand your concern, but telling the local news only made matters worse. Do you understand?”
The graying man held up his hands. “All I know is red-eyed monsters walk this world, and I’m not taking any chances, okay?”
“And the large sum of money given for said tip was inconsequential, right?” Imogen stepped up beside me.
He swallowed and opened his mouth to respond, but I dropped my hand, cutting him off.
“Enough.” The room rattled along with every nerve ending in my body.
“You made a spectacle over missing bovine, put a neighboring city in fear of a winged beast, when in reality you may have very well let them out
yourself.”
“I would nev—”
“We are done here,” I said, turning on my heel. I stopped near Vincent.
“Pay him double. Replace the creatures he so desperately cares for, and make sure he doesn’t call mortals the next time he has an episode.” I emphasized the last word, glancing toward the stack of empty alcohol
bottles. I stepped into the sunshine with Imogen right behind me, the screen door slamming shut at our backs.
“That was a little harsh, even for you,” Imogen said.
“I do not have time for this.” I strode down the walkway, dirt coating my shoes.
“Storming out and being rude won’t help us find her any quicker,”
Imogen nearly shouted.
I spun to face her right as Vincent left the house and jogged down the wooden steps.
“Neither will the house calls I must make over every slight inconvenience. Do you truly believe Dianna is flying around stealing large farm animals? That’s not what she is feeding on.”
My heart sank at the thought of who she may be ingesting, plaguing my brain with horrific images.
I blew out a breath and dragged my hand through my hair roughly.
Imogen stood there, watching me and waiting. “She’s alone, Imogen. I know what that can do to someone. My isolation was self-imposed. A madman ripped everything and everyone from Dianna by force. She did not just lose her sister. She lost friends, shelter, and a home. Now, she has nothing and no one—”
“She has you, and that’s a lot. You have saved countless others. You’ve saved us, and you can save her, too. Just please try to be level-headed about this.”
“I am trying. That’s the problem. All I know is I feel this immense ache, and it screams at me to do something. I know it’s her. I can’t explain it, but I know it is.”
Vincent stood quietly and watched us. I expected him to shoot off another retort, but he said nothing, something stirring in his eyes that I didn’t recognize.
Imogen only nodded. “There’s still time to find her, to find him. We have not lost the battle yet, my liege.”
“We may not have, but something is wrong, and this is not helping.” I sighed, my head thrumming once more. “Nothing is.”
The last part slipped past my lips without my consent. I said nothing more before calling upon my power and shooting toward the sky, thunder rumbling ominously as my being mixed with the energy above.
I reformed outside of S ilver C ity G uild . T he balcony I’ d landed on opened up to the office. The guild was busy, everyone scurrying around, trying to pick up the pieces of this now turbulent world.
I walked past the desk and into the conference room, where Xavier presided over a large pile of papers, news clippings, and laptops.
“Anything else?”
His head snapped up. He ran his hand over his hair. “Was the farm a
bust?”
My brow ticked up in confusion.
“Was it a dead end?” Xavier clarified.
Cameron and Xavier adjusted so quickly to the new language here that even after only a month, they knew phrases I still tried to grasp. They were smart when not being mischievous, but perhaps that intelligence only heightened the chaos those two caused.
“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “Yes, missing bovine from a mortal that
smelled of cheap alcohol.”
Xavier nodded. “I haven’t—”
The air in the room shifted. I drew a blade, the steel tip resting at Roccurem’s throat as the fate solidified.
“One move and your blood will decorate this table. Am I clear?”
The fate stood very still.
Xavier leaped to his feet, his weapon appearing in his hand. I had felt Roccurem’s arrival, but Xavier had not, and he was none too happy about it.
Xavier flanked me on my left, ready to defend his king. Papers settled as the air rectified itself.
“You will not find your queen in articles or by questioning mortals with poor eyesight.”
My hand flexed on the handle of my blade. “Where is she?”
“She plans to siege the city.”
“The city?” I took a deep breath. “Why?”
“She will take it if…”
“If what, Roccurem?” I pressed the tip of my blade a fraction harder against his throat. The storm that roared through the sky this time was mine.
A million particles of my power crowded the air, disrupting the atmosphere.
Shelves shook, the room resonating from the force of the thunder. I had told myself I was slipping, and here was proof. “You have been right there with her, yet you cannot stop her.”
“I cannot. You know how this works. As a fate, I am not to interfere.”
I actually laughed, and Xavier shot me a concerned look. “Not to intervene? That’s all you have done since the beginning. Isn’t that why you were locked up? Wasn’t it your brethren’s inability to not interfere that caused your downfall? You are supposed to be neutral, a whisper upon winds to spin mortals’ destiny, a vessel, a tool for the old gods and the next.
Yet you are not by my side.”
“She is starved for affection.”
Blood raged in my ears at even the mere mention. “I am telling you now to watch the next words that pour from your lips, for they may well be your
last.”
“You are the problem.”
My lip curled as I damn near drove the blade through his throat.
Roccurem did not flinch as it pressed into the flesh between his collarbones. “She fell in love with you as you did her. That is the problem for so many.”
I felt something in me break, my chest physically aching at those words.
Fates, while annoying, were not capable of lying.
Roccurem’s hand flicked up, a cloud of stars and mist springing from his fingertips. It floated overhead, forming images. My gut tightened when I recognized Dianna and me at the festival, playing a memory of us. Her laughter as she walked, even distorted, damn near dropped me to my knees.
Gods, how long had it been since I’d heard that sound? I wanted to run, to chase it.
I watched, desperate for even this sight of her. Her hand wrapped around the cone of that damn fluffy treat. She turned and smiled at me, whole, bright, and radiating life, the jacket I’d given her slipping off her shoulder. The scene shifted, and we were back in the garden at Drake’s. I handed her that yellow flower. Her eyes widened, taken aback by the gesture, her lips curving in a gentle smile. Emotion flared in her eyes, the
spark of something soft and infinitely special. Why hadn’t I picked up on it until now?
“It is also a problem for her.” He moved his hand, twisting his wrist, and the image changed. “The memories resonate with guilt.”
Dianna screamed and blew the building to pieces. I jerked. The anguish filling that scream haunted my memories and fueled my nightmares.
“She feels her emotions were the driving force of her sister’s demise, that caring for you, even for a moment, was weakness.”
The room returned to normal, and he clasped his hands in front of himself. Xavier lowered his weapons, the room falling into a quiet, somber silence. My hands shook. I was struggling with despair and not only my
pain but hers.
“What’s your plan, Roccurem?”
“When she comes for the city. Let her in. You must stay on this path for
it all to work.”
“For what to work?” I growled.
“Everything,” he said. His eyes opened, two above and two below where the natural ones sat. They were all white and opaque. “You are running out of time.” He looked at Xavier behind me. “You all are.”
Those damn words! I wondered if fate had been whispering in my ear this whole time.
My fist clenched on the blade I held angled at his throat. “I have neither the time nor patience for riddles and games. Not now and never about her.
Where is she?”
The room vibrated with unkempt power, demanding a way out. Coils of energy snapped and bent against my skin.
“Kaden spoke to her. It created another fracture in an already damaged
psyche.”
“If he touched her, I will—”
“He did, but not physically, and yet his words cut sharper than any
blade.”
“Is she hurt?”
“Deeply, but you can feel that can you not? Your concern is not only for her physical well-being but mental as well.”
“I know what solitude can do to a damaged mind and heart. I also know that Kaden uses his words to push her farther away from me. What did he say to her?”
He only nodded, ignoring the blade digging into his throat. “Dianna knows about your father’s plan for your betrothal.”
My blade faltered. Energy writhed and bucked against my wavering control. I had not realized the room was shaking until I spotted Xavier trying to hold on to the desk and the items atop it.
“Kaden used a portion of your past to further drive a wedge between any progress you have made.”
I felt sick to my stomach, my heart hammering in my chest. “But Imogen and I never… It was null and void. War broke out, and there was no
need for a union.”
“She does not know that.”
I dropped my blade, summoning it back to its ether. “I need to find her, talk to her. Please. It’s imperative.”
He stepped back, a swirling mass of stars bending at his feet, reminding me he wore the shell of a man, but he was not one.
“You need not beg me, god king, for she will come to you. You merely must let her in. She seeks an item you have, and she will take it, but if you can somehow trap her instead, maybe, just maybe, there is hope for a better future—a better outcome than what I have seen. She has constructed a wall of armor around herself and her emotions. You simply need to find a crack, a way in.”
I swallowed, knowing he was about to leave and even my power could not summon fate. “How?” I snapped. “Tell me how.”
The growing mass at his feet grew, encompassing him. He dissipated into the cosmos, but his last words rang through the room.
“Kaden took her family from her. Give her one back.”
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