Chapter 44
Ryzen
I didn’t know much about betrayal. Gladys once told me that I would constantly feel the hardships of having no allies and something about the way she said it to my face, her hazel eyes glowing with something that resembled pain all too much left me wondering many things.
It was the very same feeling that engulfed me now; my mind scrambled with incomprehensible thoughts that shattered every train of thought, every hope and ounce of trust.
What was happening? What was I doing?
The whole idea scared me. It had been only two days and my heart was in my throat every time Galanth walked in with a new report.
Callyn Alcoff doesn’t exist.
The absurdity of it all hit me in the face every time I walked down the blue corridors of the castle and each time I passed Rorcan’s chamber I always missed a step.
I knew something was wrong. Rorcan wouldn’t just leave like that. He’s never left…
… never left me.
And as for Callyn…
Breathing deep, I tried to ease the pounding of my heart.
Whispers of gold snaked their way around my torso, dancing against the tattoos hidden under my collar.
A scream clawed its way up my throat and I had to fight, fight, fight to keep it at bay.
Galanth’s words from our conversation earlier creeped into my head.
“I have searched everywhere and there is no mention of a Callyn Alcoff anywhere.”
“It’s an alias, most likely.”
“My people are on it Sire. We will know her identity soon enough.”
“As of now, her relationship with your brother remains unknown.”
If Callyn wasn’t who I thought she was, then who was she?
Another gust of wind blew my hair across my face and I closed my eyes.
But her face, her skin under mine, the rush of air when she laughed, the blush on her moon-like skin, those soft, long curls… one after one they hit me like pangs against my heart. But at last, it was her eyes. They haunted me.
The violent howls of the winds atop the great mountain snapped me back to reality and I wasn’t sorry for it.
I wasn’t a fool. I knew that whoever Callyn was, she didn’t have the best intentions at heart. I knew it in my gut that something was wrong.
I had trusted her. But something was always wrong. Something in the way she pulled away after our first night together. Something in the way her eyebrows drew together during our dinner. Something in the way she always looked at me with an afterthought, like there was something that died in her throat.
I had to find out who she was and why she was here. She arrived and vanished as quickly and deftly as a storm. Wreaking havoc in her wake.
I left the grounds as soon as I could get myself to leave. It was a sort of comfort that I craved by now; the deafening silence I only found with the howling winds. It had become a habit to come here whenever I needed the rush of air to drown out the cacophony of thoughts in my head.
Galanth had left all his reports in my study and I went through them again as soon as I reached my chambers. I shrugged off my dark jacket, taking a look at the last bit of information he sent me.
According to what he’d written down, he was unable to find anything of importance from Callyn’s room and nothing from Rorcan’s. All it said was something about the fake blood in the tub.
I frowned when I read the last bit.
It said that a rare poisonous plant had been purchased from a small shop in town called Sven’s Concoctions, along with Root of Rudor and some other ingredients required to create the effect of fake blood.
My eyes widened a fraction when I read the part that said that the owner of the shop was found unconscious, next to his grandson who had been killed on the same day that Callyn and Rorcan had gone missing.
Galanth had circled a part underneath these findings that said that similar ingredients had been purchased from different nations before, all with cases of anyone who was in the shop found dead or unconscious.
I stopped reading for a moment and then looked down to find one word written in night-black ink, the paper tender around the curves of his writing, as though Galanth had written it with some amount of frustration;
Romanova.
To be continued…