Page 20 of Calling of the Crown

The interrogation rooms were the two doors on either side of the guard’s space, and that was where I stood now—in the doorway of the first room, staring at Dax, who was tied to a metal chair in the center of the room.

He thrashed his head around, yelling and cursing. “You’re all fucking scum. You hear me? Scum!”

“He’ll be ready for questioning in a few seconds,” Marcus informed me. He and Mingxia flanked the door as I came farther into the room. “The serum will take effect soon. For your safety, Mingxia and I will be right here.”

I nodded and was secretly grateful that they weren’t leaving me with Dax. Even if he was tied up, I just didn’t trust him. I glanced up at the cameras in the corners of the room and made a mental note of the red lights that indicated they were recording. It was a human gadget that I was glad they’d had installed at some point, because I wanted proof of whatever was said during this meeting.

“Untie me right now, you motherfuckers!” Dax roared.

He fought against the restraints holding him down, and the rest of us just watched in silence until finally the fight started to fade from his movement and eyes. The tension previously pulling on his shoulders evaporated until he slumped against his chair and stared straight ahead with a glazed-over look clouding his eyes.

“He’s ready,” Mingxia whispered.

Clearing my throat, I approached Dax slowly. “Dax? How are you feeling?”

“I feel,” he mumbled slowly, like talking took too much energy. “Good. Peaceful.”

Just like Mingxia had said.

“Good,” I replied. “I’d like to ask some questions about Jonah and your work with him. Do you know what I’m referring to?”

“I do,” he answered immediately. His eyes stared straight ahead. Unblinking. Unfeeling.

“Right. So my main question is, why did you hire him to kill me?”

“I want to be Water Fae King and lead Water Fae the way I want. You are in the way.”

I cocked a brow at him. “Kinda hard to become King if I’m dead. So why don’t you walk me through your and Jonah’s plan, starting with why and when you reached out to him.”

Dax blinked languidly and licked his lips. “I approached Jonah after you and I first broke up. He was at the club that night you were there, and after you said we’d never get back together, I approached him with an offer to work together.”

My eyebrows shot up as memories from that night came flooding back. I’d run into Dax, and after he was a complete ass, I’d pulled Rune out onto the dance floor to show Dax just how okay I was without him. Dax wasn’t too happy with mine and Rune’s dance, so he had tried to step in, only to be shot down again by me. It was shortly after that, when I’d been sitting at a table alone, that I’d seen Jonah across the club. I didn’t know who or what he was at the time, but even back then, he’d unsettled me.

“How did you know about him?” I asked. “And why immediately seek him out about killing me just because we broke up?”

“Jonah was a Bat Fae that many had heard rumors about, including me. He would work for and with anyone, so long as he got something out of it. When I saw him at the club, I knew that was my chance. I had to do something drastic to change your mind and get back on your good side. In order for me to be King, we would have to marry, and I needed help to make that happen.”

Balling my hands up, I questioned, “And how did you plan to do that?”

“By tricking you into thinking I was your hero.”

I took a deep breath and gritted out, “Explain.”

“The plan Jonah and I concocted was that he’d attack you, and I’d come in and rescue you at some point during the attack. The first few attempts didn’t work because we kept getting interrupted. The night I texted you to meet me by the creek so we could talk became the perfect moment. I lured you into the privacy of the woods, and I let Jonah get a few good hits in on you since that’s part of what he wanted as payment—to torture you.”

Betrayal burned low in my stomach. “So you were there for that whole attack, just watching from the shadows?”

“Yes.”

The matter-of-fact way he answered made the anger rising inside me unfurl with an all-new ferocity. I’d already known Dax was behind all of this, but to hear the truth of it actually leave his lips was like a slap to the face all over again. I’d trusted Dax. I’d liked him. Yet this was what he’d wanted to do to me.

I wasn’t sure who I was angrier with right now.

Him, for setting all of this up and trying to have me murdered.

Or myself, for ever falling for someone as heartless and undeserving as he was.

“Keep going,” I hissed. I crossed my arms over my chest and focused on the biting sting of my fingernails digging into my arms instead of the red-hot betrayal coating my heart.

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