Page 64 of Cursed Heirs

A distressed silence fell between us.

Pain for her.

For us being pulled from her.

We fucking needed her back here with us.

The three of us weren’t enough anymore. Nothing was enough without her.

“What if we find her and it’s too late?” I asked. “What if we can’t cast the black magic out?”

“Abigail has the means to do so if Alena can’t,” Orpheus reminded me.

“You heard what Elliot said, though. She could become corrupted.Exemplararen’t gonna let her even try, are they? I mean, there’s no way they can risk a Fallen coming under the influence of black magic. It would be worse than the likes of Constantine.”

“We’re discounting Alena’s strength,” X said.

“It’s not about discounting it, it’s the fact thatshe’slong had issues recognizing it, how truly powerful she actually is,” Ore pointed out.

“It’s different now. She’s deeply connected to us, a part of us,” I told them. “And let’s not forget that she went to him in a bid to save you, X. It means she still feels for us, even withConstantine’s influence. She can hold on, I know it. I mean, I have to believe it.”

Ore reached out and stroked my cheek. “We’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back to us.”

“I know you’re including black magic in that, and you can’t. Please, Ore.”

“All right,” X said, holding up his hand. “Let’s keep the black magic route on the backburner. As a last resort. The last thing we need isyoubeing lost to corruption too, Orpheus. We’ll focus on what you were working on when you were tracking your father. The magical map you were piecing together. While you’re down, me and Tal will continue working on it. You just rest up, because we’ll need you strong when we get a lead from it.”

“When?Look at you being all optimistic,” I said.

“I can’t allow myself to be anything else right now. Especially when Alena is at stake.”

Even when we had Alena back with us and this whole situation was dealt with, he’d need a lot more help and treatment. He might be in good spirits now in the wake of what had gone down earlier, but sinking as low as he had… you didn’t just bounce back and simply walk away from that. Me, Ore, and Alena would make damn sure he received the necessary help, no matter what. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing him again. The four of us belonged together.

“The current Commander of the Dark Fae Army who has the remaining intel we need is unreachable. My own contacts and assets have given me everything they have. With war on the horizon, protecting the kingdom transcends all else, as is protocol. We need to bring in Marlowe. He knows more than he’s let on. The fact he’s been secretly still working with my father this entire time means he may very well have been aware of thesenewcontacts of his whom he was reaching out to while he was outside the DFR and tracking Constantine’s cohortsbefore they ended up ambushing him instead. He may know exactly which ones of them betrayed him to the enemy and gave away his location.”

“He said the two of you would talk, but it never came to pass,” I remembered. “He used your punishment and confinement as an excuse.”

“Then he clearly doesn’t want you doing this, Orpheus,” X pointed out. “Bringing him here may just prove fruitless, he may give nothing away.”

“He will if he isn’t given a choice.”

X tensed. “You can’t torture Marlowe.”

“Is that seriously where your mind immediately jumped to?” He rolled his eyes. “He’s still part of my father and his rule. He answers to the Dark Fae Realm. If I ascend, he’ll have no choice but to transfer that onto me.”

I choked out a gasp. “Become King, you mean?”

“Temporarily. My father has been missing for a substantial amount of time without any leads as to his whereabouts. All they know for now is that he’s alive. If he wasn’t, key elements of the Kingdom would have begun to fall. I can invoke executive power as Prince to call for ascension.”

“Can’t you just take power as Prince?” I asked, not wanting him to go the King route, because he wouldn’t be able to come and go as he pleased, he’d be stuck there ruling. The Prince had a lot more free reign.

“As Prince, I can’t overpower the Dark Fae Commander’s authority or that of the Court.”

“Before we go ahead and create some massive political upheaval, let us reach out to Marlowe first,” X told him, recognizing what I was, that Orpheus was growing impatient with the entire thing, his worry for his father and now Alena starting to take the lead. Him being weakened and basically incapacitated would only be worsening that for him.

“Let’s also not forget that Alena and Saryan are both being held captive by Constantine,” I said.

“How could we forget that?” Orpheus bit back.

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