Page 7 of The Crownless King
Stepping out, he lifted his head in a nod of greeting to the night guard standing at the front door. He frowned. Why was an extra guard at the door? Out of habit, Levi’s steps took him to his throne room and the Akachi stone. The meteorite had a hold on him. He could hardly go a few hours without touching it.
By the time he reached his throne room, he’d managed to calm the buzzing in his head. Until the moment he’d set foot inside and found the room in disarray.
“What the fuck happened here?” he turned and asked his friends.
Before either could answer, Levi tilted his head as he realized something. The source of all that roiling power beneath his skin was missing.
The loss of it should’ve been a relief, but it was as though a void had opened within him. Anger and indignation filled that space because who the fuck would dare steal from him?
“Who was last in here?” he asked Bas.
Sebastian frowned. “If you’re asking who’s responsible for the mess, it’s you, boss.”
“You don’t feel the fucking vacuum of power?” Levi snapped. “Someone has stolen my Akachi, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Lucas stepped forward. “Yes. That’s why you were at the warehouse. We questioned the workers that were at the big house today.”
“There were strangers on this compound today?”
“We managed to track down three of them. There are two more,” Sebastian told him.
Levi turned in a circle and shook his head at the damage. The throne room had come with the compound he and his men had taken over when they’d defeated the Buru who previously occupied it. The space was twice the size of a large dining room, not quite ballroom size but close. He called it his throne room because of the gaudy gold chair the previous owner had placed on a dais in the front. A red carpet ran from the entrance all the way to the chair.
Levi hadn’t cared enough to move it in the ten years they had occupied the mansion.
There had been piles of jewelry, weapons, and all the spoils of war in the corner of the room. Now, it was strewn across the floor. A too-big chandelier hung in the middle of the place; a huge table was tucked into an alcove, big enough to seat twenty.He supposed it used to hold the Buru’s old team, but it was just another thing Levi had no use for. The chairs that were normally tucked under the heavy metal table were toppled to the floor, some broken.
The expensive paintings and tapestries that had previously hung on the wall were ripped and littered the floor. The whole garish room was nearly destroyed and Levi remembered none of it.
“The security footage?”
“That’s how we found out who had been in here. We’ll find the other two,” Bas promised.
Levi rubbed a hand down his face. “Why hasn’t the staff come in to clean up?”
Lucas chuckled. “‘Don’t let another motherfucker enter that room.’Your words to the staff.”
Levi sighed. “Get this shit cleaned up,” he ordered his friends. “I’m going to my room. Let me know when you find those thieves.”
He was going to tear their limbs from their bodies. He only hoped he would be lucid enough to enjoy doing it.
Chapter three
“Did I ever tell you about the time I got slutted out by a vampire?”
Amaya choked on the water she was sipping, her eyes watering. She tucked the phone into her shoulder so she could talk and wipe her face. “Trace, please!”
“Nah, I’m for real. By the time he was done, I was ready to sign up for a convent. I was finna give my life up to the Celestials.”
She busted out laughing because her cousin was entirely too much. “Please be for real.”
Thankful for the end of her shift, Amaya carefully stripped off the clean suit she wore on top of her street clothes. Working in the sacred garden, they had to be careful of outside contamination.
Tracy sighed on the other end of the phone. “I almost asked him to marry me, but you know how the Chawi are.”
Amaya nodded, though her cousin couldn’t see. They were both Chawi, or witches as humans would call them. There were strict rules in place about the Chawi and Bayi marrying and mating. While not exactly illegal, it was strongly discouraged, the result a curse over the whole family that none wanted to risk. She shuddered thinking of the stories her mother and grandmother told to discourage such a pairing.
“Besides, if I were going to risk the wrath of my parents, let it be for one of those fine ass Bayi in the balaclavas,” Tracy lamented.
