Page 6 of Darkest Heart

He stood, brushing the dirt from his navy robes. “At least you don’t hide your monstrous side,” he stated, sighing. “Although you have principles, I think they are entirely messed up.”

I scoffed. “I don’t really care what you think.”

He turned away from me. “I’ll be returning to the castle. My king must be notified of what I’ve found.”

“Wait,” I called before he could walk away. “Sargon can’t know about this.”

He shook his head, scoffed, and continued to walk.

I clambered for something, anything. I even contemplated killing him to stop his tongue from divulging what happened here. Unfortunately, I knew Sargon losing his favorite sorcerer would keep him here. “He won’t go to find the princess if you tell him. He’ll feel it is his duty to stay and keep the armies here. Power is more important to him than anything. If the castle is under threat, he’ll stay attached to his throne.”

Azia paused, looking over his shoulder. “It’s his daughter. He will still go.”

“We both know he won’t,” I shouted. Azia hesitated, and I maintained eye contact. We both knew what Sargon was like. He cared about his daughter. I could see that. But the crown was always more important than anything else. It was a duty the reigning monarch took when they crossed over and were declared by the gods. “If there’s even a chance you believe he’ll stay, then Seraphina will be lost. Sebastian will do his best to find her, but they need an army. They need Sargon.”

That wasn’t entirely true. I believed they could find her without the king. Sebastian had Erianna and Zach, and while I didn’t care for the silver-haired mortal lover, they were both excellent warriors. I still needed Sargon and Ravena away from court. Nothing would keep the queen here, anyway. She hated this place more than anyone, and I was certain she’d burn down Sanmorte to find Seraphina.

“Azia, you know finding her is more important than this. The aniccipere are trying to distract us.” I didn’t realize what this was until I said it. This was an inconvenience, to keep us here. They didn’t want her found. If she was still alive, but I had to believe she was. “She needs our help.”

I swept away my thoughts before Azia could glimpse them. His cheeks puffed out as he let out a tense breath and turned back. My eyes glistened as I found his weakness. He’d been mentoring the princess before she was kidnapped. She was his protégé, and we both wanted her found, alive.

The drizzle lifted as the storm moved away, and a peek of sunshine arrowed through the trees. Azia strode toward me, stopping a few feet away. “How do I know you’re not a part of this?”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t waste food.”

“The disregard you have for mortal life is despicable,” he said, clasping his hands in front of him. “But sadly, I believe you.”

I lifted a brow, the question burning in my mind. “How did you know this happened?” I gestured around us. “You cannot sense blood like us.”

“I could feel their anguish,” he explained with a shudder, his gaze dropping to the last grave he’d dug. “I awoke to a feeling of terror unlike I’ve ever felt before. Normally I only get visions, just flashes of the future…” He looked down at the burials and closed his eyes. “But today it was a sense of doom hanging over me. Intuitively, I knew to come here.”

There had to have been a hundred dead out here, completely diminishing our supply. “Did you see any of the creatures?”

“No, but I could sense them watching me when I arrived. They’d had to have heard me coming. Several body parts were still… twitching. But they were far beyond saving.” He sighed.

I nodded. He didn’t need to explain why they didn’t kill him. No one sane would challenge a sorcerer as infamous as Azia. I’d sampled a small dose of his power and it was enough. Still, if I could catch him unaware, I might have stood a chance. I supposed it was one of the very few smart moves made by Sargon, to gain Azia’s loyalty.

He loved the king without good reason. Sargon was an idiot, and everyone knew it. My father was the one in charge, just without the title. He made all the decisions, and even then, he continued to fuck up. This place needed a true ruler, but with Azia around, any political moves would be thwarted.

I licked my lips, pressing my thumb against the bottom one, the smell of blood aching hunger in my stomach. “Why do you think they would come back here?” I baited, wondering if he’d come to the same conclusion.

He arched a thin brow. “That’s what I want to figure out. We both know Astor was not kidnapped, so it could have been him.”

“That seems to be the focus of recent debates.”

I thought back to Gwen arguing with anyone who would listen that Astor was not behind the princess’s disappearance, and that he, too, was taken. “What makes you sure?”

“I saw him lurking around my cottage the night Olivia was taken.”

I forgot they called her Olivia. It was disrespectful not to use her given name. Instead, some continued to use the alias her mother had forced upon her since childhood. He sensed my anger, shifting his position into a more defensive stance before continuing. “I saw Astor head into the woods alone, several times. He’d return hours later. I instigated the subject with our king, but he did not think it suspicious,” he admitted, and knotted his fingers together. “Astor had the motive, too. Olivia told me about many things during our sessions, including Astor asking her to marry him.”

My eyebrows shot up, a laugh tinkering in my head. That was fucking priceless. Gwen couldn’t know about that. There’s no way she’d still be pining after him if she did. Despite fucking her in her bathroom that night, with Astor in the next room, she still missed him.

Astor may have looked like a whiny weak boy, but he was manipulative. I saw it. Even Seraphina and Sebastian saw it. Astor dangled his affection in front of Gwen, then took it away until she craved it. It ensured her continued protection of him, along with my father’s and Velda’s.

He probably did the same to Seraphina when he was in a relationship with her, but she was smart. She found Sebastian, and even if I hated the bastard, he seemed to love her. Hopefully, enough to find her. Because killing him didn’t matter if I didn’t have a grieving widow to charm and wed after.

Before all of this, he was the thing standing between me and the crown. Now, it was the aniccipere. The disgusting half-breeds. I hated them even more than mortals. At least mortals had some use to them. Even if it was only their blood and bodies.

---