AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know this for certain?” I ask.
Kestral nods his head, a look of complete certainty on his face. “He has confessed to it.”
He…I glance down at my sword on the ground and the drop of blood clinging to the edge of the blade and shake my head.
“I still brought it here. I am still at fault.” No matter who betrayed me. I am still to blame for the outcome.
“Tell me what your goal was,” he says again, without judgment or anger.
I glance up at him and see it in his eyes; he only wants to understand, nothing more.
“I wanted to make them listen.Onlylisten.” I frown. “I did not wish for any more death.”
“Them?” he asks.
“The royals,” I explain, and his eyes widen a fraction before a frown mars his brow.
“Why not the guards?” he asks.
I shake my head again as a quiet chuckle slips past my lips, though there is not an ounce of amusement in it.
“They know. Theyknowand do not care. I had hoped… I had hoped the royals would be unaware and want to help us.” It would seem I had hoped many things that would now never come to pass. And now my mother and Ryuu will end up paying for it.
They trusted me. Had trust in me. And now?—
“Where did you get that creature from?”
Kestral’s question quickly pulls me from my turbulent thoughts. I try to remember what he’s asked, and when I do, I give him an irritated look.
He is a Caligo lord, if the power he wields so easily over the guards is anything to go by. He obviously knows the lieutenant and holds some power over him too. So, it does not matter what I say anymore. My one chance has gone with my hopes to meet the royals, while he will continue to come to his own opinion based on what suits him and his people.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I tell him.
“Try me,” he insists.
But why bother? I am just a Sidus here, and a Sidus holds no power in a world full of Caligo.
“Just like anyone listened to me before I was placed in a cell?”
“One you so easily escaped.” He takes a step closer to me, his own frustration flickering to life in his eyes.
“Ah, I see the celebrations have started without us,” a familiar voice shouts from somewhere behind Kestral.
Kestral quickly moves aside, revealing a wide-smiling Veles as he makes his way over to us. Beside him is another familiar face. Asra, the Caligo I stole the wine from. And beside him is another man, though his face is unfamiliar.
His dark hair is pulled back from his face, and his bronze skin tone is a similar shade to Ryuu’s. But it is his eyes that make a sliver of ice crawl down my spine.
The color of the sun pierces from within them, and there is a hidden knowing beneath them that comes only from years of experience. Years he does not look to have lived. He looks just as young as Kestral and Asra, if not slightly younger, which only leaves me more confused than anything.
He drags a moving bag behind him, and once they get close enough, I realize there is someone inside it.
“We all were coming to free you, but it seems you’ve freed yourself,” Veles says with a proud smile.
“All?” I give Kestral a questioning look.
He nods his head. “Veles told us everything. We didn’t realize so many of the guards were corrupt.”
Veles moves beside Kestral, a smile of familiarity on his face.
