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This was the moment I dreaded. I had no idea how to tell their most loyal soldiers, like Tokin, that the princes had been swept up by a magical mirror.
“What do you mean by gone?” Tokin took a step further in the castle.
I swallowed and blinked back what felt like a river of tears “When we visited earth, they were consumed by magic and vanished. I’m working on a way to get them back.”
Tokin bowed his head again. “I am sorry to hear of this, but I am certain you will prevail. This is not the first time the princes have gone missing. We will proceed as usual, and in the meantime, the outer docks are being attacked by some of Apollyn’s former soldiers.”
After Apollyn ditched the Shadow World to flee his sons’ wrath, most of his followers went with him. But some either got stuck here or just chose to remain behind to cause problems. Most of the bad actors had been executed already by Altair, but a handful still remained behind.
I exhaled sharply. “Altair’s barrier will keep them out of the inner circle, but if they get too out of hand, you know what to do. I can’t go out there and kill them with my bare hands like Altair, but if they test me, I will scorch them with hellfire from this place right here without stepping a foot outside of the castle. My patience has already been stretched thin enough as it is.”
And I had a massive migraine and had already had several nose bleeds trying to engage myself and push my limits too much.
I swallowed hard, but pain still swelled up inside me. “I’m going to get them back. My focus needs to be on that, not on a few bad actors. I don’t have the time or patience.”
“Yes, Princess. Your relayed intentions will keep them in line. If not, I will show them my axe.” He extracted his axe from his belt loop with his tail.
“Thank you, Tokin. By the way, if you see a peculiar-looking black cat roaming around here, he belongs to me. Don’t kill—or eat—him,” I said.
“Of course.” He looked sheepishly at his feet, probably just now figuring out that I knew he had an appetite for fresh red meat. “In the meantime, should I recruit more guards around the castle for your protection?”
“No. I don’t need anymore protection. I just need my strength and your princes will be back here in no time.” I declared the latter only to reassure myself.
Tokin’s lips stretched across his sharp pointed teeth in what he must have thought was a smile. “We will be glad to hear of their return. There is much to discuss with them. There has been increasing amounts of violence among the pod leaders.”
“The princes will be back soon…” I repeated.
After Tokin’s other updates, he left with a group of foot soldiers behind him. After his departure, I slowly crept upstairs. Every muscle in my body ached. Every bone felt riddled withpain. I didn’t have time to rest for a couple days, but I at least needed a few hours to decompress alone.
I wasn’t cut out to deal with politics.
Use my wits and magic to bend the odds in my favor? Yes.
But to actually deal with everything that came with being a leader? No.
I wasn’t cut out for that. My sister was though. That’s why I always believed my father would’ve wanted her to lead the covens as regent, not me.
I could see now why fate would have other plans for me. But what were they?
I reached the bedroom, kicked off my shoes, and collapsed on the bed.
As soon as my head hit the pillow, I closed my eyes. As restless as I was, sleep didn’t come, so I pulled the covers over my head and snuggled on the sheets. The linens smelled of them. The warmth of the blanket and the dominant scent of each man were the only things keeping me from screaming out in frustration.
I’d give anything right now to fall asleep and be swept away by a dream.
“Rever…le fantôme,”I whispered. The words spilled from my lips as I lay there lost to the world.
Something shifted beneath me and hairs pricked up on my arms and the back of my neck. Laughter echoed around me, and the sound of heavy objects being dragged across the floor startled me.
I threw the covers off my body only to be engulfed by a blinding white light. The voices of my men traveled toward me through the open door. I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and tiptoed outside the room.
As if by magic, I stepped out and into the same room as my men to find them inside moving heavy boxes and furniturearound. They were big, bulky, shirtless, and sweaty. My heart filled with joy and I could hardly contain myself. I gasped, speechless.
Morpheus was high up on a ladder, shelving leather-bound books as Dominik handed them to him. And Altair stood at the other end of the room, contemplating where to move the writing desk.
They must have felt my presence because they turned toward the door, stopped what they were doing, and came to me.
But something didn’t feel right about this. Surely it wasn’t this easy.
