Chapter 18

CERION

“My king, you must come now!” Verion’s voice echoed through the hallway.

I was in my war room, looking for potential weapons beyond mere whips to torture Harold with.

“What is it, Verion?” I yelled, my tone dripping with irritation.

I heard Verion’s footsteps echoing as he ran toward me, huffing and puffing. When he finally reached the doorway, he took a moment to catch his breath.

“Yes, Verion?” I snapped, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

“My king, King Harold has disappeared!” Verion shouted.

“What do you mean, ‘disappeared’?” I roared. Celen was thrashing inside me, and I felt fire creep through my insides. “I told you to put a guard on his room! How would he have disappeared unnoticed, Verion?”

Verion’s gaze trailed to his feet, and I knew there was more he was not telling me.

“We found the guard knocked unconscious, my king. I searched King Harold’s room and found several documents left behind, one being an agreement between him and a band of mercenaries he seems to have hired, and another being an agreement between him and the Sari family,” Verion said hesitantly.

Celen roared internally. “The Sari family?” I roared in dismay. The Sari family was one of the most prominent noble families in the region. In fact, Cornelius Sari had been trying to throw his daughter at me for ages, hoping I’d take her as queen. The morning that the princesses arrived, I had taken her as a bedmate.

“Go finish reading the rest of the documents,” I instructed him. “I need to inform my queen of what has transpired.”

Verion nodded, then scurried off.

***

I was glad I didn’t have to order others out of the Dragon’s Entrance upon my arrival. I had little patience for anything but her. The ceremony required privacy, so the entrance was left unguarded.

I wanted nothing more than to snuggle back up to Kira and hold her tiny body against mine. I didn’t want to go to war now, even though my dragon urged me to.

But as I got closer to the entrance and neared the corner, I realized that Kira was nowhere to be found.

The room was empty of sounds and empty of her.

The bed she’d once lain in was empty, and the blankets disheveled and thrown onto the ground. Her dress lay on the cold stone. There was no sign of Kira. She was gone.

“Kira!” I called, but my voice echoed through the empty cave.

Why did she have to be so disobedient, even after we’d completed the ceremony?

I shook my head in irritation. “Verion!” I boomed as I stalked through the hallways, half irritated and half exhilarated by her little game.

I wondered what she was up to.

“Yes, my king?” Verion was rushing down the hallway now, at full speed, fear in his eyes. He was clutching several pieces of paper.

“Have you seen Kira?” I asked.

Verion shook his head. “But I finished reading the agreement, and it seems that the Saris aligned themselves with Harold in exchange for considerable gemstone wealth.”

“I wouldn’t have thought that the Valon’s mine was faring so well,” I replied. I wondered if King Harold had promised them riches he couldn’t deliver. “Well, I’ll deal with that matter later. Right now, the queen seems to be angry with me. Send a few servants to locate her.”

Verion hurried off again in the opposite direction.

I decided to do some searching on my own. There was a high possibility she’d be cooped up in our bedroom, pouting, or potentially wandering around the castle naked just to infuriate me.

But as I opened the door of our bedroom, panic rose through me. My queen wasn’t awaiting me in our bed, or luxuriating in a bath. There was no sign she’d come back to our rooms at all.

I tried to fight the panic away, but even Celen seemed alarmed.

As I walked down the hallway toward my office area, hurried footsteps sounded from behind me.

“My king!” Verion called out, and I turned and met his worried gaze. “My king, we cannot find the queen! But the closest stationed guards near the Dragon’s Entrance say they thought they heard a dragon roar!”

“So help me, if I end up being right,” I mumbled as I turned the corner and headed to Arion’s room. If I caught Kira with him, after I specifically warned her to stay away, I’d be fucking furious.

As I opened the door, almost tearing it off its hinges, I noticed that Arion was otherwise preoccupied with a blonde woman strewn across his bed, her head turned toward him and not visible to me, and her naked ass upright.

I raged internally, ready to rip his head off, but even Celen knew instantly the woman wasn’t Kira.

The woman turned to meet my gaze and shrieked as she tugged a white sheet over her body and ran to the bathroom.

Arion wanted to say something, but he knew better. He just lowered his gaze to mine and narrowed his eyes upon me.

“I’m looking for the queen. Have you seen her?” I spoke through a clenched jaw.

A smirk settled on his lips. I wanted to wipe that smirk right off his smug face.

But before Arion could answer, Verion burst in, clutching a discolored note in his hand. “My king, a note’s been delivered!” he said, out of breath.

Verion continued babbling about the contents of the note, “It’s a ransom note. They’ve taken the queen! They are demanding that we provide them with ten thousand gold coins in exchange for the queen’s safe return. They are requesting that it be delivered at midday to the mine by you and you alone, my king!”

And that was when I knew the truth.

King Harold had taken his own daughter. He was using her as a pawn in a game—his own daughter.

Celen battered inside me, roaring and setting my body ablaze. But it wasn’t just Celen that was ready to rip someone’s head off—it was me too.

My fists curled into balls as my fingernails tore into my skin, causing blood to form along the base of my palm.

Every fiber of my being ached. I needed to get her back.

“Guard the castle,” I ordered Arion. “They may be planning to attack while we’re distracted.” He nodded without arguing—for once—and began to get dressed.

I headed for the Dragon’s Entrance, giving orders to Verion as I walked. “Send a company of soldiers to the mine. And put guards around the castle. Nobody goes in or out. Have any member of the Sari family who can be found taken to the dungeons.”

I threw off my clothes and shifted, taking to the air. I could only hope I wouldn’t be too late.