How was this happening?
How had they taken our girl?
Time was of the essence to save her, and we weren’t going to waste a single minute.
While I generally tried to remain the level-headed member of the group—especially in high tension situations such as the one we were currently—I was finding it fucking impossible to do that now. Not when it came to Kyella and her safety. No one was safe from my wrath or my suspicions.
Not even our Empress.
Elijah called out to the two private guards stationed outside the doors, “Out of our way, now!”
They exchanged looks of trepidation and he barked out, “I’m not fucking asking again!”
The Empress's voice rang out from behind the doors, not needing to be told who was demanding entrance. “Let them in.”
With her command, they nodded and parted, leaving the way forward clear for us. It was a good move on their part because I was two seconds away from using brute force to remove them from their post. As it was, it was a miracle we hadn’t taken our anger out on the guards that blocked our way at the harbor, but now our patience was running paper thin.
The doors of her private suite of rooms flung open as I smashed my hands against them. We strode forward, my eyes roving the space for a glimpse of her. Anger flared within me as we paced through the room, finding the Empress on her private balcony where she stood overlooking her city and the sea where Malakai’s lone ship sat.
Where Kyella was.
She didn’t bother to look at us, keeping her even gaze on the outside world. My gut churned. It looked as if she was taking in the beautiful weather the day brought us instead of the reality of a war sitting at our doorstep. A war which had been catapulted into action with their abduction of Kyella.
Myrin had a lot of damn nerve, cutting off our only way to get our girl back. Did she expect us to just sit down and have a warm cup of blood with her while crossing our fingers that Kyella was somehow returned to us? Fuck no. Absolutely not.
While she was our Empress and we respected her, if I was forced to pledge loyalty to one over the other,it would be with Kyella. Always. At this point, I was certain Elijah and Dakath would say the same.
There was no doubt Kyella had left the city. Her scent trailed out to the water and then disappeared, so the only optionwasthat she had left the harbor. What was Myrin thinking? Who knew what Kyella endured each minute she was away from us.
Just the memory of seeing her fed upon in Malakai’s throne room had my blood boiling to an uncontrollable level.
“Why would you block us from leaving the harbor?” I snarled, heart pounding so loud and fast it felt like it was lodged in my throat. “You know we need to go after her! Every second is precious when it comes to getting her back. This is wasting time we do not have to spare.”
Dakath’s hand fell onto my shoulder heavily, stopping me in my tracks before I could get too close to the Empress. The fact thathewas the one stopping me spoke volumes.
Fuck. This would forever be imprinted on my consciousness as one of the worst days of my life. The thought of Kyella being taken from us turned my stomach sour, but the thought of her being under Malakai’s thumb again…That made me want to burn the world down.
I would never allow her to be in his grasp ever again. I’d lay my life down to ensure that reality didn’t come to pass. The fact that we were being contained within the city, being prevented from even trying to rescue her, infuriated me.
Myrin’s head swiveled to glare in my direction, her gaze darkening with a mixture of anger and sadness. The emotion lurking there relayed how hurtful my words were to her. “You think I would make such a choice without reason, Kolvar?”
The gut-wrenching look, coupled with her words, gave pause to my anger. What did she mean by that? Was my fury misplaced, or was it just?
My mind raced, at war with what I knew in my heart. The Myrin I admired would never place an innocent life at risk. She would do everything within her power to protect her people, but I simply could not understand why she would dothis. It seemed like the exact opposite of what I would normally expect from her. The exact opposite of what we needed to do to save Kyella.
“I…I don’t know what to think right now, Myrin,” I offered as my jaw clenched in frustration, shaking my head before running my hand through my hair and tugging on the ends lightly. I relished the slight sting of the pain.Fuck, this was all so messed up.
Lowering my gaze to the ground, my voice cracked with emotion as I whispered, “All I know is that I need her back. I need Kyella.”
My throat tightened with the admission, and I let my head hang toward the ground as I held back the tears burning in my eyes, threatening to come to the surface. I didn’t give a shit if it made me look weak, but I had to hold the wave of emotion at bay. We didn’t have the time for me to lose my shit right now.
Dakath’s hand rested on my shoulder, squeezing it at my emotional admission before pulling away and letting his arm fall down to his side. I lifted my head as he passed me, walking toward Myrin. “We all need Kyella back. Please explain yourself.”
Her shoulders and chest heaved as she took a deep breath and glanced back out to the sea. “I need you three to wait here while I employ a plan. I can’t risk anything messing it up, I’m sorry. I know that is asking a lot of you.”
She…she had employed a plan without consulting us? A plan that didn’t include us? How was that even possible?
We were the most skilled within her army, and thus should have been leading said plan. And we had just been with her! How the hell did she have the time to come up with a plan, call for those that she needed to enact it, and send guards to tunnels and harbor to cut us off in such a short period?Noneof this added up, and it drove me mad.
