Kailia looked up too. He’d given her a small pile of mundane things. Why she wanted to spend her days here doing this was beyond him, but ever since the night she’d told them some of her past, she’d spent her days in this study whenever he was here. There hadn’t been any advisory meetings, and he didn’t let her sit in on daily updates from Zayan. He wasn’t about to hand over his kingdom to her, but ever since the night of their union, she’d insisted this is what she’d wanted. He thought she’d been trying to appease him in some way, but nearly three months later, she was just as relentless.
Tybalt came through the door, and Razik stood at his uncle’s entrance. If Kailia was here, that meant Razik was here. Which was fine, Cethin supposed. Annoying, but fine. Annoying because the male was proving useful, and more than once, when Kailia had posed a question about this matter or that, Razik had offered sound counsel and insights. Almost as if he was her Hand of the Queen in a way.
“Your Majesties,” Tybalt said with a bow of his head. He looked from Cethin to Kailia and back before he said, “I have a sensitive matter to discuss, Cethin.”
“Of what nature?”
“One that I’d rather discuss with you alone.”
He studied the Commander. His grim features and the tight line of his jaw. The faintly glowing eyes, despite not having shifted. And he knew.
“You can speak in front of your queen, Commander,” Cethin said, sitting back in his chair and rubbing his temple.
“Cethin, I don’t think?—”
“More Fae were discovered dead?” he interrupted.
Tybalt paused, his lips pressing into a thin line. “Yes.”
“How many?”
He hesitated, glancing at Kailia again. Razik had moved closer, standing beside her, and she had set her work aside, listening intently.
“Twenty-five,” Tybalt finally answered. “Near Everfall.”
“Everfall?” Kailia asked. “Haven’t the recent attacks been here? Near Aimonway?”
“Yes,” Tybalt answered. “We thought there had been a tactic. A pattern we’d been seeing, but this breaks any of those patterns.”
“We can’t consider it a one-off either,” Cethin said, shoving a hand through his hair. “Not when it claimed the lives of twenty-five Fae. That’s more than the last three attacks combined.”
“Agreed,” Tybalt said.
“And there are no clues as to why this keeps happening? Nothing that links them all together?” Kailia asked.
“The victims are always Fae. That’s it,” Cethin answered.
“There has to be something,” she argued.
“Nothing we’ve discovered after years of investigation,” Tybalt replied. “But something has caused the increase in deaths.”
“So much for bringing the Fae to Aimonway to keep them safe,” Cethin muttered.
“But they didn’t all come to Aimonway if these were found near Everfall. Isn’t that on the other side of the continent?” Kailia asked.
“Not quite,” Razik answered. “It’s on the east side of the Olwen Mountains in the Korra Forest.”
“Why wouldn’t they come to Aimonway?”
“We can’t force them to uproot their lives,” Cethin said. “We offered protection, and some chose to take it. Not that it has done any good.”
“We’d hoped with so many Fae in one area, it might draw the threats closer. Make them easier to identify,” Tybalt said.
“You were using the Fae as bait?” Kailia asked.
“In a sense, I guess you could call it that,” Tybalt answered. “With the intention of intervening before there were any more deaths.”
“That did not work,” Kailia said, her words tight.
