Del gives me a soft smile. “Just consider it. No need for a decision right now. And in good faith, in love for Goreon and its people, I’ll give you everything.”
Character has always won me over with the people I let into my life. And Del is striding right up to my door and knocking so loudly it’s becoming hard to ignore him. “Tell me, Del.”
His eyes pierce mine. “Through the cellar, there’s a hidden door behind Aurelia’s cage. Inside, follow the passageway to the right. It dead-ends into his lair.”
“Thank you,” I say, lacing my tone with gratitude.
Emmanuel stands in his cell. “I’m so ready to kill some fucking vampires,” he says, fangs popping.
Del and I grin at one another.
“Me too,” I say, and Del winks at me.
We wait to be unlocked, resting fitfully through the day and bouncing around ideas for our castle takeover. When the following night begins to tick by, my unease mounts and the boredom eats at us.
“Where the fuck is everyone?” Emmanuel says, breaking the silence.
Del peers down the corridor, trying not to burn his cheek off on the bars, lips pursed. “No clue.”
Another hour passes before footsteps ping in the distance and, eventually, Second stalks through the dark at the end of the row of cells, covered in shit.
“Found your way in through the sewer, did you?” I ask. His grimace bubbles laughter I hold in my chest.
Second impales me with a glare. “Almost didn’t fit through the damn grate. And how about gratitude for getting your royal ass out of here? I’m so fucking pissed you got yourself locked in here, I can barely see straight.”
“Maybe it’s just the shit in your eyes,” Emmanuel says behind his bars.
Second points a thick finger at Em as he stalks up to our cells, pulling a ring of keys from his belt.
“You three are lucky I’ve been resourceful since the day I was fucking born,” Second spews and unlocks our cell before moving to Emmanuel’s.
“Lift some keys off a guard?” Emmanuel asks as Second clips the ring back on his belt.
“Something like that,” he says with a sly grin, and then twists to me with his eyebrows in the ceiling. “And where thehellare your clothes?”
“Nerian,” I growl.
Second wipes the sewage from his face the best he can while we all try not to gag. He breathes deeply once his face is clear enough, gaze settling on me. “Fuck this king. Are we ready to handle what we came here to do?”
“Yes,” I say, my mind focusing to a pinpoint as the moment I’ve been waiting for for so long is finally upon us.
“Considering the massive army under castle grounds, we propose a stealth mission. Swift and efficient before we’re completely fucked,” Emmanuel says, relaying our most favored option.
Second nods. “We need to eliminate the castle guards and Balor first. Nerian is old and strong; we don’t need other distractions.”
“Where’s Charlotte?” I ask.
“Where do you think?” Second laughs. “She’s distracting Nerian so I could swoop in with a heroic rescue.”
“And the position of our guards?” I ask.
“With Charlotte.”
Del leans against the stone wall, biceps and pecks quivering as he folds his arms over his chest. “The guards won’t be far from the king, and it’s Nerian, so he’s in his throne room, on the dais he loves, with Charlotte at his feet.”
I look my people in the eye as I speak. “We move quick, take out everyone before we find Charlotte and the king. I want this place to be agraveyard.And then we release everyone out of that farm. Out of the cellar. Out of those barracks that are nothing more than a prison. Out of thisfuckinghell!” I scream.
Del straightens from the wall, abs contracting under his effort. “Let’s get some clothes on and kill a king, then.”
