He smirked. “It was a smart move to start the fire.”
“Perhaps, but we need to put it out, which means we need water.Lotsof water.”
“Then we better move. Where’s the well?”
Together, we raced throughout the first floor until we found the kitchen and water pump. Using my telekinetic magic, we filled every jug, vase, pot, pail, and bucket we could find in the pantry and surrounding rooms.
Magic cascaded out of me as I commandedeverythingwe could find to carry water to the fire, again and again, as Koleworked his element and sucked all of the air from the room to smother the flames.
Together, using our combined powers, we put the fire out before it could destroy anything further.
And it was only once the fire stopped, and the charred, smoky remains lay before us, that I actually allowed myself to contemplate what we’d done.
A giggle burst out of me. “Stars and galaxy, you truly killed him. And quite gruesomely, I might add. He’s gone from my life forever.”
Kole gazed at my uncle’s dead remains and the burned vamfeers. A malevolent smile twisted his lips, but he sighed dramatically. “Alas, his death wasn’t nearly as drawn out as I wanted it to be, although cutting out his tongue and hacking off his body parts was immensely satisfying.”
Another laugh spilled from my lips, but I sobered. “We’ll go to prison for this if we can’t prove he turned me into a vampire and was behind my assassination attempts. We also need to prove he created the vamfeers and ordered them to attack the palace. And we need to discover if any more vampires are hidden, under his control, around the realm. We need to find proof.”
With a start, I remembered what I’d packed. I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled the looking glass out. It was unharmed, the glass still whole. Lifting it, I activated its magic.
The looking glass began to record, and I swung it around, documenting the destruction, the vamfeers, and my dead uncle’s charred remains, as gruesome as the scene was. “We need to record everything. From here on, we need to document everything we’re seeing and what we find.”
Kole put his hands on his hips, his eyes still glowing from the battle. “Where should we start?”
“The library. And then, we need to find if there are any more vamfeers on his estate, and we’ll need to burn those too.”
Koleand I spent hours working through the night. In the library, we found a plethora of information, and I realized that my uncle did have one downfall. His arrogance.
None of Arnel’s texts and homemade books were hidden. Everything was in drawers and chests. It was as though Arnel was so convinced of himself and his ability to outsmart everyone that he was fully confident nobody would ever search his estate.
Consequently, we collected all of my uncle’s texts on potions he’d created with the God of Night’s help, as well as his experimental documentation that had eventually resulted in the potion creating vampires, instead of vamfeers. And he had a list of his God of Night followers. It was thousands of fae long. So many that my mouth dropped at the sheer numbers.
Kole thumbed through the pieces of parchment that listed each fairy. “Something tells me these fae will either be the ones that have gone missing and were ultimately killed by warriors in the Wood and at the palace. Or, they were willing to be turned and are waiting for Arnel to call upon them.”
“And those that haven’t been killed today by us could also still be hidden on this property.”
But while we knew we also needed to scour the Wood and surrounding outdoors, we focused on the documentation first.
From one of Arnel’s homemade texts, I was incredibly relieved to discover that I was Arnel’s first vampire. He had names of other powerful fae who he planned to turn in the coming summers, but I was his only true vampire thus far.
“Prim, look at this.” Sometime during the wee hours of the morning, Kole showed me another book he found. It outlined Arnel’s master plan. It literally spanned centuries, and when I came to the last page, of what he’d ultimately planned on doing, nausea made my stomach roll.
Not only had he intended to take my father’s throne, but following that, he planned to take the entire continent, and after that, the realm. If he’d been allowed to continue and been left unchecked, within five hundred centuries, the fae lands—all of the continents, islands, and seas—would have bowed to Emperor Manafold.
“He even had a name picked out for himself.” I sneered, and disgust rolled through me. “And to think he thought this would eventually come to fruition.”
“If we hadn’t mated and the bond hadn’t protected me from you, it may have.” Kole took the looking glass and methodically scanned that book too.
We continued on into the night. It took hours of searching each room, but Kole and I used our inner magic to move at incredible speeds, allowing us to gather more information than most could.
I didn’t know if we had everything, but we’d uncovered enough incriminating evidence to prove to the courts how truly evil my uncle was. From here, the kingsfae could continue searching to see if anything else remained.
And after the books, lists, tomes, and scrolls were all carefully packed away, we discovered the remaining potions my uncle had. We found over a dozen vials, just like the one found in Verin’s room, in his potions room near the dungeon.
The sheer power emanating from the remaining vials nearly knocked me over, so much so that I held them at arm’s length. “We need to give all of this to the Imperial Council so they can test it and verify that it’s the same, or similar, to the potion youand Jamie found in Verin’s room. That’ll only further help prove our case.”
Kole held the looking glass over the vials as I carefully stowed them in an unbreakable container.
