“Holy shit,” Evelyn whispered.
Damien froze. Leo coughed and turned away, like he was about to vomit.
In the middle of the room sat four wooden chairs in a row, with a person seated in each one. Lengths of rope bound their torsos to the back of their chair and their forearms to the armrests. Every one of them was covered in blood and very, very dead.
The first fae was missing her eyes. She wore a tunic like Damien’s, but hers had blue thread on the sleeves and the symbol of an eye embroidered on the chest.
The second fae was missing his nose, like a beast had bitten it off. His tunic had red thread with a rose embroidered on it.
The third fae was missing his ears. His shirt was identical to Damien’s, with gold thread and a music note.
The fourth fae was missing her tongue. The whole thing had been ripped out, not cut. She had green thread on her sleeves and an apple embroidered.
All of their hands had been cut off at the wrist.
The missing eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and hands were nowhere to be seen.
“What the actualfuck?” Damien started to pace. “These are the godsdamned missing soldiers, Leo! Cyrille, Armel, Enéas, and Salomé! Why the fuck are they here?”
The balls of flame continued circling the room, and Evelyn spotted something else. There were words on the wall behind the dead soldiers. Words written in blood.
No, gods, not more blood.
“Leo?” Evelyn said shakily.
He moved to her side. “What is it?”
“Can you see that?” Evelyn pointed to the back wall.
Leo glanced around helplessly. “No. What do you see?”
“Someone used blood to write on the wall.”
She had Damien’s attention now, too. He stopped pacing to listen to her.
“What does it say?” Leo asked, sounding like he really, really did not want to hear the answer.
Evelyn hesitated, trying to breathe normally as panic rose in her chest.
“Evelyn,” Damien tried, his voice gentle. “What are the words on the wall?”
She clenched her fists, causing her nails to dig into her skin.
“It says…Kennedy was only the beginning.”
Leo’s eyes went out of focus, and Damien pushed out a breath.
“Does that mean the person who killed King Nolan and the Kennedy family killed these soldiers?” Evelyn asked.
Neither of the men responded.
“Is my family in danger?” Evelyn cried. “We took over for the Kennedys. Is my father safe? My brother is at the castle?—”
“We will keep you all safe,” Leo promised. “It will be okay.”
Evelyn nodded, forcing herself to believe him.
“Take her back to the palace,” Leo directed Damien. “Find the kings and give them a report. Just leave me out of it.”
