Sticking his landing perfectly, Beaumont dismounted his horse and strode right for me.
Before he could get any closer, I drew my toxin-filled dagger from its sheath, pointing it towards his heart. “Don’t. Move.Or I will turn you into a pile of ash before you have even realized what has happened.”
The prick just laughed again. “What are you waiting for? Your whole little friend group has consistently been all talk but no bite.”
“We’ve been working down a strategic list of importance. Once we learned of your little hybrids, finding out how they were created and destroying your means of doing so moved ahead of killing you,” Kade snarled, then bobbed his head towards the red-headed woman. “New enchanter? Are youin lovewith this one as well?”
“I figured it was you all who killed Venay.” Beaumont’s face fell into a darkened expression that quickly shifted to a careless shrug. “When she didn't show up for our weekly meeting, I figured as much.”
“Weekly meeting?” I thought I had mumbled to myself, but the words had made it to the air.
“Yes. With the aid of alternative magic, of course. She would appear in Draemor, then be back to your father’s bedside within the hour. Nonetheless, I have replaced her with Marcileena.”
“Nice to kill you—I meanmeetyou.” Kohen bobbed his head at the woman, replacing Sawyer in the career field of delivering sarcastic remarks.
With a snap of her fingers, Marcileena had Kohen’s body pinned against a tree trunk by a chain of shadows, six feet off the ground.
“Marcileena.” Beaumont tilted his neck to the side. “Contain the marked one as well.”
Before my body and brain could make sense of what was happening, Marcileena had her magic wrapped around every part of my body, gluing me to the ground and holding my arms to my sides with a deep, black fog resembling shadows.
“How?” I muttered, not expecting a response, but to my surprise, was granted one.
“Alternative magic spreads even further than you know,” Marcileena grinned, directing her violet eyes to Beaumont. “I told you, give me some time. I can do so much more than my predecessor.”
“Why are you doing this?” I barred my teeth at Beaumont as my anger came to a fuming head. “Isn’t ruling one kingdom enough? Why do you need the entire Prilarean empire, and why the fuck do you need to destroy it with your creepy ass hybrids?”
“I am following my father’s legacy, finishing out the plan he had in place beforehis father,” he pointed to Sebastian, “ruined it by killing him and my mother.”
“You killed my mother first,” Sebastian spat, his normally cerulean eyes darkening to an almost-black shade of navy.
Beaumont fixated a stare on him. “And do you knowwhyI killed your mother?”
“To be a soulless prick. To ruin my father and emphasize how badly your bloodline desired the empire's vacant land.”
Beaumont shook his head. “Wrong. Allow me to explain, seeing as you clearly haven’t figured it out yet. Your mother had a part in all of this, Hawthorne.”
“We know about her journal,” I chimed in, the words unexpected even to myself. “We know that you were using it to make the Hykahs.”
“Lovely. That isn’t what I’m referring to, though,” Beaumont sneered through an awful grin. “If you know anything about Venay, then you may know how she grew up in Caelestis, and was in fact friends with Cicily Hawthorne. The two shared a lot of common interests, and were nearly sisters until Cicily Hawthorne tried to ruin it all.”
He paced the stretch of uneven terrain, carelessly passing his dagger between hands.
“Shortly after coming of age, Venay left Caelestis to do some exploring. Due to her upbringing, she had never seen much of what the Prilarean empire had to offer. Back then, leaving the borders of your kingdom was permitted. I met her in a local tavern one evening when she was visiting Draemor. We very quickly became good friends—lovers, even. And it wasn’t long before she felt comfortable enough to show me the alternative magic she practiced, and in return, I told her about my father’s plans for this empire.”
Cyprian gave Sebastian a once over before continuing.
“My father, Pervical Cyprian Beaumont, had the dream of claiming the empirelongbefore I took over his work. And your mother, Sebastian, only helped speed things along. You see, Cicily often told Venay things that shesaw, the most amazing vision being the creation of the Hykahs. When Venay shared this information with me, I knew it was something my father could use to assist in the execution of our plans. Venay—as in love with me as she was—agreed to return to Caelestis, retrieve Cicily's journal, then bring it back to Draemor. Before she returned withthe writing, Venay made the foolish mistake of telling her friend about our plans in hopes she would come back to Draemor with her. When Cicily declined and threatened to inform Aldous—well, you know the rest.”
Sebastian’s skin turned a shade of white that resembled the snow he could harness. “But…The blood bond. Why would Venay agree to do that if she was going to just betray Caelestis and my mother?”
“The blood bond took place long before I even met Venay.”
A revelation smacked me in the face, but Kohen beat me to the punch.
“Wait. Are you saying you’ve been creating Hykahs for…twenty years?”
Beaumont pressed a palm to his stomach and cackled. “At least that long.”
