“Richard?” A voice cried out.
It was male. Deep. Mature.
Was I really so lucky to have all three Beauradèls handed to me all in the same dawn?
I used Spirit Sight to track the source of the voice. I found a silhouette of a grown male, past their First Millennia, searching the Beauradèl Wood. Instinctively, I knew. It was Jacques Beauradèl.
An idea formed in my mind. Leaving Richard where he lay, I disappeared into the camouflaged cover of the Nanmiess, headed towards Marcèllian’s firstborn.
“Master Jacques, I don’t think Richard is out here.”
I found Jacques quickly, a few clearings over. His servant, a young Babephim—Lowerranks of the Twelfth Rank—also searched with an expression of defeat.
“We’ve searched nearly every inch of the wood. Yvette is already back. I’m sure the young master is simply playing around and he’ll return soon.”
I snorted.
Jacques frowned.
“You know I won’t hear the end of it if I return without the brat. Always running off like he has no home training. I loathe the dawns I have to share the air I breathe with him. I need to find him, or Papi won’t let me rest without bringing it up over and over for the next millennia.”
While Jacques griped about Richard, I went to work.
Hidden in the folds of the Nanmiess, I flexed a palm, drawing a singular soul to me. I coaxed it from my power and hummed a command. Obeying every word, the soul slithered toward Jacques, remaining almost invisible. While Jacques was distracted, the soul slipped off his signet ring from his finger. Quick as a flash, the soul returned to me with the signet.
Grinning, I spun away, leaving the babbling idiots behind. I flew back to Richard’s body. I frowned. What a shame he had to pay the price for his Papi’s actions.
I took Jacques’s signet ring, coated it in Richard’s blood, and placed the ring a few wing lengths away. I lowered to the ground, creating footprints that led towards and away from Richard’s body. Grinning from ear to ear, I laughed in vindication.
“It’s too easy to make you scream, Marcèllian. But by the time I’m through, you willsing.”
Chapter 21
Nahomie
“Roièssa,care for a stroll through the garden?”
“I care to know where my husband is.”
Annoyed by Tassarion’s absence, I stomped through Everthorn Manor, too agitated to fly. My sandals sank into the plush rug with every step as I navigated my way through the darkened corridors. I itched to yank every last one of them open. For now, I let them be, resolving to adjust to the ever-present darkness. The familiar thick fog of the manor began seeping out from the floorboards and the walls, trailing me wherever I stepped. Irritated to the point of combustion, I abruptly stopped walking, thrusting the taloned point of my wings at the fog.
“Enough. Find someone else to shadow. This dawn I’m not in the mood.”
The fog shriveled back, flinching from my aggression. Pulling away from me, it faded until it disappeared altogether. Whirling around, I huffed, continuing to stomp through the manor. I had no actual destination, but walking the long halls of this colossal manor was just the release all of my pent-up frustration needed.
“Roièssa, I think a stroll through the garden will help,” Obsidian tried again.
The gargoyle trailed me, easily keeping up with my gait. When I decided to walk, he took it upon himself to do the same. Except with every step he took, minor tremors in the floor followed. It didn’t help that he’d also brought Coralai, one of the Gargorètti females. And she was just as heavy-footed as he was.
“Hèls. Or a flight beneath the surface of the Ouanaviel Sea,” Coralai grumbled.
I’d been in a mood all dawn and she wasn’t impressed in the slightest. I shot her a glare from the corner of my eye without responding. The female gargoyle glared back, as if biting my head off would bring her the greatest joy.
“I think both of you can piss off. I didn’t ask you to come.”
I kept walking, trying to create distance between myself and the two imposing gargoyles.
“Oh, come on, Roièssa. Don’t be that way,” Obsidian pleaded. “We’re just trying to help.”
