Page 50 of A Requiem of Fire and Ice

Soon, crimson, hatred, and revenge will flow through Elden Keep.

A manic, hysterical laugh bubbles up from my lungs. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…Typha.”

Chapter 23

Reen Kyong, July 10th

Who knew that the one forcing me to stay would be the new king? If anything, I assumed he’d want me to fuck off and be done with me. The more distance, the better. Instead, I have a freshly crowned fucking king already spitting demands, so I can’t leave until he goes back on his word. Unfortunately, the set of his face, the arch of his chin, and the sparkle in his blue eyes say otherwise.

He’s fucking in love with my hunt.

“Brother, let me kill her and end this,” I say.

“No,” Walkyer says stubbornly. “We don’t know if it’s her. You’re to bring her back unharmed and in for questioning. Understand?”

I want to strangle him. Wrap my hands around my foolish brother’s neck and watch it snap, but—I wince at the memory of him standing over me, arms stretched out on either side defensively. He stared daggers at the ones that crowded around me in an act of violence.

Muttering a swear, I step back and clench my hands into fists.

“Understand?” Walkyer presses.

“Clearly,” I say through clenched teeth.

Walkyer sags his shoulders in relief and eases back into the throne with discomfort. “Good. I will get Alad to write a contract for you.”

Fuck. He’s aware that I only agree to things through contracts. I step forward and say, “Let me kill her, regardless of whether she’s the killer. Ri and Alek informed me she was involved with a group of smugglers when they went to Oceanview Harbour.”

“And how do they know that?” Walkyer presses because he’s in love with a fucking girl he met once! Once! And in fucking passing! “They could have just been neighbours.”

“Ri,” I say.

Ri steps forward. She flicks her curly green hair away from her dark skin and declares, “The Old Wolf tried to discard her phone when we entered her home. Unfortunately for her, we salvaged what we could, and Pandora Averis’s number was a frequent caller on her recent list.” Ri eyes me when she says, “Mind you, it could be a neighbour checking in on another neighbour.” She looks at Walkyer again and grimaces. “But the phone call ten minutes after King Ragan’s death was…brief. Shortly after that, another brief conversation occurred. Then, another phone call later that day.”

“And?” my blinded brother persists.

Ri sighs. “Why not text? The three conversations were brief enough for them to communicate through messages. So, my conclusion is that they didn’t want their conversations logged and were good at it. There have been many phone calls between the two, but not a single text message. It’s strange.”

“Besides,” Alek says, “the neighbours all said they never got along, and this…Nancy…would often speak ill of her loud neighbour who brought her boyfriend home almost every evening.”

“Boyfriend?” Walkyer murmurs. The hint of light fades in his blue eyes at the thought of the girl he fucking met once in a relationship.

“Ex, perhaps,” Alad chimes in. “It seems the fire elemny tethered while exploring Flesh. Relationships often fade when a significant other tethers to someone else.”

I grunt my response.

“I also contacted the taxi company in case she travelled by car. He dropped her off at the Crimson Hotel the morning of King Ragan’s death at eleven twenty-five.”

“To think I would have missed her,” Walkyer speaks, more to himself than to us, so I ignore it.

“And where are her companions?” I drawl.

“Astin has him in the interrogation room now…with his friends. They wouldn’t leave his side,” Alad says with a bemused look.

I turn away from Walkyer and head to the doors.

“Where are you going?” Walkyer demands.

“Questioning them,” I say with a wave of my hand.