Blakeshire (Insight #9)(97)
“Against her will, no doubt,” Draven declared.
“The audacity you have,” Xavier ridiculed. “Ask any of my men. Ask the servants that saw us enter that room and leave with her.”
“The question is how she arrived there,” Draven said as he glared at Britain.
Xavier scowled at Draven. “We have laws here. An unfaithful woman cannot court our king. Clearly, at dinner last night you were already aware of this affair, for your actions declared that. Therefore, you are subject to treason as well.”
Draven bowed his shoulders back. “We are immortal, you fool.”
“Are you?” Xavier spat back at him.
“That is what he clearly stated,” Drake said as he crossed his arms.
No matter how much I stared at him, he refused to let his eyes meet mine. He refused to show any connection whatsoever to me. Why in the hell was he not stopping time? Why was he not letting the three of us figure this out while the others stood frozen? Was he really that furious at me? Did he honestly believe I was there on purpose? Or was he just furious that I had not stayed in the little cage he had built for me? Either way, he was royally ticking me off.
Drake moved around his desk with all the grace of a stoic king. “Therefore, she will be subject to an immortal death.”
Do what?
Everyone in the room, with the exception of Zander, must have thought the same thing. They all looked at Drake at once.
“If she survives, then clearly you will stop your foolish protest,” Drake said evenly to Xavier.
“This is foolish. No. The dungeon now,” Alamos said as he waved his arms for us to leave.
“Speak against me once more, and you will face the same test,” Drake said to Alamos with a wicked smirk on his face.
“Power has gone to your head,” Alamos retorted.
“No. Reason has. Today, I proved I do not need a queen to save souls in this world. One by one, I will knock down your outdated laws. She survives, the argument stops. She does not, I move forward and take a queen when I damn well feel like it.”
“You had help. I am no fool,” Xavier spat at Drake.
Within that instant, Xavier was five feet in the air, struggling with an invisible hold on his neck.
“And who is helping me strangle the life out of you now?” Drake said coolly, glancing up uncaringly at Xavier.
Alamos bowed before Drake. “Sire, bloodshed is not needed to prove your point. We stand in awe of the power that the Creator has bestowed upon you.”
Xavier dropped to the floor at that instant. Drake smirked at Alamos. “Save your bullshit for someone who needs to hear it.” His eyes moved to Draven. “An immortal execution. One hour. If she survives, she will state what fate will come to this one,” he said with a nod to Britain. “If not, I will handle him personally.”
With that, he turned and went back to his desk, as if he had more important matters than me to deal with. The man portraying Alamos came to my and Draven’s side and nodded for us to walk forward.
“You. Old man,” Drake said to him. “You’re not leaving my sight.” He looked down to the papers on the desk as if he were only half-heartedly aware of what everyone else was doing. “Guards.”
That instant, Zander, along with the others, escorted Draven and me out.
We had to traverse the entire palace once again. By the time we reached the other side, I would have only minutes to figure out how not to die.
“Unless I have missed some all important memo, I’m not immortal,” I said quietly enough that Draven was the only one that could have possibly heard me.
He glanced at me. When he did, I let him see what Aden and I had gone through and focused hard on the last place I had seen him. He needed to figure out if he was okay.
Draven nodded once and opened his mind for me to see into him.
I didn’t understand how he knew, but I knew that both Landen and Draven were aware of where Aden was and had done everything they could to help him. Draven had no idea if Aden was okay or not. His role was to come to me, be an ambassador for me, and because he had, Charlie was left unguarded. I had placed us all at risk and felt like a fool because I had. Maybe death was warranted. Me and my stupid obsessions.
“Plans?” I whispered, wanting to know if he had any clue how I was supposed to survive this. Draven furrowed his brow as if I should already know. That was when I saw his perception of what happened in that room with Drake.
Though the argument was sharp and fierce between all the men, Draven and Drake were having their own little silent conversation. Drake was showing Draven the explosion, pointing out the time between them. He was showing him something that looked like a massive well. With the explosion, the water rose. It fell after the first blow, then rose again with the second blow.
“Not helping.”
“Aden. Boat.”
I furrowed my brow as I looked up at him. When Aden told me about finding that boat, we were running for our lives. I was way too wigged out to see him then, but Draven was able to go back to that moment and see Aden’s point of view through my thoughts. What he saw was that the side of that hollow room that I was in had only three openings—the small one we were at and a massive one above it. On the stone above the massive passage, there was a carving of the most insane octopus I had ever seen.
The remains of the glass boat were found on the opposite side of the room.