Chapter 329

Pacing back and forth, Lucien tried to keep his hands out of his hair because he knew that he would just begin ripping it out in frustration. Helion had said he would meet him in here ten minutes ago, and yet he hadn't shown and Lucien was beginning to lose it. He wanted to be out in the city, looking for Elain. He would go door to door if he had to until he found her. He would find her. If he could get out there. His father, however, had told him to meet him here, and Lucien was just about done waiting. He wouldn't wait here while his mate was somewhere out there. Lucien had never been good at sitting still, and he wasn't about to start now.

When Helion strode into the room, Lucien nearly launched himself at him. "What's going on?" he demanded, "Have you found out anything?" There was only one excuse that Lucien could come up with for why his father had been late, and that had been that the High Lord had been gathering useful information.

"I've heard whispers."

"And what have they said?" Lucien pushed on. He wanted details. He wanted answers. "Where have they come from?"

"I have my spies." Helion said, sitting down and pressing the tips of his fingers together in a thoughtful way.

"… and?" Lucien pressed. His patience was well and truly shredded into threads he couldn't put back together.

"All of the whispers seem to involve a single neighbourhood." He said, "And it is on the route the Courtiers usually take on their walk."

"Good." Lucien gestured to the door in a huge sweeping motion. "Let's go!"

"We can't just run off half cocked."

"We can." Lucien replied, "Let's go…" he swept his arm at the door once more, and Helion shook his head. Lucien clenched his teeth, trying to hold himself together and resist the fiery explosion he felt building within. "How can you just sit?" he exclaimed. "Elain is out there! My mother is out there…" he gestured at the door again, this time more vigorously, "You know where!"

The look that his father gave him then told Lucien that the High Lord thought that he was being rash and impulsive. He had fire in his veins, fire in his blood. He'd gotten that from his mother, and Lucien wasn't sorry for it. Remembering that he was the heir to the Day Court though, and Helion's son, Lucien tried again to calm himself. Helion had far more experience with things like this, with everything really, and the High Lord knew his Court and the city better than Lucien did. He would be stupid not to trust in what his father had to say, that was why he had gone to him in the first place, Lucien knew.

"Do not think that I choose to remain here before acting because I do not wish to get out there and find them." Helion said, voice measured. Lucien looked steadily at his father and perhaps a month or two ago he would not have been able to read that handsome face as well as he could now. A month or two ago Lucien would not have noticed the tightness around those amber eyes, or the pain within them. "Half my Court is missing."

"Of course." Lucien bowed his head in agreement. He had been so blinded by the fact that his mate was missing, along with his mother, that Lucien hadn't really spared a thought for the other Courtiers they had been with. He knew that, when he was High Lord, that was not something he could have afforded to do. Helion's responsibilities went beyond personal desires. "I apologise." He said, linking his hands together before himself to keep them still.

"I understand." Helion said, "I do understand how hard this is for you, and I give you my word as the High Lord of the Day Court, and as your father, that we will put every resource at our disposal to find them."

"Alright." Lucien breathed, "Then what's next?"