Chapter 382

When he saw that the door to the library was open, Lucien quickened his step. He knew before he'd gotten there that Elain was gone. The library was empty, and he spared a quick glance around it before he turned on his heel and raced back out into the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Siv asked, hurrying to keep up.

"We need to get Helion and then go for the Throne Room." Lucien didn't bother to slow down, turn around, or direct his response toward the others. He strode quickly, barely holding himself back from a run. He shouldn't have left her. No duty or responsibility was worth more than she was. The only responsibility that mattered was his responsibility to protect his mate. "Fuck…" he breathed, turning the next corner as he headed South. He wondered if Helion knew they had been taken, but brushed that thought aside. Surely if the High Lord had been aware of that the whole palace would be aware of it as the reaction would have been rather conspicuous.

Siv and Kaii were at his heels, and he hadn't even been aware of the fact that they had caught up to him. They kept pace with him, and Lucien was thankful for that. "It's about the right time." Kaii put in. "The High Lord should be there to meet us."

"Hope so." Lucien said, thinking that if his father wasn't there, that he was probably going to go and get Elain and his mother by himself.

By the time they got to the meeting spot, Lucien was trying to psyche himself up to taking on the Throne Room alone. He wasn't going to ask Siv and Kaii to go with him as it likely wasn't going to end well, but he rather suspected that they would insist on coming. "Cauldron boil and fry me." He muttered, hoping that he wasn't about to get everybody killed.

"He's Amala's uncle." Tisia's voice was soft in Elain's ear, and Elain frowned as she looked at the male sitting upon Helion's throne.

"Her uncle?"

"Yes." Elain glanced at Tisia to see her nodding.

"I don't recognise him." She was fairly certain she had not seen him around the Court at any point since she and Lucien had been in the Day Court. He hadn't been at any of the dinners or functions, at least, not that she had noticed.

"He lives in a large manor outside of the city." Tisia whispered and Elain looked critically at Amala's uncle. He had the same bronze skin that Amala did and she supposed that she could see a familial sort of resemblance. "He would be the head of the family, technically. They are a large family. And an old one. One of the oldest in the Day Court." Tisia lowered her voice even further when one of the Courtiers stalked past. "That's part of his claim to the throne. He thinks that he has the right and, he's claiming, the responsibility to step up and lead the Court in a better direction than he thinks the High Lord is."

A derisive sniff from the other direction told Elain that Ashk had also been listening to Tisia, and was not impressed.

"She's helping him?" Elain asked Tisia, inclining her head slightly in the direction of Amala who stood upon the dais close to the throne. Amala's eyes were downcast and it seemed to Elain as if she were trying to keep herself from looking at the rest of the hall.

"Yes…" Tisia sounded bitter and Elain understood that.

She watched Amala for several moments, trying to put herself into her head. She'd known that Amala was from a large family with many branches all over the Court and she had known that the family was rather influential. It stood to reason that such a family would have been only too pleased to have one of their own reach a position in the Court like Amala had. For an instant, Elain felt a rush of pity for Amala. It wasn't hard to imagine the kind of pressure that her family would have put on her, pushing her to do what they had wanted. Whose idea had the faebane at the café been? Had that been Amala or what her uncle had wanted? Had anything Amala done been of her own volition, or had she been a puppet the entire time?

"How long have you known Amala?" Elain asked Tisia who narrowed her eyes.

"Our whole lives."

"Really?"

"Our families move in the same circles."

Elain figured that must have been pretty obvious as they had ended up as courtiers at the same time. They all must have known one another for a long time. "And has she always been…?"

"A traitorous bitch?"

Elain turned her eyes on Tisia. Her friend wiped her cheek, sniffing. "I…" she didn't know what to say to her.

"She's watched everything they've done…" Tisia breathed, sniffling. "They…" she broke off and Elain's eyes slid, against her will, toward the other side of the hall. She hadn't yet looked at the faces of the dead, and she dreaded who she would find over there. "She didn't do anything…"

Elain was thankful that when she found Eria's face, unmoving and turned their way, it was covered by her messy blonde hair, hiding the horrified expression that must have been etched there forever. Her stomach twisted and Elain looked away, smoothing her dress down over her legs. She didn't want to see anymore, and she didn't think that she would be able to forget the way that blonde hair had been stained red with blood and stuck together.

"Eria was three ago…"Tisia breathed, and Elain remembered what she had been told about someone being killed each time they had refused to give up information on Helion.

Swallowing she gripped a handful of Ashk's dress. "We need to get out of here."