The third book in the series The Queen's Lion. The Queen's Lion and The Queen's Lion: Disciplined can be found on my page and are needed to understand the premises and plot of this book.
Y/N has disappeared without a trace. The closest thing to a cl...
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The room was dark. Shadows were cast across the walls and floor as moonlight slipped past the curtains hanging over the glass windows. Not a single sound was being made. No mice dared to skitter across the floor. No one dared to breathe. And the dead lay there, bleeding and staining the wooden floors red, not uttering a single plea for help. Even the blood that was gushing out of the massive crater of a wound on Derrick Arden's forehead did so silently, so as to not disturb the peaceful night on which he was murdered. And along with being too terrified to make a sound, each of the four boys were also frozen into place with fear. In fact, the only thing in the room that dared to move was the growing pool of blood that was oozing out of Derrick's brain. It was the same color as his Red House tie that was wound so tightly around his collar.
Finally, one boy mustered up the courage to kneel over Arden and inspect the fresh corpse that was sprawled out on the floor. Violet touched Derrick's face as if his shattered skull was a bomb ready to explode. "He's... Stopped breathing," Violet murmured as the pads of his fingers were stained red from the rivers of blood flowing from the crown of Adren's head.
Greenhill was already trembling, but now his face was drained of all possible color and he looked ready to vomit. "Th-the blame rests squarely on my shoulders," he muttered, his eyes blown wide with the horror of the realization that he had just bludgeoned a classmate to death. "What on Earth have I-"
"Calm down, Greenhill!" Redmond cut off his fellow classmate before he could begin to spiral further. Gripping onto Greenhill's shoulder, Redmond said, "This is as it should be... No." Redmond's hands fell to his side and a dark look cast itself over the boy's glimmering red eyes. "This was our only option."
"Indeed..." Bluewer agreed reluctantly. "But how should we handle the matter?" It was easier for the Blue House Prefect to observe the issue as a theory, as an equation with a missing variable, rather than a murder. "Greenhill will be accused of murder if we do nothing."
Redmond had begun to sweat. "I have an idea," he admitted. "Won't you leave this to me?"
And so they did. The Red House Prefect might not have seemed to be the best person to leave the responsibility of covering up a homicide, as he was from the House of Beauty rather than Brains. Yet Redmond proved himself to be rather resourceful. As Red House was the House of the highest ranked aristocrats and nobility, it was known widely for the connections the students and their families possessed with each other, and with the underworld. While none of the boys cared to admit anything that might damage their family's shining appearance by tainting it with the stain of the crime underworld, rumors still ran rampant through Red House about whose family knew who. And by pulling strings coated thick in the blood of innocent and guilty people alike, Redmond was able to make contact with a man who claimed he could help.
"He says he'll be here at first light tomorrow," Redmond told his friends as he held a crumpled telegram between his perfectly manicured fingers.
"What a relief," Violet muttered as he wrapped his cloak tighter around himself.
