Ink

Chapter 51

"And you said the king went where?"

"Oh—" Mephistor stalls, not remembering his previous lie. With a smirk, it returns to him. "He was alerted last night of a human colony refusing to pay their tax and decided to see the situation for himself."

The official did not look convinced.

The young king had been thinking of the perfect excuse for the Kings absence. He had tried bouncing the others off of a few higher ups in the kingdom, however, when he realized the stories did not line up, he had to—rethink some of their positions at the castle.  The beast nearly chuckled at the memory.

"When will he be returning?" The man before asks, drawing him back to reality and out of his fond memories of murder.

Shît. He hadn't thought of that.

The beast had already decided to kill this man. He is seconds away from delivering a death blow before he comes up with another addition to his lie.

"—three days." He chokes out, trying to hide his emerging fangs. His tongue strokes one by accident and he grimaces from the slight twinge of pain.

The official notices but doesn't give anything away. He was well aware of the disappearances at the castle and had no intentions of being the next one to go.

"That sounds perfect, sire."

Mephistor raises a brow. "What?"

So he had actually managed to fool the man before him. The beast was wary, but figured he was telling the truth because he had compelled everyone in the castle to do so.

"I do have to be off for training in a little while, sire. Am I cleared to leave now?"

The king waves a dismissive hand.

With that, the man leaves—but not for training.

In fact, he hadn't been to training for days since he had almost killed one of his comrades in a spar. He was too strong to practice with his fellow officers, and he had no idea why.

He wanders down the halls of the castle, keeping a straight face to prevent anyone from asking him if he didn't belong. He didn't—that much he knew.

It had started around the time that the fugitive Klaus had escaped. He had been in the aircraft departure room and seen the take off that sent the king into an impeccable rage.

In fact—he was not only in the royal airport, but in the control room that was tasked with closing the gate. Obviously—they had failed. His friend had paid with his life after taking all of the responsibility on his shoulders.

He pauses in the center of the hallway, remembering the fateful night.

"Zeke, you have to go." Claud, his friend, yelled after they had failed to close the barrier. "Or he will kill you too."

"I'm not leaving you!" He responded. "We can survive this together!"

"They don't know how special you are, bud. They'll kill you as soon as they figure it out."

Zeke furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you—"

"No time. Take Dimitri to the king. He will spare your life then. Tell him it was all my fault, tell him that you tried but I wouldn't let you."

"No! Why would I do that Claud?"

"Because you need to survive. I feel like you hold a very big piece of this puzzle that you aren't aware of yet." With that he opens the door and runs out with his arms up. "Long live the resistance!"