Darkness and Beauty (The Fated Series, #1)

Chapter 25 - Lance - Promise

My head hurts. Not because Darius - or the Demoni or whatever my sister's calling it - rammed his knee into my head when I tried to put him in another headlock, but because I literally can't take the damn stress of this assignment.
Will's already made two moves but hasn't made another since, Darius just skyrocketed to a whole new kind of dangerous, and I have to deal with the change in guard posts that everyone's still bitching about. I know I said that I wished something eventful would happen so I wasn't sitting on my ass all day, but this isn't what I had in mind. What I did have in mind, was...well, something like Kat. Admittingly not something exactly like her, but something of similar lack of chaos.
Since that day she kept me from murdering Aillard, we've talked more often here and there in passing. She joins me and the Queen during the walks in the garden when she's not tending to my sister, and I find myself looking forward to it every day. I still see Rose in her, but the more I get to know Kat, the more I find the differences and feel myself ease. She's got Rose's wildness, but hers is more of eccentric energy than a calmer one. She hates awkward silences unless there's food involved, and she has gossip and stories to talk about for days on end.
I let her and the Queen steer and continue the conversations, opting to simply listen. Every now and then we'll talk alone, but with me having to stay at the Queen's side and the rest of the shit going on, it's rare.
I refrain from bringing her up when Fauna and I talk in the night. Knowing my sister, if I so much as even glance at Kat, she'll be making arrangements to play matchmaker. I didn't necessarily like the idea of making the bargain with her three nights ago, but she was right when she said that we've been mourning for long enough.
Now I just need to keep her from throwing someone in my bed and locking me in my room.
Kat's the one thing that doesn't make me want to bang my head on a wall all day. After talking to the woman that burned my sister's rooms, I had a group of sentinels assigned to going throughout the castle and searching everyone's mouths for anyone else who may have a fake tooth made of poison. I've been keeping the searches spontaneous to keep the moles from popping them out and hiding them somewhere before the guards check them. Three days hasn't been enough to search even a quarter of the castle's staff, not if we want to catch them off guard. Kat, Thomas, and Lena offered to help, but the last thing I needed was for them to be caught snooping in other servant's belongings. If they were, then Aillard would question them and pin them for the traitors.
Then there's the matter of keeping the castle secure while the guards adjust to their new tasks. The glowers and snarls have been reduced, but the officers and Aillard still make their rebellion known. The progress is painstakingly slow, but part of me thinks that they're all doing it on purpose. It's like they want Will and his merry band of misfits to put an arrow through the King's head.
Nevertheless, give it a few more days and they'll likely be molded into shape in no time. Aillard is still someone who I want to punch, but I've kept our conversations short and to a minimum.
I was actually finally getting some rest and silence one night when Kat and Thomas ran into my rooms, footsteps louder than a giants. I was in the motion of relieving myself of weapons, but quickly strapped them back in when they told me that something was wrong in the Prince's tower. They didn't see anything and were finishing up with restoring Darius's room when they heard a crash and The Dozen shouting. They came straight to me through the secret tunnels Fauna told me about. I had another twenty guards stationed in the Queen's chambers before running to my sister's room. By the time I got there everything had settled. I found The Dozen in the foyer discussing something about using chains instead of a rope.
"Maybe we should drag an anchor in here," Gabe suggested.
"You're more than welcome to, but I'm not helping you carry the damn thing up those stairs."
"What a real friend you are, Al."
"What's-" That's when I noticed Fauna lying on the ground in front of the bed, a blood-soaked towel pressed against the side of her head. "What the fuck happened?"
"I'm fine."
"Like hell you are."
Turns out the Prince has a demon inside of him that has bloodlust for my sister. They already sent Benny – who's the fastest of them all – to go get Siscilla. While she mended Fauna's cracked skull Ethan caught me up on the latest news. If my sister hadn't already been hit enough that night, I would've given her another crack for not telling me that she was nearly choked to death. She said it wasn't necessarily important to the task at hand, and Gods spare me, it took every ounce of effort to keep me from strangling her and telling her that her life is way more Gods dammed important than the task at hand.
Darius was unconscious in the bathroom at the time. Siscilla had to heal his head as well from my sister having rammed it against the sink's edge. I stayed the rest of the night, watching over both the Prince and my sister as they slept. I left Kat and Thomas with the Queen, that way if something happened they could lead her out through the tunnels. The Dozen stayed in the foyer just in case the Prince woke up in a stupor again.
When the sun rose and he woke up entirely himself, I let him get his bearings before walking back to the Queen. The effort it took not to beat him to a pulp for hurting Fey...I got out of that tower before I could beat all fourteen of their stupid asses.
I wanted to know what happened while he was sleeping for him to turn into Helias, but by the way he kept rubbing at his face and taking shuddering breaths while glancing at Fauna, it told me that then wasn't the time. He'll talk about it when he's ready, even if it is highly inconvenient.
None of that is even the worst part. Oh no, the worst part, if having to now report this all back to my father. I've had the entire walk from the castle to the House of Jade to contemplate how I should bring up each subject, but so far, I've got nothing. From the way Fauna's been rubbing her nail against her thumb, I'd say she's just as empty-handed as me. Either that, or she's trying to keep her mind off from the bruises thickly coating her back. We waited until after Darius's now nightly demon summoning before leaving the castle. He only ever wakes up two-eyed once a night, and tonight, he decided to kick and punch Fauna's back and throw her against the bedpost. I have bruises of my own blooming from when he threw me into a table and then smashed a chair over my ribs. The Demoni seems to make him ungodly strong.
And a bitch.
The Dozen have bloody noses and dislocated joints being patched up by the Anevay, but Fauna and I needed to get down here before our dad killed us for not showing up, so we left without another word.
Darius is fine. He snapped out of it just before the Demoni nearly broke her spine and locked himself in the bathroom. He was still in there when we left, refusing to so much as answer anyone who tried to get him to unlock the door so Siscilla could check him for any injuries. Fauna wanted to stay and try to get him out, but I convinced her to leave him in the care of his friends and the Anevay.
So now we're both sore and cranky and have to prepare for the possibility that our father isn't going to like any of this. I'm more than excited to see the only home I've ever known again, but at the same time, I wish I were back inside the castle walls. I'm not entirely sure how my father will react. Sometimes he's so calm that he just gives you more instructions and then sends you on your way with a bit of "good luck." Others...you're not so fortunate.
We walk straight through the house, everyone already cleared out and out of earshot from where our father sits at his desk. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't show."
"Apologies father," I say as we put our hands across our chest.
"And what is it that kept you?
"An interesting story, that's what." Fauna drapes herself over one of the chairs, her left hand hidden between her and the backrest clutched in a tight fist. She probably should've thought about what the impact of her battered back would feel like when it landed on the leather arm.
"Indeed." I sit and watch as he gives us both a look over. "Well we have five hours before the sun rises, let's hope that's enough time."
I'll have to talk fast then.