Chapter 62: Chapter 62

KILLIAN

I’d been the one to set up a meeting with my uncle, and it was no one’s fault but mine for forgetting it, but I was so irritated at the fact that I had to leave Lenore. I’d considered ditching the meeting for a moment when he called me, but the fact that I was the reason he was still in the city had made my mother’s voice echo in my mind, loud and demanding: Mind your manners, Killian!

Squaring my shoulders, I knocked on the door once before opening it. My uncle was sitting at the small desk in the room, scribbling on a book, and he glanced over as I walked in.

“There you are,” he said before shutting the book and getting to his feet.

“Evening,” I stated, stopping next to one of the armchairs a couple of steps away from him, while the thought of what Lenore could be doing popped into my mind. It was silly—I’d only left her less than two minutes ago, so she was definitely still on her way to the palace, but I couldn’t help it. She had been consuming my thoughts ever since I met her

“Evening… Did something happen?” my uncle asked and I lifted my gaze to his, raising a brow. “You look irked.”

“Ah…” I set my mouth in a hard line and schooled my expression. “Just thinking about the tournament.”

He nodded and grabbed the bottle of bourbon on the desk, pouring it into two glasses. Setting the bottle back down, he picked up both glasses and handed one to me as he walked past before settling into the armchair diagonal to me.

I didn’t want to sit—didb’t want to get comfortable—but continuing to  stand would be odd, so instead of sitting on the cushion of the armchair I was next to, I sat on the arm. I wanted to go to Lenore as soon as possible.

“How exactly do you plan to stop it with a witch?” he asked after drinking from the glass.

“There are spells on the invitations preventing the representatives from leaving the city,” I replied and he tilted his head, letting me know this was news to him. “I intend to have her break it.”

He furrowed his brows slightly, weighing my words. “And after the spells are broken? How do you plan to get them out?”

I let out a harsh breath, scratching the bridge of my nose. That was the part of the plan I hadn’t figured out yet.

All the pack represtentatives—even the ones my father considered worthless—had guards watching them around the clock, so getting them out would be a pain. If I decided to move them out slowly—getting only a couple of representatives out at a time—so as not to draw attention there’d still be more than half of them in the city by the time the tournament started. If I decided to get them out en masse, an alarm would be raised before they even stepped off the palace grounds.

“That step is yet to be planned,” I answered and he shot me an amused look.

“Also, what if the representatives don’t want to leave?”

I frowned before what he meant hit me, and it felt like he just doused a fire that was keeping me warm. “I…” I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip. “...hadn’t thought of that.”

Lenore had believed me when I told her the true purpose of the diplomatic gathering—if one took into account what I did to her minutes before telling her, they’d find that action strange—and her brother didn’t like or trust me, but he’d also believed it because it came from her. I wasn’t exactly known for good deeds, so the pack representatives had no reason to believe me. They might even think I was fucking with them. They also had no reason to believe Lenore and her brother if it came from them. I didn’t keep up with werewolf politics but I knew their father stepped on toes wherever he went—even literally.

My jaw clenched as I remembered Lenore saying she and her father didn’t have a good relationship and she didn’t think he’d care about anything that happened to her. Bastard.

Then my thoughts swiveled back to how I was going to convince the pack representatives that the tournament wasn’t what they thought it was. Even if I managed to come up with something they’d believe, how was I going to tell them?

The audience hall? A fucking group chat?

Ugh.

“Wow,” my uncle muttered and when I shot him a look, his lips curved into a small smile while he shook his head. “Have you spoken to your mother?”

I tightened my grip on the glass, dropping my gaze to the glass as I swirled the dark amber liquid around in it. “No.”

“Why not?”

“...She might not be there,” I finally said. I didn’t tell him about her disappearing for a year—to be fair, I hadn’t told anyone, and the only reason Fabien figured out was because of how I behaved whenever I woke up from a dream she didn’t show up in—but there was no point in keeping it from him now.

When he didn’t respond, I looked up to see him staring at me with a tense expression and I sighed. “The last time I spoke to her was two days ago. Before that, it was a year,” I added and his eyes widened slightly. “And when we spoke two days ago, she said I’d see her again in due time.”

“Oh…” He cleared his throat and set his glass on the center table in front of him. “You know getting a witch’s help won’t be cheap, right?”

Well… “I could just ask her to get her payment from you. What are uncles for after all?” I said, earning a chuckle.

I wouldn’t actually do that. The reason I’d asked Celeste to find me a witch instead of him was so I’d be the only one liable if anything went wrong. Also, so my father wouldn’t go after him for playing a part in me ruining his plans.

“The tournament is starting in three weeks,” he stated, and I nodded. A couple of moments later, he heaved a sigh, rubbing his forehead. “Do you want me to take care of it?”

I tilted my head. “In what way?”

Was he offering to kill my father? I wasn’t against it, but I didn’t know how strong he was—I’d never even seen him fight before.

My uncle raised a brow at me, and I did the same before it hit me. He was referring to the pack representatives.

“Oh no.” Lenore wouldn’t like that. “I strongly prefer them leaving the city alive.”

He frowned, assessing me like he was trying to figure out what was going through my mind. “Why?”

Lenore was all that popped into my mind, but he’d be even more confused if that was the answer I gave, so instead I asked, “Did mother ever tell you she made a deal with the forgotten gods?”