Chapter 144 Morality Quarrel
Melissa exhaled, she'd forgotten about them for a second there. During the suffocation, she had turned off all her emotional abilities instinctively, focusing only on the fact that she was about to die. If it wasn't for Hashar, she would probably be dead right now. Due to this, she didn't know how Avalors and the Infernal had literally hidden themselves from the whole mess. She just knew that the moment after she got back up, they were nowhere to be found.
She looked at Richard then turned to glance around, looking for Beatrice, Alina and Hashar. She found Alina first, sprawled in a random corner of the room, still out cold. It couldn't have helped that she'd inhaled a bit of poison gas, but Beatrice had done everything to protect her, so Melissa was sure she would be fine.
She swung her head around for a while, at last she found Beatrice helping one of the Sentinels drink water. She exhaled when she discovered it was Hashar. "Follow me first Richard, then we go look for them together, " she said.
Richard obliged and they headed to meet Beatrice who was currently force feeding a reluctant Hashar with one of her meanest glances. "Take it. You need it," she said as if threatening to kill him if he didn't.
"Leave me alone," the sentinel said. "Unless you want to drown me, I think I have drunk enough, " he replied.
"No, the water will help flush the toxins out," she remained adamant. "Why are you so stubborn about this?"
At this moment Hashar noticed Melissa and Richard. "Your majesty, I would bow, but, if I try to move I might not live to see the next day," he said. "Thank you for saving our lives," he bowed halfway to both of them, it looked mostly like a nod.
"Your majesty," Beatrice said casually without turning to meet her face.
Melissa couldn't tell if she was angry or not. She would understand if she was, there was no excuse. Her mate almost died protecting her, out of a sense of duty, just because she decided to save the life of an enemy. To be a leader is to make difficult choices and she realised that her decision only made sense from a fanatical moral standpoint. If one was to be fair, as a Luna, her own people were her primary concern.
She exhaled and bent down, tapping Beatrice on the shoulder. She expected her to turn to her with one of her angry glares. However she turned back with an innocently inquisitive gaze. "What?"
"Huh," Melissa replied confused, she had initially wanted to apologise but seeing her face, she discovered she was just too focused on Hashar to think of anything else.
"Don't tell me you are thinking of apologising to me?" She said, reading her mind.
"I… uh…" she tried to articulate her words.
"Didn't you listen to a word he said?'' she glared at her, referring to her discussion with Richard. "Just go, for the love of the moon.," she sighed. "I'll make sure to keep everyone here safe. Get the lights back on and let us have some stability," she instructed and Melissa smiled.
Richard turned around immediately and she followed briskly. The moment they got out of the throne room into the corridor, the darkness increased as there were no real cracks for light to flood in. "Where do you think they could be?" She asked him as she trotted behind him.
"Are you seriously asking me that?" he said.
"How do you even know they were here?" She asked.
"I felt their presence and I was going to pull them in with us when something nullified the effects," he said, wincing a bit.
Melissa looked at him with concern, her brows furrowed. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yes. I felt as if something burned me," he replied, then he stopped and turned to her. "Melissa," he stared for a while as if he wanted to say something. She stopped for a while and turned to him, staring at him as his eyes locked on hers. "D…" he wanted to say, when someone crashed through the corridor, slamming against the wall.
Melissa pulled Richard away instinctively, her eyes glowing to better get a view of the area. The person was one of the uniformed men that had pointed a gun at them. He was out cold and then someone walked out and it was Avalors, panting as he walked forward.
“Avalors," Melissa smiled. "What is going on?"
"Ivar is rounding up the others… killing them," he said. "I corralled this one to a different location to at least have someone to ask him," he said.
"Killing them?" She asked. "We have to stop him from just senselessly doing that and what is he even doing here?" She asked and then the lights turned on.
The entire building started to hum as the windows opened up and the entire doors flicked and were unlocked. "I guess we know where he is," she said, turning to Richard who nodded at her. "Avalor gets everything running with the council and keeps people away from the control room, in case this takes longer." She said as they dissolved into darkness.
They appeared at the control room's door and it was left ajar. She walked in to find Ivar, breathing heavily while sitting on someone that had been knocked out cold. "The rest of them are dead," he said. "But I left him alive for questioning," he replied, tapping the body that turned out to be Bradshire.
Melissa looked at him with a disdainful glare.
“Look, princess," he said. "I don't keep my enemies alive so they can strike back," he told her. "We have a war in front of us, in case you haven't noticed, and in war you cannot afford mercy," he exhaled once, then slumped.
Melissa looked at Richard and she shook her head. "Everything has escalated, hasn't it?" She asked and he nodded with a smile.
"You wanted to say something earlier," she said.
Richard paused and looked at her again. "It is nothing, never mind," he replied and headed down to get the Infernal and Bradshire.