Chapter 144 The fading heartbeat

Chapter 144 The fading heartbeat
It was almost dawn. The soft, grey light spread across Aethelgard Palace. But inside, the fragile peace they could have had vanished the moment William announced that Anastasia was missing.

The king had cancelled the wedding. The guard returned to report that King Ronan had angrily taken his daughter home. But King Caelen could not even see him before he went. A guest disappearing from his own palace was far more important than anything else.

The Grand Hall echoed with the heavy footsteps of Fae guards running in every direction. The entire palace was in chaos, with people tearing through rooms and gardens trying to find Anastasia.

“Find her!" King Caelen shouted. His voice thundered across the throne room, making the room shake. He pointed a furious, shaking finger at the line of guards. “Do not come back here unless she is found! And she must be alive!"

In the throne room, William sat perfectly still in his chair, like a ticking time bomb moments from detonation.

William sat still, resting his elbow on an arm of the chair, his fingers pressing hard on his temples. His eyes were closed. He looked like he was barely holding onto his sanity, like he wasn't really sitting in the room at all. In his mind, all he wished was for the door to open and for Anastasia to walk through it. He just wanted to hear her soft voice call out his name.

King Caelen glanced nervously at William. He did not dare speak to him. Caelen knew his old friend too well, and he knew exactly the kind of terrifying, bloody violence William was capable of if he lost control.

The heavy door swung open. The guard captain rushed inside, his armor clanking. He walked straight to King Caelen and leaned in, whispering into the king's ear.

“We cannot find her anywhere, Your Majesty," he whispered.

Panic flashed across the king's face. His chest heaved. “Get me the Fae witch now,” he ordered.

The guard captain bowed quickly and ran back out the door. Left alone with the terrifying silence of William, King Caelen began to pace rapidly across the cold marble floor. The king was already overwhelmed. His own son was just embarrassed in front of the entire kingdom. He had to cancel a wedding that could be beneficial to him, but the problem at hand was a much bigger nightmare.

His important guest was missing, and the beast sitting in his throne room was ready to explode.

A few moments later, the doors opened again. The captain returned, bringing an old Fae witch wrapped in dark, heavy cloaks.

“Perform a tracking spell," King Caelen demanded, waving his hand impatiently. “Find out where the girl is."

The witch did not waste time. "Do you have anything that belongs to her?"

William's eyes opened wide. The expression on his face showed he had nothing of her to give.

“What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of her?" the witch asked.

William turned to a guard. “Get me a cape jasmine flower."

The guard bowed and hurried away. A few moments that felt like an eternity later, he returned with the flower. He stared to hand it to the witch, but she shook her head and told him to give it to William instead.

“You have to breathe on it, My lord. It represents the first thing that comes to mind when you think of her, but it must be infused with your desperate desire to find her."

William stared at the flower before taking it from the guard. He closed his eyes and breathed in its delicate fragrance, pouring every memory of Anastasia into it. His heart bled. Then, he gave it back to the guard, who passed it to the witch.

The witch knelt on the floor, pulling glowing stones from her pocket. She closed her eyes and whispered an ancient breathy chant. A faint green light began to glow from her hands, spreading across the floor like water.

Suddenly, the witch gasped. Her eyes flew open, wide with certainty.

“She is here," the witch said. “She is still within the palace walls."

“Then where is she?!" Caelen demanded.

"I… I cannot see the exact room. It was too dark… and cold.” the witch stammered, clutching her chest. “But… Your majesty, her heartbeat. It is terribly faint. She is fading away.”

The temperature in the throne room dropped. William did not move, but the deadly aura rolling off his body made the king choke on his own breath.

“Look deeper!" King Caelen roared, stepping toward the witch with a threatening glare. “Tell me exactly who took her, or I will have your head on a spike!”

The witch scrambled backward, throwing her hands over the glowing stones again. She pushed her magic to the absolute limit, her body shaking terribly.

“The last person!" the witch panicked. "The last person to be with her… was Princess Aeliana.”

At the exact sound of that name, William's eyes turned cold, empty, and merciless. King Caelen swallowed hard, his face turning pale as snow. He turned sharply to the guard captain.

“Find me the princess," the king commanded, his voice trembling. “Bring Princess Aeliana here immediately."

The doors of the throne room swung open, and two Fae guards marched inside, leading Princess Aeliana between them.

She looked calm. She wore a beautiful, sweeping gown of pale green silk, her long blonde hair braided down her back. She walked into the room with her chin held high, acting as though nothing was wrong.

“You send for me, Father?" Aeliana asked, her voice light and innocent.

King Caelen did not look pleased. He stared at his daughter, his voice tight with warning. “Aeliana. When was the last time you saw Anastasia?"

Aeliana frowned, tilting her head as if confused. "Lady Anastasia? The night before the wedding. I escorted her back to her room in the guest quarters. Why, Father? I had already checked that she was not in her quarters.”

“Do not play games with me,” Caelen snapped, stepping down from his royal chair. "The Fae witch had already used her magic to track Lady Anastasia. You were the last person seen with her. Where is she?”

Aeliana's eyes widened, and she placed a hand over her heart in mock offense. “Father, surely you do not believe I have anything to do with her disappearance! Why would I want to hurt our human guest? What reason could I possibly have?”

“Because," King Caelen yelled, losing his patience completely, “because you came back from the human realm claiming you found me a bride. Then, before anything could happen, Liam claimed the girl instead. I cannot believe how spiteful you have become. You are just like your mother!”

He pointed a shaking finger at her. "Now, tell me where Lady Anastasia is!”

"I am telling the truth!” Aeliana cried, sticking to her lie. " I do not know where she is! You are accusing me of…”

Before Aeliana could finish her sentence, the air in the room shifted. A blur of dark motion crossed the room.

The impact echoed like a thunderclap. William had crossed the room in a heartbeat. He grabbed Aeliana by the throat, lifting her entirely off the floor, and pinning her on one of the pillars in the Hall.

Aeliana gasped. Her hands immediately flew up to claw at William's hard grip, her legs kicking uselessly in the air.

William's face was inches from hers. His eyes had turned crimson. His fangs slid out, sharp and deadly. The aura of death rolling off his body was so heavy that the guards in the hall instinctively reached for their weapons in pure terror.

“Where is she?" William snarled. His voice sent shivers through the room.

“Liam! Stop!," King Caelen shouted in a panic, looking at William's face but too afraid to step closer. “Please, release her! I swear we will find Lady Anastasia. Just let my daughter go.”

William did not even glare at him. He squeezed Aeliana's throat, cutting off her air as she choked and gasped, tears of real fear finally spilling from her eyes.

Suddenly, the throne room doors burst open.

A breathless, panicked guard rushed inside, falling to his knees. “Your Majesty!" The guard shouted. “Prince Eryndor is asking for Lord Liam.”

“What does that disgrace of a son want with him?" Caelen roared.

William slowly turned toward the guard, still pinning the princess against the wall.

The guard swallowed hard, trembling under William's deadly gaze. "The prince says… he says he knows where Lady Anastasia is."

The moment the guard spoke Anastasia's name, the hard grip around Princess Aeliana's throat vanished.

William opened his hand and moved toward the guard. Aeliana hit the floor with a hard thud. A ragged whine of pain escaped her lips as she curled into a tight ball, holding her bruised throat and gasping for air. Her tears poured, not because of William's grip, but because she knew her brother had made up his mind to expose her.

King Caelen rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside his coughing daughter. “Bring Prince Eryndor here at once!" the king shouted over his shoulder to the trembling guard.

But William did not have a single second left to waste. “No," his voice left no room for question. “Take me to him."

The guard swallowed hard, terrified. He did not look at the king for permission. He just nodded, scrambled to his feet, and ran toward the hallway.

William followed right behind him. He left the king and the weeping princess on the floor without a second glance.

The guard sprinted through the winding golden corridors of the palace, leading William away from the beautiful upper floors and down toward the darkness beneath the castle.

They descended a steep, spiral staircase made of cold, damp stone. The air grew heavy and smelled of dirt and rusted iron. The morning light of the palace vanished, replaced by the flickering orange glow of torches attached to the prison walls.

“H-he is right down here, Lord Liam," the guard stuttered, running down the dark row of heavy iron cell doors.

As they reached the very last cell at the end of the dungeon block, the guard grabbed a heavy ring of iron keys from his belt, his hands shaking so badly they rattled loudly against each other. He shoved a large key into the lock, turned it with a heavy clank, and pulled the thick metal door open.

Inside the freezing cell, Prince Eryndor sat on a wooden bench. His royal clothes were dirty, and he looked defeated. But when he heard the door open, Eryndor looked up. He saw William staring at him.

The prince smiled. “I know you will come here running.”

William stepped into the cell, his aura flaring, carrying the chilling smell of death into the tiny room.

The smug smile on Prince Eryndor's face vanished. “I was joking," he gasped, his voice tight with sudden panic. He held both hands up to defend himself. "I swear, I was just joking.”

William didn't blink. He stared down at the Fae prince.

“Where is she?" William asked. His voice was empty of emotion.

Eryndor swallowed hard, his heart racing wildly. He realized immediately that he had pushed William too far. There were no games left to play.

“The shadow-rift," Eryndor confessed quickly, the words rushing out of his mouth in a panicked breath. “She is in the Shadow-rift beneath the royal gardens.”