Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Thorne’s POV
The guard arrangements were too messy to have been planned by Viola. It had been four and a half years since I had come to the Fae land, having spent my years traveling, being among different creatures and disguising myself, working on my glamour and magic and deceiving every kind. I had gone to the land of the humans and blended in and no one could see my glamour except for an old witch living among humans. I had gone to the vampire lands and done the same thing, almost getting caught. The adventures were fun and now I had returned just to see how my people that I had left behind were doing.
“Your Majesty—” one of them began, his voice trembling.
“Former King,” I corrected automatically, not bothering to stop.
The guard quickly lowered his head. “Yes, my lord.”
I continued walking down the wide corridor. I had spent the last few years traveling between distant realms, deliberately keeping myself far away from politics, courts, and power struggles. After everything that had happened with Lyra and the devastation of the Great War against the eclipse king, I had simply needed time away from squabbling councils, rebellions, and petty nobles who believed every single disagreement needed to be settled on a bloody battlefield.
I pushed open the doors to the throne room, and the very first thing my eyes landed on was the royal dais.
The throne was completely empty.
“Where is Queen Violetta?” I asked to no one in particular.
The attendants and courtiers were busy scattering to the edges of the chamber like frightened mice.
I turned my head and fixed my gaze on the nearest person beside me. “Where is the queen?” I asked again.
The man swallowed hard, shifting nervously from foot to foot. “Your Highness…”
“I asked you a question,” I snapped.
“She is no longer our queen, my lord,” he whispered, barely finding the courage to speak.
For a moment, I thought my ears were playing tricks on me. “What did you just say?”
“The council removed her from the throne,” he answered.
My jaw clenched so hard. “On whose authority did they dare do that?”
“They had evidence of treason, my lord, and—”
I zoned out from what he was saying after the word treason. Violetta was the most loyal soul I knew, even at her own expense. There was no way in hell she committed treason. Someone must have set her up, or the council cooked up something to remove her as queen. They’d never liked that she was who I chose out of all the worthy candidates.
“Where is Violetta right now?” I demanded, cutting him off before he could recite whatever political excuse they had manufactured.
“She disappeared,” the guard replied, his voice shaking.
I stared at him, my disbelief turning into incredulity. “Disappeared? What do you mean she disappeared?”
“She fled the palace, my lord.”
“How long ago?” I asked.
The guard hesitated. “It will be five months today.”
Five whole months.
“Five?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And you are standing here telling me that nobody in this entire kingdom has found a single trace of her?”
“We searched the surrounding lands,” he stammered, looking desperate. “And then the wolf territory since she has allies there.”
“Clearly you did not search well enough,” I spat.
He lowered his head, refusing to meet my eyes. I felt guilt for snapping at him because whatever happened was not his decision but that of those in power.
“What did they find during this supposed search?” I pressed, refusing to let him look away.
The silence almost made me go mad. Something bad had happened.
“I said, what did your search parties find?”
“Her wings, my lord,” the guard choked out.
My heart stopped dead in my chest. “What?”
“Her severed wings were discovered in a mountain cave,” he whispered. “And a substantial amount of blood. She’s dead, so we stopped looking.”
“You found her severed wings and a pool of blood, and your pathetic council simply decided she was dead?” I shouted, anger coursing through my veins. She’d only been away from the throne for five months and their incompetency was already showing.
“We believed that given the extent of the blood—”
“You believed?” My voice thundered. “But did you find a body?”
“The king believed…” he corrected. “And no, my lord… there was no body.”
Fucking hell. I ran a hand through my hair in frustration, wondering what other question I could even ask. “The surrounding area? Maybe she was buried!”
“No.”
“Nothing except blood and her discarded wings?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And you just stopped looking for your queen?”
The guard looked terrified, his hands shaking at his sides, and I let out a harsh, bitter laugh that carried no humour whatsoever. “You people gave up on her the very second she was in danger,” I said with annoyance.
“She was a traitor, she was going to be executed nonetheless according to the council.”
I scoffed again, feeling annoyed. I had placed that crown upon Violetta’s head with certainty. I had stood before the assembled nobles of this entire realm and told them that she was wise, capable, and just enough to lead our people into peace. I had trusted her with my legacy and the safety of the Fae. And now she was missing, hunted, and possibly dead, all because I had walked away and left her surrounded by vipers.
I marched straight toward the council chambers where I knew they’d been having a meeting, shoving the doors open with enough force that they slammed hard against the walls.
Several councilors scrambled out of their seats at the noise, their faces draining of colour as they took in my presence. Evander was standing at the head of the table, looking distinctly uncomfortable and alarmed the moment our eyes met.
“Thorne,” he breathed. “I didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”
“I wouldn’t consider four years as too soon.”
He stared more.
“What happened to her, Evander?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line and remained silent.
“Where is Violetta?” I demanded, taking slow menacing steps toward the table.
“We honestly do not know, Thorne,” he replied.
“You have known for four whole months that your monarch was missing,” I said, leaning over the table to look him dead in the eye. “And you did nothing to retrieve her.”
“She is a traitor. Moreover, we dispatched search parties to the borders—”
“Do not lie to my face,” I warned. “I may have stepped down, but you and I both know the laws. Stepping down was making her acting queen, and choosing to do what was right by my people by honouring the request after being absent to fight with the wolves. Even if you do not want me as king, I can choose to return as king. Anyone who says otherwise will be tagged as a traitor.”
Nobody dared to speak, the entire council frozen in their places.
I stepped closer to Evander, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “I gave this kingdom a capable queen.”
“You gave us a hybrid creature with demon and angel blood in her veins!”
My eyes narrowed into slits. “I gave you Violetta, who was my right hand.”
He looked away, unable to hold my gaze for long. “She deceived the entire court from the day she took the oath.”
“And?” I challenged.
“She hid what she was from the people she ruled,” he insisted.
“I knew what she was,” I stated plainly.
The temperature in the room plummeted, and several councilors exchanged horrified, bewildered looks across the table.
Evander stared back at me, his mouth parting slightly in shock. “You knew about her heritage?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.
“Then you knowingly placed a half-breed demon on the sacred throne of the Fae?” he stammered, his outrage bubbling to the surface.
I took another step forward, towering over him until he had to lean back against his chair. “I knowingly placed someone I trusted with my life on that throne, someone who put the safety of this realm above her own comfort every single day. What difference does her heritage make when she has shown no demonic outrage since she has been by my side? She also has angel blood running through her veins, but somehow you have a problem because she’s still part demon?”
He had no answer for that, his throat working silently as he looked down.
I cast a cold, sweeping glance around the entire room, taking in every cowardly face gathered in the chamber. “And you people allowed her to disappear without a second thought, not even bothered.”
“We had every reason to believe she was dead,” Lady Vykrael chimed in from the side, her voice trembling slightly.
“You didn’t even bother to find her body to bury it,” I said, shaking my head in pure disgust. “You do not deserve her, and you never did.”