Page 129 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts

She pulled her knees to her chest, turning her gaze towards the wall. It was answer enough. A twisted sense of satisfaction coiled within his chest.

Constantine’s eyes traced the smooth skin of her thighs. In another reality, he might have teased her, promising that once they escaped this wretched situation, he’d take her to some exotic beach where they could lounge naked, just the two of them. But something told him she’d rather swim with sharks than spend another second in his company.

Unless, of course, she saw some advantage in the time wasted.

***

Constantine

The Queen arrived after sunrise to summon him for his next task. He was to travel to the spirits’ realm and extract information about the missing journal from a ghost who had lingered in the room when it was stolen.

Finding that particular spirit was nearly impossible.Nevertheless, Constantine would play the part.

They were alone in the throne room – no guards, no Chosen. Constantine knelt before the throne, like an obedient pet, and transformed, sending his consciousness soaring into the ethereal plane of the deceased.

Only the recently departed souls, those chaotic, swift shadows, had any knowledge of events unfolding on Earth. These spectral entities moved at such frenetic speeds that they were impossible to capture. Constantine could observe them, recognise a soul, call it by name, and hope it might respond, but the odds were as slim as stumbling upon a soul that had witnessed the theft of the journal.

Yet he dared not return empty-handed. The Queen would be displeased, and her punishment might involve moving Diana – an outcome he was unwilling to risk.

So, Constantine lingered in the realm of fleeting shadows. Despite his best efforts, he failed to seize any of them. Defeated, he willed his consciousness back into his skeletal form.

“Well?” the Queen inquired as he returned back to his human form.

He’d planned to ask for another chance, but at her eager expression, inspiration struck. She sought a culprit, and Constantine had someone in mind – a person he owed a reckoning. Moreover, it was very plausible that this individual was behind the theft.

Constantine rose to his feet, his expression resolute. “It was Kathrine, Your Majesty. Your Chosen.”

The Queen pursed her lips. “Are you certain, necromancer?”

He didn’t flinch as he responded with measured confidence, “A spirit was present in the library at the time of the theft. It described her in vivid detail. Unless there’s another tall woman around here with dark chestnut hair, wearing the uniform of the Chosen, and possessing access to your library?”

The Queen’s emerald eyes bore into his, searching for deceit.

“Did you perhaps expect someone else?” he ventured, a sly smile curling his lips.

Her mouth tightened, a flicker of annoyance crossing her face. “On the contrary. I expected precisely this.”

48

Kathrine

Kathrine had once again fallen victim to Sevar’s lies. What stung even more? It had taken seeing the necromancer’s desperation to save the vampire for her to finally recognise it: her fiancé was many things, but devoted wasn’t one of them.

All that talk about a future home in Antambazi? Just another tactic to wear her down, to make her drop her guard and reveal everything she’d learned about the necromancer. She could wager Sevar and the Queen had sensed she was hiding something. And now, she wasn’t.

Thanks to that, the necromancer and the vampire had been caught.

And just like that, Sevar’s gentle demeanour had disappeared. Until the next time they would need Kathrine to be compliant.

Sevar. He was the instrument the Queen used to manipulate her. For years, Kathrine had watched the Mother of Reptilians tug athisstrings, playing upon his greatest weakness – his unbridled ego. And all the while, Kathrine had wondered about her own soft spots, the ones the Queen exploited to keep her subdued.

Her weakness was Sevar. For his rare displays of tenderness and attention, she would destroy worlds – time and time again.

She entered his study, letting her fingers drift across the scattered papers on his desk. Even if they held secrets, he wouldn’t have bothered hiding them. His obedient fiancée would never dare to rifle through his belongings. He trusted that ifKathrine uncovered anything untoward, she would not betray him. Just as she hadn’t when she discovered Sevar had been responsible for imprisoning Mikhail Korovin in Prokaliya.

Now, she was looking for nothing in particular. Perhaps she wanted to do something no one expected of her. Most of the documents detailed influential figures from the mortal world – individuals they planned to recruit in the next phase of the war. A partial exposure of the immortal world’s secrets seemed inevitable, but someone had to manage humanity’s response to avoid complete chaos on Earth.

A handwritten note caught her eye. She picked it up and read an address beyond Antambazi’s borders. There was no context, no explanation. Yet, something about it tightened her gut.