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Chapter Ten

Haron

Today, I finally had the opportunity to visit the remnants of Julra and the Clifftombs. Requesting approval from the

rest of the Council was challenging. They feared the land was tainted, cursed by whatever twisted magic the

Golathian spellcasters set loose on the world. Sinna insisted on joining me for the short journey. She said she had to

see for herself the remains of her country. She needed closure, to accept the royal family she clearly loved was truly

gone.

-"The Tragic History of Julra," by High Scholar Yuret Wend, Year 39 of Ber's First Reign

I thought it was considerate enough to give Jinon a couple of days to recoup from his little party before paying him a visit myself.

This time, I was much more confrontational as he stepped into his study, dressed in his night clothes as if going to bed soon.

Since leaving Irin sprawled on his bed early yesterday morning, I tried to keep my head low and my presence absent from The Hanging Cat, in case he came looking for me again.

I couldn't afford to be distracted, even with the promise of good dick.

Most of the past two days were spent searching the surrounding Ber's Forest for more poorly hidden bodies.

If Trisne's body was more than a one-off result of a ritual, I would have a much larger problem on my hands than a neglectful father.

There hadn't been others tucked away in the forest to rot… yet.

Despite the current setting, my toes curled in their boots just thinking about my night with the little princeling. There were no regrets to be had, but I certainly couldn't afford to be led astray from my true mission.

What was wrong with having a little fun, though?

The delicious recollections were rudely interrupted with the study's everflame sconces flickering on as a body entered the doorway.

“Good evening, Jinon.”

He hadn’t seen me sitting behind his desk, still covered in the shadows I manipulated to hide myself, so he rightfully screamed and fell against the wall by the door with a hand pressed to his chest. His beady little eyes landed on me soon enough, and immediately his face turned a ruddy red.

“What the… who in the gods’ hell do you think you are? How did you get in here?”

“The same way I did last time.” I leaned forward a bit, just enough for the moonlight to fall across my face for him to see. “I recommend you call off your guards before they end up as revenants shambling through your house again.”

Whatever color he’d managed to collect in his rounded cheeks promptly drained out. At least he was quick enough to realize I wasn’t fucking around. Just in time, too, as a heavy hand pounded on the study door. “Sir?” the gruff voice called out. “We heard you yell, are you alright?”

Jinon glared at me balefully. “I’m… I’m fine. Just thought I saw something run across the floor.”

I tried my best not to laugh at his response. Regardless, it was enough to satisfy the questioning guard. The rattling of his armor grew fainter as he moved back down the hall to his post.

“What do you want?” Jinon hissed. “I know all about you, Haron Val Toric! How dare you break into my home a second time. Just wait until the patrol hears—”

“You’re not going to say a damn thing to anyone,” I interrupted him. From inside my traveling coat, I pulled the bundle of letters I’d stolen from his desk and dropped them with a dull thud on his desk. “And we both know why I’m sitting in this chair.”

He sputtered, his face turning the same dark red shade as his night robe. “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about, necromancer!”

“Oh really? So, when I hand over this very incriminating evidence that your daughter’s life was threatened for over a month , you won’t look guilty for not reporting that?

I know this country doesn’t give a shit about its women, but even that is punishable by the law.

And should I include the location of the unmarked grave her body was very poorly hidden in? ”

Showing my hand now was less than ideal. I had hoped to chase out Trisne’s killer by obviously poking around Jinon’s ball. None of my traps had been sprung yet, so I had to resort to more brutal forms of hunting. And Jinon was about to make the perfect bait.

“You… you have no proof! How you can accuse me of killing my own daughter is outrageous! Gilamorst will benefit from ridding itself of a madwoman like you!” The conviction in his voice was sadly lacking.

“Oh yeah? And who’s going to do that? You?” The laugh I barked made Jinon flinch again. What a weakling. “What makes you think I’m not acting under Prince Irin’s orders? Don’t you think a bridal candidate gone missing wouldn’t catch his attention?”

His eyes widened so far I could see the whites all the way around. One of them was even twitching. He may have stopped breathing from the way his face was starting to turn purple now.

Ah, the first scent of blood.

“See, that’s where you messed up.” I shoved the massive desk away with a strong kick, sending the legs screaming across the stone floor until it hit the carpet Jinon stood on.

“It would have been a lot less suspicious to just let Trisne go on her way to the Covenant Library and kill her outside the city limits for the animals to take the body. But putting her in the Royal Council’s sights?

Of course, they will be alarmed when she disappears.

The pool of eligible noblewomen is already shallow enough—I’m sure that has nothing to do with the mysteriously high mortality rate of baby girls in this wretched city—so to put her up on the chopping block only to let her be raped and killed is a bad look for you, Highlan. ”

Jinon was a jittery mess at this point. His hands clenched the sides of his breeches like a child being scolded, and his pudgy face was all screwed up like he was about to cry. Pathetic. “He didn’t give me a choice.”

“ Who? ” I roared, shaking the glass windows violently in their frames with its amplified rage.

“ Who. Killed. Trisne? ” I bolted from the chair so fast it toppled back and stormed to the displaced desk.

My hands wrapped around the end closest to me and I threw it clear across the study to the right wall.

It slammed hard enough to punch a hole straight through the plaster and break some of the bricks that made the fireplace beside it.

Then I used those hands to twist into Jinon’s collar and lift him off the ground.

His toes in their shiny boots barely scrambled across the floor as he thrashed in my hold.

My grip was tight enough to be unmovable, even as he clawed at my hands in desperation.

Sweat, tears and snot now dripped down his face in the most unattractive sniveling.

“I… I cannot say.”

A dark patch now spread across the front of his loose pants and tracked down his left leg.

There was no pity in my heart for men like him, so willing to toss away his children as soon as they were no longer useful.

In his eyes, Trisne was dead to him as soon as she revoked her name from the council’s list to marry Irin.

That was why he hadn’t bent to the blackmail or reacted to the news of her assault.

“You cannot say, or you will not?” When he hesitated, I shook his limp body violently. “You already knew Trisne was dead, or at least assumed, when you sent your little knight looking for me. So, tell me, you do not know who killed her, or you will not tell me?”

“I don’t know! I don’t… I don’t know who it was!” His wailing made me sick to my stomach. I dropped him right onto his ass, and he looked up at me with a combination of fear and anger. The urge to kick his teeth in almost overtook me.

“Last question,” I snarled. “Who is Forol Hent to you?”

Jinon’s chest rose and fell so fast I thought he was going to faint from hyperventilation. “Who?”

My hands curled into claws at my sides. His beady brown eyes darted to them, probably worried I would haul him back into the air.

“I s-swear, I don’t know who that is! Ask my family, my staff, anyone! I have no idea who you are talking about!”

That little piece of information set my whole webs to tangled knots. If Jinon had no idea who Forol was, how could he be a close acquaintance? “I fucking knew it,” I spat. “I knew there was something wrong with him!”

“If you want, I can help find—” Jinon began to simper. Ever the opportunist, looking for a way to worm into what he assumed was the prince’s good graces. I didn’t bother correcting him.

“You’re fucking useless to me.” I kicked his now-wet leg to the side to move it out of my way, stalking around him to the study’s exit.

He needed to feel like I was done with him before he went running off to whoever was really pulling his puppet strings.

“Give your wife my regards. She seems to be the only one in this house in actual mourning.”

Maids gasped and guards tensed as I stormed by them in the hallway toward the front door.

I’m sure the word had spread about my last visit, and they wanted nothing to do with me this time.

It was for the best; the rage and bloodlust pumped so thickly through my veins right now, I wasn’t entirely sure what I would do to the first unfortunate soul who got in my way.

Maybe I was too close to Trisne’s tragic death. Maybe I was acting irrationally when it came to finding her killer. But if it wasn’t me, who would find justice for her?