Page 94 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

Gayle had been living with it for nearly two weeks. In the meantime, she’d hooked up with Sirk , likely for the same reasons Laura’s father had found her mother.

Once you found your mate, the void of them was agony. Aleksei could understand moving swiftly to fill that void, even if it never felt anything but empty.

This brought him back to Tern Makepeace , a place he didn’t want to be.

And with all of that, he felt compelled to forward the pic to Cormac , with an attached text comm that said, Advice . Don’t let this get any more fucked up .

He received course approval and lifted off, and in that time (or after it), Mac didn’t reply.

But his dash comp told him he had an incoming video comm from Tanyn .

“Accept,” he said.

Tanyn’s face filled the screen on his dash.

“How are things, your majesty?” Aleksei joked.

A ghost of a smile flitted over Tanyn’s lips before he replied, “ The trolls have been successfully tallied, contained and are ready for transport to the habitat that’s been created for them in the Center .”

“Final count?”

“Five hundred and seventy-three.”

Aleksei was surprised. “ That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Tanyn confirmed. “ I’ve been reading through centuries of reports on these creatures, Lex . It’s horrifying at the same time fascinating, though I’ll admit that fascination is morbid to extremes.”

“So warned, tell me,” Aleksei encouraged.

“Through a lot of trial and error, which means not a small number of deaths of observers and trainers, it seems these creatures have two basic instincts. Eat and kill. They don’t even copulate unless they’re bored.”

“And this is why the numbers are so small after eight hundred years?”

“That, and it takes resources to keep them contained. The barracks they’re in are extensively fortified and cost a fortune to maintain.

But it’s essential. For the first few hundred years, they kept getting loose and wreaking havoc.

Though , another reason they aren’t prolific is because, with nothing else to kill, they kill each other. ”

Aleksei was stunned. “ Fucking hell.”

“Yes,” Tanyn agreed. “ They tried repeatedly to create some kind of tactical unit with them. Nothing worked. They have no language, though they do communicate, mostly through frequencies of grunts. Nor do they have the mental capacity to be organized. Not even something as simple as taking formation or marching. This was discovered after most of their trainers were maimed or killed over decades of trying. Somewhere in the early 1500s, they gave up. They tried again in the 1800s, and early 1900s. No joy.”

“Did they harvest the skin?”

Tanyn nodded. “ Yes . We have a warehouse full of it. They also experimented on it, and unbeknownst to the general public, back in the day when weapons used bullets, our bulletproof armor was made of troll skin.”

“It isn’t stream proof,” Aleksei remarked. “ Did Arnaud know that?”

“Absolutely. And this is the important news I have to share. There are recent records about using the trolls for experiments on upgrading the PR60 . And before these experiments started, the inventory of trolls was six hundred and fifty-two.”

Aleksei couldn’t hide his shock. “ They put down seventy-nine trolls for their experiments on the PR60 ?”

“Another way they contained the population. These weren’t the only experiments they conducted on the trolls.”

“Fucking hell,” Aleksei repeated, feeling sick to his stomach.

It seemed they weren’t fully cognizant and they were violent, but they were still living, breathing creatures.

“I’ve made a recommendation to the UTC of rendering them infertile,” Tanyn shared.

“ Allowing them some sort of natural habitat where they can live as they will, which will likely mean they’ll kill each other off, and then go extinct on their own.

But even if it’s clear they aren’t quite sentient, we treat animals better than they’ve been treated. ”

As Aleksei saw Spikeback getting closer, he nodded and asked, “ Any news on Tatra ?”

“After blustering through her presser about her son being unfairly accused, there’s been no word from her.”

Aleksei found this suspicious. “ So she’s fine with being exiled to Snowy Ridge ?”

“Tatra is a master of lulling beings into a false sense of security. Ask my mother. Tatra was her best friend before she stole her husband.”

Aleksei grimaced at the reminder.

But the good news was, this meant Tanyn was keeping an eye on her.

“Any word on the tech used during the Masque ?” Aleksei asked.

Tanyn shook his head. “ Arnaud’s followers scurried like rats when he was taken into custody.

Those in his closest circle disappeared, and they didn’t leave much behind when they did.

They were so thorough in this, it’s clear there was a failsafe in place.

We do have the docs on the PR60 experiments, which we’ll provide to you for the assassination case.

I’ll also be sharing all that was gleaned through centuries of working with the trolls.

But it’s early days, Lex . We’re still digging and interrogating those we think might have been involved.

I’ll keep you informed if we find anything further. ”

“Appreciate that, Tan .”

“How about your techs?” Tan asked. “ They get anything?”

“The self-destruct on the disk eliminated anything of use. And as far as they can tell, all traces erased themselves in the system within milliseconds of the code doing what it was written to do. They’ve exhausted all efforts and haven’t found anything.”

This didn’t make Tanyn look happy, then again, Aleksei felt the same.

“More from Arnaud ?” Tan asked.

Aleksei shook his head. “ He maintains his innocence. Says he had nothing to do with the trolls, didn’t even know they existed. Says he was framed for the murder, and he’s heartbroken at Longshot’s loss.”

“I saw the vid on that, Lex , and it fucks me to say this, but his grief seems genuine,” Tan remarked.

It fucked Aleksei to think it, but he agreed.

“He says he found her like that, noted his detail had disappeared, realized something was very wrong, and took off,” Tanyn shared something Aleksei knew.

“ Denies any communication or knowledge of an agent embedded in Errol’s orbit.

Stated he came to Night’s Fall to go to the Masque , found Tula as she was, tried to get in touch with his detail, they were gone, so he saw the writing on the wall, took the only one left, his aide, and headed back to Sky’s Edge . ”

“I’ve had questions from the minute we locked onto that UtiliSport , and there was no security craft flying with it,” Aleksei shared.

“Same,” Tanyn agreed.

“Would Tatra set up her own son to take the downfall if her bid to keep him in power failed?” Aleksei asked.

“Tatra has already sold her soul to the Hell God to languish in the deepest depths of eternal flame to get whatever wealth and power she can amass. I wouldn’t be surprised at anything she did.”

At this, both males looked unhappy.

As Aleksei hovered over the landing bay at Spikeback , Tanyn finished it.

“That’s all I’ve got for now.”

“I appreciate the update,” Aleksei replied, then to alleviate the heaviness of their conversation, he added, “ Laura and I’ll be up there for the coronation, whenever that’s planned.”

Tanyn frowned.

Aleksei laughed. “ It’s a bunch of ceremonial bullshit, but beings love it.”

“Right. I’ll see you and Laura then.”

“You will. Later , Tan .”

“Later, Lex .”

He descended into the bay that had opened behind the castle, and once he was in and powered down, the bay doors above him slid closed.

Before he exited the craft, he stared at his Palm .

“Fuck it,” he muttered, engaged his Palm and commed Allain .

“Your highness,” Allain greeted.

“Quietly, I’d like you to get word to the magistrates that will be hearing Tern Makepeace’s case, and let it be known I’d consider it a personal favor if they waive prison time.”

There wasn’t even the slightest tick in Allain’s expression. “ This will be done.”

They disengaged and Aleksi exited the craft, went to the lift and took it up to the first floor.

Once he was there, he tuned into his creature to find her.

And he walked through the grand hall, the waning light streaming through the tall, narrow windows and glinting against the stone columns burnished by dragon fire until he hit the parlor on the first floor.

The only thing that had changed in this area was that he’d asked, and Laura had agreed, for the shadowboxes from her loft with the pieces she’d designed to be mounted for display in the hall.

In the gothic spectacle of Spikeback , the demonstrations of her extreme talent were the perfect fit.

He stopped in the doorway to allow himself to fully process the sunny smile Laura aimed his way and then he looked down to his feet.

Nova was winding around his ankles, but she sensed the minute she had his attention. Thus , she gazed up at him with her sad blue eyes and opened her mouth in a silent mew.

Obviously, he bent and picked her up, cradling her upside down in his arms like a baby.

She instantly started purring, even before he started scratching her chest.

All three cats now had trackers, though Nova and Comet didn’t need them, as they liked to be close to Laura and Aleksei .

But Jupiter had dedicated his existence to finding every nook and cranny in the castle.

One could say Jupiter had also found his happy place. Dark and cavernous, with lots of windows to peer out of, and when he was feeling his alone time, even more places to hide.

Aleksei went to his mate, bent and dropped a kiss to her upturned mouth, then he turned to their surprise (to him, Laura was drinking with them) guests.

His brother and sister were sitting with her.

“Are you two staying for dinner?” he asked.

“Hello to you too. And is that an invitation?” Tim asked in return.

“Or is it your way to tell us to get the hells out?” Aleece put in her own question, her eyes twinkling, since she knew it was not.