Page 39 of Queen of the Crimson Throne (Queen of Blood and Stardust #2)

39

LENNOX

My eyes scanned over the papers in Luka’s hands. Papers scrawled with a combination of Nol and my father’s handwriting. My father’s writing was nearly indecipherable, but I would recognize Nol’s perfectly printed small script anywhere.

“How?” I whispered.

“I— I don’t know.” Luka rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Why does my grandfather have these? Where did he get them?”

Luka’s questions echoed my own.

“Do you think—” Pressure mounted in my sternum. “Do you think your grandfather had something to do with their deaths?”

The color leached from Luka’s face.

“I mean—these had to come from my father’s study. The study—that’s where they found their bodies that night.” Luka didn’t move, his back straight as he stared at the papers with a haunted expression in his eyes as I continued, “That’s where I burned their bodies.” I blinked back the wetness forming in the corners of my eyes. “I haven’t been back in the study since, but?—”

I closed my eyes to fight back the dizzying sensation blurring my thoughts. “But what if someone had been looking for something in his office?—”

“Like clues leading to the cure for vampirism,” Luka finished for me.

“And my father found them,” I continued. “And—” I closed my eyes, the image of the blood staining my father’s study burned into the back of my eyelids. The smell of the burning flesh invaded my senses like I was back in that room again. I grasped the edge of the desk to steady myself as my legs trembled.

Luka’s hand on the small of my back brought me back to reality. The gentle arc of this thumb reminded me I wasn’t back there.

“Do you think—is your grandfather working with the Vanir?” I whispered. Before meeting Arlo, I might have been more likely to believe it, but after meeting the Vampire King I wasn’t so sure. Was he capable of that? I didn’t know him well enough to make assumptions, but Luka did.

“I don’t know.”

Luka slammed the papers on the desk and ran his hands through his hair, pulling at ends as he paced across the small office. “This doesn’t make sense—I don’t think it’s something he would do but how else would he get those documents? Either he got them himself?—”

“Or he sent someone to get them for him,” I finished for him.

My mind whirled as I tried to comprehend how that was possible. How had Arlo known my father was looking for the journals? Or maybe my father told him and Arlo wanted the information to himself, without the entanglement of a marriage. But that wouldn’t make sense, if he didn’t want a marriage why was he pushing for one now? My head pulsed behind my eyes.

“What if it wasn’t the Vanir that night that killed your family? What if it was vampires sent by my grandfather to get this information and it all went terribly wrong? ”

“But how does that explain the other Vanir attacks?” I asked. How many enemies were we facing here?

“What if the Vanir are a separate entity from the people searching for the book—from my grandfather and whoever he’s working with?”

“Luka, what if your grandfather is working with the Vanir? He’s been hiding their presence in the city since you arrived back—it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”

He stilled, fisting his hand at his side as his mouth set into a firm line. “Luka—” I reached for him but stopped at the sensation of warmth radiating across the bare skin of my chest. The pendant on my neck heated, sending a jolt of magic through me.

“Luce and Lorenzo are done with lunch.” I met Luka’s gaze, we’d have to finish this conversation later. “We need to get out of here.”

Luka gathered the papers scattered across the desk stacking them together before reaching for the bottom drawer.

“Wait.” I halted him with a hand on his wrist, reaching for the stack of papers in his hand.

“What are you doing? We need to get out of here.” I pulled the papers out of his reach.

“Lennox.” There was a warning edge to his voice this time.

I scanned the desk. “We need these papers. I want to see if I can duplicate them with a spell.”

He halted before retreating a step. “What do you need?” He asked.

“I need blank papers.”

Luka moved to the drawers on the opposite side of the desk, pulling out a stack of blank parchment from the second drawer and handing them to me.

I laid my father’s documents out on the desk, keeping an eye on the door as I placed the blank parchment on top of each sheet. I didn’t have everything I needed, but I hoped I could still make the spell work .

I reached for the crystal ashtray on the desk, emptying the ashes into the garbage at my feet. I used my dagger to pierce the tip of my finger, dripping a steady stream of blood into the bowl. I balled up the blank parchment and dipped them into the ashtray, roughly covering the parchment in my blood before laying them back over the original papers.

“If this doesn’t work my grandfather will kill me,” Luka muttered.

“Well, we better hope this works.” When all the documents were covered with the blood-soaked parchment, I brought fire to my fingertips, making a ball of flames and directing to the corner of the first sheet of blood-soaked parchment. The corner caught, and the parchment sizzled as the fire spread across the paper until it dissolved into smoldering ashes. I repeated the process with the remaining documents until all of the pages were covered in smoking ashes.

I leaned over the surface of the desk, with a light blow of my breath the ashes scattered, dissolving into the air, revealing perfect duplicates of the documents.

“Way to go, Sweetheart.” Luka squeezed my arm lightly, there was a slight air of wonder in his voice as he assessed what I had done.

“Thanks.” I couldn’t believe that worked. “That was the first time I did that spell, I’d only ever read about it.”

Luka snaked around me, grabbing the documents I stared at. “Appears you’re pretty talented.” He placed a kiss on my temple, catching me off guard.

He carefully placed the original documents back in the bottom drawer, while I gathered the duplicates before we both headed towards the door.

Luka stood behind me, looking up and down the hallway as I repeated the spell to lock th door behind us, letting out a sigh of relief at the sound of it clicking back into place.

“Let’s get out of here.” I followed Luka as we rushed down the hall .

We had only made it a few feet when Luka halted abruptly, causing me to run into the back of him.

“Ouch.” I brought my hand to my nose, rubbing over the tip that had met Luka’s back.

“Fuck,” Luka swore. “Someone coming.”

I froze, straining for any indication he was right. Sure enough voices and footsteps sounded in the distance.

“What do we do?” Arlo’s office was the only room in this hallway. If anyone found us here it would raise suspicions.

The voices became louder, every footstep bringing them closer to exposing us. Before I knew what was happening, Luka wrapped his hand around my wrist, pulling me around the corner into a shadowy alcove. Once we were covered in the shadows he spun me, pulling my back against his chest and banding a strong arm around my waist.

I opened my mouth to protest, but he stopped me with his hand over my mouth. “Quiet, Sweetheart,” he whispered against my skin. “We don’t want to be discovered do we?” I shook my head. “Good, then play along.” He released me, removing his hand from my mouth before spinning me and pressing me against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

“We need to make it believable to anyone who walks by.” His nose dusted over my collarbone and up my neck. “Can you make it believable?”

All I could manage was a nod as his hands tightened on my hips drawing me closer. I moved my hands up his body, letting one rest on his shoulder, and winding the other through his hair as my body bowed to his.

He groaned, the sound vibrating against my neck as I tightened the grip on his hair. It took everything in me not to roll my hips against his to get any kind of friction.

He shifted so our faces were touching. My cheek flush against his before he tilted his head to hover his lips over mine. I could feel his breath against my lips. One small movement and they would be on mine.

My body was coiled tight, heat emulated from every place we touched. If the people had passed I had no idea. All there was in this moment was me and Luka and his hands on my body, his lips on my skin. His hand moved up my leg, finding the slit in my dress as he was so skilled at doing. He continued his exploration until his fingers were gripping the hilt of my dagger. He hoisted my leg up, his hand slipping higher, his calloused fingers skimming the globe of my ass. I wrapped my leg around his and shifted my hips, earning a groan from his lips. I bit my lip to stifle my own.

I dragged my hand from his hair, drawing it across his firm jawline, down his neck and across his chest, until I made it to the hem of his shirt and slipped my hand underneath the fabric, scraping my nails against the muscles beneath.

I yelped as he nipped at my ear and tugged.

His lips moved from my ear back to meet my own, brushing my lips in the lightest of kisses, my breath hitched. I resisted the urge to press in closer. To press my lips against his again.

His hand under my dress moved higher, his hand squeezing the flesh beneath his hand, causing me to shift against him in search of any form of friction against my center.

I held back a moan as he licked and sucked at the skin on my neck. More. I wanted more.

I wanted his fangs scraping my skin before sinking in.

I wanted his lips on mine.

I wanted him to slip his hand into my undergarments. To slip a finger inside me.

I wanted him moving and pulsing inside me.

This , this we could do. Just this once. No talking, just coming together as two bodies.

“Luka—” I pulled him closer, grinding against him again. I could feel how hard he had grown in his pants. I skated my hand between us and stroked him through the fabric. He swallowed as he placed his forehead on my collarbone.

“They’re gone.” His voice was hoarse.

He pulled away, slowly removing his hands from my body. The space where they rested instantly going cold.

“Thanks for playing along.” He didn’t meet my eyes as he spoke. “I’m going to go and find everyone and tell them we found something.” He ran his hands through his hair. Taming back the locks I had messed up.

He took a step back. “I’ll meet you in your room in a bit.”

And with that he left, leaving me in the alcove alone.

We all gathered in my room a while later, my mind still reeling over what had transpired between Luka and me in the alcove.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the feeling of his hands on my body. The trail of heat they left. It left the pulsing need at my center unfulfilled.

Luka was the last to arrive despite being the one going out and finding everyone. He didn’t even look in my direction before sitting on the couch opposite me.

Everyone looked between me and Luka. I ignored them as they shared looks I didn’t care to dissect.

It was Declan who finally broke the silence. “What did you find?”

I tore my gaze from Luka, who was looking out the window instead.

“I guess I’ll be the one speaking.” I let my irritation leak into my voice. Was he going to make a habit of this? Ignoring me every time I let him touch me?

Luka continued to look out the window as I revealed to everyone what we found in the office. Including my theory about Arlo being involved with the Vanir, before placing the duplicated documents on the table .

“You really think Arlo is behind all this?” Nico asked.

“I don’t know him well enough, but why else would he have these documents? They’re from my father’s study.”

“What if Braham sent Arlo the documents? Before he died? They were in communication.” Luce drummed her nails on the table. “I will ask my mother if she knows anything about it,” Luce added, glancing at Luka out of the corner of her eye.

“Thank you.”

“Did you two read through all of the documents?” Declan looked up from the papers in front of him, a piece of dark hair falling across his face.

“We didn’t exactly have time to examine them closely.” I made my way over to the harpy. “Why did you find something else?”

“Is there a reason why your grandfather would be keeping documents detailing missing vampires?”

“Missing vampires?” Luka’s brow furrowed. “When?”

Declan continued to shuffle through the papers as we gathered around him. “There’s hundreds of them.”

“Hundreds? I feel like if there were hundreds of vampires going missing I would know about it.” Luka grabbed the papers from Declans hands. “This can’t be right.”

“I would have thought I would have been privy to the information too, but clearly I’m not,” Declan added.

“So Arlo is hiding these disappearances?” I mussed. “But why?”

“These go back years,” Luka muttered. “Starting with the disappearance of my cousin.”

I whipped my head toward Luka. “Your cousin?”

He nodded solemnly. “My cousin Este and her friend disappeared out of the blue one afternoon. They wandered into the forest and never returned. They were never found.” Luka swallowed, his eyes fixed on the document in his hand. I remembered him telling me about her, the evening we spent under the stars during the ball last spring. “The date on the oldest report is from the day she disappeared, seventeen years ago.”

“There are no reports documenting disappearance before that one?” Luce asked.

Declan shuffled through the papers again before finally shaking his head.

“Clearly, your grandfather must believe the disappearances are related, but that doesn’t explain why he’s kept them hidden,” Kara wondered out loud.

“Wait.” I sat up in my chair. “When I first met with Arlo when I arrived he alluded to dark things happening in the Blood Court, do we think he meant these disappearances?”

Declan shrugged. “Maybe, but there’s no way to know for sure.”

I hadn’t thought too much about our conversation, especially considering Arlo had denied every meeting I requested since to follow up on our conversation. I hadn’t thought about it before, since Arlo had been traveling frequently, but maybe he was avoiding me. Avoiding telling me whatever these dark things were.

“We’re missing something,” I mussed, tapping my fingers on the arm of the couch. “The Vanir and these disappearances, Arlo having my father's research, they all have to be connected somehow.” I forced myself to look at Luka, my chest squeezing at the dejected look on his face. “And King Arlo might have been that connection.”

The room was silent, none of us daring to say anything or even look at one another, lest acknowledge the potential truth of my statement.

“What do we do next?” Kara finally asked.

“We need to go back Alethens,” Luka said, turning our attention to him.

“What do you mean we go back to Alethens?” We couldn’t leave. Not when we were finally getting somewhere.

“You’re due to go back in a few days anyway. Instead of waiting a couple of weeks for the wedding, I’ll come with you now. I’ll make up some excuse to my grandfather.”

“You don’t have to,” I argued.

“Yes, I do.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t be here with my grandfather right now. I—” He sighed deeply. “I need some time to sort this all out.”

“Okay,” I said softly. “If that’s what you want we’ll do it.”

“It is,” he confirmed.

“I have an idea.” Luce looked up from her lap, meeting our expectant gazes. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“Spit it out,” I pressed. Anything, I’d do anything if it had the potential to help us.

Luce let out a deep breath. “Once we get everyone back to Alethens, we need to summon the Goddess.”