Page 45 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)

Chapter Thirty-One

Crow

W e wait, and we plan.

Atreya’s words replayed in my mind over and over again. I was tired of waiting. I wanted Emelyn out of this place, but I needed to be patient. Just a little longer, and maybe I could figure out why Ember wanted her at all.

All that existed in the corners of the emperor’s office were my shadows.

I had overheard him making plans to have a meeting with his most trusted soldiers in here, but he did his best to keep his words to a minimum and to the point.

I couldn’t decipher what he was trying to accomplish by wanting Emelyn alive.

How much time did she have before he tried to kill her? The keyword here was try because I’d unleash the demons of my shadows on him before he laid a finger on her.

As I lay in wait, the door burst open and a small group of soldiers sauntered in behind him.

They wore Ember armor, but I had never seen them before.

The last one closed the door behind him.

They spoke with little to no words. Valos pointed to maps he had laid out over his desk, and they would nod in understanding.

I craved to get closer, but with all the bright lanterns he had in his office, I couldn’t without alarming them with my darkness.

I had to linger in the corners, in every shadowed hall, which only made my job more difficult because Valos was careful with everything he did.

He knew of Celestial Fae what we were capable of.

This man never slipped. He followed every precaution he could to ensure no one could find out what his plans were.

It was tirelessly infuriating. But maybe I could figure it out by capturing these soldiers and infecting their minds.

Looking through their memories. I didn’t want to kill them.

They were just following orders. I was sure they had wives and children to go home to.

I always had to remind myself who the real enemies were.

“Leave tonight and don’t come back until you have what I need. You’re dismissed,” Valos said as the men exited.

After their meeting of half-truths and coded language, I slipped through the darkness of the halls and followed the men until they all met outside the palace walls.

They gathered their horses and a small wagon with supplies.

The thudding trots of their horses grew distant before I slipped into the darkness of the woods to follow them.

I couldn’t stray too far away from the palace because I refused to get too far away from Emelyn, but I could stop them just out of view and dissect their minds to find out where they were headed and for what purpose.

My shadows overtook the woods. Tendrils shot out in front of the small fleet of soldiers, stopping them in their tracks.

Their horses bucked as they pulled their swords or lifted their hands, readying for a fight.

But it was too late for them. My tendrils of shade wrapped around them like snakes before seeping into their skin.

Some tried to scream, but it would come out strangled as I kept their every movement locked down with my power.

My shadows slipped into their minds, looking for any inkling of information from that meeting or anything that happened before it, and I came up empty.

I could see some of them leaving their homes this morning.

Kissing their wives and their children goodbye.

But the rest of today was like a blank board.

An iron gate within their minds that I couldn’t get through.

Fuck. I tried again.

Nothing . . .

My fists clenched. Anger simmered under my skin.

This wasn’t the first time I had tried to gather intel on Valos’s plans and failed.

The man had thought of every scenario and made sure his schemes were foolproof.

The soldiers were blissfully under his control.

He had to have used a witch to keep the plans hidden within a safe spot in their minds or some other power to keep someone out of their heads.

I released my shadows’ hold on the soldiers and disappeared into a Hollow, leaving them to remember nothing about my presence as I returned to the shadows of the palace, hoping to find something fucking useful.