I stormed down the stairs, heading straight for the guest rooms that Jesh and Namir were staying in. When no one answered, I used a little magic to melt the locks on the doors—barely managing to maintain my hold on the damned moon—and checked the entirety of the space for any signs of my female.
There were none, and no one was there, so I stormed down the castle’s stairs. The moon was starting to slip from my grasp, along with my damned sanity.
I found Horvis with a few of my higher-ranked soldiers, and fought the urge to grab the bastard by the throat and slam him against the wall. If Akari wasn’t so hell-bent on us taking power from him slowly, I probably would’ve.
But she mattered more to me than the assholes I was staring at, so instead of threatening them for information, I growled, “Have you seen my queen?”
There was a pause as Horvis looked at the other two men.
Their expressions weren’t readable, but I tightened my grip on the moon when fury coursed through me at their obvious avoidance.
“I think she came in with the other women a few hours ago,” one of the warriors at the back of the group remarked.
“Thanks.” My voice was stiff. “By the way, my female is reopening the castle to the rest of the city. If you want a room within the walls, talk to Akari. She’s handling assignments.”
Not bothering with a glance at Horvis’s probably-hate-filled eyes, I strode away from the group without another word.
If my female wanted to retake the power, we’d retake the fucking power.
I stormed back up the stairs.
She had returned a few hours ago, but the other women were nowhere to be found, and Namir and Jesh were most-likely with them since I couldn’t find any of them.
But I couldn’t imagine my gorgeous mate tagging along without letting me know first.
Or stopping to see how I was doing.
Or coming in to let me feed her, or to make something herself. I’d taught her how to cook over the span of a few evenings, and she had picked it up quickly.
Yet now, she was gone.
I flew into her space, burning through the door’s lock with a blast of moonlight. My hands were on her sheets a moment later, tearing blankets off her bed and charring materials as I checked every fucking inch of the mattress for her.
Nothing.
I stood up straighter, my fists clenched tightly.
Someone had to have fucking taken her.
Someone had to have—
The scent of blood made my nose twitch.
What the fuck was that?
I spun toward the bathroom, and found the door closed.
Why the hell hadn’t I checked there?
I ripped the door off its fucking hinges a moment later, and stared at my female and the unfamiliar male in her bathroom as the thick wood crashed to the floor with a cracking noise.
Akari was leaning up against the corner where the shower met the wall, her body curled tightly in a ball. Her left hand was on the floor to the side of her, and it was coated in dried blood.
The male fae on the ground wasn’t someone I recognized, but I saw his sword on the floor beneath him.
His heart was on the ground beside him, chunks of ice sticking up off the thing and proving that it was frozen solid.
There wasn’t much of a question what had happened.