The Beauty In Love And Murder

Chapter Forty Seven - Theodore

I pace back and forth, stopping to stare at the man in front of me every few rounds. His violet eyes are fixed on me lazily, but I can see the guardedness behind them.

"Where is she." I say quietly.

"I don't know, Your Majesty. If you recall, my job was just to kill her. Not to capture her. Your lovely mother did that all on her own." His voice is laced with sarcasm but I know he's concerned for Adrienne's wellbeing. He loves her, she told me as much on the day she ate lunch with Zephyr and I.

I clench my fists and look over at the captain. Tobias looks uneasy and I don't blame him— He knows as well as I do about the people of Adrienne's ilk, the ones locked in our dungeons and the countless that my father has executed. The ones that we both were forced to swear to not speak of, under any circumstances. I had, in truth, forgotten about them entirely until I'd seen the air move at Adrienne's command; I was going to tell her about them but never got a chance before she left my room and disappeared.

I've searched for her but I can't find her anywhere— and my mother and whoever Salder is are no longer in the queen's chambers, so that leads me to assume that there's another place in the palace that they're keeping Adrienne.

I growl in frustration, and Zephyr stands up from his seat abruptly. "I think I know where she is." He says softly.

I look at him curiously, and I know he can see the desperation in my eyes. "I can't let her kill Adrienne." I say. He nods. "I'll show you, I promise. But I can't take you there till dark."

I stalk forward till I stand in front of him, our faces close. I let him see how much I need her to be safe, how broken I'll be if she is hurt.

He maintains eye contact, and I wait.

"I can't take you there. Not till nightfall. Take it or leave it, Theodore." His voice is controlled, quiet. Tobias tilts his head at him for a long moment with a contemplative expression, then blinks. "Oh."

I whip my head around at him and Tobias' eyes widen as I advance towards him. "What do you mean, 'oh'?" I ask. Tobias' gaze flicks to Zephyr and my friend looks pained. He doesn't speak.

"It's not my place to say, Your Majesty." Tobias says in a clear voice. I groan and fall back onto the bed. Tarryn makes a choking noise as he laughs and I sit up to glare at him.

"Shut up." I snap. "My only goal here is to get Adrienne back. I want her to be safe." Tarryn looks up at me through strands of hair as inky as my own. "You think I don't want that too?" His voice rasps and I wince slightly. "I was supposed to take care of her." He hangs his head. "I would've killed her, your mother got into my head and I couldn't stop her. She did... She did so much to me while I was locked up in that bloody red room."

I cock my head to the side. "What red room?" Tarryn's eyes are glazed as he remembers. "She has... spells? She has devices and spells hidden in a red room somewhere in the palace. She has a table... and the wall... handcuffs. She cuffed me down and experimented on me. And then she got into my head. I couldn't do anything I wanted to... all my thoughts were dulled. All I could feel, all I could think was her orders: Kill Adrienne and the prince."

Zephyr has gone from pale to ghostly white as Tarryn speaks. The sun is almost gone, reflecting on the rippling water beyond our shores and I turn to him. "You'd better get ready to show me where she is." I say. He nods. "Trust me Theodore. I will."

Tobias looks at me cautiously. "Do you want us to come with you?" He gestures at Tarryn. I contemplate for a moment. "Yes. I want to apprehend my mother for questioning. Her accomplice too." Tobias nods, as does Tarryn.

I examine the two of them discreetly. They're the two men in Adrienne's life that matter the most to her, but I know barely anything about them. You barely know anything about Adrienne herself. A voice whispers in my head.

The next half hour passes quickly— I ask casually ask Tobias and Tarryn questions about Adrienne, gathering bits and pieces of her from their stories. Her favourite colour is dark blue. She used to sing. She has a favourite knife for assassinations, which I find endearing in a sadistic way. She scraped her knee when she was four and got blood all over her bed, but she called it a painting. She's secretly a romantic, but she never talks about it. She cut all of her hair off once when she was fifteen to pass for a boy because she was so sick of being a girl in house of all males.

As they tell their stories, I realize that I never want to stop learning about her. She's such a complex person, I never noticed how much I love it till now— I want to learn everything there is to know about her.

I can't do that, however, until I find her so I can keep her safe.

We talk, the four of us— and a companionable feeling appears between us that wasn't there before. I idly wonder if this is what having more than one friend feels like.

Dusk falls.

The night blankets the world in a damp, quiet cover. Zephyr stands up and sighs as I look at him expectantly. "You can't get upset that I haven't told you." He says quietly. "I couldn't tell anyone. Greenwood only found out by accident." Tobias nods in assent, too quick to reassure me. My eyes narrow. "I won't be upset."

Zephyr gestures and the three of us move to the sides of the room. Zephyr takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

Black, inky tendrils swirl around him and for a moment he's obscured by them, his whole body barely visible in the smoky wisps surrounding him. My eyes widen in shock, then I cover my mouth with a hand in awe as the smoke clears.

Zephyr stands before us in his previous spot, breathing a little heavier than before. His fists are clenched, and behind him, they stretch out further than his arms reach— spreading till the tips brush the ceiling. Suddenly everything makes sense; how he never liked wearing those stupid tight tunics, never stayed out with me at night, never wanted to settle down with any of the people he met, never mentioned having children of his own.

Zephyr is one of the creatures of old— one of the races that my ancestors insisted that they'd exterminated, one of the blessed in the myths that no longer appear to be myths at all.

Zephyr's wings sway slightly, casting dancing shadows around the room and the name rises to the forefront of my mind in the tangled midst of my shock;

Zephyr is one of the winged race— an Aviyan.

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author's note ~

hi baes!! im so sorry i havent posted a new chapter. lowkey i lost all of my motivation to write this book because i kind of just hated everything about it but im powering thru and im gonna finish it and then edit it so i can get it published :) anyways im sorry u had to wait so long for a new chapter!! i hope u liked this one, and tysm for all ur votes and ur support on this. we're almost at 8k reads which is crazy, im so grateful for all of u <33

- C