My nails rake down his back as he pounds into me, both of us finishing with no other sound in the room but our panting.
"What was that?" I question my mate.
"It was three months of pent up frustrations let's say." We both laugh and I begin to trace the new pattern on his bicep.
He said that it was a magical symbol meaning protection.
I remember him recounting his tale of how he was badly injured and just had the strength to shift into a bird in an attempt to fly off before he was captured. What a pitiful sight it must have been, a king trapped in his own castle in a cage as a bird. I couldn't imagine the humiliation.
He said that Evan had managed to slip through the cracks as he wasn't recognized as a castle dweller so he hid until the siege was done and the rebellions reinforcements had come to reappear, claiming to be from one of their strongholds. They placed him on guard duty over the hostage medics, one who of course was his mate. They placed their heads and magic together to devise a plan to help the castle guards who were mostly hiding out underground, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
In this time, no one knew of William's whereabouts which is why he seemingly dropped off the face of the earth for two and a half months. As he recounts, he was able to heal himself enough within two weeks, and one day while they were all sleeping, he shifted into a small lizard, crawled out of the cage and turned back into a bird flying out of an open window. From there he went to an old powerful witch he knew that lived in the port city of Solomon and she spent her time fully healing him and giving him enchantments to help him.
William didn't return until two months later, going through the tunnels. At this point, the guards were certain that the spy was among their ranks, so that's why no one was able to report back to me that William had been found. Only Roman and his three higher ups knew about the king's return. When they attacked the rebels it was a hard fought fight but they had managed to win and keep those that weren't slaughtered for questioning.
Which brings us back to now, with my mate beside me once again.
"You're a cruel man for leaving me in a new unnecessarily gigantic home with two children that wouldn't shut up about your whereabouts while I had no answers to give them."
A sad look crossed his face as he pulls me closer and kisses my forehead.
"You know I would never do it unless I had to." he reassured me.
"How long until we can move back?"
"Honestly, I don't know. This palace has more of an advantage with the wall surrounding it and the hills surrounding it just before the town. It will take a while before they are able to weed out spies for the staff over there as well."
I nod, snuggling up against his chest once again, falling asleep.
I'm woken by the thump of wings in the air and a sharp hiss. I find Kyren and Nika at the foot of the bed, play fighting, and from the looks of it, Nika is winning. Hard to believe she's fully grown now, seems like just yesterday when I could pick her up in my arms.
The spot next to me is cool to the touch, meaning that William's been up for a while. I get clean and dressed before going down to the dining hall, finding my family gathered around a table as my mate shows the kids where we are on a map, what surrounds us, and what's underground.
"Daddy! Papa wants to take us on a picnic up the mountains, can we, please?" Mira asks, her brother echoing her excitement.
"If he's feeling well enough for the hike, I don't see why not." I answer them both.
The both scream with delight running off to get ready, startling the cooks, who still are adjusting to us actually being here.
William takes a few steps towards the door before his injured right leg gives out, and I'm quick to catch him.
"Are you sure you can-"
"I'm fine." he grits out, getting lose from my grip and keeps going, this time his stride only slightly faltering here and there.
"I was only trying to help." I say gently. I know how hard this must be for him. He doesn't like showing people his weaknesses. Especially not after what's happened.
"I know, and I really do appreciate it, love. You've put up with my moods ever since I've gotten back, I'm sorry." he apologizes, stooping while grabbing onto me for support to kiss my forehead.
"When can Malick be in to help?" I question.
William shakes his head.
"He won't be. Things are much too chaotic for him to leave his position even for just a day."
"What about Evan?"
"He's still undercover. He fled with those cowards to keep tabs on them. Samara said she had a spell to fix me up since Evan and Malick laid a strong magical base in my healing."
I nod at this, smiling at him, stealing a kiss.
Five hours later, I find myself discussing with William as we both kept a watchful eye on the kids who were playing with our pets close by a cliff face. I wasn't worried about one of them jumping, if they did that then I knew Mira was shifting into a bird or Artan wanted to be caught by her or Kyren. What I was worried about was them getting caught off guard and freezing. That wouldn't go so well.
"What if we moved the capital here?" William proposed out of the blue.
"What? Hebe is where it's been since the beginning."
"Maybe it's time for a change. We haven't much room to expand there without taking people off their properties and destroying whatever woods we have left. Juno is much larger than Hebe. We could utilize the space to give the counsels their own spaces and connect the smaller villages into the land."
"This needs to be discussed with the counsels and done once the problem with the rebellion is over though. We shouldn't switch where the government is during this time. I will not let those rats have the satisfaction of thinking they've scared us off."
"Even so, the underground tunnels should begin to be expanded currently. I'm sure the counsel would agree, but we'd need an easier way to get around."
I agreed with him. The tunnels under Hebe and surround townships were vast and much faster than going on the surface. If we were to move here, even if it'd take a while, the tunnels would need to be the first thing begun.
The caw of a falcon sounds above us and we both look up to see Zion's messenger bird over head gently landing on William's broad shoulder.
I pull the message from its holder and the bird was off just as quickly as it'd come. So no return message needed then.
Dearest W,
I've safely arrived home and the house has been greeting me back with open arms. All has gone well with them over the past few years I've been away, our only regret being it took my father's death to bring us all together once again. To think that one of his own men would kill him, simply brings me to tears. How could someone blindside him like that, for years even, being the one closest to them, being the one taken under their wing, only to kill them off themselves? Then he practically vanished into the night, not a person has seen his face since and only those that were there know it was him. I must go and prepare his burial with my younger brother. He was a private man in life and as it will be in death. I thank you for you're support in my time of need.
Yours,
Z
"It's been done." I announce to him.
"So Dacre's..." he draws his thumb over his neck.
I nod.
"Did she say who finished the job?" he questions.
"I can't tell." I admit, handing the letter off to him.
He scans it over, reading through it twice before he understood.
"Ryland." William answers. "Ryland killed Dacre. There were a few witnesses but from the way that abruptly stops, I'd say that that's where that information stopped as well."
"So what do we do know."
"We send our regards to Asher."
"How would he know? Wouldn't the announcement take a while to travel through the kingdoms?"
"No. She's been writing to him as well but she's not writing with his name. If we get tied back to this, it'll be shocking but make sense. It's only bad if it's found out at this time for us. For Natus, it's even more catastrophic. She took extra precautions with Asher, or shall I call him Phoenix." he says.
My brows furrow.
"Do you remember when I was telling you of the harvest ball?" he asks.
"That was nearly a decade ago! You were talking about how Robin first met Asher, but back then he went by-" I pause. "How is using a dead alias any better?"
"No one knew he went by Phoenix except for Robin, Winston, and the Earl his mother married. To the rest of the assembly he was simply Lord Montenarri."
So our tracks were covered.
Good.
But now that the warlock has melted, we have a rebellion to snuff out.