by Alexia Purdy
Gil
“Where is she now?” I absent-mindedly shuffled the papers on my desk as Alec, the general of the army, stood at attention in front of me. “You placed a tracker on her, yes?”
“Yes. We tracked her to Savannah Street and then the signal died. The rains were heavy that night. We have cause to believe it damaged the tracker.”
“Didn’t you also send someone to tail her?”
Alec nodded. His face remained calm even under my questioning. He’d been First Lieutenant since I could remember and was loyal beyond words. Having me apparently doubt his abilities certainly hurt him. “Yes. She’s in the Outlands but safe. I have someone with her now.”
“Good. I want a full report on her actions as of late.”
I narrowed my eyes at the leader of the guard. The man wasn’t massive or overly bulky, but he was in excellent shape and carried more scars on his body than anyone should. He’d been nothing but absolutely faithful to the House of ArcKnight, but now that I was king, I had to assert my authority, even if it meant I wouldn’t be making any friends.
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
“Does she have the talisman back?”
Alec shook his head. “No. She doesn’t have it back as of yet, but I know for certain she’s on the hunt for it too. So is my contact.”
“I can’t let her return without it. In fact, we need to find the talisman before she does. Tell your men to find it now or I will be sending a hunting party to kill her. If whoever took her talisman contacts her, we can’t risk letting her become compromised.”
“I understand, Your Highness.”
“Oh, and Alec?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t say anything of this to Rafaela. She can’t know we’re tracking Lily. If she knew we have her location, she’d insist that I bring her back to the palace. I can’t do that until the talisman is found.”
Alec bowed, his hardened dark eyes drifted toward the ground. No amount of grinding his teeth would allow him to speak his mind to me as he had to the previous Alpha. I felt I could be a great leader one day, but as of now I was young and inexperienced. This was crippling the efficiency of the ArcKnight stronghold and of the army. I could admit that, at least to myself.
I wondered if my father would’ve let things get this bad if he’d been well enough to handle this before he died. Banishing a royal for losing their Ardent talisman was a serious matter. There should’ve been more of an investigation. I should have kept Lily in the palace until I knew more about what was going on. If I hadn’t sent her away so rashly, none of this would’ve happened. Now, whoever had the talisman could use Lilliana against the entire pack. If she were still here, she could have been watched. Now I couldn’t be certain she hadn’t already been compromised. If whoever stole the talisman had somehow contacted her, threated to use it against her, she might be persuaded to commit any number of crimes against us. Until the talisman was safe, she was a liability and could not come home.
Alec remained bent over, waiting for me to dismiss him. His barely concealed contempt didn’t make me feel any better about screwing up. Aside from Rafaela, no one had mentioned it explicitly, but I knew everyone was thinking about the prophecy. All one needed was four active Ardent talismans and they could rule the world: two from the ArcKnight and two from the MarkTier.
The mistakes were piling faster than the solutions. I dismissed Alec, and as he turned to leave, a stiff smile played about his lips. What wasn’t he telling me? I opened my mouth to call him back but stopped. If he hadn’t told me already, he wouldn’t with any further prodding. I’d have to earn his trust, and so far I was doing a piss-poor job of it.
Chapter Eleven
