𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘. 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.
It's the beginning of a new age when Jaylah Imperatrix seemingly returns from the dead to reclaim her throne. And in perfect timing.
In her absence, evil has be...
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Act 3 Chapter 110 ALEXANDER
"Alexander."
Jaylah's voice brought him out of his mind. "Yes, Your Irritating Majesty?"
She was not phased. "I gave you the names. Is there a reason you have not gone on your way yet?"
The revolver was tucked in the waistline of his pants, its cool weight pressed against his hipbone. Knowing Jaylah, once he showed it to her he would never get it back. She trusted him too little. Although...she was set on making things right between them, if her parting words to him on their last rendezvous meant anything. And she went out of her way to research slavers for him to kill.
In the back of his mind, the awful certainty arose: the Kalingi would raze Oceana again. Not that he especially cared about politics or had enough sympathy in him to mourn the too-many horrors in the world, but being this close with the Empress made his perspective...shift. She needed all the help she could get.
Also, there was no assurance that Fas Kaling wouldn't turn their holy rage northward.
Sighing, his hands went to his belt, where he pulled back his coat and delved his hands under his waistline. Jaylah's eyes dropped with the movement. "What are you doing?"
"Relax. I'd never give myself up that easily." He pulled out the revolver and waved it in the air. "The spoils from my last outing. Thank the Hounds you snuck me in or the soldiers would have patted me down and found it in my—"
"Do not finish that sentence." He laughed as she held a hand out. "Let me see it."
Alexander yanked it dramatically from her reach. "Ask nicely."
Jaylah exhaled a long, long sigh through her nose. "Please."
"The death glare also feels a little impolite," he told her as he slapped the gun into her palm. "Nice, isn't it? It's essentially useless until I get more ammunition, but there's one bullet left for you to look at."
Turning it over and over in her long fingers, she tried to figure out exactly how it worked. "Would you mind if I borrowed it for a day for my engineers to inspect? You would have my word no harm would come to it."
"Maybe." When she handed it back to him, he hid it again. "Depending on how good a mood I'm in after this outing."
"Last time you came back with a horrific black eye and bruising all over. Be safer tonight."
Alexander attempted to make a joke to embarrass her, but it only came out as, "I'll try."
When he stood to go, his gaze laid on her as he thought about what the night held in store for him. He wanted those men murdered for what they'd done, and he wanted to do it. He wanted them scalped or flayed alive or their limbs tied to rocks and drowned. But even just seeing them and their cruel eyes, their rough hands, turned him back to a desperate child kicking and screaming and being held down.
