The Empress' Descent

Chapter 42 - Politics and Magic

Like I'd promised Elian, I would help him find his sister's real killer. Which was a bit odd a move when Ethan the Worm was squirming right beneath our noses. I'd been appalled how no one in the palace had tried to connect the dots yet.

Perhaps it had something to do with how the Grand General had made himself harmless to the public. While his true colors—the colors of rot and decay—were known only to a few people.

Or perhaps they'd had their suspicions but would never dare go against someone who'd gained so much sway and authority over the throne these past few years.

I had to assume it was likely the latter.

The warm glow of sunlight entering Derek's study was casting yellow pools onto the clusters of scrolls and parchments laid upon the square table.

On the documents were scraggly lines of texts, lists of the people we could trust and needed to be wary of. Along with the names of powerful houses in Solaria were their ways of livelihood and types of businesses, land properties, how faithful they were to the crown and other basic information we could use. As the Empress, I had memorized most of them.

Elian sat across from me, his cheek planted on the back of his hand. "Tell me how any of this is supposed to lead us to the perpetrators of Athelina's death."

"Before we help you, you need to help us first." Derek had settled on my left, pretending to look at documents. Though he may have said that, I knew he was becoming just as bored as Elian.

Elian's influence among the aristocratic households from his mother's side was a good addition to my arsenal. And since he had already sworn to find the true suspects of my death, I might as well let him in on the plan. Explaining was easy, and I had merely repeated the information I told Derek yesterday.

In a single day, I acquired more power than I'd expected to have.

"I did not ask you for help. I asked Clary." Elian sulked, bringing a fist on the table. "When did the two of you get so chummy anyways?"

My gaze remained fixed on a scroll I was surveying, allowing Derek to answer on my behalf. I immediately regretted it.

"That, my Prince, is what you get for leaving your fiancée behind so carelessly. You know what they say: finders keepers—ow!"

I pinched him. Hard.

"If you are hoping to get into my nerves, Derek, well it is not working. From the beginning, Clary and I had no plans of marrying each other," Elian said, straight-faced. His gaze turned taunting. "Or did Clary find no importance in telling you?"

Derek scoffed. "She didn't have to. By now everyone knows why you keep leaving the palace."

"Don't say such foolish things." I shot Derek a glare of warning as he continued rubbing his arm. I faced Elian. "The Duke and I, we met through certain...circumstances."

"Special circumstances. One of a kind." Derek waggled his brows.

"It was nothing like that," I said too quickly, earning an incredulous stare from Elian. "Ignore him. We need his broad network of resources if we hope to win this. And Elian, it may not be like what you think it is but we are helping you in our own way. Have you not made sense of any of this yet?"

Elian reclined to his seat, wrinkles appearing on his forehead while trying his best to put the pieces together. A few seconds passed and the wrinkles of confusion soothed, turning into an expression of dreadful realization.

I told him everything connected to the Grand General, along with the threats he'd said to me when I became a thorn in his path, hindering him from his greedy motives. His control and manipulation over Kazriel. How every word of his had begun to become law in this palace.