Captive Of The Count

98

Orian's pov

It was no surprise that the rumors of Amara being missing from prison went around Avalon because the soldiers knew that I never brought her back and while grieving the sudden death of Penelope-Iris, I nursed how I felt regarding my wife being far away, dealt with the blow of Ares's death and tried to find Hector.

While all these went on, protests began, the people showed up daily that I give justice to Ares and my excuses weren't cutting it anymore and Nexus briefed me on what was happening with the soldiers.

The Kingdom had divided in half.

Most of the vampires and gryphons were obviously on Hector's side as I knew that he must have been doing underground work of poisoning their minds even before our issues blew up and the rest vampires, demons, and the entirety of the Gorgons due to Octavia's loyalty were on my side.

And fingers pointed at me regarding the death of the elders and I took that to mean that I'd wake up someday to find that my head was wanted.

But with each passing day more and more were deflecting from supporting me due to Hector's henchmen doing the devil's work and spreading rumors.

I sat in my office at the townhouse, like I did every day silently waiting for when they would crack and their so-called leader Hector would show up and contest me for the throne but knowing how much of a coward he was, he wouldn't do it the normal way, he would create a means to perpetuate bloodshed and so Octavia and I had begun plans in evacuating the children, sick, old, women and anybody who wouldn't stand the effects of the war if it could last long and while at this, my faction of the army had started preparing for the attacks.

Hector being missing made me so uneasy as I knew that the man wouldn't exist without a trick or two up his sleeve.

I had tried to track Imelda down as she was his mistress even before he decided to create our farce of an engagement and finding her was to no avail so she was probably hiding him somewhere.

Octavia herself knew not where her daughter was as she had confessed to me that after Amara had briefed her about Imelda's behavior, she let her go and pledged her loyalty to me and I once again marveled at how magnificent my wife was.

I couldn't wait to go back for her and tell her how much I loved her and break the news of her being pregnant.

I remained at my office table with my fingers holding the hilt of my dagger and twisting it against the wood, my sword which was forged with the blood of my enemies lining the middle laid on a chaise next to me and I laughed remembering how the man whose blood was supposed to fill the last place was the man couldn't wait to get these all over with so I'd go and meet him to plead for his daughter's hand.

The space would be filled with someone else's blood now and that would be Hector.

I stood up and tucked my dagger in its sheath while walking over to the window to stare through it for a while before calling Nexus to ask him if there was anything yet but just as I was about to go, there was a loud noise coming from outside that sounded like people's angry shouts and I stepped back from the window and made way to the door so I could go out to check what was going on.

And just as I was going down the stairs Nexus appeared joining me midway with a frantic look on his face, "What's going on?"

"Hector seems to have appeared and it doesn't look good."

At his words, we both rushed to the door leading to the balcony on the first floor, signalling at the guards to let them open I stepped outside to see people trooping through the gates forcefully, carrying different weapons, and as they surged forward they made nasty angry war noises.