Vengeance Throne (The Callistra Chronicles #2)

TWENTY-NINE

Chapter Twenty-Nine

When Charlize walked into Seth's rooms, reporting back to duty after taking a nap, she was met with the sight of chaos. There were clothes strewn over the floor, papers dumped in the corners, loose earpieces scattered along the tables.

It looked like someone had gone rummaging through Seth's every belonging without pausing to keep the rooms neat. Charlize would have become worried—if it wasn't immediately clear that Seth was the one who had done this.

By Callistra, what had she missed while conked out in deep sleep?

Seth was muttering to himself at his desk, tapping away on three electronic devices at once. Beside him, Psyche had her hip checked against the balcony doors, arms folded, watching their prince worriedly. She nodded her hello when Charlize came in.

"What happened?" Charlize asked slowly. She picked up a jacket crumpled on the floor. It was saturated with silver goop.

"Wifey went missing," Psyche replied.

Seth glared at her sharply, though it hardly had any effect when he didn't bother injecting any malice into his expression.

"This doesn't make sense, alright?" To Charlize, he explained, "Psyche says Saf must have had an emergency in Medeis."

"Come on, she left the ring behind," Psyche exclaimed. "The message couldn't be clearer."

"So why can't I track her with magic?"

Psyche didn't have an answer for that.

"I swear it, something is wrong." Seth pushed away from his devices and got to his feet, pacing. "If Saf genuinely returned to Eo, I'd let her go, alright? Of course I would, by Callistra—she doesn't have to run her actions by me. The problem is that I don't think she's there. Every attempt I've made to try confirm it has hit a brick wall. It's like someone else's magic is preventing me from finding her." He stopped. "It's like—it's just like every attempt I've made to track my mother."

At this specific comparison, Psyche stopped looking so relaxed. "You don't think Queen Evara has taken her, do you?"

"Deaths, I don't know." He blew out a loud breath. "I promised. I promised her I would keep her safe."

Charlize exchanged a glance with Psyche, the both of them feeling like they had just overheard something they weren't supposed to hear. As his personal guards, they had seen their fair share of Seth looking less than regal, but this...

"Perhaps," Charlize started, "we should—"

She didn't have the chance to offer a suggestion. A loud banging came upon the doors, and with a frown, Seth moved to go answer it.

The boy who was panting at the doorstep wore the robes of a lower-tiered noble, but he wasn't familiar to Charlize. Seth, however, seemed to recognise him immediately, and remarked, "By Callistra, you look like you ran across the entire country. Could you not have sent an electronic transmission?"

One of his sources, then, Charlize decided.

The messenger shook his head, still struggling to catch his breath. "No time to stop," he said. "Your Highness, the Mors has breached the walls of the Court again."

***

"Stay back," Pasiphae demanded, taking slow steps in reverse until she had retreated into a corner. She forced her eyes to focus, to focus past its already-superhuman capability, but it was simply too dark in the room.