Love & Loss

Chapter 52

Nico's POV:

"So," I began, taking another step closer to the boy, "What exactly was your plan last night?"

The amount of time he had spent serving the royals of this kingdom showed through how he carried himself.

Ever since Marcus stepped out, even with his legs bound and a prince who was completely set on slaughtering him not even 8 hours ago in front of him, he sat straight with his breathing calm and controlled.

All except for the way he rubbed at his reddened wrists.

"My plan was to sneak into your room, knock out your pet with this," He pulled a rag from his pocket, " and keep her contained somewhere until the Lord woke up." He spoke directly.

I knew I was going to have to try very hard to control my impulses during this, but I wasn't expecting to have to do so this soon.

Luckily, the fact that I recognized the oddly sweet smell that radiated from the rag from my medical background aided in shifting my focus.

He held it out to me, apparently reading the look on my face.

I took it, feeling the odd texture that proved that whatever it was soaked in had dried, and with a little inspection, recognized it as Sevoflurane.

A very useful inhalational anesthetic.

Had he placed this over her airways, she would have been out or at least nonresponsive within a matter of seconds.

"What does he want with her?"

He didn't respond as quickly this time, his brows furrowing and lips pulling to the side.

"I don't know. I've been trying to piece that together myself, but he hasn't told me. Probably because he knew this exact thing might happen. Before I was just supposed to drug her and ask some very strange questions, but now he wants her physically delivered."

His answers were surprisingly blunt and straight to the point, despite the anger that both of us knew was boiling within me.

Still, he was keeping his end of the deal, answering everything directly and honestly.

"What questions did you ask her that night you drugged her?"

"I don't remember specifics. Most of them were worded... strangely, but they were all basically about you. What she thought of you, how you treated her... stuff like that."

My fingers dug into my upper arm.

"And if I remember correctly, that plan failed?"

He nodded.

"The Lord gave me access to the ingredients as well as the recipe I was supposed to execute and give to her, but one of us must have miscalculated the correct dosage and it worked a little too well."

Thank God for that.

Given the mood, she was in after the fact, who knows what she could have said.

"So you don't any idea as to why my father wants her so badly?"

"He gives me orders, not reasons. I'm nothing more than the executor just trying to save his friend."

All his words rang true.

That meant that if I wanted the answers to these questions, I would need to ask him myself.

Which in itself sounded like an absolutely terrible idea.

As much as I did want these answers, this seemed like a plan that My father has spent a while planning out.

If I questioned him directly and showed him that I ruined his plans, he could so easily ruin everything.