Fae Lord's Betrothed - Book One

39. The Silent Explosives

At first, I thought there's no way it was him. I tried to peak a look inside. Though it was high, I saw the white-winged lord approach the window and said, "it did go like how we predicted."

I sat back down with my back against the cold wall. My hands balled into fists. But I kept hearing. There has to be a sensible reason why Cayold spoke that way.

"You must continue doing so, my lord. Not until we find what we achieve. Then the king can have her head like he always wanted. There's still time for you to nullify the betrothal."

Surely Cayold didn't agree to that. He had saved me all those years ago, had promised my father. He wouldn't give up so-

"You're right. But I'm afraid of one thing."

"What is it?" Rafael lowered his voice.

"Alcor. Throughout the journey, he seemed to have said a lot of things to her. What if he revealed -"

"No, no. Though the Redcorills don't trust your plan, they won't say something they must not. Sir Alcor is a smart man. He wouldn't just reveal that even before you went to choose a wife from the Weaver daughters, you were going to choose Allura."

I was not ready to accept any of it. Yet.

"Allura is not completely foolish either." Though it was somewhat of a compliment, it hit me like a slap on the face.

"We predicted as much. However, she did believe all what we wanted her to see. You took her to court to see those falsely accused women's trial, then she saw them residing in your prisoners' hut under the castle. She witnessed a humanly conversation between you and the kitchen keeper, the evacuated Humanlands, the reason behind calling Allura's sisters to the castle, - she believed all of it right?"

There was silence for a moment. Cayold's voice rang in the room, "I even helped her and took care of her when she was injured."

"Really!" Rafael said out loud. "That wasn't even in our plan. She must be smitten to see the lord himself taking care of her. You have nothing to worry about."

"However, you must continue to stay away from her. She had gone looking for you."

"Of course, my lord. She cannot know that I was blamed for Sir Harrington's murder because we didn't want the case to be further investigated. Those king's men were really nosy."

My father considered him as a son! That's what Emeline said at least. How can he? I closed my eyes and tried to keep my arms close to my body but they didn't stop shivering. This was some bad dream. It had to be.

"What do you plan next?" Rafael asked.

"She agreed to go to Dralyra with me. When my human brothers see her, they will try to approach her to know if Harrington told her anything. I will be able to dig in."

"I'm so happy my lord. Angels are in our favour this time."

"It's all thanks to you."

"Any leads on Jackyle? Though you made progress on Allura's case, we still need to punish Jackyle for what he did."

"No luck in that Rafael," Cayold said, hiding the fact that we had an encounter with him, "We came across some bandits in the woods but only empty shores greeted us when we reached Serpens. It was evacuated."

"There was no news of it."

"That's what puzzled me."

I couldn't sit there any longer. I needed answers and without another thought, I stood up. Facing towards the window, I noticed Lord Cayold's back, his wings widely spread.

As if sensing me, he turned around.

I tried to calm my raging heartbeats and urge to speak my mind but I waited. I needed confirmation that what he spoke was true.

And I got it soon enough.

His eyes opened wide when he realised I listened to the whole conversation. Muttering some ugly word, he flew out of the window. His feet landed beside me, his arms reaching me.

I hold up my hand to stop him.

I stared him down, my eyes were unwavering from his agitated gaze. I waited for him to produce a rational excuse but nothing came out of his mouth as if he had nothing to defend. He stood like he wasn't ashamed of his blatant lies.

"Is it true?" He didn't owe a chance to defend himself if it was all actually true. But I had believed him and planned to trust him.

He looked away.

I took a deep breath in. "I need answers. I won't ask again."

"But Allura-"

"Yes or no, Lord Cayold." I was running out of patience. I didn't trust my own voice when it started shaking. My eyes teared but it didn't falter away from Cayold's eyes. I had nothing to be ashamed of.

"Yes. That was the plan, however-"

"Was it all true?"

"Allura what you heard-"

"Is it true?"

"To some extent, yes but that's not the whole-"

"You piece of scum!" It took everything in me to stop those words to come out from my mouth but with no luck. "A rotten head scoundrel! How dare you."

He closed his eyes containing his anger but I gave no heed.

For the past few days, he toyed with my emotions. He took my father's name in vain and used him to manipulate me. That louse deceived me and like a thoughtless gullible child, I got tricked into it. Either I was a horrendous fool or he was an expert trickster.

"You need to hear me-"

"No." I stopped him. Of course, he would try to rectify the error in the plan but I won't get played. Not twice.

"Allura," he tried to hold my elbow as I walked away but our concentration broke because of an explosion in the backyard.

I flinched and Cayold's wings opened wide. He snatched me away as the grass beneath us started burning.

Before we could comprehend what was happening, another blast came from the inn. Soon, people started rushing here and there. The commotion rang loudly in my ear. It was followed by more blasts and more screams.

Instead of running inside the inn, Cayold's wings fluttered. He was up in the air with me secured in his arms.

"Hold on," he said as we went higher above the market.

"No!" I protested and squirmed in his hold. I won't trust this man. "Drop me down."

But he wasn't hearing me any longer. His eyes were searching the area and it horrified him. My eyes followed his and I was stunned.

The sky was filled with winged beasts. The same humanlike faes whom I had noticed earlier were now around us, so massively crowded that it looked like a festivity. They had ferity in their eyes.

Then, the festival of blood began.