7. Kellan

Chapter seven

Kellan

I stood at the edge of our camp in what could only be described as horror as I watched the wyvern swallow the prince whole, spraying his blood across everything in sight.

A roar of wrath tore through my throat as I watched the future of everything I had ever worked for evaporate before my very eyes.

I was tasked with ensuring the prince survived the attack, and he very much did not . If only he had stayed put and out of sight like he was told, but no. He had to go and run off and then try to fight Elianna himself as if she wasn’t one of the most well-trained, fiercest warriors I had ever had the pleasure of battling alongside and now against.

I watched the entire gods-damn thing and never thought she would kill him. She was toying with him. I could tell by her stance. I didn’t think she would have it in her to kill her own brother, but I never took the gods-damn beast into consideration.

Now, here I stood atop the embers and ash of what remained of our base, destroyed by the very person we came here to end. I watched as she and the others climbed atop the wyvern’s back and flew off into the distance, disappearing between the cover of the clouds.

The ground was scorched—littered with broken weapons, shattered armor, and charred corpses.

I blew out a breath of frustration as pure, utter panic took over me for the first time in my life. The queen would have my head on a spike for this and perch it atop the castle’s battlement.

Where the fuck was Callius? Hopefully, among the melted bodies, but I knew I wasn’t that gods-damn lucky.

I locked eyes with William a few yards away as I made my way through the burning field—at least someone of use survived. I went to stalk over to him when Callius appeared from behind one of the half-disintegrated wagons.

“Adler,” he barked. “Here. Now.”

Anger lingered in his tone, but it paled when compared to what it would have sounded like if he had become aware of the prince’s fate.

I pivoted away from William and aimed toward my predecessor instead. I went to open my mouth to speak as I reached him, but he cut me off.

“Where is the prince, Kellan?” he asked through his teeth. My eyes widened as I refused to break his stare. He reached out and grabbed each of my shoulders, shaking me violently. “Where the fuck is Kai?!” he roared and then threw my body several feet from him.

Without hesitation or a single sensible thought running through my mind, I unsheathed my sword and pointed it at Callius as I found my footing .

“Don’t you fucking touch me,” I said to him. My eyes searched the area, and I was relieved none of the soldiers were around this end of the camp to witness what was occurring.

Callius’ face morphed instantly. What once appeared as anger turned into crippling fear. “Where is he? …Where is my son?! ” he bellowed, worry and agony seeping through each word.

My brows lifted in confusion. “I’m sorry?” My head twisted to the side in curiosity.

“Kai,” he choked out. “Where is he, Adler?” The lines of his face etched deeper into his features as grief cloaked him.

I slowly lowered my blade to the ground as I stared at him in disbelief. “No. That part I heard. I meant the other part…”

Callius’ eyes flared, realizing what he had just revealed, assumedly by mistake.

“Callius, what do you mean your son? ” I demanded as I lifted my blade slightly to have it at the ready if needed.

His spine straightened, and any sense of the mourning “father” instantly vanished from his features as his gaze fixated on me, calculating his next move as he remained silent.

“Kai is dead, Callius…” I began, and I watched his body jolt as if he had taken a dagger to the chest. “Exactly how long have you been occupying the queen’s bed?” I taunted him, making no attempt to hide the amusement slowly crawling up my features.

His face twisted into a scowl made of nightmares and ruin as he finally spoke. “Since before you were even a thought in this realm.” He paused, and his eyes roamed over me as I remained in my stance. “And now you know too much.” The second the last word left him, he charged at me.

Without hesitation, I lifted my blade and drove it into his gut as I dodged his attack. Everything around me slowed as I plunged the sword deeper into him until the hilt reached his body, and the blade was straight through the other side, dripping with his blood. His expression dropped as shock consumed the both of us. My eyes narrowed in on his as he stared at me, dumbfounded.

“And now you will join him,” I said, and I ripped the blade from him.

Callius took a hesitant step toward me before falling to his knees on the charred terrain.

He lifted his already fogging eyes to meet mine as blood dribbled from his lips. “What have you done? I taught you everything you know… You were like a son to me,” he rasped out, barely above a whisper as he clutched his wound.

“Apparently not,” I grumbled. “I was not raised in a castle and handed everything on a platter of gold, as your true son was. I was raised in filthy barracks and kicked down more times than I could count before I was able to climb the ranks and make something of myself. You made sure of that,” I hissed, my face twisting into a sneer.

His body swayed to the right as he spit blood at my boots. “I raised you the way any son of mine should have been raised. With honor…dignity… balls, for gods’ sake.” He coughed up more blood as it continued to pour from his wound. “I had no say with Kai. He was to be known as the heir to the throne and sired by Jameson Valderre. Kai knew nothing of it. He was never supposed to. Idina never told him, and we never planned to.”

His wheezing deepened. “You have now taken my only true son from me, my plans I have worked for longer than you’ve even breathed, and now you’ve stolen my life.”

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. “You have enveloped yourself in the queen’s secrets for far too many centuries, Callius.” I tsked. “I hope her pussy and doting on her every beck and call was worth whatever failing plan you two conjured.”

“You will not speak of my mate that way,” he growled viciously. Callius’ lips curled back as if he were an animal.

I barely heard the words as my mind emptied. I couldn’t even form words at what he had just admitted, and then he continued. “And as I said, you stupid fuck, I’m significantly more than just a cock that awaits in her bed.”

“What in the gods’ names did you just say?” I blinked, confusion flooding my every thought.

“Idina is my mate.” Callius lifted his chin to greet death in the face as he confessed his lifelong secret. “And everything we have done since we were barely older than younglings has been to obtain the crown. Her father? He planned it all. All of it . Aside from assuming his infant daughter wouldn’t have a mate when he promised her to the Valderres, but I made myself useful to keep her near.”

My jaw fell as I lifted my blade once more and aimed it at him.

“Her father’s death,” he spoke again. “Was obviously not part of the plan, either. When everything unfolded, we needed to conjure something entirely new. A new plan to take over the throne and Elianna’s birth made that possible.”

I shook my head rapidly from side to side. “I’m not following.”

“The queen’s war opened the doorway for everything her father wanted!” he spat, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed William lurking behind the other side of the wagon.

His strength slipped, and he nearly face-planted into the ground, barely catching himself with his hands as they slid through the dirt and ash that surrounded us.

“Get up!” I hissed as I shoved at him with my boot, keeping my blade fixated on him.

He sat up once more on his knees, wheezing with almost every breath. “The plan was to kill Jameson in battle, make it look like an accident, or that he was struck by the enemy, but he rarely left the castle. Between that and Salvinae following him around as if he were a lovesick puppy, it was impossible to get him isolated, so after a while, we left it alone. The king was fixated on Elianna and too busy grieving the death of his love to even notice what was going on around him, the old fool.”

Callius huffed out a pitiful excuse of a laugh. “It took over a century to solidify a new plan, and it didn’t come until I stumbled upon that wyvern’s egg out of pure luck as I searched for more mortal camps at her orders. The king’s death couldn’t have foul play suspected, and poison wasn’t an option. Those things take time, but we finally had our chance to seize the throne and Velyra entirely. The queen did everything in her power to make sure our plan worked, and that included keeping our son in the dark regarding his true lineage. We had to wait until the opportune moment. You have no idea what it’s like to be berated by your own child because they believe you are beneath them. I have spent over a century dealing with exactly that. Elianna almost once again fucked everything up by being in the king’s ear about ending the war.”

My eyes roamed over his dying body. “If the queen is truly your mate, then how could you stomach it knowing that she entertained his bed?” I questioned.

He let out a wicked chuckle, but there was nothing but wrath within it. “I couldn’t stomach it, but we had an image to uphold. Surely, if she fell pregnant without having slept with the king, then that would raise alarms with him. It nearly killed me, and I wanted to kill him. I imagined what it would feel like to strangle the life from him every time I was forced to endure the thought. I spent my entire life preparing for those nights. Her father nearly beat it into me so that I would have to grin and bear the agony of it. Everything I have ever done has been for her. Her father tried to keep us apart, but I wouldn’t allow it, so if I wanted Idina, I needed to learn to live with it.”

“If she never cared for King Jameson, then why in the realm would she ban healers? To her own fucking armies!”

Callius eyed me. “Idina doesn’t take kindly to being disrespected. It was her way of punishing Jameson for believing he had a mate in Elianna’s mother and acting out on his feelings about it while she couldn’t. And in the end, they weren’t even gods-damn mates, for he never felt her pain when we killed her. ”

I continued to stare at him in disbelief.

“While she never wanted his love, she expected his respect. She even hoped he would occupy himself between the legs of another female one day. We just never expected him to give someone else the firstborn, true heir.”

He paused and took a few painful breaths. “The wrath of a female scorned could rival that of the gods.”

I was silent for a few moments as I watched him. My mind raced at everything he had thrown at me between his dying breaths. The corner of my lip tilted as my new plan formed.

“…And now I will be leaving her without both her son and mate.” I leaned down closer to him and whispered, “I wonder how easy it will be for me to infiltrate the castle now.”

His eyes flared wide as he moved to stand and make his final move to strike, but instead, I plunged my sword once more down into his sternum, straight through the other side, killing him instantly.

His body went limp and slid down the blade, hitting the ground with a thud as I stared down at him, trying to process everything he had admitted to me.

“Captain?”

I twisted my neck to look in William’s direction and watched as he eyed Callius’ body cautiously and then lifted his stare to mine.

What the young male did next would determine his future—or whether he had one.

“Hmm?” I hummed at him as my jaw ticked .

He cleared his throat. “Do you have orders, Captain? Only eighty-three soldiers remain, and most are wounded. They are working to salvage anything left.”

I smirked at him as I pressed the tip of my boot to Callius’ shoulder, holding his body in place as I ripped my blade free from his flesh. I then wiped the blood clean on the side of my pants before re-sheathing it on my hip.

My gaze focused back on the male. “Care for a promotion, William?” I asked him as I sucked on my teeth and scratched at my beard, acting as if nothing had just happened.

He answered with a grin that I imagined mimicked my own.

I could’ve sworn that in the far-off distance across the continent, the agonizing screams of the queen shook the realm.