Chapter 13

I woke in a strangely good mood to the servants opening curtains and bringing my breakfast. For a moment I stretched in my bed, lost in the memories of the acts that had taken place in here the night before. Heather, my mind whispered seductively. Heather.

A grin spread across my lips. I rolled out of bed and moved into the bathroom as the servants retreated, having learned long ago that I neither desired nor needed their help in daily chores such as bathing, dressing, or eating. I was fully capable of handling all those things on my own.

I stared at the image in the mirror baffled. I almost didn’t recognize myself. Who was that grinning idiot staring back at me? I grinned broader, even hummed a tune when I stepped into the shower. I never hummed. I barely ever grinned.

A mekarry changes a male. She brings out his best qualities,Garth’s voice popped into my head and I stilled.

Was that what was happening? Was Heather my mekarry?

I nearly laughed, but choked the sound down because I wasn’t sure if it came from happiness or the irony of it. I had cursed my two best friends for finding mekarries within the human race. It had complicated my life to no end.

Lady Madeema’s warning of taking a human as an empress came back to me and my good mood sobered. Even if Heather was my mekarry—and that was still a big if, damnit—I could not justify taking a human as an empress. We would lose all credibility with the GTU. The Cryons would raise the netherworld and rightly so. The Moggadesh would rub their hands in glee at us Pandraxians destroying ourselves.

It didn’t matter though. I wasn’t even close to contemplating making Heather my empress, I just wanted her by my side. You’re lying to yourself and you know it, my mind whispered mercilessly.

“Send an invitation to Lady Heather. I would like to have breakfast with her,” I announced after pressing the comm button to whichever servant was on duty waiting for me to utter orders.

I got dressed and paced my living room, impatiently waiting to see Heather again. It seemed forever until a flustered servant entered. “I beg your pardon, Your Imperial Highness, but it appears that Lady Heather vanished last night.”

His words didn’t make any sense to me. I heard them, I understood them, my mind even strung them together into a sentence, but they failed to fully register in my brain.

My heart though, my heart knew. It clenched painfully, right before the coldest fury I had ever experienced spread through me.

Without a word, shouldering the servant aside, I marched out of my suite, down the hallway, barely aware of my guards hastening to catch up to me or the startled courtiers falling into bows and curtsies as I rushed by them.

I knew where Lady Natoi’s quarters where and reached them within a few ticks.

Lady Natoi stood in the center of her living room, wringing her hands, talking to several security guards.

“What is going on?” I thundered.

Heads turned toward me, males and merrilies fell into bows and curtsies, whispered words of, the emperor, rushed through the room like wind. I had no patience for any of this. “Up.” I waved them to stand. “ What has happened?”

“Your Imperial Highness,” Lady Natoi screeched, “I’m afraid Lady Heather has vanished.”

“Vanished?” I bellowed, “How is that even possible? Get Commander Noctus here, now!”

Commander Noctus was the head of my security. On second thought, I added, “And Lady Madeema.”

If Heather had truly vanished, I would not leave it to the regular security guards to find her. The full power of my empire would be out there looking for her and may the gods have mercy on whoever took her, because I sure as the netherworld wouldn’t.

“What happened?” I reiterated my question to Lady Natoi, running out of patience.

“I don’t know, Your Imperial Highness. I woke up this morning and she was gone, the bed is still made, see.” She marched to a door that opened at her approach, giving me a view of a neatly made bed. “It appears she never came home after having dinner with you last night.”

She managed to make the last part of her sentence sound like an implied accusation without being disrespectful. The anger churning inside roiled to a boiling point, looking for an outlet, but I called up enough self-control not to choose the obviously distraught Lady Natoi as my target.

“Your Imperial Highness.” Commander Noctus entered, his black skin tone was a perfect match to his somber presence. He could put a nearly hysterical person at ease just as easily as make a male shake to his core in fear. He was one of the tallest Pandraxians in my empire, and wide enough that he had to move sideways through regular doorways.

“It seems that Lady Heather vanished some time during the night after leaving my quarters on her way home. Have all the frygging security footage pulled. I want every single one of your frygging guards searching for her. This is of the highest priority,” I ordered, while my heart squeezed painfully again. I should have walked her home last night.

Even the simplest of my subjects would walk his lady home after a meeting.

That was just the crux of it though, wasn’t it? I wasn’t a simple male. Which had been Heather’s argument. She hadn’t wanted to get tongues wagging and create gossip, and even suggested that it would be better if she didn’t spend the night. And fool that I was had agreed. And now she was gone.

Frygg. I kicked one of Lady Natoi’s little statues. With a crash, it broke on her floor, making her flinch.

“What is it?” Lady Madeema joined Lady Natoi’s slowly overcrowding living room.

“Lady Heather has vanished. Find her,” I barked, and turned on my heel before I broke more of Lady Natoi’s things.

How could this have happened?

At the very least I should have had my guards walk Heather back home, I admonished myself. But who would have imagined something like this happening? It had been only a few corridors. My palace was safe. Foreign dignitaries stayed here all the time.

Sir Priough vanished within your walls, a tiny voice nagged at me. Vra, that was true, but it was different. Sir Priough had been a deserter. He had come to Lady Madeema to find refuge.

Right!My sardonic mind nodded at me. And you believe that?

I didn’t, but I could also not openly admit to my intelligence officer having kidnapped a dignitary under my roof, because that would either imply I had no say in what was happening inside my palace walls or I had ordered her to do this. Neither option was appealing or a good diplomatic move, so I supported this lie despite knowing better.

“Frygg.” I kicked at a low column holding the carved head of one of my many ancestors. I barely noticed the head falling and an ear breaking off, the servants would fix it, like they always did after my temper erupted.

“Frygg,” I cursed again at the realization that the only person in the universe who would be able to soothe my temper was gone.

The anger was easier to take than the pain from the fear of what was happening to her or my inability to help her.

My hands opened and closed in a futile attempt to tear my empire down brick by brick until I found her.