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Chapter 26

Joseph Kelley

H erbs were spread across the table in front of Joseph, all recent acquisitions from one of the newest members of his court. He was careful to keep gloves on and his trembling hand steady while he inspected them, as most of them were from realms far from this one. Renfyr root from Ithalium, Malphas' Malice buds from the Void Realm, seeds of the seirin plant from Faerie, and valerian root. He wasn't sure if any of them were poisonous to his kind, but the recipe he'd acquired called for them. It was what was necessary to take down one as mighty as Nagamasa Shioji.

One of his lackeys, Reggie, stepped into the silence of Joseph's workroom, a spacious room on the ground floor of the castle. It had windows on two sides that provided good ventilation for his experiments, especially the ones he worked on presently. Joseph flicked his eyes up to the intruder, trying his damnedest not to lose his temper yet. Patience was in short supply these days.

"I have a report on Rose Sutton," said Reggie without preamble. He'd learned after only one punch to the gut to keep his ramblings to a minimum with Joseph.

"Has she left her island?" Joseph asked, putting the sprig of purple leaves down on the table.

"Only for a few hours, sir, before she returned. She was with your son and one of the Kings at the Autumn Market."

Joseph had to hold himself back from pounding his fist through his mahogany workbench. His claws lengthened from his nail beds and bit into the wood beneath his fingertips. "Are you absolutely certain?" he seethed through his teeth.

"Very. Three of your people, including myself, saw them, but none of them could grab her since she was out in such a public space and not alone," his lackey replied.

Joseph didn't wait to ask permission before plunging into the other merman's mind, nor was he gentle with how he combed for the memory. It was easy to find, the images tinged with anxiety and hatred as they were.

There she was, flanked by Milo King and Will. Humans flowed around where she'd stopped. Her gaze was transfixed upon the stage, where a performance Reggie didn't recognize went on. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears, grief blatant on her face… but that wasn't what concerned him.

It was the way her aura exuded raw, unfiltered power.

It reached into the ground, into the sky, bled into the very air around her. Tendrils tangled and twined with the men on either side of her, belying her relationship with them. Her eyes glittered like the night sky, impossible for one of their kind.

A thrill of fear shivered up Reggie's spine.

Joseph is powerful, but can he compare to this? Can he fight and win against someone like her when, untrained, she nearly bested him once? Reggie thought.

Reggie remembered the day Rose Sutton came to the town hall and ripped away part of Joseph's aura. He'd known fear that day, more than he'd felt when around Nora's Lord and Master. What if Joseph's win over her was a fluke…

Joseph ripped out of Reggie's mind so fast the man fell backward into the wall. His eyes widened at the sight of his lord until he remembered to avert his gaze.

Joseph let out a snarl so vicious Reggie flinched. "Are you uncertain about me as your leader?"

"N-No, sir," the lesser merman stammered.

"If you dare so much as think another doubt about me and my plan, I will sever your mind from your body and parade you around as a cautionary tale to the others. Do I make myself clear?" Joseph snapped, lashing power at the already cowering merman.

"Y-Yes, sir," Reggie whispered so low it was almost inaudible, reeling from the magical hit.

"I can't fucking hear you!" he screamed, lashing out at him again.

"Yes, sir!" Reggie shouted back.

A trickle of blood dripped from the merman's nose, as if he'd been punched rather than hit with magic. And he shook, the muscles in his body tense and ready to flee whenever he was given permission. Satisfied with the merman's terror, Joseph sheathed his claws and pivoted the topic to something more useful.

"We need to get Tomas Marin off the islands before we can start with the next phase of our plans," said Joseph, calm once more. "Have you and your team prepared adequately?"

"Yes," Reggie replied quickly. "His daughter has been located, and we're readying the trap, as instructed."

"Good. If you're ready, I want it done tomorrow. We cannot afford to wait around any longer." Joseph pinned the other merman with a glare. "If you have no further news or questions, you're dismissed."

Reggie opened his mouth, as if to voice another thought, before deciding against it. He turned on his heel and all but fled the room. He can be taught , Joseph thought with a hint of amusement.

Now that he was alone, he turned back to the assortment of herbs and flowers on his work bench. The recipe required a delicacy of touch and preparation that Joseph didn't quite have it in him to attempt, not after the reminder of his failure to secure the talisman. He wanted to rip the girl's mind apart to find it, even if it meant destroying her and breaking the sacred mate laws, but it was what was best for his son and the future.

She was dangerous.

She needed to be leashed.

If only he could get his claws on her.

How much extra power had he wasted trying to lure her from her hidey-hole? Calling to her in her dreams had nearly worked once; he'd ensnared her mind and started to beckon her to come to him, but something—or someone—had stopped him… someone he now suspected was his own damn son. After that, he'd been unable to reach her mind, meaning he was going to have to resort to more physical means.

If she ever fucking left Mariana.

With the talisman, there would be no questioning his position and his power over her. His people would never have reason for uncertainty again. So long as she walked free, however, and proved he was not the most powerful among them, his men would not have full confidence in him. The very thought nearly made him lose control.

Joseph ripped his gloves off and tossed them on the workbench far from the plants. He might not be able to work on this phase of the plan in his current state, but he had other parts he could move into place. Other parts that had just become more pressing now that Rose was showing her face in public.

Falling gracelessly into his chair, Joseph heaved a heavy sigh before closing his eyes. He'd had to learn how to work around the hole that stupid bitch had torn in his aura and how to deal with the significant power decrease, and he resented her for it. What he was about to do, however, wouldn't take too much effort.

Casting his awareness out, he followed the tethers of his aura to their ends. First to the ones whose minds he'd suppressed, his puppets, to check that they were still under his power. Then he followed the lines further outward, to the nodes he and his underlings had placed on the other islands. It took mere seconds to adjust his intentions there, tightening up the command to not move against him, to mistrust any and all merfolk, and it took mere seconds more to add in one last directive.

Do not trust Rose Sutton.

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