14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Garrick

I 'd spent all night poring over every law, amendment, condition, and every little piece of paperwork I could get my hands on.

And I was pissed .

All of my copies of the Sedoba Territory laws were apparently forged. My copies didn't match what was on record, which meant that the council had been deceiving me for years . I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe I hadn't known.

I couldn't believe I'd been locked up in the tower so long that I'd let this happen to my people right under my nose.

And I was so angry I was having trouble keeping my fire from bursting out of my mouth and taking the whole tower down with me… along with the bastards who were deceiving me.

I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck as Roman and I took the elevator down to the second floor of the building. I used my private elevator in the back of the building so we wouldn't risk the chance of running into anyone else. Roman was the only other person with a key to it.

"Do you think we should give Tan a key to this elevator?" I asked as I pulled on my collar, wishing I'd stop sweating from nerves since I hadn't left the top of the tower in years. "It would probably be safer for him, right? Especially if he leaves late like he did last night."

I greatly regretted not walking Tan to his car last night.

Roman froze for a beat before he flattened his tie. "That's not a bad idea." He looked up and grinned at me.

I blinked. "What?"

"You've never given anyone but me a key, not even before ."

I sucked in a harsh breath. "Yes, well, Tan's different."

His grin grew. "Yeah, he really is."

I rolled my eyes and checked my watch. We only had sixty minutes before Tan was due back here, so we needed to get this finished quickly.

The elevator stopped and its doors opened, so we walked out onto the government offices in the building. My tower was the main hub for pretty much everything in our territory. We certainly had enough floors for it.

The first floor was a welcome center with receptionists there to help, as well as a small history museum for guests to tour and learn about Sedoba. Floors two through one-hundred-fifty were all government offices, from seat holders to health care and everything in between. We even had the courthouse within these walls.

Floors one-hundred-fifty-one through two-hundred held my personal businesses that Roman and I oversaw together. Above all of that were the personal condos that should've gone to my den, but no one had lived there in far too long.

There was a floor with a gym, pool, and community areas as well, but without a den, they hadn't been used either.

And, of course, Roman's home, our offices, and my home made up the top three floors.

I hadn't been anywhere below Roman's home in years. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd ventured down here and been face-to-face with other people. I'd been doing everything via email, video chat, or having only the occasional in-person meeting up in my office.

And I was nervous coming down here. It had been a long time since I'd considered the entire tower my home, and I hated leaving my den. Hell, I hardly ever went to Roman's condo, let alone anywhere else.

It made me feel like my skin was exposed.

We walked off the elevator, and no one seemed to notice me at first. But then a woman in a suit saw me, gasped, and bowed. As soon as she did that, everyone else finally noticed who'd walked in, and soon everyone was bowing.

I waited a beat before I said, "You may rise."

The group of people rose, then didn't seem to know what to do.

I waved my hand. "As you were. Please don't mind me."

That was only wishful thinking, and since Roman snorted, I figured he felt the same.

A young woman, human from her scent, walked over and did another small bow, then stood up and met my eyes, asking, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

I wanted to smile at her to reassure her, but I couldn't muster it when I was so concerned about everything else.

Luckily, Roman was on top of it because he answered for me. "We're here to see the liege paramounts."

Her eyes widened, but she nodded. "I believe they're already in a meeting, Grand Wing. Would you like me to go inside and let them know you're here?"

"No need. Which conference room are they in?"

"Um… two, sir."

The woman was flustered and seemed unsure about letting us go into the meeting unannounced. But when I lifted a brow at her, she backed away and let us pass without a word.

Roman gave her a nod and led the way down the hall with me following behind him. Normally, I would've insisted on going first, but I knew Roman wanted to ensure there were no threats headed my way, so I let him take the lead.

Roman opened the conference room door without knocking, and I heard several of the liege paramounts shout at him before they realized I was behind him. Honestly, they should've shown my Grand Wing more respect than that. It made me grind my teeth together.

As soon as the group saw me, they all stood and bowed at their waists, and since I was pissed, I forced them to stay in that position a lot longer than I normally would.

Roman shot me a half-smirk because he knew exactly what I was doing.

Finally, I said, "You may rise."

Everyone rose, and the Speaker of the Tower, a werewolf named Aaron Ralodove, said, "It's nice to see you, Your Highness. What brings you all the way down here on this fine morning?"

I'd never truly liked the man, but he'd been voted into the position by his peers, so I figured I didn't know him well enough to make a definitive judgment about him. But from the fake-looking smile on his face, I figured my original assessment was accurate.

I stared at him for a long moment, letting him squirm under the attention before I finally said, "Something disturbing has been brought to my attention, and I stayed up all night reading over law after law that was passed. Without. My. Knowledge. " I let my dragon come out on those last words, letting my voice deepen into a growl.

The Speaker flinched, but he didn't look away or back down. "And what laws would those be?"

"The ones concerning the fae. The ones allowing discrimination in my territory. The ones that go against everything Sedoba stands for."

"The ones that were written and passed nearly twenty-five years ago?"

I growled. "Do not interrupt me, Aaron Ralodove, or you'll find yourself thrown in the dungeon." Because my tower did, in fact, have a dungeon in the basement. It wasn't used, but I'd absolutely make an exception for this disgusting werewolf.

Some of the smugness fell from his face, but when he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. "Yes, Your Majesty."

I paused for a moment before speaking again. "Who was responsible for putting laws into effect without bringing them to me first?" When no one responded, I said, "I'm running out of patience."

The Speaker finally said, "I am, sir."

I gave him a nod. "Thank you for your honesty. Aaron Ralodove, you are dismissed from your position." His head snapped up, and a look of horror spread over his face. "You've clearly been in your position for far too long. You forget your place." I narrowed my eyes and allowed my dragon to shine through. "I expect you to be out of this building by the end of the day today. Your key card will no longer work, and you will no longer be allowed on the government floors."

His nostrils flared in anger. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"You will have charges brought against you once I get my lawyer involved, so expect to hear from her sometime in the next few days."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Impossibly, he looked even more pissed.

I still couldn't believe he'd been getting away with this for so long. I couldn't believe that I'd let him.

But I'd bring the force of my power down on him to make him pay for his betrayal of me and my people. He didn't know what was coming.

If I had it my way—and I would—he'd be going to prison for a very, very long time.

A few of the others in this room would likely be joining him after a thorough investigation was launched.

"You may go to your office now." I waved him toward the door.

He stood there for a long time before he picked up the tablet from the table and headed for the door. Roman swept in, grabbed the tablet, and said, "You won't be needing this. Your access has been revoked, Ralodove."

Aaron Ralodove's nostrils flared in anger again, and he stared at my best friend as if contemplating murder—he'd never beat a dragon, let alone one as old and skilled as Rome—for a long moment before turning on his heel and walking out of the room.

As soon as the door shut, I turned to the other liege paramounts, assessing them.

The way our government was set up had me at the top as king, Roman below me as the Grand Wing, and if I had any heirs or siblings here at the tower, they would be under Roman. After that, we had the Speaker of the Tower, who I'd just let go. Technically, the Speaker was still a liege paramount, but was also the leader and voice of the other liege paramounts.

The liege paramounts split duties in terms of Sedoba's health care system, housing, education, commerce, etcetera. Each liege paramount had several high scales under them—people who helped navigate things.

And each high scale had several laureates under them.

The laureates were the government officials who spoke directly to citizens. Any citizen who had an issue they wanted solved outside of court came to a laureate, and that laureate either helped them or took the issue to their high scale.

It was a system that had been working for us dragons for hundreds of years, and apparently, I'd put far too much trust into it.

Tan hadn't been lying last night. The things I'd read about had horrified me, and I felt like the worst possible leader. I didn't deserve this role, not after letting others control my territory and ruin people's lives—fae lives—for so long. The damage that had been done couldn't be fixed, not easily. I honestly couldn't believe how horrific I'd let things become, and all because I was afraid to leave my damn condo?

It was surprising Tan could even look at me with everything I'd done. Or rather, what I'd let happen right under my nose.

I should've known better.

I never should've trusted that other people had my people's best interest in mind. I was old enough to know better than that. Greed was a disease not easily cured in politics.

Shaking off thoughts of Tan, I refocused on the liege paramounts in front of me. "Here's what I need. I need all of the laws that allow discrimination of any kind revoked. Immediately . I've written out the new laws already and have the paperwork ready to go. Roman will forward it to you as soon as this meeting is over.

"I need you all to come up with statements regarding the fae and their mistreatment that we can print and post everywhere. I will be doing an interview later in the week, once things have been filed.

"I need one of the high scales to be promoted to liege paramount so we still have eleven on the committee, including one from the treasury branch since we just lost our treasurer. And after that person is promoted, I need you all to decide who's going to take Aaron Ralodove's place and become my new Speaker of the Tower."

When I finished, I expected someone to talk, someone to ask a question, but all the ten of them did was stare at me in shock.

Finally, I asked, "Any questions?"

A few shook their heads, but the liege paramount of education asked, "What if there's pushback from the civilians?"

I glared at him. "Then we deal with it. I don't care if they push back or not. This is what's happening. There will be equal rights for everyone in my territory, or I'll throw every single one of you in prison for defying the king and passing laws behind my back."

"We didn't know it was behind your—"

I growled loudly, menacingly, to cut him off. "Bullshit." I didn't usually curse aloud, let alone in front of these people, but that was the only thing appropriate to explain my fury and frustration with these backstabbers. "I trusted you, and each and every one of you betrayed me and my people. Do it again, and you won't like the consequences. Get this done. Today. Or you'll all go down together."

"Yes, Your Majesty," a few of them said at the same time.

I didn't think every single one of them hated the idea of equality, but the majority of them seemed pissed off. Which meant I'd have to keep checking in on them and ensuring compliance—something I should've been doing already.

We'd see what came about from my investigation. If necessary, I'd fire all of them and hire new people who actually cared about the citizens more than their jobs or their power.

I stormed out of the conference room and headed for the elevator with Roman sharp on my heels. The two of us took our private elevator up to our office floor, neither of us saying a word, just in case someone had bugged the place or something. I wasn't going to risk speaking until we got into my warded office where I knew no one could overhear us, where I knew we were both safe.

I felt his presence and smelled his scent before I even reached the door, so I wasn't surprised to find Tan already seated at his desk with Orangelica on top of his head.

The witch glanced up at my entrance with a smile on his face, but that smile fell as soon as he got a look at my expression.

Orangelica hopped onto his desk as he stood and walked toward me. "What's wrong?"

As Roman came inside and leaned against the wall, I started pacing the length of the office, hands in my hair as I tried to calm myself and my dragon. "I didn't know."

"You didn't know what?"

"About the fae." I stopped pacing and turned to face him. "I swear, I didn't know. The liege paramounts passed those laws without my approval. I had no idea. They did it behind my back and gave me forged paperwork to hide what they were doing from me. I… Scales, I had no idea, Tan. You have to believe me. I didn't know. I swear it."

He put his hands out toward me, looking like he was trying to calm a wild animal. "Shh, shh, shh. It's alright. I believe you."

"You do?" That was… unbelievable.

"Yes, I believe you."

Relief was so overwhelming, I almost fell to the floor. "You really do?"

"Of course I do. You've never lied to me before, Gar-Bear."

For some reason, hearing him call me that after being scared that he'd never want to speak to me again after what I'd found out kind of melted some of the armor I had around my heart. "Thank you."

He nodded. "Can you explain to me how you didn't know? This isn't a new problem. It's been going on for decades, so I don't really understand how you didn't notice the way people treat the fae out there."

"I… I… I never saw it."

He stared at me for a long moment before something that looked like a mix between horror and sorrow passed over his pretty face. "So it's true?"

"What's true?"

"You really haven't left the tower in decades, have you?"

All of the air rushed out of my lungs. "No, I haven't."

"Oh." His eyebrows drew together in concern. "Are you agoraphobic? Shit, was that insensitive to ask?"

I waved him off. "No, I'm not agoraphobic, and you can ask me anything."

If anything, he looked even more confused. "Then why haven't you left the tower?"

I sighed and ran a hand over my face. "I can't."

His eyes widened. "Isn't that… agoraphobia, then?"

"No, I mean, I can't. It's not a brain thing. It's a magic thing."

He opened his mouth, snapped it shut, then opened it again. "I don't know what that means."

I glanced at Roman, and he gave an encouraging nod, so I continued. "Someone placed a curse on me about twenty-five years ago."

"They cursed you to stay in the tower?"

"Not… exactly."

When I didn't continue, Tan sighed in exasperation. "I'm gonna need more than that, Gar-Bear."

I walked over to the couch and plopped down beside the cat, who'd settled on the couch while we were talking and merely glanced at me before resuming her nap. Without thought, I reached over and petted her cute, furry head. To my surprise, she let me.

Tan came over and sat on the other side of the orange cutie, and finally, I said, "About twenty-five years ago, a blood witch cursed me so I can't shift." It was the truth, even if it wasn't the whole story.

Tan froze and stared at me in horror. "You can't shift? For twenty-five years, your dragon's been locked away from you?"

I nodded. "Yes, and every time I've left the tower since then, I've almost died, and those… people, those traitors, have tried to steal the… artifact from me. So… I stay here where I can keep the artifact safe, and no one can hurt me. Or at least, I have a better chance against them here."

Part of me wanted to spill it all, but I wasn't sure if he could handle it.

Okay, that was bullshit. Tan would handle it fine. It was me who couldn't.

But I didn't want to lie to him either, so I added, "That's the truth, but there's more to the story."

Roman snorted. "That's putting it mildly. There's a hell of a lot more to it than just that."

I ignored him. "I… I don't think I can tell it today. Not after the morning I've had."

He reached over and placed his hand on top of mine. "Tell me when you're ready, Garrick. I don't mind waiting."

I blew out a slow breath and sank into the couch. Having his easy acceptance only made me want to tell the whole story more. Maybe it was time. Maybe I should finally tell him… everything.

Even if him knowing would change the way he looked at me.

It had been eating me alive for days.

I needed to tell Tan everything.

He deserved to know.

And he was right. He was already in this thing. I'd already put him in danger. Anyone watching me would know how much time Tan spent with me. I'd put a target on his back. Keeping him at a distance to keep him safe was no longer an option.

I had to tell him, I knew that. But knowing it didn't make it any easier. And I just… couldn't do it. Not today.

But soon.

I'd tell him soon.