A Song of Silence

Chapter 90: An Absence in the Dark

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Azazel's POV
Her betrayal cut me like a knife. No deeper than that. It left me angry, desperately so, and I could do nothing but pace the floor of my office in thought. My mother had visited me once or twice. I think she had said something about sitting down or eating something. I believe I had ignored her and she sighed and left quickly. I knew her exasperation did not come from nothing. She had come in five previous times and asked me the same thing. I did not respond then either. How could I? My entire focus was on the woman that I had just learned had betrayed me.

A woman who I had confessed my love to and who I thought I could get to open up to me, despite her secrets. A woman like no other. One who did not wish to bow to me or even tried to do so. A woman that despite my best efforts, got under my skin and stayed there. She made me laugh at her disrespect and admire her for her tenacity. I should have known it was too good to be true. As it turns out, I was wrong about her too as I was about many things. She was the one person I had spent centuries searching for. My fathers killer. The ruthless fae that had killed him despite his good leadership and the love the people had for him.

And I had fallen for her tricks and her charms. I had fallen for her anyway as I was determined to get her to speak instead of communicating with me in that sullen silence we always found ourselves in. And yet, despite my anger over her betrayal, she did not try to escape or plead for her life when she had gotten caught. Instead, she pleaded for her only weakness, those orphans she protected more than anything else. She did not plead for her life and instead pleaded for their lives. Fae that she would fight to the death for. It was a strange thing to be sure because Aerilynn had never hidden that she killed good and bad fae for money. Compared to the atrocities of her past, her actions and alliances seemed to have shifted?

My lingering thoughts finally brought me back to the present and the fact that I wasn't pacing any longer. My feet stayed still and I knew my mind had been made up. I wouldn't kill her, not now. She needed to live so that so many others would live as well. And as loathe as I was to admit it, I loved her still. Despite her betrayal and not telling me the truth about my fathers death, I still loved her. Setting my posture straight once more, I headed back to the dungeons.

Wary eyes and bowed heads followed me as I made my way back to the dungeons. They had reason to fear me. I had built up a reputation for cruelty after my fathers death and was not known for my kindness or lenience. My father was the kind one. The continent no doubt mourned that I had not turned out like him. At first, I had hated their fear. It rankled on my pride. My father did not need their fear to get their respect or even be a good ruler and yet, the only way the land stayed peaceful was their fear of my power. A carefully meticulous image of cruelty and ruthlessness that had been shattered when Aerilynn Maeve StormBringer had waltzed her fine ass right into my life. Damn it. I had done my best to banish her memory from my mind as I thought over her fate. Shaking my head, I did my best to dispel her memory from my mind as I finally arrived back at the dungeons.

The prisoners were just as wary as the guards and servants had been, but they were lest quiet about their fear. Some screamed, while others spit in my direction from the corners of their cells as I passed. All were murderers, rapists, pedophiles, or men that had refused any and every effort to turn them away from crimes. Despite my rough and cold exterior, I did not imprison fae unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, many of them had centuries ahead if them and that was a king fucking time to spend in a jail cell. Despite my strict attempts to keep lawbreakers under my control, my dungeons were fuller than I would have liked.

I had to descend another set of stairs to get where Aerilynn was being kept. From my reports she merely walked the length of her cell or she sat on the floor silently. She did not rage. She did not scream. She did not try to explain herself to the guards in the hope that they would set her free. No, she just sat their hopeless and silent and the day I had met her. As the jail cell came into view, I noticed the lack of a fae in it at all. I kept nobody but her in the lowest cells and yet, there was not a sound or a prisoner to be seen. All that was detected was the sweating and nervous faces of the guards as they assessed my reaction to Aerilynn's disappearance.

Trying to remain calm, I turn to the guards and ask, "Where is she?"

"W-we don't know your highness," they stutter.

"And why was I not informed of her disappearance!" I practically yell.

"The High Queen commanded us not to say a word, Your Highness. She instructed us to stay silent on the matter until you came down to the dungeons and saw the lady gone, for yourself." The braver if the two stutters.

Trying to remain calm, I ask, "Did she say anything else?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. She said to speak with her before taking action."

"That was all?"

"Yes, Your Highness." They say, still quivering. I quickly turn on my heel and exit the dungeons. I can practically feel the relief radiating off those two men as I stalk away. I should punish them harshly for obeying my mothers orders over mine, but my mother did say to go see her first before doing anything. If anything, I owed my mother that much.

Arriving at my mothers rooms with petrified gazes and shadows on my heels, the doors to her rooms are flung open by the force of my rage. Glancing up from her tea, my mother merely says, "Close the door behind you Zel." The brevity and aloofness of her words throws me off and I stop in my tracks, stunned. She raises her eyebrow at me, "Do not make me ask again boy. I brought you into this world and I can just as easily take you out of it.

Trying to remain calm, I slam the doors shut with my shadows and ask, "Care to explain?"

She doesn't look up from the novel in her lap and the tea that she is sipping. "Explain what?"

"The reason Aerilynn is gone and that you ordered the guards not to inform me!" I practically scream.

Her head snaps up as she scolds me, "Keep your voice down boy. There are ears everywhere!" She sighs before continuing, "And to answer your question, I ordered them to stay silent because I set Aerilynn free."

"You what!!" My shout echoes off the walls. "You freed her from her cell. What in all the bells would possess you to do such a thing!"

"Because she is the only things standing in the way of the Grand Assassin and you. I may not like her, but she will protect those she loves with her life. That now includes you and she now goes to duel the Grand Assassin to save tot life and the lives of many others." She says calmly.

Thoroughly done with this conversation, I turn on my heel before my control shatters and I send everything in the room splintering on the walls. "Check your rooms before you go boy!" She calls after me. I slam the doors behind me, but not before her words pique my interest. What in all the hells is in my rooms. Heading just that way, I go there exactly to find out.