Chapter 117
CAMILLA’S P.O.V
As soon as Ryker rushed into my office, I knew that something was wrong. He could barely speak and he looked like he had seen a ghost. I stood to my feet instantly as he closed the door behind him to give us a semblance of privacy.
“What’s wrong?” I asked the moment he was within reach, it was obvious that there was something wrong from the expression on his face but even I couldn’t deduce it.
“I need your help and you know I would never ask unless it was important especially not after you almost drained yourself.”
“Whatever it is, I will help as best as I can. Just tell me what it is.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, he handed me a letter. I wasted no time in taking it out of his hands and reading and with each line, my mouth fell open further. I wanted to see Riley with my own eyes, I wanted to make sure that she was okay and I couldn’t believe that this had been going on for so long and Damien didn’t say a word until now.
“I already gave the physician the symptoms to work up a poultice but just in case it doesn’t work, we need-”
“My blood,” I deduced and he nodded.
“It is the only way that we can be certain it will work. Please, Camilla, I wouldn’t ask this of you.”
“You don’t need to ask, of course I will help her. Riley is my sister too, I want to make sure that she is healthy. I’ll give whatever she needs and more.”
I saw relief settle on Ryker. He looked like someone had taken a huge weight off his back and I immediately followed him to meet the physician. The physician and his son were in their working space when I got there but neither of them would look me in the eye. I could tell there was still a little guilt from the son over what he had told Alastair and I didn’t know how to tell him that I didn’t blame him. I knew he didn’t have a choice and he did what he thought he needed to do in order to stay alive. It was what anyone would have done. Each time I opened my mouth to tell him that, he would scurry away as if terrified that I was going to say something to hurt him.
how
By the time they were done taking my blood, the son rushed into the inner portion of the room and didn’t come out again. The physician finally met my eye and he sighed deeply. He had bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in a while and he looked like he had aged ten years since the last time we met.
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“Forgive him, your majesty, he just needs a little more time to adjust,” he said softly. “He will be better by the time you see him next.”
“He can take all the time that he needs. I just want him to know that I hold no grudges.. He did nothing wrong.”
“He told your secret to the vampires. The attack yesterday was because of-”
“It was because of Alastair. It had nothing to do with your son. I do not hold him responsible and neither should he. I am sorry about what he went through and if he ever needs to talk to someone, there are people all around the palace who would be willing to lend a listening ear, even me.”
I could see the gratitude in his eyes so I smiled at him and turned on my heels. Ryker followed directly behind me and he waited until we were out of the physician’s office before he pulled me into a bone crushing hug. He pulled me as close to him as our bodies would allow and he buried his head into my neck.
“Thank you,” he whispered and if I could answer I would have told him that it was nothing and he would have done the same thing for me if the cases were reversed. I was only doing what the goddess had put for me to do- be useful.
It took him a full minute to pull away and there was more emotion in his eyes than I had seen in a very long time. He had been truly terrified and I understood. If something happened to Christine and I wasn’t able to stop it, I would have lost my dam n mind.
“I have to ensure that the mixture gets sent out safely, I will come to you after, okay?” he asked and I nodded. “Where will you be?”
“I don’t know,” I began slowly. “I wasn’t really doing anything in my office and I want to see if there is anything more I can learn about Alastair. I might be in my father’s room.”
He nodded and k*ssed me softly on the lips before leaving.
My feet moved of their own accord until I was standing directly in front of my father’s room. Ever since the last time we entered, I didn’t return the key. It had laid neatly in my pocket every day as if I knew I would come back. I wanted to but I couldn’t bring myself to do it knowing that he was the reason everything had been going haywire.
I pushed the doors open and took in the dusty room once more. We had cleared out that entire spot by the bed but from what I had read, my father was a very cu nn ing man. There was no way that he would keep all his eggs in one basket. He must have had a lot of hidden places all around his room in the occasion that someone found one of them so I began searching.
I checked the closet and under the bed but I couldn’t find anything. I checked the
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bedside tables again and behind the paintings. I was about to give up but I decided to go near the fireplace. There was something off about it so I started tapping on each of the walls slowly until I got to one that sounded hollow. I smiled to myself as I took a fireplace poker and slowly pulled out the hollow brick. It came out easily and in its place was an hidden compartment filled with letters.
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I pulled them all out and immediately sat cross legged on the ground so I could flip through them. Most of them were correspondence between him and Eva. I couldn’t help but think to myself about how useful it would have been if I had found them while Frederick was alive. It would have made the entire search easier. He spoke about a place beyond the creek where they used to meet and I knew from his words that a part of him either really loved Eva or he was just a good liar because it was almost impossible to sit down and pen down the words that he was saying without feeling some form of emotion for them.
I put aside his letters to Eva because it felt like I was intruding on something special and then I found them- letters between him and Alastair. At first, they started innocent with my father mentioning how he bumped into Alastair on a hunting trip. I would have mistaken them for friends who made it till the end of time if I didn’t already know that the story ended with a betrayal.
From Alastair’s letters, he trusted my father. He told him about his lover whose name was Sienna. It sounded like a beautiful name for an even more wonderful person. He told father about the spot where she died which was supposedly near the palace but I couldn’t figure out where exactly it was because he never mentioned it by name. He spoke about how tiring it was living for so long and the more I read, the more I realized that Alastair wasn’t necessarily a bad person, from his letters, he sounded like someone who was ready to pass on but he couldn’t because there were things the younger vampires needed to learn from him still.
I didn’t know how long I sat there reading until I heard the door creek open and Ryker walked in. He saw the letters in my lap and the open compartment and shook his head with a slight curse.
“I should have known,” he mused more to himself than to me. “What did you find out?”
I told him everything and just like always, he sat there and listened to me patiently as I spoke. He frowned a little and I knew it was because he could hear the undercurrent of sympathy I held in my heart/for Alastair. I tried to keep it out of my voice because I knew he would never agree but I couldn’t help it.
“Do you feel pity for him?” Ryker asked finally but I stayed quiet. There was no use denying it. “Have you forgotten everything that he did? He could have killed you, he killed guards, he has killed people all for nothing. Have you forgotten what happened yesterday, Camilla? All those people lying on the ground that you had to heal.”
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“I know that, I can’t forget it. It is just that he is hurting. That’s why he is doing all of this. I am not saying that his actions are right but you cannot ignore the fact that he was hurt first and he is just lashing out the only way he knows how. He thinks he is doing the right thing whether people will like it or not. It is just like when you killed your father.”
Ryker was taken aback by my words and the moment they came out, I wanted to take it back. I reached out for him but he held up a hand to stop me.
“Those things are not mutually exclusive at all and the fact that you would even compare them is alarming,” he cleared his throat. “Alastair is a monster and I will do everything in my power to put him in the ground whether you agree with it or not. Am I clear?”
When he spoke like that, he reminded me of the feared Alpha that everyone thought he was. I nodded and I saw his shoulders release some tension but the words still hung between us. I opened my mouth to apologize when I caught a flash of movement by the door as it creaked slowly.
We rushed to our feet instantly and rushed out to see if we could catch a glimpse of whoever had been spying but the hallway was empty and there was no trace of their scent. We searched around but it was like they had disappeared into thin air.
