Chapter 180
CAMILLA’S P.O.V
Riley left the next morning. Ryker had tried his best to speak to her and explain that it wasn’t about her but the situation, she wasn’t even willing to listen. She was furious and while I couldn’t blame her, I did the right thing for everyone’s safety and I wasn’t going to regret it. Despite her being pissed at me, I still stood by the entrance of the palace to see her off. She pointedly ignored me in favor of the girls and Ryker and I kept my face stoic so as not to show her hoe much it hurt.
When she departed, Audrey slowly walked over to me and tugged my arm. “Aunt Riley is very mad at you. Did you try telling her sorry? Sometimes sorry makes people feel better.”
I smiled down at my innocent daughter. “Yes, baby, I did, but sometimes sorry doesn’t fix things because your feelings are hurt. Sometimes some people just need some time to get used to it.”
Her brows furrowed. “But daddy said that if you say sorry, it makes everything better.”
How I wished she was right. The world would be such a better place if you could just say sorry and be done with things. Regardless, that wasn’t how things worked. I gave her a small smile and led her back into the palace. I could see the wheels in her head turning as she tried to figure out how and why the world wasn’t a picture perfect place.
A part of me was happy that despite everything that happened, I was still able to keep her in that fairytale world that every child lived in. I was happy that it hadn’t been tainted for her and that she still had a few more years to enjoy herself in. The other part of me was sad, upset that one day, this spell would be broken and that one day, she would be just like us, cynical, cold and unbelieving. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was that changed. What was that thing that made us go from hopeful children to cruel adults? Was it a force of nature or was it our own prejudice?
“Don’t you have school today, Audrey?” I asked cutting her off and she gave me a sheepish smile. I rolled my eyes at her and nudged her towards the stairs. “Come, you’re already late, we barely have five minutes to get you dressed.”
She made a sound between a squeal and a laugh before running up the stairs and leaving me to follow after her. Within ten minutes, she was dressed, her hair was tied in a neat bow at the back of her head and she was sent off with the deeply. It was guards to school. Once she was gone, I let the smile fall and exhaled getting hard to put on a persona for them but I needed to. At least now that she was gone, I could focus on the other things like Reina.
She was still quiet. I stayed up almost the entire night waiting to hear that she had done something. It pissed Ryker off to no end but he stayed up with me. The truth was that he was just as anxious as I was but he managed to hide it better. By the morning, I half expected a guard to tell me that someone had died or something but it was quiet, almost too quiet and I wasn’t sure if I was overreacting but I was confused and a bit scared.
“Camilla,” a voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see Christine. Her brows were furrowed in concern a she took me in. She was standing in the middle of my office and I didn’t even know when she had walked in. “Are you alright? You look a little lost. Did something happen?”
“Nothing happened, that is the problem,” I ran my hands through my hair. “I cannot be the only one who thinks it is weird that she has not said a thing or done anything yet. This isn’t like her, there was one attack a day.”
“Maybe she knows you have the weapon that can kill her. She could be bidding her time over it.”
I thought back to the weapon currently in Ryker’s possession. I didn’t trust myself to hold it or keep it safe so I asked him to hold onto it. I didn’t know where he kept it and for good reason to, I couldn’t trust myself not to let it slip if I were to heal someone and get weak. Besides, it was better that way if only one person knew of the whereabouts.
“I don’t think this is about the weapon,” I mumbled crossing my arms over my chest. “I don’t think she even knows about it. If she did, she would have demanded that we give it to her, don’t you think? Something else is at stake here and I don’t know what it is.”
“Have you considered asking Lyla? She is a seer after all, she might know what’s going on,” I snorted. “Come on, Camilla, she could be of help.”
“She could but she will not. She keeps saying that the goddess doesn’t want her to and I think it is a bullshit excuse. She isn’t of any use to us.”
Christine frowned. “I know this is exhausting for you but what if she actually cannot tell you. We don’t know how these things work but there could be consequences.”
“People are dying, those are enough consequences.”
Christine sighed and stood to her feet. She looked just as exhausted as I felt. This thing was weighing down on every single person in the palace. “Maybe just enjoy the silence, Camilla. We don’t know how long it is going to last and goddess knows we could use some silence in our lives.”
She turned to leave but when she got to the door, she paused. “By the way, Ryker asked me to tell you that he got called away urgently to one of the towns. It isn’t anything serious, just some people trying to
I not be back until lat and he asks that you stay in. You don’t need to go get some work done. He might on out to help him.”
I flushed pink at that. It was funny how he knew exactly what was on my mind. I was already rising slowly to meet him there but at those last words, I flopped back into my chair. She gave me a warm smile before walking out of the room.
I stayed in my office well into evening waiting for Ryker to return but he didn’t. I tried mind linking him a few times but his wall was up. It rarely ever happened but there were times when he was busy and didn’t want any interruptions. I was so lost in my thoughts about him that I didn’t realize where I was going and bumped into someone rounding a corner. I realized it was Kevin when he began profusely apologizing.
“I’m sorry, your majesty, I should have been looking where I was going,” he began but I waved him off. “I was actually coming to find you. The Prince asked me to send for you. He said he might be a while and he could use your company.”
“Of course,” I said immediately as relief coursed through my veins. I was already thinking of the worst case scenarios before now. “We can take one of the horses and leave right away.”
*He nodded and we rushed outside towards the saddles. He was prepping the horses when someone walked in through the stable doors. It was Lyla and she looked a mess. Her hair was messy as if she had pulled at it one too many times and there were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. She looked between Kevin and I with worry and skepticism. I turned away from her when she finally spoke.
“You cannot go with him,” she announced and I stilled. I opened my mouth to speak but she cut me off, “I know he fed you some bullshit story about Ryker and fuck, I am not meant to be here but you were right. I shouldn’t just sit and watch, forgive me goddess. He is lying.”
I stilled wondering what the hell was going on. “What do you mean? Kevin is one of my most trusted guards.”
“She is rambling, your majesty,” he walked over in front of me blocking my view of Lyla. “We need to leave right now”
“He is working with her- with Reina,” she exclaimed and my eyes widened. “I saw them together in a vision. I didn’t realize it was him at first but he is going to-”
Her words died on her throat as Kevin walked up to her. At first, I didn’t realize what had just happened until I saw blood drip from the side of her mouth. I gasped in shock and alarm as Kevin stabbed her over out a blood curling scream but Kevin turned out a blood curling scream and over again until her body slumped to the ground.
to me brandishing the knife he had used to kill her.
“If you say a single word, I will kill you as well. She might hate me for it but it saves my life,” he warned and I stilled. I couldn’t help but glance over at Lyla’s body. She wasn’t moving or breathing. “Eyes off her, you are coming with me.”
I dug deep trying to reach the water in the stalls and he notices the flick of my hand because he laughed.
“It won’t work, Reina planned ahead of that. The walls of this building are spelled. As long as you are in here, your powers will not work. I don’t want to do this the hard way, you just need to come with me. Reina isn’t as bad of a person as you think.”
At that moment, I decided to make a run for it. I had barely gotten far before Kevin grabbed the back of my dress and pulled me hard. He slammed me head first into the wall of the stables and everything we black.
The last thing I remember was him standing over me with a cruel smirk on his face.
