Chapter Fourteen

At A Loss

Aiden paced the floor with so much fire the wood scorched under his feet. His eyes blazed behind their shroud of black lashes as his gaze darted about the room, threatening to melt the first face they met.

He couldn’t stand to ever see Charlotte hurt, or dead, nonetheless. When he saw Valek standing before the fiery palace entrance with Charlotte slung motionless over his shoulder, simple instinct took over. It didn’t allow him the time to consider whether or not he was making the right decision. He didn’t care what happened to Valek, naturally, but no one was going to hurt Charlotte. Not even the high ruler himself.

“Damn it!” Aiden’s roar shattered the silence about the room. He sent his fist flying into the side of a redwood bookshelf.

“Calm yourself, my son.” Danek Price’s voice was smooth and eloquent, but somehow managed to unnerve Aiden all the same. “This will all be dealt with in time.”

“I had her!” Aiden growled, balling his hands up in his hair. “She was right in front of me.” He thought for a moment. “What if they run? What if they flee the country?” He turned on his father.

“There is no place they can hide successfully. Not for very long, anyway. Not with Valek being what he is, and the complications he has with the sun.” Danek slowly stood from his chair. “We will find this girl Charlotte.” He poured a glass a brandy. “But we must keep our wits about ourselves.” He swigged back the liquor.

“Those ticks think they’re so damn clever,” Aiden fumed, tightening his hands into fists at his sides. Flamed exploded just above his knuckles.

Danek sauntered over to his son and placed his thick hand on his shoulder. “Aiden, you have been bestowed all of this power for a reason. Now is your time to use it. You did the right thing by letting them go. She would have been killed.”

Aiden bitterly shrugged his father’s hand off and stormed to the bookshelf. “That’s right! Because those idiots put her in the dungeons with those disgusting lice!” He growled.

“I promise, son. If I had known anything about it, I would have prevented it.”

“Who did know about it? Who was responsible?” Water streamed from the lower lids of Aiden’s eyes, though it was not natural, salt tears. It flowed down his face and pooled around his feet.

Danek set down the brandy glass. “The platoon from the fire division had been sent to capture Valek Ruzik. I do know that.”

“Kill them, then. Whoever it was.” Aiden stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

He tore down the dour corridor, eyes and fists still blazing. The sound of his approach bounced off the stone like chills off a spine. Wind whipped his hair around his face as floods trailed from his feet. His powers were only as controlled as his emotions were, and being an angry teenager did nothing to help the situation.

Aiden stomped down the North Wing up to Vladislov’s quarters. A string of ivy tendrils ripped from underneath his fingernails and latched onto the locked door. It tore off its hinges with such force chunks of stone flew with it. The large hunk of wood and metal crashed to the floor in splinters.

“By all means, come in.” Vladislov glowered at Aiden over his half-moon spectacles. He pushed away from what he was reading at his desk and turned to face Aiden, one biological hand cradling one metal one. “What is the matter with my prodigy?”

“With all due respect, sir, this plan isn’t working. The guards in command are completely incompetent,” Aiden raged.

Vladislov lifted his eyebrows at the gall of his young apprentice. “Censor your tone please,” he said with calculated ease. “I have not yet had a single problem. They’ve been capturing and killing Vampires by the hundreds. We plan on invading the German Occults by next week.” He smiled, obviously impressed with himself.

Aiden blanched. “They almost killed Charlotte!”

“Who?” Vladislov apathetically shuffled through some maps on his desk.

“Charlotte! The human girl that upir Ruzik holds as a pet!” Aiden’s chest expanded with rage and saliva spewed from his lips as he bellowed. “The girl who was meant to by my wife!”

Vladislov leered at Aiden, then. “A human girl as a wife?” He spoke slowly.

“Yes!” Aiden breathed. “I know that sounds unconventional but—”

“I’m not quite sure I follow you, Aiden.” Vladislov’s forehead crinkled as his eyebrows drew together. “You want to take command of my army to have them carry out orders not plausible to the war I began. You want to compromise the safety and security of the Order of Magic, simply because you have a silly crush on a mortal girl?”

“I know it sounds crazy.” Aiden gave him a pleading look.

“Apprentice,” the elder began, and leaned his biological arm on his desk while the metal one tapped on the ball of his scepter. “Matters of the heart will always make us do things that are ‘crazy,’ but you are the next ruler of the greatest empire in the world, and I am afraid you must put matters as trivial as these in the very back corners of your mind. Focus.”

“I’m sorry, lord, but if you could just hear me out, there is a reason—”

“Aiden, I think it would be best if we spoke about this when you are in a less,” Vladislov appraised the boy, “hormonal state.”

Aiden sighed. He could see he was going to get absolutely nowhere with his argument tonight. That was the end of the conversation, and he needed to find somewhere else to turn. He nodded his thanks to his mentor and quietly began out of the room, the Wizard watching after him.

Before Aiden could get all the way past the threshold, Vladislov called out, “And do repair the door on your way out.” He turned his attention to the various sheets of parchment on his desk.

Aiden thought of Valek and Charlotte, hiding alone in the dark streets. Like rats somewhere in the mortal world. He cringed. An approaching guard stopped in the middle of the hall, saluting Aiden.

“Fix that,” Aiden ordered, indicating the splintered door, and trotted back down the now flooded corridor, lost within his mind. The guard immediately rushed to work, though Aiden continued to keep his burning gaze toward the floor. How could he make Charlotte see Valek for what he really was? How could he find her so he could carry out the plan he had been refining so feverishly for years?

It was ingenious. If magic married mortal, it would change the world forever. There would be no more living in secret. No more hiding. People would be people, and therefore the Regime wouldn’t have to necessarily rule over the “greatest empire in the world,” but rather the whole world.

And he would be the greatest ruler that ever lived, because he had the formula none of his predecessors had ever even imagined. And this one small girl was at the center of all of it. And one single leach was standing in the way.

Aiden didn’t walk down the stairs, but rather, flew as his mind swelled. The cool air bouncing off the bricks washed his head clear of everything except for how to carry out his plan. He plunged deeper and deeper, until he was back in the bowels of the palace, in front of the dungeon’s entrance.

The doors swung open from all of his angered might, the dank smell of rotting corpses slamming him in the face. Sounds of moaning struck him like a choir of untuned cellos as he stalked past cell after cell of prisoners. They weren’t only Vampires. The Regime captured anything or anyone they believed had conspired against them. Anyone,  including one, lonely Witch with long, chestnut hair.

“Get up,” Aiden ordered as he swung open the barred door.

Evangeline glowered up at him behind her black-stained eyelids. Her hair was a nest about her bruised face, from the fight of getting her on the defiled floor. It clung to her bloody forehead, neck, and shoulders. The rest of her emaciated appearance matched the rank stench that fumed from her distressed, grubby clothing.

“I said get up, Evangeline.” Aiden's voice stayed even and low. But when she still didn’t cooperate, he moved swiftly and snatched her by her matted hair, yanking her upward.

She cried out, clutching his arm for relief.

“When I tell you to do something, I expect it to be done.” His voice was liquid fire in her ear.

She nodded frantically, biting down on her lip as tears stained trails on her cheeks.

Aiden released her, and she stumbled backward into the wall of the cell. “Evangeline.” His tone grew quieter still.

She glowered at him.

“Do you expect to live much longer if I keep you down here?”

She shook her head and heaved.

“Do you want to live?” He neared her, his large shadow darkening her face.

Evangeline only looked at him with pleading eyes. The answer was clearly written on her face.

“Then I want you to listen very closely to everything I am about to tell you. And I want you follow my instructions exactly as I give them.”