Chapter 56: Play Time?

One week.

Seven days since the carriage had rolled through the iron gates of the Palace. Seven days since she had left Shadow’s Edge behind, left Leonidas standing in that courtyard like a man watching his own soul walk away, left the cold stone halls where someone had tried to murder her son.

Seven days of nothing.

Karina sat at the head of the imperial dining table, her fingers wrapped around a porcelain teacup that had gone cold twenty minutes ago. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the faint echo of children’s laughter, Rynan, probably, chasing one of his brothers through the corridors.

She should have been relieved.

She was relieved.

And yet, the silence was beginning to crawl under her skin.

She took a sip of the cold tea, grimaced, and set the cup down with a soft clink against the saucer. Her gaze drifted to the window, to the gardens beyond, where the late summer flowers were beginning to wilt at the edges.

Her mind, traitor that it was, kept circling back to the same dark thoughts.

Renira is dead.

The woman who had tried to poison her son was dead, murdered in her cell before she could face trial. Someone had silenced her. Someone had walked into a guarded dungeon, past armed beastmen, and torn out her throat like she was nothing more than a piece of garbage to be disposed of.

And Karina still didn’t know who.

It was as if the killer had simply....materialized out of the shadows and vanished just as easily.

The thought made her stomach churn with dread.

They killed her because she talked. Because she told me about the panther. Because she gave me information.

They knew I knew. And they silenced her anyway.

What’s stopping them from coming after me next? Or Valen? Or any of my children?

She had doubled the guards around the nursery. She had personally inspected every meal that was brought to her sons’ rooms. She had slept with one eye open, a dagger hidden beneath her pillow, her heart racing at every creak of the floorboards in the night.

And still, nothing.

No attacks. No threats. No mysterious panthers slinking through the shadows.

Just silence.

Karina pressed her palms against her eyes, feeling the beginnings of a headache pulsing behind her temples. She was exhausted, wrung out like a dishrag, and yet sleep refused to come easily. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Renira’s face. Not the way it had looked in the dungeon, broken and bloody and begging, but the way it had looked when Karina had first seen her in the grand hall of Shadow’s Edge. Beautiful, confident, delusional, and radiating hatred like a furnace.

In her nightmares, Renira wasn’t chained to the floor.

In her nightmares, Renira was standing over Valen’s bed, a silver goblet in her hands, a cruel smile on her lips.

And in her nightmares, Karina was always too late.

She shuddered, forcing the image out of her mind. She had been having that same dream every night for the past week. Valen, small and helpless, his throat sliced open by the mistress’s poisoned rage. Valen, reaching for her with trembling hands, calling out for her, begging her to save him—

Stop it, she commanded herself. He’s safe. He’s fine. You’re going to drive yourself insane if you keep replaying this.

She took a deep breath, held it for a count of three, and let it out slowly.

Focus on the facts, she told herself. Focus on what you know.

Fact one: Renira was dead. Murdered by an unknown party.

Fact two: The mysterious panther was still out there, pulling strings from the shadows.

Fact three: She hadn’t heard a single word from Leonidas since she left Shadow’s Edge.

Fact four: Drystan had apparently tried to follow her to the capital, but had been intercepted by Leonidas. A fight had broken out, a real one, she had heard, with actual fire and claws and broken stone, and Drystan had been forced to retreat. The Dragon King had slunk back to his own territory, licking his wounds and presumably plotting his next move.

Karina almost laughed at the absurdity of it.

Two beast kings, fighting over me like territorial tomcats. And I didn’t even witness it.

Not that she wanted to. She had enough drama in her life without adding dragon versus panther cage matches to the list.

But the silence from Cassian was the strangest of all.

Cassian.

He had sent a message, a simple one, expressing his apologies and his hope to see her again soon. And then.....nothing.

She had expected him to show up in the capital by now. He seemed like the type who would be drawn to chaos, who would insert himself into the middle of things just to see what happened. But there had been no word, no sighting, no dramatic arrival in the courtyard.

Is he alright? she found herself wondering, despite her best efforts to push the thought away. Did something happen on the way back to his kingdom? Is the plague worse than he let on?

She shook her head, annoyed at herself for caring. Cassian was a grown man, a Sovereign in his own right. He had his own kingdom to run, his own problems to solve. She didn’t need to worry about him. She had enough on her plate already.

She stood up abruptly, her skirts swishing around her ankles. Behind her, General Aldric shifted.

"Your Imperial Majesty?" His deep voice rumbled through the quiet room. "Are you alright?"

Karina waved a dismissive hand. "I’m fine, Aldric. Just... restless. I need to clear my head."

"Shall I accompany you?"

"No, no," she said, already moving toward the door. "I just need a moment. Stay here. I won’t go far."

Aldric opened his mouth to protest, but Karina was already through the door.

Karina walked without direction, letting her feet carry her wherever they wanted. She passed the grand hall, the receiving rooms, the tapestry-lined corridors that led to the eastern wing.

She was rounding a corner when she heard it.

The sound of small, pattering feet.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

Karina barely had time to brace herself before a small blur of black and gold slammed into her legs.

"Oof!" She staggered backward, her hands instinctively reaching down to steady the tiny creature that had attached itself to her waist.

"Rynan?" She looked down.

The four-year-old cheetah cub beamed up at her, his golden-spotted ears perked high. "Mama! Mama! Did you see? I’m winning! Valen can’t catch me!"

"I will catch you!" A second voice rang out, and Valen appeared at the end of the corridor, his small chest heaving. "You just got a head start! That’s cheating!"

"Is not! You’re just slow!"

"I am NOT slow!"

"You’re slower than a snail! A very, very slow snail!"

Valen’s face flushed with indignation. He launched himself forward, his small legs pumping, his arms outstretched. Rynan shrieked with laughter and tried to dart behind Karina’s skirts, using her as a human shield.

"Mama! Protect me!"

"Valen, don’t you dare—"

But Valen was already there, his small hands grabbing at Rynan’s tunic, the two of them spinning in a chaotic circle around Karina’s legs. She stumbled, trying to keep her balance, her laughter bubbling up despite herself.

"Boys! Boys, stop—"

They didn’t stop. They were too busy wrestling, their childish giggles echoing off the stone walls. Rynan had managed to get Valen in a headlock, a very ineffective one, given the height difference, while Valen was trying to pry his fingers loose.

"I’m going to win!"

"No, I’m going to win!"

"You’re both going to fall," Karina said, but she was smiling now, and it felt so good that she didn’t even care that her gown was getting wrinkled.

Just then, another small figure appeared at the end of the corridor.

Daerys.

The five-year-old dragon cub stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his silver locks falling over his eyes, his tiny red horns catching the light.

"Idiots," Daerys muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Valen and Rynan froze mid-wrestle, turning to glare at their brother in unison.

"We are NOT idiots!" Rynan protested.

"You are wrestling in the middle of the hallway like a pair of—" Daerys paused, clearly searching for the right insult. "Like a pair of toddlers."

"You are only a year older than me!" Rynan shot back.

"Doesn’t matter. I am more mature."

"You’re just a grumpy lizard!"

"I am a DRAGON!" Daerys’s face flushed red, and a tiny puff of smoke escaped his nostrils. "A DRAGON, not a lizard!"

Karina bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Daerys was so serious, so determined to be taken seriously, and it was absolutely adorable.

"Alright, alright," she said, holding up her hands. "Enough fighting. You’re all brothers. You should be—"

The words died in her throat.

Because a fourth figure was making its way down the corridor.

Little Soren.

The three-year-old snake cub was walking slowly.

And he was heading straight for her.

Karina’s heart swelled. Soren was the youngest, the most skittish, the one who had been the most wary of her when she first arrived. She had tried to approach him gently, to build trust slowly, but he had always retreated behind his brothers or the servants.

But now, he was walking toward her.

She crouched down, opening her arms wide. "Hello, Soren. Are you coming to see Mama?"

Soren didn’t answer. He just kept walking, his expression a mask of intense concentration.

Three feet away.

Two feet.

One foot.

And then—

THUMP.