72

I open my mouth to argue, but Cedric touches my shoulder, shaking his head discreetly. I follow him out of Erik’s office, and after Jerry leaves us, disappointed, Cedric murmurs, “If you want, I can take Harold’s body and that loud-mouthed human friend of yours to the North.”

For some reason, the idea of Cedric sneaking off with Maya and a corpse in the middle of the night is morbidly amusing, and I chuckle despite the circumstances. “Thanks, but I’ll figure something else out. I just wish they had done more than only take a few photographs of Harold after he died. I still think this could be the work of humans.”

“The people who attacked you were shifters, though,” Cedric points out. “Unless you’re implying a collaboration?”

I shake my head and shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know what I’m implying. I don’t even know what I’m working with right now. We have nothing. We need that autopsy. Humans have a lot of information that we don’t have. Maybe they have access to a drug that was able to tranquilize him. Human tranquilizers don’t work on us, but what if they have been able to come up with a formula that does? We have no way of knowing because our kind hasn’t tested on ourselves any new formulas or drugs that are on the market. We need a human on board, someone who has access to such things and is aware of our unique anatomy. Maya works with a biological pharmaceutical company that focuses on veterinary medicine. She has the knowledge we need. If only Erik would understand.”

“His reasoning is understandable, though, Leanna.” Cedric walks alongside me as we head to the palace gardens. “He has to keep his people under control. After Erik took the throne, there was a lot of unrest and conspiracy theories that he was the one behind Griffin’s disappearance. He has managed to run the kingdom efficiently, but there are still those who doubt him. If he does anything to unsettle the waters, he risks a potential internal war.”

I sigh. “I know. I get it. But it feels like I’m groping in the dark here.”

“My offer still stands.” Cedric shrugs. “No one will be the wiser.”

I give him the side-eye. “Yeah, that’s a great way to kick start a war between the two kingdoms. Steal a dead body.”

He gives me a quick grin that instantly has my face heating up and my pulse quickening. These past few years have done nothing to diminish his good looks.

“Let’s just go home,” I say to take my mind off him. “We’ll get a pizza on the way. I don’t feel like cooking.”

“What’s a pizza?” Cedric asks as he follows me outside.

It’s my turn to look amused. “Oh, you sad, sad man.” When he bristles, I laugh. “Come on. Let me show you what you’ve been missing your whole life.”

As I pull him along, I catch him watching me with a strange emotion in his eyes.

 

  

Cedric ends up liking pizza. We have to get two large pies for him alone, two for Derrick, and one for Finn, who also wants his own. I choose to steal two slices from Cedric’s pizzas, which he doesn’t mind.

Seeing him enjoy the cheesy treat makes me want to snicker. Both he and Derrick look amazed each time the cheese stretches through the air from their mouth to the slice they’re holding. Finn wants to imitate them, so I get to watch all three boys behave like idiots while I eat.

It’s entertaining.

After dinner, Finn wants to sit in the yard to do his schoolwork. Derrick accompanies him. He’s seemingly fascinated by Finn.

“It’s because Derrick hasn’t really been around young children before. He has been on the battlefield with me since he was a teenager,” Cedric explains as I watch Finn and Derrick from the window. “Plus, Finn is my son. Derrick is going to be his personal guard due to the nature of his relationship with me. He’s my most trusted person.”

I turn to face him. “Harriet told me you two fell out after I disappeared.”

Cedric’s expression darkens. “I blamed him. It wasn’t his fault. Derrick’s father had been the head of their family, but when he and his mate died, alongside my parents, his uncle became the new head. The position should have reverted to Derrick when then time was right, but his uncle kept nominating him to fight on the border. After our falling out, he tried to get Bella married to Derrick, at her request. He turned her down, and his uncle took that and used it as an excuse to disown him.”

“So, you made up with him?”

He looks irritated. “We’re not children. I told him I was returning to the border, and I took him with me.”

I hide my smile. “Of course. It was all very macho of you both.”

He just scowls.

I sit down on the couch, take the file from my bag, and open it on the coffee table. The photographs of Harold are on top. Cedric looks down at the open file, and his expression changes as he picks up one of the pictures.

His reaction has me glancing at him. “Cedric? What is it?”

“These marks, on his hand, I’ve seen them before.”

I straighten up. “What?”

He shows me what he’s looking at in the photo, and I see the bruises between Harold’s fingers. “My parents’ bodies were badly mangled when we found them, but they had similar bruises, both on their left hands, between their index and middle fingers. There were needle marks there, which caused the bruising. Did you find any needle marks on this man?”

I shake my head. “I can’t say. I didn’t check. And the examination report doesn’t mention anything like that.”

But as I say those words, I recall seeing Harold waving his hands at me, moments before his death, a wild, manic gesture. I think there may have been something between his fingers. It’s just a memory of a flicker of a moment, but I don’t think I’m imagining it.

I look at Cedric. My heart is pounding, and my voice is low. “We have to convince Erik to let us conduct the autopsy. And I’m going to need anything you have on your parents’ deaths, Cedric.”

He doesn’t flinch, simply nodding. “I’ll have everything sent to you. There’s not a lot. Vivian’s father tried to bury most of the evidence, and he killed off two individuals who claimed to be witnesses to the kidnapping.”

“What?” I gape at him. “Say that again.”

Cedric looks grim. “The reason I needed to make Vivian a political prisoner, and why I was so adamant that you become her substitute, was because my parents, along with Derrick’s, were visiting the Eastern Kingdom when they were kidnapped and tortured. Vivian’s family used the opportunity to try to gain control of the North. Even when they failed, they refused to let me investigate the murders. I always suspected Vivian’s father knew a lot more than he was letting on.”

I am shocked by his words. “What? Wait, are you saying he was involved in—”

“We don’t know for sure. But a lot of evidence was buried and disappeared. The few witnesses we had managed to find were killed off by the king.”