Chapter 44

Crown Prince Callan

The glass roof of the Grand Conservatory was built to show everyone that the Imperial family could never be defeated. But by dawn, the ballroom had become a place of death and broken dreams. The air smelled of sour wine, dried blood, and shattered illusions.

I stood in the middle of the ruined ballroom, my heavy leather boots covered in wet gravel and mud from the gardens. Rain continued to beat against the glass roof, washing the soot from the burned hedges outside. But nothing could ease the anger and humiliation burning inside my chest.

Around me, the nobles of New Avalon moved like frightened ghosts. Foreign visitors gathered near the marble pillars, whispering nervously as they kept glancing toward the doors. Noblewomen who had spent the evening laughing beneath the chandeliers were now crying into their embroidered handkerchiefs. Their expensive gowns were ruined, and their pride had been crushed.

The Equinox Gala was supposed to be a glorious night that would strengthen my mother’s rule. Instead, it had turned into a complete disaster.

The Second Prince was missing.

He wasn’t dead. He hadn’t been captured.

He had simply disappeared.

“Your Highness,” Captain Gerald of the Royal Guard said as he approached me. His voice shook slightly, and he kept his head lowered. His polished breastplate was dented from the violence of the previous night. “We’ve searched the lower gardens. The fire in the maze has been put out. We found four dead high lords, but there’s still no sign of Prince Elian.”

A dangerous heat rose inside me.

I slowly turned toward him, staring directly into his face. My breathing grew heavier, and every muscle in my broad shoulders tightened.

The red haze that had taken over my mind during the sudden heat had finally faded. But something was missing.

His scent.

That intoxicating smell of wild honey, rain, and lightning had disappeared. Without it, my chest felt painfully empty, as if someone had ripped something important out of me.

“Search again,” I ordered.

My voice was low and threatening, making Gerald visibly shiver.

“Your Highness, we’ve searched the fountain pond and checked the outer walls. Commander Corowa reported that the stray Omega was killed in the underground passage, but”

I didn’t let him finish.

In an instant, I grabbed the front of his steel collar and lifted him off his feet. I pulled him close until his terrified face was only inches from mine.

“I don’t give a damn about Commander Corowa’s report!” I snarled. “And I don’t care about stray Omegas. I want my brother!”

My grip tightened.

“If you haven’t searched every corner of this city by noon, I’ll strip you of your rank and have your head mounted on the southern gate. Do you understand me?”

“Y-yes, Your Highness!” Gerald stammered, his eyes wide with fear.

I shoved him away. He stumbled backward into his men, and I turned toward the grand platform.

High above the ballroom, Empress Cynthia sat on her golden throne. She hadn’t moved for three hours.

Her back remained straight, and her silver-threaded gown was still perfect. But her hands gripped the armrests so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.

Her cold violet eyes followed my every movement.

There was no concern in them for her son. Instead, I saw the fear of a ruler watching her most powerful weapon begin to slip out of her control.

She knew.

She had seen how I held Elian in the middle of the ballroom. She had smelled the heat coming from beneath his clothes. She knew that the weak, sickly Beta prince she had kept hidden for ten years was the very person who could destroy everything she had worked to protect.

Where is she?

The question kept repeating inside my head, over and over, like a drum I couldn’t silence.

She wasn’t a sickly prince.

She wasn’t some weak, useless spare the Empire could throw away.

She was an Omega.

A woman whose scent had completely changed my life and ruined my ability to think clearly in a single heartbeat.

My fingers twitched against the handle of my sword. I couldn’t stop thinking about the moment her skin had touched my chest. The heat coming from her body through her wet tunic had been almost unbearable. I could still hear the soft, painful sound she had made beneath my jaw.

The memory was stuck in my head, and I couldn’t breathe properly. Even the fresh air inside the palace felt like ash.

Every part of me was screaming for her. I wanted to tear down every wall in the kingdom until I found her. I wanted to mark her neck and keep her somewhere safe, where no other Alpha could ever get close to her.

Stirling Vance had already been taken to his estate by his northern guards. He was bleeding badly from the wound I had given him in the garden, but he would survive.

And when he woke up, he would come looking for her, too.

I couldn’t let him find her first.

I couldn’t let anyone find her before me.

I turned away from the throne, stepped over a broken crystal glass, and headed straight for the grand arched passage leading to the military section of the palace.

“Callan!”

My mother’s voice cut through the quiet hall like a whip. The nobles immediately fell silent.

I stopped walking, but I didn’t turn around. I didn’t bow to her, either.

“You will remain here and speak with the foreign envoys,” the Empress ordered as she stepped down from her throne. Her silver heels clicked against the marble floor. “The council is meeting soon. We must control this situation before rumors about an Omega scandal ruin our agreements with the Northern House.”

I slowly looked back at her over my shoulder. My jaw was so tightly clenched that the muscles beneath my skin began to twitch.

“The treaties don’t matter,” I said quietly.

My words left the entire room silent.

“What did you say?” Mother asked, her violet eyes narrowing.

“I said I don’t care about the council, Mother.” I turned and walked back toward her, my shadow stretching across the polished floor. “You want a war? Fine. Have one. But I will not sit in a council room while my mate is out there alone in the dark.”

“She is an abomination!” Mother hissed, moving closer until only I could hear her. Her face twisted with anger and hatred. “She is a fraud who has deceived our royal family! She belongs in the dungeons, or she should be dead!”

A dark laugh escaped my throat.

“Touch her,” I whispered, leaning close to her ear. “And you’ll quickly learn that I am my father’s son. I will burn this entire kingdom to the ground before I let you hurt her.”

I didn’t wait for her to answer.

Turning on my heel, I stormed out of the Grand Conservatory, my dark velvet cape flying behind me.

I marched down the long, empty stone corridor toward the Vanguard command tower. The air grew colder as the damp wind from the storm crept through the palace. My boots echoed against the stone walls with every step.

There was only one man I needed to speak to.

The man who had been in the labyrinth when she disappeared.

Commander Jace Corowa.

He claimed the Omega was dead. He said he had burned her body until nothing was left. But Jace was a survivor from the outer colonies, a man who trusted no one and answered to no one but himself. If anyone knew how to hide a body or keep a living Queen hidden it was him.

I reached the heavy iron doors leading to the Vanguard sector and threw them open so hard that the torch holders rattled against the walls.

Two Vanguard guards stepped forward, raising their pikes to block my way.

“Your Highness, Commander Corowa has locked down the command tower for an emergency investigation”

I didn’t even bother drawing my sword.

I stepped closer and threw a hard punch at the first guard. My fist struck his helmet, crushing the front of it. He dropped to the floor immediately.

Before the second guard could react, I grabbed him by his metal chest armor and slammed him against the stone wall with all my strength. His eyes rolled back, and he slid to the floor, unconscious.

I stepped over both men and began climbing the spiral staircase.

With every step, I moved closer to the top of the tower. My heart beat loudly in my ears, and I kept searching the cold air for even the smallest trace of wild honey and rain—her scent.

When I reached the highest floor, I stopped in front of Jace’s private quarters.

The door was completely destroyed, hanging from its broken iron hinges. Even the stone around the doorway was cracked, as if something had exploded inside.

I tightened my hand around the handle of my broadsword and slowly drew the weapon. Then I stepped quietly through the broken doorway into the cold, dark room.

It was empty.

The iron bed had been left untidy, and the sheets were cold. A bucket that had once held ice water lay overturned on the floor, with the melted water spreading across the stone.

I took three slow steps into the room, my boots crunching over pieces of broken wood.

Then I lowered my head and took a deep breath.

The room smelled of cold stone and metal. But beneath those scents, hidden in the thick wool blanket lying on the bed, was a faint smell I would recognize anywhere.

My mate’s sweet scent.

She had been here.

My eyes moved across the room until I noticed a dark red stain on the white stone wall.

It wasn’t just blood splashed across the surface.

Someone had written a message in fresh blood. The words looked rushed, and the thick red liquid was slowly dripping down toward the floor.

I moved closer, my heart turning cold as I read the message carved into the stone.

THE SUNFALL HEIR LIVES. THE BLOOD DEBT WILL BE PAID IN GOLD AND FIRE.

A wild, furious roar burst from my chest.

I swung my broadsword and drove it deep into the stone wall, just beneath the bloody message. The blade sank several inches into the hard surface.

They hadn’t simply hidden her away.

They were planning to use her to start a war.