Finding Her

Chapter 1️⃣

Three (3) Years Later:

Khyrador Palace Throne Room:

Two men were kneeling on the ground, shaking with fear as they stared at the man seated on the throne. But he wasn't sitting normally. Oh no. He was upside down, his feet touching where his head was supposed to be while his head, which was resting where his ass should have been, stared straight forward at the two men. His dark eyes narrowed dangerously and his white teeth were razor sharp and scary, but somehow they looked perfect in his impossibly handsome face.

If you didn't know better, you'd think he was trying out for some twisted circus act. But the blood stains on the marble floor said otherwise.

"So?" His voice cut through the silence like a blade.

"I couldn't find her, my King." The first man answered, his voice shaking so badly the words barely came out. He knew this was the end of him for failing to find whoever the king was looking for. Before he could even finish his sentence, his head came rolling down from his body and landed with a wet thud on the floor.

The second man kneeling beside him started shaking so badly his teeth chattered. He watched his friend's head roll away like some kind of messed up bowling ball and he actually pissed himself right there on the spot. The warm wetness spread across his leather pants but honestly, that was the least of his problems right now.

"Let me guess," a voice whispered close to his ear, so close he could feel the breath on his neck. "You have the same answer as your friend?"

The man let out a shriek that would have been embarrassing if he wasn't about to die. He whipped his head around to where he heard the voice but it was empty. When he turned back to look at the throne, the King was right in front of his face, those dark eyes staring into his soul.

"I am waiting," Draevon said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"I am sorry, my King." The man tried not to stammer but failed miserably. Draevon's smirk grew wider, like he was actually enjoying watching the poor bastard suffer. "I couldn't find..." He didn't get to finish his sentence.

Draevon moved faster than lightning and slit out his tongue. It happened so fast that the man didn't even realize what had happened until the pain hit him like a hammer to the face. Before he could scream or gurgle or do anything, Draevon grabbed his head between his palms and pressed hard.

The head burst like an overripe melon.

Blood splashed all over Draevon's face and body but he didn't even flinch. He just stood there, covered in red, looking almost bored. With a casual gesture of his head, both dead bodies burst into flames. The smell of burning flesh filled the throne room but Draevon breathed it in like it was fresh morning air.

He stretched his arms above his head like he'd just woken up from a nice nap and turned to face the final man. This one he'd chained to the wall earlier and had already cut off one of his hands, just for fun. The man was whimpering, tears and snot running down his face.

Draevon snapped his fingers and the chains holding the man loosened. The man fell to the ground with a painful thump but didn't dare stand up. He just lay there, shaking like a leaf in a storm, blood still pouring from where his hand used to be.

"Go and tell your useless Elf King that his trackers are completely worthless, including you," Draevon said, his voice almost cheerful now. Then with a lopsided smile that somehow made him look even more terrifying, he added, "And I won't be helping his pathetic little kingdom. Oh, and after you deliver that message?" He paused for dramatic effect. "You kill yourself. Understood?"

"Y-y-yes, my King," the third man stuttered out. He scrambled to his feet so fast he almost fell over again and then ran like his ass was on fire, which, given what he'd just witnessed, wasn't entirely out of the question. He didn't even care about the blood pouring from his stump of an arm. He just wanted to get as far away from that monster as possible.

The heavy doors slammed behind him and silence filled the throne room once more.

Draevon walked back to his throne chair, sitting upside down because apparently sitting normally was too boring for him now, and stared at the space where the men had been kneeling. His fingers drummed against the armrest in a pattern that sounded almost like a heartbeat.

"Where are you, Kael?" he whispered to the empty room. "Where the fuck are you hiding?"

Three years. It had been three years since he'd been reborn and the power of the gods running through his veins was an extra bonus. Three years since he'd changed from the soft, sweet, and kind king everyone used to love into... this. Whatever this was.

Even Malgron, the Alpha Tyrant of Ironblood himself, the millennium King of wolves and Lycans who had terrorized kingdoms for centuries, didn't dare cross him anymore. That same Malgron who used to laugh at threats and bathe in the blood of his enemies now walked carefully around Draevon like he was stepping around a sleeping dragon.

Some people whispered that Draevon had become worse than Malgron. That he was the one who had taught the tyrant his evilness, not the other way around.

But they didn't understand. They didn't know what it felt like to die with poison burning through your veins while the woman you'd just claimed whispered goodbye. They didn't know what it felt like to be reborn with every memory intact, every moment of betrayal fresh as an open wound.

They didn't know he was looking for his tattooed queen who'd murdered him with a kiss.

And when he found her, oh when he found her, he was going to make her regret ever being born. He was going to chain her up and make her beg. He was going to...

He was going to make her his.

Forever.

Even if he had to burn down every kingdom in existence to find her.

Draevon smiled to himself in the empty throne room, still covered in blood, still sitting upside down on his throne like a complete lunatic.

Let them all fear him. Let them whisper about the mad king who'd lost his mind.

He didn't care.

All he cared about was finding her.

His dangerous, beautiful, deadly tattooed queen.

And this time, she wouldn't escape him. Not even death could save her from him now.