Zara leapt into Apollo’s arms, her tears streaming down in an endless current. Her hair was a mess and blood leaked out of the corner of her lips, but nothing was more pressing to her than the heaviness of the rage in her heart.
The words that Grey had spoken had completely and utterly infuriated her. But worse than that was the humiliation of being an Imperial Princess and yet being sent sprawling out on the public square for everyone to see.
The moment she gathered herself, the first thing she did was run to the Valdi Estate. But that action alone proved just how real Grey’s words were.
She was an Imperial Princess, and yet her first instinct when she was insulted was to tell other members of the Imperial Family, or her own personal guard...
But instead a boyfriend that had yet to even publicly acknowledge her.
"Breathe, Zara. Breathe. Tell me what happened slowly, slowly."
Apollo comforted Zara as best he could, but it took a long while before she finally got the story out.
What he heard left Apollo both stunned and furious. He may not have publicly acknowledged Zara yet, but there were complicated political reasons for that, not because he didn’t want to.
But the fact his woman was harmed and his family was humiliated by the same man gave him another level of utter rage and anger.
His father was still waiting for the right time to act, believing that they had reason on their side after what happened to the fat fool.
"Don’t worry, Zara, dear. We have something planned for him. He won’t live to the end of the day. I swear it on my life."
"Really?" Zara sniffled, her eyes puffy with her tears.
"Really." Apollo said coldly. "I’ll feed his corpse to the wolves."
Zara nodded, feeling a lot better all of a sudden. "I want to be there."
"Of course." Apollo said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "There are just some final things to prepare. You can follow me."
Zara smiled and nodded.
A light of cold flashed in Apollo’s eyes again when Zara buried her head into his chest.
His father’s plan wasn’t actually going to execute tonight. The plan was to lure another disciple of The Relentless into the fold. As protective as The Relentless was, it was hard for him to take action personally in a situation like this. It would seem too petty.
But if even a second one of his disciples was harmed, and the Valdi applied pressure, asking for Grey’s head at the same time...
Now, harming an Imperial Princess in broad daylight was like the final push they needed.
But Apollo planned to set these things in motion himself. His love had brought him the perfect opportunity to take a leg up on his brothers in the race for the rightful position as heir.
All he needed to do was call in a favor.
Raze."
"Apollo."
The two men stood across from one another, their gazes deep and unreadable.
Raze was as enormous as one might expect from a disciple of The Relentless. His skin looked scorched by the sun, sunk into a permanent crimson bronze. His muscles, however, weren’t defined and striated. They were just so large they looked like he had injected himself with silicon.
Raze grinned, his teeth a row of jagged silver.
"You want me to kill this brat for you?"
"I want you to kill this brat for the sake of your junior disciple brother."
"And why would I do that? Do I look like I care if that pathetic weakling loses face for himself?"
"Because your master is still looking for disciples which means that he hasn’t decided who to give over his mantle to. Shouldn’t you give him reasons to pick you?"
Raze laughed.
The room was little more than black slate, the simple greyish black tiles forming a perfect cube of a room. There wasn’t any furniture at all unless one counted the stone cylinder hanging from the ceiling like a punching bag and the wall of weapons to one side.
This was Raze’s home and the scent of blood within it was heavy.
It didn’t look like the sort of place that would shake to a laugh, but shake it did.
"Indeed, my master is fickle. But you seem to have misunderstood me. I do not need my master’s mantle. I want to become the Seventh Guardian." A flash of silver radiance flooded from Raze’s gaze.
Apollo frowned. It seemed that he had miscalculated. Raze’s motivations were hard to measure, but he thought he had grasped them. Maybe he was too eager.
"I will still help you, though," Raze’s grin widened.
Apollo’s gaze flickered. "Why?"
"Because war is coming and I like having cards in my hands."
A silence fell between them for a long while before Apollo spoke.
"What have you heard?"
"Nothing much. Just that quite a few Vessels of Chaos have been appearing all across the empire, and that one of them just so happened to be killed by this Grey Temolt. Interesting, don’t you think? The Heavens give these constructs of the Genesis Spirit pretty good rewards for that sort of thing, no?
"I only want two things. First, should you become the heir apparent of the Valdi, you will back me when the time comes. And second, everything on his body will be mine."
"You don’t sound very sure that I will become the heir apparent."
"And you don’t sound like you think I’ll live beyond this battle. So, the feeling is mutual."
Apollo’s eyes narrowed.
It wasn’t that he didn’t think Raze would win. Everything pointed to the fact that Grey didn’t stand a chance.
The problem was that Grey had done too many things that didn’t make sense. No matter how stupid someone was, why would they publicly harm an Imperial Princess?
That was why Apollo wasn’t banking on Raze at all.
He was banking on the master behind him to be the final nail in the coffin.
But if Raze managed it on his own...
Then there wouldn’t be a problem at all, now would there?