Chapter 90

Sienna’s POV

I hadn’t slept a wink the entire night, my eyes dry as I stared at the ceiling the next morning. Alaric had disappeared after the pregnancy thing, obviously upset, and I hadn’t seen him the rest of the evening.

After the King had spoken, Lucius and I had come back to the Alpha house, rather silently, and it felt more awkward than I’d have liked.

We hadn’t talked about anything else, even though it was starting to bottle up inside me again. For a moment, things seemed to be looking up, but Alaric noticing the baby ruined everything.

Why had I told him the baby belonged to Lucius? Why would I do something like that?

What was my problem? I just kept messing things up for myself in an endless cycle, just when it was starting to get better. A lot like Alaric had done, too.

This time, I wasn’t going to let it sit and rot away — no, we were going to talk about this for once.

I asked Lucius to get Alaric and come to the Alpha house, but he wrote back that he’d prefer we meet at Blackmoon, where things more secure. I didn’t care where we met — I just knew we needed to.

An hour later, the three of us were standing in a cozy conference room at Blackmoon, all very somber.

“Thank you for coming,” I finally said towards Alaric, noticing the way he refused to meet my eyes. “Alaric.”

When he finally looked up at me, my eyes were soft. “We’ll talk, okay?” I couldn’t bear the thought of having a conversation about the baby belonging to Lucius when they were both in the room.

Lucius had no idea I’d said that, and I wasn’t about to watch the two of them explode in front of me, so I’d talk to Alaric alone.

Thankfully, Alaric just nodded, understanding our conversation deserved to be private. There was still something extremely uncomfortable about the two of them being in the same room, but I had to ignore it.

“I wanted to talk about the King,” I said slowly, touching along the vial in my pocket, which stayed on me at all times.

“Right,” Lucius nodded, waiting for me to go on.

“By now, he’ll have realized Alaric is, in fact, not dead, and that I didn’t do what he asked.” I almost laughed, my smile tight on my lips. “So that’s great.”

“I’d believe he’d have had doubts if you’d do it at all. He probably did it as a test.” Alaric shrugged, lounging in one of the plush leather chairs, his legs hanging over the edge of the arm.

“And now he’ll really come for you,” Lucius warned. “For all of us.”

“Especially me,” Alaric beamed, almost seeming proud of that. “You know two rogues were in my room last night, waiting for me?”

“What?” Lucius’ eyes widened, sitting up in his chair.

“Mia and I,” Alaric started, his eyes cutting to me at the mention of Mia — I showed no reaction. “We went into the tunnels, took out those five, and still…more were in the palace.”

“Nowhere is safe,” Lucius murmured, shaking his head. “We need to start planning.”

“I have an idea,” Alaric said very softly, a glazed look across his eyes.

“Discuss.” Lucius waved his hand impatiently. “For all we know he’s got assassins on their way to us now.”

“Doubtful,” Alaric muttered, taking a slow breath in. “I think, honestly, the best thing we can do is use the tunnels to gain access to his quarters — undetected — and kill him down there. His body would never be found.”

“Especially if we tossed it down the pits,” Lucius added.

I couldn’t help but shiver. “I’m sorry, there are pits down there too?”

“It’s like an abyss,” Alaric said cooly, shrugging like it was nothing. “No one knows what’s down there.”

“So it is, therefore, the perfect place to toss him,” Lucius said with a chuckle.

“And then he just…disappears?” I raised my brows, not sure this was the right idea. “He pulls a thirteen year old Prince Alaric on everyone?”

I saw the smile that twitched at the edge of Alaric’s lips. Lips I’d had all over my bare body.

Stop it, Sienna, I hissed to myself.

“I’ll announce him as dead, don’t worry. The city will know exactly what happened.” Alaric sat up in his chair, resting his hands under his chin. “And then the throne will go to me.”

“Rewind. We’re going to go down in the tunnels?” That made me beyond uneasy.

“It’s the best plan,” Alaric said back. “If you’re too scared…”

I scowled at him, crossing my arms across my chest defensively. “I am not.”

“You’re acting like it.” His tone was playful, but my eyes still narrowed.

“Well, I’m not.”

“But Sienna, you shouldn’t put yourself in danger…” Lucius hesitated, his eyes drifting to my stomach.

My muscles clenched, eyes darting over to Alaric. To my relief, he made no comment.

“I’m doing this.” I wasn’t letting either of them make this decision for me. “I will be a part of this mission.”

“Lucius, do you have a copy of the old tunnel blueprints?” Alaric shifted out of his chair, starting to pace. He always did that when he was thinking his hardest.

“You know I’ve got a copy of everything. Got them right here.” Lucius hopped out of his chair, strolling over to a desk, where a yellowed roll sat.

He unfurled it on the desk, and we gathered around, the maze of tunnels surprising me. I’d forgotten just how far below the city they stretched, and it creeped me out to think of what could be down there.

I’d only ever seen them once, when I was a lot younger. Truthfully, I’d never wanted to see them again.

Stumbling across one of the old entrances had been an accident, and getting lost in them was a sour memory I chose never to revisit, until I was forced to now.

You won’t get lost with them, I thought, trying to comfort myself. Maybe they wouldn’t let it happen, but it didn’t mean I wouldn’t think about the sheer terror I went through all those years ago.

I forced myself to stop thinking about it, focusing on what Lucius and Alaric were saying now.

“We enter through the southwest gardens, here at the palace. Follow this one,” Alaric tapped his finger along one of the tunnels leading directly below and to the King’s wing. “And sneak in through the entry in his wing.”

“Where does that come out?” I asked, a little confused.

“In the room next to his,” Alaric responded quickly, focusing back on the blueprints. “Then we take him back down and head northeast towards the pits.”

The pits were around the city edges, so that was quite a ways to traverse in the tunnels. Easily a few miles.

“Great,” I mumbled, and Alaric side-eyed me, the tiniest smirk on his face.

“How do we kill him?” Lucius aimed the question at Alaric, but I stepped in, pulling the vial of deadly nightshade from my pocket, placing it on the blueprints.

“Gotta give back what you receive,” I grinned, and both Alaric and Lucius’ eyes lit up.

“Absolutely,” Alaric beamed. “So my uncle dies by deadly nightshade.”