Chapter 91

Third Person POV

It was set. Alaric was going to kidnap his uncle, poison him, and then dump his body down the pits deep in the tunnels.

The thought was surreal. All of those years had passed, leading to these next few days. A decades worth of work, soon to pay off.

Alaric glances out the window of one of the guest rooms, no longer feeling safe in his own quarters.

This wasn’t just any guest room, either. It was one of the few rooms in the palace that granted one way access to the tunnel system. Once you were in, you couldn’t get back into the palace from the same way — you’d have to go to the access point closer to the King’s quarters or one of the west or east side exits.

That was exactly how they were going to enter the tunnels and get to his uncle.

There’s a soft knock at Alaric’s door, one in a pattern he and Lucius had always agreed on, especially during times where people couldn’t be trusted.

He cracked the door, letting Lucius through with a nod. The two were planning on descending into the tunnels and scouting out the paths, practicing the route so they wouldn’t miss a step when the abduction happened.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Lucius said softly, and Alaric agreed with a tired smile, shrugging a shoulder.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he sighed.

“Are you ready to take control?” Lucius asked, knowing his friend too well.

“I think I’ve been ready since the day I left.” It was true. Even though Alaric had been pushed from his place, he’d never really left that mindset.

Even more than that, he had always been ready to take down his uncle for what he did to him and his father. Especially for what he’d done to his father.

The hatred Alaric harbored for his uncle was colossal. It’d grown like a poisonous seed in his chest, its roots twisting and clinging to his bones, growing stronger as every day passed.

“I’m glad he’s finally getting what’s coming to him,” Lucius murmured, his eyes drifting across the room to the corner where the trapdoor led to the tunnels. “Ready to go down there?”

“Best to get familiar with it,” Alaric mumbled, not looking forward to it at all. The tunnels stunk, they were dark and depressing, claustrophobic — every bad thing you could think of.

“So there’s no access back out, right?” Lucius confirmed, glancing over the blueprints on the desk, scanning their path a few times.

“Right.” Alaric pointed to the access point nearest the King’s quarters, following it out to the southwestern exit. “And the pits are north.”

“Pretty far north.” Lucius frowned slightly, a bit of worry flashing through his eyes. “That’s a long way to go with your uncle.”

“He’ll be poisoned just enough to disarm him.”

“Won’t a drop of that nightshade be enough to do that? Any more and he’ll die on the spot.” Lucius kept his voice low out of caution — you never know when someone could be listening in.

“Right again,” Alaric sighed, the vial of poison now tucked in his pocket. “It’s one of the most deadly poisons out there.”

“Then again, would it really be so bad for him to die before he gets to the pits?” Lucius raised a brow, rolling up the blueprints and tucking them in his back pocket.

“Yes,” Alaric responded gruffly, his eyes darkening. “I want him to witness his fall into the pits.”

The chill that spread through Alaric’s chest frightened him a little bit, but he felt like it was warranted. He could never in a million years forgive his uncle, and he would never feel bad about that.

“Let’s get to it.” Alaric shuffled forward to a bookshelf built into the wall, pulling out one of the older books to reveal a small keypad. The code had never been changed over the years, and he typed it in, hearing the familiar click of the lock beneath the trap door.

Glancing down, he saw the trap door had lifted about an inch, just enough for him to slip his fingers beneath and lift. A rickety ladder into the darkness greeted him, and he looked over at Lucius.

“We go as wolves. Staying in the dark will be safer.” Considering wolves could see and smell better than they could, it was the best option.

“We won’t be wolves when we take your uncle,” Lucius said with hesitation. “Shouldn’t we learn the tunnels without our wolf senses?”

Alaric paused. Lucius made a very good point; if they came to rely too heavily on their wolves, they’d stumble when they had to navigate the tunnels in human form.

“You’re right,” Alaric winced, peering down into the dark again. He could already smell the stench of the damp walls, a wave of nausea flittering through him.

Lucius reached for the electric lamp that was left on the mantle, looking just as nervous as Alaric. “At least we won’t smell the stench as intensely?”

Alaric smiled only a little bit, carefully stepping down the waterlogged ladder until his feet hit the dirt ground. An immediate sense of dread settled on his shoulders, and he fought to ignore it.

Lucius handed him the lamp, descending the ladder after him. He reached up, hesitating for a beat before closing the trap door behind them, sealing them in.

“Ugh,” Alaric muttered, turning to face the wall of darkness that greeted him.

They took off down the tunnel, reaching the first intersection, where they went left, following it straight for a while before hanging a right.

“So the King’s quarters are accessed down that way,” Alaric said, doing his best to ignore the heaviness of the air around them. Just ahead and to the left was a narrower tunnel that had stairs at the end, leading directly into the King’s wing.

“And you’re sure we can get up there and in?” Lucius peered down the narrow tunnel, cringing at how tight the space was.

“Positive.” Alaric nodded with confidence. “I know the combination up.”

“What if they changed it?”

Alaric looked at Lucius wryly, their faces just barely lit up in the dim light of the lamp. “I did my research.”

Lucius chuckled, not pressing the subject further. “Right, so we get him, and then head north.”

They turned, taking a left and following the winding tunnel for a while, finally taking another left, their temples beading with sweat.

“The pits are just ahead.” Alaric struggled to ignore the weight of the humid air in his lungs, making each breath a real struggle.

“What’s that?” Lucius frowned, a shape visible in the distance at the edge of the entrance to the cavern of pits.

Alaric squinted ahead, the light not stretching far enough to see. It almost looked like a body.

His heart started to pound as they approached. It took a moment to realize who was slumped against the wall, their throat slit wide open, blood dried all down their neck and stained on their clothes.

“Oh my god,” Lucius whispered, blinking in shock. “It’s…”

“Julian,” Alaric finished for him, barely able to croak the name out.

Julian was dead.