Chapter 406: King Lear and Cordelia 1
ALDRIC
I turned the corner and stopped.
The hallway stretched empty in both directions. Quiet. Exactly what I needed.
I unlocked Elara’s phone and pulled up the contacts.
My mory had always been sharp. Precise. Even now, wearing Gabriel’s weaker body, that part of
remained intact.
From mory alone, I keyed in the delicate’s handler’s number.
I had only dealt with him once. Briefly. Through interdiaries, mostly.
But I rembered his number.
I pressed call, and it rang twice before soone picked up.
"Hello?"
The voice was rough and just as cautious.
"Is this Mateo Ruiz?" I asked.
There was a pause at first, then the rough voice said, "Who is asking?"
"Soone who needs information," I said. "You handle a delicate. I hear she is strong."
There was another pause, and it was longer this ti.
"Yes," he said finally. "But she is not in service now. She happens to be blinded and that, in so way, apparently made her abilities epileptic. We have other strong contender delicates if you need—"
"I will drop the act," I cut in.
My tone shifted. I barely had the ti to play my usual gas of feeling and fishing. I had to be harder and more direct.
"I scratch your back, and you scratch mine. Your delicate lies to you. She can see."
The silence that followed was taut as a stretched rubber hand waiting to pop when you least expected it to. Not , though.
Then his voice ca back sharper.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Your salvation," I said simply. I let that sit for a second before continuing forward. "Confirm it, and then you owe
one."
He let out a harsh breath.
"I do not believe you one bit."
"Then do not," I replied. "But assuming I am telling the truth, ask
what would I want in return?"
He hesitated. "What would you want?"
"I just want the delicate to answer the questions that I have. That is all."
The line went quiet again.
Then he spoke. His voice was tight now. He was trying his best to act above it and be controlled. He was none of those things. A weakling through and through.
"If this bitch..." He stopped mid-sentence. "Give
a minute."
I heard shuffling, followed by movent, and then voices in the background.
It sounded like arguing.
His voice rose. Sharp and angry. I could not make out the exact words, but the tone was clear.
Then I heard a woman scream.
"I am sorry!"
Her voice was high and quite panicked. Which told
that my gamble had paid off well.
"Oh, your goal was to keep pretending to be useless so you would be abandoned right? Right?"
Mateo’s voice ca through clearer now. Loud enough that I could hear every word.
"Well, that is over. Take the phone and answer the man’s questions."
There was more shuffling, and it only ended when a different voice ca on the line.
It was softer and shaking. "Hello."
I smiled.
"Hello, delicate."
She did not respond.
"What you did was not very kind," I continued. "And I must assure you that you picked the wrong side to side with because it is only hell from here for you."
I paused.
"But I can help you. I can alleviate your suffering. But you need to give
what I need."
Her breathing ca through the speaker. Uneven and frightened.
"Who are you?" she asked. "And what do you need?"
"When your services were asked of in Skollrend, what did you see?"
She hesitated.
"I..."
"And please do not lie to , or we are done here, and you can go back to living your personal hell."
She let out a shaky breath.
"I saw a woman, and it blinded
as I said."
I frowned.
"We paid you extra in regards to checking what happened at the scene of the accident. Concerning a certain blue light."
The pause that followed was wickedly empty. I had her right where I wanted.
"I did not see much. I was blinded when I tried to look into the woman who did it. All I saw was a..."
She stopped.
My jaw tightened. "What?"
"I am not sure. What I saw was a dungeon and a man."
A man?
"What does that have to do with the assassin?" I asked.
"I do not know. mories are hard to take in."
I forced myself to stay calm.
"What was she? You should know that much."
"I do not know."
My grip on the phone tightened.
"You are giving
nothing."
"I know she was not a witch," she said quickly. "But I do not know. I swear."
I took a slow breath.
"Why did you hide the fact that she healed you? Fia. That is."
She went quiet.
Then softly she said, "Because she asked
to."
I did not quite believe her.
"Did you get anything from the Oga herself? Healing you ant she touched you. What did you see?"
I leaned against the wall.
"And before you lie to protect a stranger, think about yourself first. Because I know a little sothing, and your truth had better match that little sothing."
She exhaled shakily.
"It was vague. A mory in a mory. It was a dungeon, and soone... soone with her likeness was being experinted on by the man. The man I saw in the assassin’s own mories."
I straightened.
"What?"
My mind raced.
"And this man. Do you by chance know who it is?"
"No."
I let out a harsh breath.
"Oh, really. Another lie?"
"No... Wait..."
She paused.
"I rember. I have plenty of work opportunities, and all mories blend into a big ss. But I rember... I rember!"
"Speak it."
"Va.... Va... Valentine."
The na landed exactly where I needed it to.
I laughed.
It ca out sharp and satisfied.
"Ha."
Perfect.
That confird my theory completely. Enough to build a case at least.
"Thank you," I said. "You have been useful."
Her voice ca back imdiately. Desperate and frayed, like sothing tearing apart at the seams.
"Now keep your word. Help . I cannot stay here."
I tilted my head slightly. "In what world does that seem fair? You are partly the reason I am in hell myself."
It beca so silent you could almost hear a pin drop.
Then her voice broke.
"No. You promised! You lying bastard!!!"
I ended the call.
The screen went dark.
I stared at it for a mont. Then I opened the call log and deleted the entry.
That was how it was supposed to be now. Clean and simple with no trace back to . Then I called a random number and let that one sit in.
I turned and walked back toward where I had left Elara.
She was still sitting against the wall. Her head was tilted back now. Staring at the ceiling.
I stopped in front of her and held out the phone.
"Thank you."
She looked up. Then reached out and took it from my hand without a word.
I glanced toward the window at the end of the hall.
The light outside was fading. The sky had gone from gold to deep orange. Soon it would be completely dark.
"It is getting late," I said. "So... goodnight."
She nodded slowly.
"Goodnight."
I turned and walked away.
My mind was already moving ahead. Sorting through what I had just learned. Cataloging it. Filing it away.
Valentine had experinted on soone with Fia’s likeness.
That ant Fia was connected to his work. Either directly or through family.
Either way, it gave
exactly what I needed.
Proof.
Or at least the foundation for proof.
The rest I could build, and goddess, I was a good builder.
I reached the guest wing and found an empty room. The door was unlocked. So I pushed it open and stepped inside.
The space was simple, just a bed, a dresser, and a small window that looked out onto the courtyard.
I closed the door behind , slid the lock into place, and let the quiet settle.
For a mont, I just stood there, staring at the bed.
It was solid, a heavy wooden fra that looked like it had been built to stay exactly where it was, but I knew better.
I stepped forward, braced my hands against the edge, and pulled.
The legs dragged across the floor with a harsh scrape that cut through the silence.
I winced at the sound but kept going. Dragging it away from the wall until there was enough space to see what was underneath.
A rug lay across the floor, plain and unremarkable, the kind of thing people stepped over without a second thought.
I knelt and rolled it back.
The stone beneath was smooth, almost polished, clean in a way that felt deliberate.
All except for one section.
There, just off-center, was a small latch, easy to miss unless you already knew it was there.
I slipped my fingers under it and pulled.
The panel lifted with a low, reluctant shift of stone.
Darkness waited beneath.
So also, a passage.
This was the sa passage built years ago, one of several that ran beneath the estate, linking rooms through secret routes and hidden paths that let you move without being seen.
I lowered myself into the opening, my feet finding the smooth surface almost at once.
There was no ladder, only polished stone slanting steeply downward.
A slide, if you would.
I let go.
Gravity took
imdiately, pulling
down faster than I expected as the walls blurred on either side and cool air rushed hard against my face.
By the ti the slope began to level, I was already bracing myself.
I ca to a stop at the bottom, steadying my balance before straightening.
Then I looked around.
The passage stretched in both directions, narrow and dark, lit only by faint cracks of light filtering down from above.
I turned left and started walking, my footsteps echoing softly as the sound carried farther than it should have.
The air was colder down here, damp against my skin, thick with the sll of earth and old stone.
At the first junction, I turned right, then left again without slowing.
The layout was still clear in my mind, every twist and turn fixed in place from years of use.
I had walked these paths more tis than I could count.
The section I needed ca into view soon enough, marked by a narrow shaft that led upward.
I reached for the wall and began to climb.
The handholds were rough and uneven, forcing my fingers to grip tight as I pulled myself higher, careful not to slip.
At the top, I felt the edge of the panel.
I pushed against it slowly, just enough to open a narrow gap.
Muted light spilled through the dark.
Ronan’s chambers.
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