Dragon Guard Scholar, page 15
part #2 of Dragon Guard of the Northern Isles Series
Ginny immediately went to Lady Vera and embraced her. “It’s all right. You’re fine,” she soothed as she continued to sob. “You did good.”
“He … he … went out of the room. I didn’t realize he’d gone to check on you,” Lady Vera hiccupped. “I tried … did everything to stop him, even try to kiss him.”
Stein let out a growl and began to squeeze the minister’s throat. Valens yelped and clawed at the Dragon Guard’s hand, but it was no use.
“Stein, don’t kill him,” Gideon said.
“Give me one good reason—”
The sound of approaching footsteps thundered from down the hall interrupted him. Stein cursed and loosened his grip, but didn’t let go.
“Oh, crap!” Ginny groaned as she saw the dozen or so men dressed in guard uniforms were running toward them, weapons raised.
Gideon darted in front of them and lifted his hand. “Stop!” he commanded. “In the name of the crown, stop!”
The men immediately halted in their tracks, but looked at each other, confused.
“I am Gideon of the Dragon Guards. By order of His Majesty, King Aleksei, Ruler of the Northern Isles, I am arresting Oskar Valens for treason. Put your weapons down and lie facedown on the ground now, or you, too, will be charged with aiding and abetting a traitor.” Thankfully, all of them followed his order.
Fishing his phone from his pocket, Gideon tapped on the screen. “I’m going to call His Majesty.”
Chapter Eleven
Gideon pressed his lips together. From behind the one-way mirror, he watched Chief Inspector Hadon interrogate Valens in an interview room at the Ministry Police Department. Ginny stood beside him, silent as he was, but he could see the tension in her body. But then again, he felt just as anxious. In fact, the atmosphere was dark and tense, and he could also sense the unease from the two other occupants of the room—King Aleksei and Queen Sybil.
Still, Ginny’s chilly demeanor and silence perturbed him. She hadn’t spoken a word to him since they left Valens’s office, and that had been a couple of hours ago. She’d obviously been outraged that he had intervened in her operation, but what was he supposed to do when he saw the minister’s security team converging on the house? His gut and his dragon told him that something was very wrong and that it was overkill to have two dozen men in combat gear going after one thieving maid.
Obviously, he’d been right. Valens knew if his plans to overthrow King Aleksei had been discovered, that was the end for him.
From the moment they arrested him, Valens’s disposition had swung from vehement indignation as they hauled him away to the police headquarters to a calm smugness when they brought him into the drab room. In fact, he’d been so confident, he waived away his right to legal counsel. When the chief inspector arrived, he looked as cool as a cucumber, but once all the evidence had been presented to him, the facade crumbled, and he folded like a cheap lawn chair, bawling and begging for mercy.
Chief Hadon pushed a folder toward Valens. “And with this evidence we found, we were able to connect your transactions to pay off Blackwelle Poole using illicit funds from gemstones stolen from the royal mines.”
Valens’s complexion turned even sicklier.
Queen Sybil gasped. “Did you know something about this, Aleksei?”
The king glared harder at Valens. “I was informed of the theft a few months ago, but I let the police handle the matter.” His thumb and forefinger massaged his temple. “I just never thought the gemstones would be used in an attempt to overthrow me.”
Hadon continued. “We even have CCTV video of you during your clandestine meeting with the executives of Blackwelle in Venice.” Planting his hands on the table, he leaned forward. “Clever of you, utilizing the tour as cover.”
Thank you, Shifter Protection Agency. From the phone data and messages they had copied from Valens’s phone, The Agency was able to track down his whereabouts on the day of the attack. They tracked his phone location data as he traveled to Torcello and then found footage of him a meeting with a representative of Blackwelle at the Church of Maria Assunta from a security camera from an antique store across the street.
“Will you confess, then, Minister Valens?” Chief Hadon asked, eyes narrowing. “To your crimes? The judge may be more merciful and consider taking the death penalty off the table.”
“I—d-d-death penalty?” Valens sputtered. “But I committed no grave crime! I confess to stealing the gem stones and planning the dissolution of the monarchy, but no one was harmed!”
“You attempted to assassinate our king!” Hadon bellowed. “If King Aleksei had not survived the attack in Venice, we would not even be speaking now.”
“B-b-but I did not … that wasn’t me … I …”
“Wasn’t you?” Hadon scoffed. “You wrote it on those articles yourself. Once the king was incapacitated—”
“I wasn’t going to kill him!” Valens shot back. “Just poison him with enough bloodsbane to knock him out for a few days. Please!” Turning to the mirror, he lunged forward, getting on his knees, hands clamped together. “Y-Your Majesty, if you’re there … listening to me … I swear I had nothing to do with your assassination attempt!”
Hadon grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him backwards. “Enough!”
“Have mercy, please!” Valens screamed.
“Calm down or I’ll have to take you away to a cell,” Hadon threatened.
The minister sank back down on the chair, planted his elbows on the table, and buried his face in his hands. “Call my lawyer, please.”
“I’ve heard enough,” King Aleksei growled, and slammed his palm on the button next to the window to mute the speakers. “My father and I have always had our differences with Valens, but I never thought he’d do this.”
Queen Sybil rose from her chair, planted herself in front of the mirror, then glared at Valens. “He’s a creep, I just knew he was up to no good. He’s a politician, after all. Argh! I want to burn him to ashes. Can I do that, Aleksei? Please, can I? I promise I’ll make him hurt.”
Her mate gave her a sad smile. “I have no doubt you could. But he is still a citizen of the Northern Isles and thus has his rights.”
The queen pursed her lips. “Fine. I guess we’ll have to let justice do its work.”
“And thanks to you, Ginny, we have all the evidence we need to convict him.” King Aleksei gave her a quick nod.
“It was my job, Your Majesty,” she replied. “Happy to be of service. And of course, I couldn’t have done it all alone. Lady Vera should take half the credit at least.”
“Ah, of course, I will let her know my deepest thanks and gratitude for her service.”
“Oh dear, I'll visit her in the morning,” Queen Sybil said. “She was so distraught after we went to see the royal physician.”
“How is she, Your Majesty?” Gideon asked, concerned.
The queen sighed sadly. “Shaken up. But hearing the news that the evidence she helped obtain could convict Valens will surely cheer her up.”
“I am glad you were there,” King Aleksei said to Gideon. “But tell me, how did Stein end up in Valens’s mansion?”
“Yes, about that.” He scratched at the back of his head. “He basically ambushed me at the Solveigson estate. Knocked out the driver before I could say anything, so unless I wanted to play chauffeur, I had to let him drive. We were waiting inside the limo—thankfully the heat sensing cameras were only located along the outside walls of the property—when we saw the guards gathering and storming up to the house. Stein, uh, insisted we investigate.” Actually, the other Dragon Guard pretty much just told him ‘I’m heading in’ and stormed off. “Turns out, Valens went to check on Ginny and knew something was up when she wasn’t in the bathroom.”
King Aleksei blew out a breath. “I just hope Stein’s calmed down enough by morning. Rorik had to drag him into the old dungeons because he wouldn’t stop threatening to castrate and disembowel Valens.”
Queen Sybil gave him a cryptic smile which he returned with a raised brow, indicating they were communicating privately.
“Well then.” King Aleksei cleared his throat. “It is late. Past midnight. We should head back and retire. You two have surely earned some rest.” And if you need a day off to be alone with your mate, just make sure Rorik knows, the king quipped.
He grinned at the king. “Goodnight, Your Majesties.”
The royal couple left the room, and once they were alone, he turned to Ginny. “We should get going, too.”
She didn’t move, her gaze fixed on Valens, who sat alone in the interview room.
He shoved his fingers through his hair. “Look, I understand that you’re mad about me and Stein coming in, but what was I supposed to do? Just let those men find you and shoot you?” The thought made him and his dragon seethe with rage, but Ginny continued to give him the silent treatment. “And given the chance, I would do it again because you’re my—”
“I could have handled it!” she exploded. “I had a plan.”
“It’s done. Everything worked out.”
“You shouldn’t have been there in the first place!”
“And then what? Wait around the palace, then receive word that you’d been pumped full of bullets? Or worse, discovered your and Lady Vera’s bodies dumped somewhere? Valens realized something was wrong, and he knew that evidence he kept was damning. He was backed into a corner and wouldn’t have hesitated to take both your lives to save his.”
Her lips clamped together, but her eyes blazed.
“Don’t you understand, Ginny? No one could stop me from trying to protect you, not even you yourself!” The raw, tightness in his chest refused to go away, not when the thought of what could have happened to her opened a flood of emotions in him. “I would do anything to save you, even if I had to sacrifice myself. You’re my—”
“No!”
“Ginny—” He tried to grip her arms, but she back away, pressing herself against the one-way glass window. “Ginny, what’s the matter?”
There was that vacant stare in her eyes again; it passed briefly, but he’d seen it.
“We’re done here,” she declared.
“Done?” Now that enraged him and his dragon. “We’re not done. We’ll never be done. You’re—”
“Shut up!” She held a hand up. “I’m leaving now. Back to the palace. A-and tomorrow, The Agency is sending a plane to get me.”
He suddenly realized what she really meant, and his dragon recoiled at the denial of their mating bond. “No,” he said in an oddly calm voice. “You’re not stepping foot on that plane.”
She managed a contemptuous laugh. “And you’re going to stop me? Last I heard, this was a free—”
He was on her fast, gripping her arms tight and pushing her against the window. But he was finished with this nonsense. “You’re mine,” he growled. “My mate. You know that. Why are you trying to deny it?”
“You never said anything either,” she shot back.
“That was before. And this is now. After what happened between us—”
“Please. It was sex, nothing more.”
He leaned close to her, so close he could feel the warmth of her body. “It was more than that. You felt it.”
“Let. Go. Of me.” Sky-blue eyes blazed up at him.
“What’s this really about, Ginny? Why deny the bond between us?”
“I can’t stay here. You know that.”
“Why not?”
“I-I have a job. My duty. You should understand that most of all.”
“That’s bullshit and not what I’m talking about. You can still do your job and be my mate. People compromise for relationships all the time.” God, why did it feel like she was slipping through his fingers?
Her lower lip trembled. “I don’t want to compromise! I want to leave!”
Those words struck him deep. And so, he let his grip on her slacken. “All right. That’s all you had to say.” His dragon let out a deep howl of despair, but he shut it down and locked it away.
She reached out to him, but dropped her hand halfway. With a sharp intake of breath, she stepped aside and headed toward the exit.
It wasn’t until he heard the slamming of the door that it felt really final. You should understand most of all, she said.
He did, he really did. But his mistake was in wishing that he’d been worth it to stay anyway. But no, he wasn’t worth it, not even for her.
What did you expect? His own mother abandoned him, and he was her own blood and flesh. Yet, she left without a single glance back. Why would a mate be any different?
Never fall in love, Gideon. It’s not worth it.
The memory of that day was so clear in his mind. The smell of fresh-cut grass. The warmth of the bright morning sun. His father’s hand as he squeezed his shoulder. The shadow of his dragon as it loomed over him before flying away.
That was the last time Gideon had seen him.
It felt like he’d been there forever, just standing there, unable to move even one centimeter. His dragon cried out in despair, begging him to go after her.
“She doesn’t want us!” he howled at his animal. It cowered and hung its head limply, then slunk back into a corner.
He scrubbed a hand down his face. There was nothing he could do now. Just head home and go on with his life. So, he left the interview room and walked out of the Ministry Police headquarters. His thoughts began to turn to Ginny, wondering how she got back to the palace, but he shut that down as even that made his throat tighten.
He spotted the well-manicured lawn across the driveway and decided to shift there. As he jogged down the steps of the building, he saw a car parked at the bottom. The rear lid was popped open, a figure was bent over, searching through the trunk, a tire jack on the ground.
“Excuse me, do you need help? Oh—it's you. What are you doing—ack!” He slapped at his neck as he felt a painful prick. “Are you …” A strange kind of weakness came over him, then he felt his legs give under him as he was pushed into the trunk.
And then the world went dark.
Chapter Twelve
Ginny placed the sweatshirt into her backpack, then zipped it closed. In truth, she had barely unpacked anyway, so there wasn’t much to put away. With a long, deep sigh, she sank back on the bed. A glance over at the clock on the nightstand told her that she’d have to leave for the airport in an hour.
Her lioness let out a sad yowl. She shut her eyes, not even having the strength to berate it, not when she hadn’t slept all night.
I did the right thing.
Walking out of that room last night had been the hardest thing Ginny had ever done. Her lioness, for one, didn’t make it easy, fighting and clawing at her in every way. But she had to do it. She had to leave before she broke down and crawled back to him and begged him to take her back. To let him know she didn’t mean any of those things she said. That heartbreaking expression on his face made something fracture inside of her.
But with his own words, he lit up every single fear receptor in her brain.
I would do anything to save you, even if I had to sacrifice myself.
She would never let that happen. Not again. She’d already decided to leave once the case was done, anyway. The events of last night had only solidified her decision. No one would sacrifice their life for her ever again. It had been painful enough with Kristos, but Gideon? Her already broken soul would be reduced to nothing.
Pain gripped her chest, crushing her lungs until she could barely breathe. Bounding up to her feet, she grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She had hoped to say goodbye to Sybil, and maybe even Poppy or Alric, but she had to get out of here now.
As she dashed out of the room, she collided into someone tall and broad. Her heart leapt for a moment as strong hands gripped her, and she stared up into deep amber eyes, but just like each time she bumped into Niklas, she knew it wasn’t him.
Shock crossed his face as he glanced down at her backpack. “So, it’s true.”
She looked up at him, defiant. “Yes. I solved the case. Found your mole. It’s time for me to—hey!” Niklas crowded her back into the room. “What the hell?”
“I thought I misheard the queen when she said you were leaving. Why? Tell me, what did my brother do?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m going to smack him upside the head until he says sorry and begs you to stay.”
“I told you, he didn’t do anything! I’m leaving, and my decision is final.”
“Wait.” He held a finger up. “Are you telling me you dumped him?”
Her nostrils flared. “I did not dump him. We weren’t even a thing—”
“You’re mates!”
“How did you—”
“It doesn’t matter! Why the hell are you leaving?”
He paced back and forth, shoving his fingers into his hair in a way that reminded her of Gideon. It made her heart ache, but she pushed those feelings aside. “I have a job. With The Agency. There are so many of our kind out there who need our help and—” She shrieked as Niklas lunged toward her, grabbed her backpack and tossed it away. “You can’t stop me!”
“Oh yes, I can. Now.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me the real reason why you’re leaving us?”
“That is the real reason! You know what it’s like to have a job—”
“That’s bullshit,” he shot back. “Gideon would follow you to the ends of the earth if you asked him to! Gods know I would for my mate. He would do anything for you. Die for you and—”
“I don’t want him to die!” The words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them. She gasped and covered her mouth.
His jaw hardened, and his gaze turned steely. “You don’t think you’re already killing him in a way, walking out on him like this? A man can only be abandoned so many times before he loses his spirit.”
Abandoned so many times?
Niklas lowered his hands to his side and relaxed his shoulders. “I see.”
“See what?”
