His Highness's Second Wife
His Highness’s Second Wife Chapter 91

“They are back.” Morlag’s voice announced and Zen lifted his eyes from the blade he had been playing with for the past two hours. The group that was supposed to eliminate the crown prince never showed up at the rendezvous point and, after waiting for twenty minutes, Zen had ordered everyone to disappear. There was going to be a backlash from the Empire’s nobility, but as long as their biggest enemies were dead, that didn’t matter.

All those nobles were inconsequential – parading with power when they had none, and praising their names and their bloodlines where their biggest achievement was getting born into the right family.

Pathetic.

Zen jabbed the blade into the wooden box he was resting his feet on, then got up and strode towards the door. The abandoned warehouse that was currently serving as a safe house had only two rooms that were turned into sleeping quarters – one small space for him alone on the second floor and another, bigger room where everyone who survived was already resting after the taxing night they had.

His room even had a proper bed brought in – Raena was supposed to be in it right now, but she had slipped away.

Mistakes. Too many mistakes.

He had already had to punish those who had failed to accomplish their tasks and his own hands were hurting from all the beatings. But they knew what they did wrong, and they knew that a second mistake might cost them their life.

He had been forgiving though – he hadn’t killed a single one of them, despite their failures. They had lost too many already – especially in the banquet hall where the chaos and the drug should have rendered most of the people helpless. But at least they had hurt and killed enough nobles to cause heavy friction between the parties and deviate the attention of the soldiers from the real targets. And with Rissen’s death, the Imperial Palace had to be busy with their own problems to chase after them with all their might.

At first, he just wanted to kill the bastard for being so useless and annoying, but then he realized his death could be much more beneficial. If Raena had really learned of their plan from that prost!tute, then she was bound to come with some counter-measures. But if he did something that wasn’t in the plan initially, she wouldn’t know what to do. The same applied for that darn crown prince- with an Imperial death on his hands, there was little he could do to protect his brother.

Zen reached the steps leading to the ground floor of the warehouse and his eyes immediately stopped on the group of people dressed in black. There were only three of them when there should have been fifteen. His eyes stopped on the woman on the front just as she was pushing out of her face the strands of blonde hair that had slipped out of her braid. She had a few deep cuts over her hands and chest, her shadow uniform torn in several places. The other two with her looked to be in a worse condition – one of them was barely standing up.

Zen’s feet took him to the ground floor in a few seconds and by the time he stopped in front of Elene, she was already staring at him with cold, empty eyes.

“ls it done?” Zen asked, his body tensing.

She pursed her lips as if contemplating her answer, and he waited impatiently as the seconds dragged.

“He survived.” She muttered, looking away from him. “There were too many shadows and he had his guard with him. The third prince showed up too, so we had to flee.”

Rage exploded in Zen’s chest, spreading through his body and reaching his head in an instant. Her aloof tone and the fact that she barely had any serious injuries infuriated him even more.

And when she completely ignored him for Davin, who had just appeared to check on the newcomers, Zen’s hand balled into a fist.

“Davin, oh my gods!” Elene exclaimed, rushing towards her brother with a terrified expression. Her twin smiled through the bruises and the swelling on his face, catching her hands before she touched it. “What happened?”

“It’s nothing I didn’t deserve,'” Davin said in a weak, hoarse voice. “I made a few mistakes tonight, so I suffered my punishment. Don’t worry, next time I will not make any mistakes, sister. How did you do?”

Elene spun around with an enraged expression, ready to scream at Zen when he raised his fist and punched her in the face. She staggered and fell to the ground, instinctively raising her hand to protect her head. Zen kicked her exposed side before she could crawl into a fetus position and she grunted, quickly bringing her knees to her chest a moment later. Zen stepped over her body, hovering above her, then crouched down, forcing her back and striding her waist. She tried to push him off, but he was faster, wrapping his hands around her neck. She could probably throw him off or hit him back harder, but there were many people watching them and most – if not all – were loyal to Zen.

He was the last heir of the Craidal royal bloodline, after all. Those who didn’t follow him for his skills, followed him for his b***d – the only useful thing his father gave him.

“Say, Elene,” Zen said, tightening his hold on her throat. “It seems that living in the North Palace and playing my beloved sister made you grow quite arrogant.” He said, keeping his arms straight and his face out of her nails’ reach. “You know the rules. Mistakes are paid in b***d and failure is paid in…” Zen turned around and looked at Davin, raising an eyebrow.

“.. in death.” David finished with a hesitant voice, his eyes darting between Zen and Elene. She’ll do better next time, brother, I’m sure of it. You know how good she is.”

Zen turned to look at Elene, whose face was turning bright red, her hands hitting his in an attempt to break his hold. Zen loosened his grip, allowing her to breathe again. While she stared at him with teary eyes, he leaned down, whispering in her ear.

“Next time you make such a big mistake, Davin will share your punishment. Siblings should always share, didn’t our mother say that?” He pulled his hands away from her throat, getting to his feet. “Clean yourself up and rest. Tomorrow you’re going back in to finish the job. Don’t mess up gain.”

“Nobody is allowed in.” The guard said with a scowl, barring Blaine’s way as they tried to go down the stairs leading to the dungeon. “His Majesty’s orders.”

“I am sure that does not include his wife,” Blaine said stubbornly, motioning for Raena to come closer. She stepped next to him, pulling down her hood to reveal her most pitiful expression.

They are allowed to say their last goodbye in case things don’t go well for him tomorrow, are they not?

The guard looked at her awkwardly and Raena sniffed loudly, rubbing her eyes. She didn’t have the time for much, but she made sure to brush her hair and put on some makeup Marden’s butler dug up from somewhere. She didn’t want to go back to resorting to her face to do the hard work, but she was desperate and she was ready to do anything to see him.

“Five minutes.” The guard said after a long pause. “And she goes in alone.”

“You want to make a young lady go alone inside that filthy dungeon?” Blaine said in an angry tone and Raena barely held back her surprise. She didn’t know Blaine could sound anything different from calm or exasperated.

“If you don’t like it, sir, leave.” The guard said without hesitation. He then raised an eyebrow as if asking, What’s it gonna be? and Blaine looked at her. She gave a small nod and followed the guard, who headed down the stairs. His partner remained on his spot, keeping an eye on Blaine as if planning to stop him if he as much as breathed across the invisible line he wasn’t allowed to cross.

Raena held her skirts up, stepping carefully down the slippery stairs until they were at the base. The guard picked up one of the torches from its bracket on the wall and continued down a narrow, dark corridor. Raena shivered as she followed him, her eyes darting left and right, but all she could see was darkness. The only light came from the torch he was carrying and the other one that was hanging by another door at the end of the corridor.

He unlocked the door with a heavy set of keys and opened it, going in first. The smell of b***d, sweat, and s**t hit her nose even before she crossed the threshold, and she had to focus really hard to hold the contents of her stomach in.

She looked away from the light, trying to let her eyes adjust to the annoying darkness, and soon she could distinguish the bars running from either side of the path they were walking on.

They hadn’t even locked him up in a separate cell, but threw him down with the actual criminals. Bastards, Raena thought, gritting her teeth. This was just like in the damn book.

“Over there,” the guard suddenly said, and his voice made her jump just as something skittered across the floor next to her feet. Using all her willpower, she stopped herself from making a sound. “Hurry up. I’ll wait here.”

“Thank you.” Raena said in a small voice, moving further along the path as her eyes searched for where ‘there’ was. The light from his torch barely reached the outer walls of the chamber where most of the bodies had piled up. Raena took a calming breath before calling Kassian’s name.

For a second nothing happened, then hurried steps made her turn just as he reached the metal bars separating them.

“Raena?” He said with a husky voice, almost like he didn’t want to believe it was her. She stepped towards the bars and his eyes filled with surprise, which quickly turned to anger. “What the hell are you doing here? Where is Blaine? “l kill him.”

“Calm down, we don’t have much time,” Raena whispered, catching the bars with her hands and bring her face to them, despite the sticky layer of god-knows-what. “Come here.”

He gritted his teeth, but moved closer, his hands sliding over hers.

“They are looking for… her. The Empress knows your identity and others might have figured it out. You have to get away from here. I can’t have you involved as well. Stay back home, keep your head down. Whatever happens, I’ll deal with it.” I hissed, his face turning worried in an instant. “I’ve given Blaine the token and he will pass it to you. Whatever happens, feign ignorance and cling to that tablet. Even if…”

“Shut up already.” Raena interrupted him and blinked in surprise. “I know all of those things. I also told you that I picked your side and l am going to stick to it even if you don’t like it.” He opened his mouth to say something, but she pulled one of her hands away, setting it over his and squeezing tightly. “Right now, I am here as your poor, scared wife who thinks her husband might die. I couldn’t exactly go to your brother directly with everyone watching, so I figured once he hears I was in the palace, he’ll replace an excuse to see me. We’re going to figure this out.”

“You warned me, didn’t you?” Kassian suddenly said, reaching out and caressing her cheek. “You told me that I will die for treason and my brother will die from poison. And here I am.” He leaned his head on the bars, closing his eyes. “Until recently, I didn’t care if one day I would be accused of treason for something I didn’t do – just like my mother. But now I do. Now I don’t want to die because l want to do so much more. With you want to love you and hold you and make you smile every day. I want to build a family with you, share a whole damn life. Something I never wanted with anyone else.” He paused, a sad smile appearing on his lips. He caught her chin and pulled her towards the bars, pressing his face against them so he could reach her lips. She kissed him back, forgetting for a moment about the urgency and seriousness of the situation. “But if that doesn’t happen, I’m fine with it. Because I got to spend time with you and tell you how I feel. And the fact that you feel the same is enough to get me through this. But you must do everything you can to make sure my brother doesn’t die from poison. He will take care of you even if l am gone – as long as he is alive.”

“Nobody is going to die,” Raena said with more confidence than she felt. “I won’t allow it.”

“I know, I know.” Kassian suddenly smiled, tugging on her face again as if waiting for another k**s. “I have you and Yulien on my side. If you two don’t figure it out, nobody will. Just be careful. You can’t be found out. If they do, run. Get on that ship and never come back…”

“Time is up.” The guard called from the side, his steps bringing him almost next to them. The light he was carrying fell on her and Kassian, and both squinted their eyes. “We need to go back. Now.”

“Go,” Kassian whispered, puling her head and planting a quick k**s on her forehead. “Be careful.”

Raena looked back at him, her chest tightening as he gave her a reassuring smile. The flame of the torch revealed a man standing in tattered, bloody clothes with one hand pressed against his body and a shoulder bandaged in a hurry. His face was pale too, eyes hollow and tired.

“Now, Your Highness.” The guard insisted and Raena finally tore her eyes from her husband, following the light back the way they had come from. As they climbed the stairs leading out of the dungeon, Blaine met them with a tense expression and stiff shoulders. Raena’s eyes darted to the four soldiers standing a few steps behind them and she quickly put on her scared, pitiful expression.

The guard that had escorted her froze on the last step, staring at the soldiers in panic as if expecting them to arrest him. Nobody paid him any mind, though. One of them just walked to Raena, bowing his head before locking his cold eyes on her.

“Please follow me, Your Highness. The crown prince would like to have a tea with you.”