A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,24

Darklings had tried to murder. I would’ve turned the entire golden guard upside down, if I were him. I would’ve strung them all up by their ankles, deprived them of blood nutrition… I would’ve done a lot more, until some answers emerged.

“You’re wasting your time with the servants,” I continued. “The Darklings did not enter the palace with their help.”

“All we have is one traitor. Do you expect me to doubt all the Aeternae in my service, in the empire’s service, based solely on the actions of a single anarchist?” Corbin replied.

He wasn’t convincing me at all, and that just made me angry. With everything that had been going on, I could no longer be bothered to care for his feelings. Someone had tried to kill Valaine. Someone had killed Nethissis. I was done playing nice.

Stepping forward, I braced myself for conflict, unwilling to give in to his intimidation tactics. “I find it quite interesting that no one knows what the Darklings’ agenda is, to this day. After thousands of years, not only have you all failed to catch them, you don’t even know what they want,” I said.

“Tristan, wait—” Valaine tried to stop me, but I was on a roll.

“Also, have none of you noticed that the Darklings’ attacks intensify before and during a Black Fever outbreak?” I went on, shocking both Corbin and Valaine. Hell, even Eudora’s face was blank, her blue eyes bulging. Looking around, I could tell that the guards were equally astonished. Somehow, no one had noticed the pattern.

“What are you talking about?” Corbin asked.

“I checked the records. Every time the Darklings’ attacks intensified, the Black Fever was making a comeback,” I replied. “Sure, they’ve killed between the outbreaks, too, but not at a high, memorable rate. It took me a couple of hours of studying your archives on this topic to figure it out.”

Valaine was speechless, her lips parted as she stared at me.

“Seriously? Am I the only one who noticed?” I breathed.

“How did you catch this?” Corbin asked, his shoulders dropping. All of a sudden, the air between us was no longer thick and rife with crippling electricity. It was as if he’d caved in. As if I’d hit all the right buttons to knock him off his high horse.

“I couldn’t sleep much last night,” I said. “I had to find a way to burn some of the energy off, so I snuck into the library for some light reading. Checking the Black Fever records first, then all the materials you people have on the Darklings, and several dates jumped at me. From there, it wasn’t difficult to draw connective lines from one issue to the other. The pattern emerged, and you can check for yourselves. For as long as your history has been recorded, the Darklings have been more active before and during Black Fever outbreaks. I, for one, am dying to know why, and I’m certain you won’t get that information from the palace servants.”

Exhaling sharply, I felt a huge weight removed from my very being. I’d been holding this thought in for hours. The discovery of Nethissis’s body had thrown me for a loop, but now that I was focusing on this part of the investigation again, I had been dying to let this nugget out.

Valaine was genuinely distraught by what I’d just said. Corbin was unsettled, but I quickly realized it wasn’t shock I was seeing on his face. It was dismay. Disappointment. As if he should’ve been the first to see this. Well, he should’ve, but hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

“I have to rearrange this investigation,” he said after a long moment of silence.

“Father, start with the golden guards,” Valaine insisted. “You know—”

“Yes, I know!” he snapped, then narrowed his eyes at the soldiers present. “Send word through your ranks. As of lunch today, I am expecting all those of the golden guard for interviews in this room. Fetch me your tallies, too. I want to make sure I speak to each and every one of you.”

The guards exchanged nervous glances, but two of them nodded and left the room, their gold-plated armor jingling and clanging as they trotted down the hallway. I looked at Valaine, giving her a soft smile.

“We’ll figure this out, I promise,” I said.

“Let’s get you away from my father first, before he kills you,” she whispered, a smile testing her lips. She frowned at Corbin. “I’ll let you deal with the guards. Tristan and I will go into the city and check out the