A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,12

fear of something so powerful inside this Darkling that only the truth seemed to be able to set him free from the terror she’d injected into his very core.

“Please… Get her away from me,” the Darkling wailed, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Valaine moved farther back, until he relaxed, his frame loosening. He lay on his side, temple pressed against the slate-colored cobblestone.

I looked at her, then back at the Darkling. “You said you’d talk,” I reminded him. “Go ahead. We’re all ears.”

Indeed, all eyes were on him now. Even the other Darklings were terrified and curious. I could only imagine what was going through their heads. If Valaine could pull the truth out of this guy, then she was bound to do the same to them—and it looked a lot worse than any beating the Crimson or gold guards could deliver.

The silver guards were ordered to disperse and return to their posts without so much as an apology. Some did seem insulted, but they didn’t say anything. What could they even say, if this shakedown had resulted in almost one hundred Darklings being taken from their ranks? They understood the situation.

“What… What do you want to know?” the Darkling asked as the Turquoise Square cleared. In a way, I felt as though I could breathe again. Crowds, especially crowds of Aeternae soldiers, were not exactly my thing. They made me nervous, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why.

“Don’t tell them anything!” another Darkling blurted, but he was swiftly silenced by a smack over the head.

“Shut the hell up,” the gold guard responsible snarled.

“I told you, I want to know where Zoltan Shatal went,” Corbin said to the terrified and finally compliant Darkling. “I’m aware that he left the city, but it’s a big land we have. A more accurate location would be most helpful.”

He sounded so polite, given he’d nearly crushed the guy’s throat not that long ago.

The Darkling sobbed. “There are several places where he could have gone,” he said between hiccups, still reeling from whatever dark horror Valaine had pushed into him. “Most are along the Green Road. Follow the route to Astoria. If he’s not in any of the Darkling hideouts, you’ll find him in Astoria.”

“Astoria?” I asked, looking at Corbin.

“That’s odd. The city is abandoned,” the master commander replied, raising an eyebrow at me. “It’s nothing but ruins and greenery. It hasn’t been inhabited since the last Black Fever outbreak. It killed so many Astorians, there was no one left to carry that city forward.”

“It’s not just ruins,” the Darkling said. “There are tunnels. Escape tunnels. Dug hundreds of thousands of years ago. The whole of Visio is riddled with them, designed by the Darklings to stay in the shadows… for situations just like this.”

“Astoria is on the east coast,” Valaine clarified. “About two thousand miles away.”

“You mentioned he might be in one of the hideouts,” I said, looking at the Darkling. “We need all the locations you have.”

He nodded, deeply broken. “I’ll… I’ll mark them all on a map.”

“Is Zoltan alone?” Corbin asked.

The Darkling shook his head. “He took the whole horde with him. I’m from the lower caste, so I’m not allowed in the palace basement. I don’t know what goes on there. I just deliver messages and items—”

“Of which you’ll give us a full list, as well,” Corbin replied.

The Darkling nodded again. “There are hundreds of Darklings under his direct command. More will probably join him. The word is out now. They likely know you’re looking for the black-and-white thread. They can’t lose it, otherwise they won’t be recognized by the others. Every single wall in this empire has eyes.”

“Palace staff or someone else must have seen us. They must’ve figured out what we’re trying to do. This conspiracy runs much deeper than we originally thought,” Valaine said. “And he’s right. It’ll travel fast. Soon enough, all the other Darklings who have infiltrated our society will know we’re looking for them, for their threads.”

“What do you think they’ll do?” I asked.

“Run. Hide. Join Scholar Shatal,” the Darkling replied. Groaning from the pain of the many hits he’d taken earlier, he rolled on his back, exhaling with visible difficulty. There was at least one broken rib threatening to pierce his lung. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would cause him great discomfort until it healed—provided, of course, he wouldn’t be executed in the next few days.

The Crimson guard scooped him off the ground and threw him over his shoulder, drawing a muffled