this, my dear husband. There are thousands of soldiers looking for Zoltan and all the other degenerates serving him.”
He paused to look at me, then Derek, and finally at his son. There was a mute exchange there. Maybe Thayen gave him a smile so faint that none of us noticed it—except Acheron. Or maybe there was something in his son’s eyes that made the Lord Supreme jump to a decision none of us had expected.
“I’m going to put a bounty on Zoltan Shatal’s head,” he said firmly. “If the righteousness of capturing him isn’t enough for our subjects, maybe five hundred thousand gold coins will get more results.”
Danika gasped, her eyes widening as she gawked at him. “Five hundred thousand? That is a lot, Acheron.” She used his first name, which was rare. It had to mean that she definitely did not agree with spending so much to capture Zoltan. I wondered why.
“He’s a criminal. Maybe one of the worst your empire has ever had to deal with,” I replied, watching her intently. “Unless I’m wrong, and Visio has seen much worse?”
Acheron shook his head. “Not in times of peace it hasn’t. We might not be beacons of diplomacy, Sofia, but I can’t let Zoltan get away with killing your friend. That, to me, is the greatest crime an Aeternae could commit.”
“So the blood slavery or the many other murders the Darklings have committed before aren’t all that bad?” Derek replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course they’re bad. They are heinous, and Zoltan will pay for those, too. But murdering Nethissis, a guest in our world… it’s simply beyond the realm of the abominable. That, alone, strips him of the right to life or even a trial. I want him captured yesterday, if possible,” Acheron said bluntly.
Zoltan had embarrassed them beyond repair, I realized. By killing one of our people, Zoltan had brought the greatest shame to Acheron’s empire. Everything else could be dealt with, in Acheron’s mind—or so I figured, judging solely by his reactions and responses. There had to be some embarrassment in the middle here, too, after he and Danika had been so convinced that Nethissis’s death had been a mere accident.
It dawned on me then that Acheron’s ego was the size of the Chrysler Building. Zoltan had chipped away at it, and it had stirred the Lord Supreme’s wrath to a level where not even Danika could contain him anymore. Hence the five-hundred-thousand-coin reward.
That might work to our advantage, in the end. It would help capture Zoltan sooner, rather than later.
“But still, five hundred thousand? Our treasury will feel that, especially with the Black Fever looming!” Danika insisted. “Think of the costs of quarantine and treatment if it breaks out!”
Acheron scowled at her. “Don’t question my decisions. It is settled. We’ve survived the Black Fever before; we will survive it again.”
“We’re still working on the cure,” Derek chimed in. “Maybe we’ll beat the virus before it spreads.”
“You cannot promise that,” Danika hissed. There was aggression coming off her. The kind I hadn’t seen before because she’d kept it so tightly bottled. But this was a situation that had pushed her over the limits. All because of gold coins, it seemed. Yet again, I found myself burdened with more questions about these people. Their priorities were jumbled. Their reactions were abnormal. And meanwhile, the Darklings thrived and sought to kill their targets, basically undisturbed—until we came along, anyway.
“Mother, maybe if—” Thayen tried to offer his thoughts, but she raised a hand to silence him, following up with a glare that made me tremble, let alone the poor boy.
“Danika,” Acheron said in a warning tone. She didn’t respond, but she seemed to deflate, relaxing into her chair and putting on an empty, plastic smile.
“Whatever you say, dear husband. Five hundred thousand gold coins to whomever captures Zoltan Shatal,” she replied, her tone flat.
While Amal and Amane were working hard on both the protein and the Black Fever cure, the rest of us were stretched pretty thin, unable to bring more people over to help. The Aeternae did not want any more outsiders coming into their world, but it put our team at risk. The Darklings were dangerous creatures, and, judging by what we’d learned about them so far, they meddled with death magic—far above our paygrade.
I’d suggested to Derek that the two of us head out to assist Tristan and Valaine, given the new information regarding the presence of ghouls, but Derek had made a fair point: we couldn’t