LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 284: Gaslight'ers
"THEN WHERE IN THE BLOODY HELS is the second fucking body?" Adanna cussed. Her liquid brown hair unfolded with the vehemence in her stature, cascading down in braids that'd marvel a mermaid.
Holly appeared from nowhere at her side, to help fasten the Lady's tresses. "Don't you fucking touch me, Evergarden whore!" Adanna commanded. Her pompous iris shut down the smaller white girl. But the Nubian heiress didn't seem to care. Adanna's stare zeroed on Holly: her immaculate fair skin and green pine eyes and dainty form, and her wrath returned threefold. She towered over the mistress, spitting fire and hail. "This is all your fault, you tiny slut! IT IS!
"So don't you stand there and try to look guiltless or remorseful. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID! See her small breasts," Adanna sneered, "I bet you weren't so mute when you had him between your legs."
"Enough." Rafel delivered sharply.
He looked to Cora and she stepped forward. "You are in the presence of your Empress, Lady Nnadi. Mind your tongue." The four of them: Rafel, Cora, the Major's wife, the mistress; they all stood in the living area adjoining the bedroom where the body of the three-star Officer lay. Ravenna was the fifth in the room and she sat with her legs crossed very elegantly, one above the other, on a long couch.
Her grass-green iris regarded Adanna as the tall woman's gaze shifted to her. She bowed her head, telling Ravenna. "Apologies, Your Majesty. You see, House Nnadi, the House of [Aja] and [Öku] used to be great. The finest Ironsmiths in the kingdoms of the fae. We rode into battle with the likes of Olroth the Nesmic hero, Kaliente of the [Valkyries], those valiant ones, Maman Potiphar the sorceress, kings and legends. The House of Iron stood with the likes of the House of the Griffin.
"But our men... Mmcheeew!" she hissed, "they just couldn't keep it in their pants. No mind the species. I prayed to Ogun that I'd marry different. But then came Midas. He was but a Captain when we wed," Adanna's tea eyes took a faraway look, "I thought between the warfront and myself, he'd have no time for no lover. Imagine my surprise in finding he had turned my family home into the luxury villa for his white bitch."
Adanna caught the flash in Cora's blue pupils, then turned to Ravenna on the sofa with sorry eyes. But she wasn't really. The Major's wife had a long list of names she wanted to call Holly Evergarden.
"Cum-rag."
"Deepthroat whore."
"Community pussy."
"The little, thirsty, filthy fucking cunt—"
Rafel thanked the gods he hadn't tuned in his [Ill-mind Intellect] to read minds. Not yet anyway.
Adanna Nnadi had murderous thoughts towards her soldier husband and his Caucasian mistress, but real murder was far from her hands. The quiet Holly Evergarden on the other hand? Rafel mused, 'she: the mistress had no motive to kill the Major. From the looks of the Flamecrest home, Midas was a bloke who took care of his whores. Holly lacked for nothing. The only reason Ravenna is here is the suspicion of foul play. To cut off the head of an Instructor of the Dragonrider Covenant is a 90/10 risk-reward situation.
'Open treason.' His inner self sang. 'Anyone that confident in succeeding an assassination in a place crawling with dragons that could melt the flesh of bones in a heartbeat, had to be stupid suicidal, of with great friends in great Houses.
'I suspect the latter. And if that is, we have a coup d'etat churning in our courts. Dissenters. Evil in the muck. We have enemies.'
Rafel concluded this in his heart.
For candor's sake, he wasn't here at Flamecrest for Major Midas Azubuike. He did not give a rat's arse why or whom killed the man. He was only here for Ravenna. If there were plots to remove her from the throne, he needed to be at her side at all times. Giselle slacked, and look what happened.
But not to his little Raven.
Never!
He was going to find who murdered Major Midas Azubuike. And he was going to do it for her.
He gave fuck all about the kingdom.
"Put the man in tarp. We've gotten all we need." It was Moira's voice coming from the other room. As Rafel heard it, he saw her and Aya walk in. Behind them, a couple of other apron-wearing CSA Agents bagged the Major for the pyre.
A younger man walked in to offer Ravenna a scroll prepared: a royal decree offering a reward of [1 500] gold, for her to append. Moira waited until the man left the room before she began iteration. "Prelims has confirmed what we initially perceived: there was a second body. Of whom it belongs to, of why it was taken from the scene, we have no idea. But thank the Martyr we've got this blood sample," she looked around faces in the room.
"—Or not, I guess," she quickly added.
"Blood Tracing?" Ravenna said from the long sofa.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Moira prompted with a flush.
Ravenna uncrossed her legs and stood. She told in a voice that was both calm and powerful, her wood-green eyes inspiring. "Nice work, Moira. Get the blood samples as quickly as possible to our [Red Moon] witches. As well as our hounds. I want the assassin in my dungeons before sundown." She watched the room turn to stare out of curtains in the wind; the skyline beyond the windows was gray. Sunrise was in minutes. Ravenna stressed to the Agents around: "You all have approximately eleven hours. Get me good news, people."
With this she dismissed them. Moira left with the flurry of officers. Shuttle wagons could be heard taking to the skies outside.
Alone with her gang, Ravenna moved in to wrap her arms around Rafel. He hugged her back. "It's alright, I promise. Nothing's going to hurt you, love. No assassin would dare the castle." His baritone had a vengeful edge. Cora and Aya moved in too, and it was soon a group embrace. Ravenna's left hand slipped Aya's tiny waist as she whispered into their hug, "we've already lost so many soldiers in the last war. A prominent Major—and who knows this second missing corpse, killed only months after our vanquish of the Titans is not a good look for the realms harmony.
"As Queen, I will not allow it."
Cora held her three companions tighter. She said in a breath into Ravenna's hair, kissing her temple.
"By God, this fucking Empire is lucky to have you."
They all laughed and stayed that way for a while. It was the very first golden rays of sunshine that led the four back home. Light of a wintry dawn blessed their ride all through the awakening streets as they passed from the woody Flamecrest into town. This time, Rafel boarded a carriage. His queen desired to listen to sounds of her city and inhale the smells of baking bed—perhaps a bit of alcohol-inflated piss too. Not her wish. But it did happen.
By the time the ornate [Dearborn] carriage rolled into the magnifique roads of the castle, past the fountains of nereids and sea-serpents spewing ivory water out their hands and mouths, Ravenna and Cora were already sleeping.
"I'll take Corazón, Sire." Aya volunteered, already lifting Cora's entire self into her arms.
In heels and a satin midnight dress, Aya Naamah carried a sleeping Cora all the way from the landed carriage to the great white doors of the castle. The guards were gobsmacked. Against the roundness of Aya's soft bosom, Cora laid her head and slept even deeper. Rafel looked upon all this with a gay smile. "My demon [waifu]," he said of Aya, as he studied her shaking backside all the way in. Read the latest on My Virtual Library Empire
When she was vanished, he leaned back into the carriage, slipped his strong arms around Ravenna and bore her up the chessil paths, and the sixteen hundred tower steps leading to her Wing.
"Israfel," was the one word she purred as he put a soft kiss on her rose lips and backed away, leaving his Queen to her rest.
Aya was waiting outside the doors.
Her smile stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Up for a blowjob, Dominus?"
Rafel forgot to breathe.
"HELL YEA—"
[Ding! I'm sorry that'll have to wait, Lord host.]
Rafel's face fell. He pointed to his head and began explaining when Aya's violet eyes squinted. He recited his system's voice, word for word: "That's Peitho. Today's the third moon. I have to go and see that lying woman at Eragonn. I've been putting it off long enough.
Peitho's forced it into my schedule." He sighed and grabbed the hand Aya held out to him. "It's time."
"That lying cunt." Aya cussed on his behalf.
And he hadn't even told them she was his mother.
Aya pushed her other hand into Rafel's hair and caressed him through the rufescent parting. She brought his face low to hers. "I'm sorry you have to face her after all she's done." His succubus didn't know the half of it, but Rafel couldn't bring himself to tell her. Not yet. He had to get this feeling—of being the pawn in the games of his fucking mum out of his system first.
He allowed himself sixty seconds to enjoy the view of Aya's fair-brown cleavage before he pulled away.
"I've got to go."
Making invisible steel of his heart, Rafel turned and walked out into the dawn again.
"Eragonn." He told the cowgirl driver stiffly.
• THE VILLA OF HOUSE NNADI, FLAMECREST
"You can come out now, my love. They're gone." A sweet female voice beckoned in the luxurious ante-chamber of Major Midas's home.
Out from a glass-housed plant garden, none other than Holly Evergarden walked in.
She moved swiftly on the furnished floors where the Lady of the House waited upon her, by the foot of the silvered stairs. Holly went up to the tips of her toes and joined her lips to the taller woman's.
Her tongue sank in. And Adanna moaned.
"I've been wanting this since I arrived last night. I thought those [C.S.A] Agents would never leave."
Adanna Nnadi, recent widow of Major Midas bit softly on Holly's bottom lip, ravishing her mouth some more. She held the younger, white girl close, flush against her darker body. Adanna finally broke their kissing with a smile. She stroked Holly's chin.
"I missed you, my love."
"Missed you more," Holly said, and asked of her, "how did I do?—with the Queen and her friends."
Adanna chuckled. "Oh honey, you were amazing. Absolutely fucking amazing. A plus! I almost fell for the whole innocent girl thing myself. That bastard, Midas can suck MY BIG LESBIAN DICK!"
Holly Evergarden's laughter echoed in the whole house. "I love you, my Lady." She pushed Adanna back against the wall painting and claimed her hot mouth again. Holly ached to worship her beautiful, polished black skin. They both slid to the floor and began lovemaking like there was no tomorrow.