“He would fucking do this,” Hawke countered, his gaze narrowing on Dagon as he flipped his dagger end over end. “Because he did. He took Avianna.”
“Hawke,” Alek muttered, but there was zero threat in his tone. If it came to getting his sister back, he would have unleashed the monster we all knew dwelled just beneath Hawke’s skin and smiled.
But there was nowhere to unleash Hawke. No direction we could find. No clues left for us to mull over. It was as if the twins had simply disappeared with the princess.
“That fact isn’t up for debate,” Hawke continued. “And the sooner you can all get the fuck over yourselves and realize your boys aren’t quite up on that pedestal you keep pointing at, the sooner we can find Avi.”
“You’re a di—” Dagon started.
“He’s right,” Zachariah interrupted, silencing his fellow hunter with nothing more than a glance.
“Zach—” Dagon argued.
“He’s. Right.” Zachariah shook his head slowly. “As much as we all want to believe that Samuel would never betray us like this, we’ve found no evidence to that.”
“He would do it,” Talon said slowly, raking his hand through his blond hair in frustration. “As much as none of us want to say it, he would do it to protect Saint. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his brother. We’ve lived through what Samuel would do. Or do some of you forget that it was Saint’s brush with bloodmadness that triggered Samuel’s insistence that we go into stasis?”
A grumble of agreement passed through the Hunters.
We’d spent as much time arguing with the Hunters as we had gathering whatever evidence—which was none—we could find from the abduction scene and the twins’ bedrooms. I understood it—none of them wanted to believe their brothers would do something as heinous as kidnapping the princess.
But reality was often a bitch.
“Twenty minutes,” Lachlan noted, staring at his cell phone. “Are you sure you’re ready to do this, my king?”
“So formal,” Alek answered, drumming his fingertips on the table, sarcasm in his voice, but anguish in his eyes. “We don’t have another choice. We’ve searched all of vampire territory?”
Hawke nodded. “Every fucking inch.”
“You’ve made contact with any living relative the twins might have?” Alek asked Zachariah, who sat to the left of Lachlan.
“There’s no one left from their bloodline,” he answered quietly, his brow furrowing with an emotion I couldn't name. “But Dagon, Talon, and Ajax have all called whoever is left of their lineage and no one had any answers for us.”
The other three hunters nodded, and I felt no burning on my forearm, which meant Zachariah was telling the truth.
“I need them to say it.” My voice filled the below-ground chamber that had been converted into a panic room centuries ago after the murder of the royal family.
“What? Like we’re suspects?” Dagon fired back.
“Fuck yes, you are,” Hawke growled. “Avi was just fine until we woke you six up.”
Dagon shot forward, but Zachariah mom-belted him, throwing his forearm across his chest and forcing him back into his seat with brute strength. “Knock it off. She’s your princess too, and that’s where our loyalty lies.”
But did it? That was the question we’d been asking ourselves since we’d woken the Hunters. Where was their allegiance? To Alek—our king, or to Zachariah—their leader?
“I spoke to my sister,” Talon offered. “After she let me have it for the better part of an hour for not telling her when we went into stasis half a millennia ago, she told me that she hasn’t heard from the twins.” He looked me dead in the eye.
I glanced at my bare forearms to be sure, but there was no lie there.
“And since Samuel used to…” Talon’s mouth lifted into a wry smile, “...spend time with my sister, trust me, she would be one of his first calls if he wasn’t otherwise occupied.”
I nodded and looked to Ajax.
“Nope. No one has contacted what’s left of my family.” He shrugged.
No lie.
“I have no family left, only a few friends, and they were shocked to hear that we’d been revived. No one has made contact,” Zachariah offered.
Truth.
I turned to Dagon and cocked an eyebrow.
“Fine. No one in my line has heard from him. He’s not seeking refuge in my lands, and yes my land, since my father chose to meet the sun a century ago.”
Lachlan whistled low. No wonder the guy was pissed.
“No lies,” I told Alek. “We’ve been through the security footage, and it shows exactly what Jocelyn said.” The lavender-haired witch had told the truth for the entire day she’d been here, staying true to her word. “We have to ask the Conclave to search the other territories. There’s no other option.”
Alek nodded. “We’re exposing ourselves,” he said. “I know that we are all aware, but it has to be said out loud and acknowledged. What I am about to do will reveal our weakness—our inability to protect our own females, and it could lead to a vote of no-confidence if the other members of Conclave feel that we cannot retain control.”