Their Hidden Princess (Zora and Maximus) novel Chapter 264

Chapter 264

Valentin’s POV

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With tidings as ill as they were, Victoria and Valentin couldn’t talk about things openly, so they went to Valentin’s office, which he had left warded and protected. There, they would not be overheard.

There, Valentin told Victoria all that occurred, with some exception for privacy’s sake. As he spoke of the teleportation ability, Victoria’s eyes filled with pride for her powerful daughter. But then Valentin was forced to break her heart in describing Zora’s sudden disappearance.

“I take responsibility,” Valentin said.

“Stop,” Victoria said. “Teleportation is dangerous magic, but it is also unpredictable. You cannot be held accountable, Valentín. And accepting that guilt onto yourself does not make things better. Carrying that weight will only hold you back in your search to find her. Tell me all that you and the other mates have

done to find her.”

Valentin hung his head. “Without Zora to hold us together, we splintered almost instantly. From what I could tell, before I left them to search on my own, Max was trying to follow the bond. Thorne didn’t have a plan. And Kairos had gone into the wilderness to blindly hunt vampires for answers. Obviously, none of this is ideal.”

Victoria was quiet a moment. Valentin waited, knowing from experience that after some thought, Victoria often came up with solutions.

“Perhaps Kairos is onto something,” she said, startling Valentin so much he had to reach out and steady himself with his desk.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’ve told me why you are here, now allow me to return the favor,” Victoria said. “The Academy has become a target for the vampires. Whether they are searching for Zora, or simply wish to terrorize our youth, I cannot say for sure. It has been the best our army can to do hold off the swift and unpredictable assaults.”

“You shouldn’t have come somewhere so dangerous,” Valentin said.

“I’m not one to run from a battle.”

“You are Queen now. Things are different”

She gave him a bland sort of smile that did not reach her eyes. He had seen it before, but not for years. Not since they had confined Renault and saved all werewolves

“I might wear the crown, but I am the same woman I have always been. I have experienced the same life, the same pains I have lost much I refuse to lose more,” she said. “They come for my daughter and other young, promising wolves, hoping to kill them before they can find their true strength. I will not allow this Better that I am here.”

Valentin still didn’t agree. The fighting should be left to others now

“I’m not always on the front lines, I assure you,” Victoria said. 1 know how big of a target I am. But witen granted the opportunity to learn more of their motivations there are few i trust more than myself. And few I would call upon to do what is necessary to uncoveri

Her words rung a tiny warning bell in Valentin’s head. “What are you suggested!

“I’m saying, I believe my unwelcomed guest might have answers for the both of us.” She turned toward the door. “Follow me, Valentin. But do not speak of this until we reach the destination. We cannot risk being overheard.”

Valentin could follow his queen’s direction and nodded. Though, as he fell into step behind her, he wondered just who her unwelcomed guest could be. He had a few ideas, but none of them were very good.

He followed his queen done the stairs of the oldest building on campus to the hidden tunnels very few knew weaved underneath. Following the corridors, we reached a room that was being guarded by four

men.

As Queen Victoria approached, they stepped to the side, allowing her, and thereby Valentin, entrance.

The room was dimly lit, except for a candle on a table, sitting aside various sharp small instruments, like a scalpel, and a knife with a hook on the end.

Valentin had seen an assortment of knives like this in the past. He knew what their presence here meant

Especially when he also saw the vampire tied to a chair nearby. The vampire was badly beaten and blindfolded, yet still it bared its teeth to any and all that came near, even if it was doing so blindly.

Victoria looked at Valentin with an unspoken apology in her eyes. “We both know what must be done, to have our answers.”

“I haven’t done this since the war,” Valentin said.

“Are you opposed?” Victoria said.

Valentin thought of Zora, potentially a captive of vampires. What wouldn’t he do to find and save her?

“No,” he said

“I won’t say a word,” the vampire growled, though Valentin, with his trained ear, detected the slightest tremor in its voice. It was afraid. It had every reason to be “Do whatever you want.”

Valentin moved to the vampire and tore off its blindfold it blinked to clear its vision, then looked at Victoria and then at Valentin

“Oh, shit,” it said.

This one was not too young to know who we were, and what we were capable of.

Chapter 254

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Good.

“I want you to see what is happening to you,” Victoria said coldly. “When you are ready for the pain to end, you only need to tell us the truth.”

The vampire spit at her. A bit of blood dripped onto Victoria’s gown.

“Do your worst, false queen.”

The disrespect sent Valentin back to a time long before he had been Headmaster of the Academy. When he had been a desperate and broken soldier, filled with grief and hate, fighting to survive. He reached for the scalpel.

Victoria and Valentin had years of experience torturing vampires. They knew just the right ways to cut, to bring out pain and extend the inevitable.

Their vampire captive should have given in long ago, but it was more stubborn, even in fear, than Valentin had given it credit for.

With only a few last dying breaths left in it, it laughed cruelly, its own blood on its teeth. “Nothing… you can do or say will… make me break.”

“Why?” Victoria asked, his impatience showing, making her words curter now, while she had been coldly indifferent before.

The vampire smiled. “Because… our King… has awakened. The time of the vampires… is returning…”

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