Kingmaker's Kill: A RH Paranormal Fantasy Bully Romance (Kingmakers of Kingsbury Book 3)

by Rachel Angel

The guys all shrugged and shook their heads.

  “I guess we were all too preoccupied with dealing with these new recruits and citizens,” Avery said.

  “Yeah,” Axel added. “I was too concerned with saving my own skin to worry about who had killed those rogues.”

  “Did any of you ask any questions pertaining specifically with the assassinations?” I asked them.

  “No,” Ollie said. “It didn’t even cross my mind.”

  “I mentioned it to one man who simply shrugged and seemed to know nothing about it,” Avery said.

  “What about you?” Axel said, looking at me. “Did you ask anyone?”

  I turned to look at the group of new citizens and shook my head. I wish I had asked, but a part of me had not wanted to put any of them on guard. I had quietly hoped that one of them would slip up and inadvertently mention something about the killings.

  “The forest falls under the jurisdiction of Kingsbury Castle,” Avery said.

  I looked up into his warm eyes, happy to have him as well as the other guys on my side.

  “Yes,” I said. “I’m aware of that. I’m also aware of the responsibility that falls on my shoulders with regards to finding the assassins.”

  Ollie, always so gentle and kind, put his hand to my shoulder. “Tell us what you need us to do,” he said.

  I thought about it a long time. There was still so much to do with all the new citizens. It could take days before they were truly set up on their new land. Days before they could begin their new lives.

  “Okay,” I finally said. “I think that Henry should head back into the village and get all these men set up for the night. Prince Axel and Prince Avery can go with you.” I looked to Axel and Avery. “Seeing how Arcadia is a part of your kingdom, you’ll be able to confirm that you understand and agree with the acceptance of these new arrivals.”

  “What about us?” Reggie said, pointing to himself and Ollie.

  “I want you two to come with me. You are both the best trackers I know, and you both have keen knowledge pertaining to archery. We’re going to go back into the forest. I want to go back to where Barnaby and Flamish fell and try to see where the arrows were shot from. I also want to pick up the arrows that killed them, and perhaps other stray arrows.”

  “And we have to figure out what to do with their bodies,” Ollie said.

  “We will,” I said. “Okay. Let’s go. I’d like to get this thing settled before nightfall.”

  Chapter 4

  Violet

  Despite the relatively cool temperatures, the heat of the noonday sun had contributed greatly to the decomposition of Barnaby and Flamish. The smell of their dead bodies reached us well before we reached them, making the last few yards of our approach almost unbearable.

  “We’ll really have to take the time to dig those shallow graves,” Ollie said with a grimace. “Damn. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything so vile.”

  “Neither have I,” Reggie said, pinching his nose with his finger and thumb.

  Before getting any closer, I pull a kerchief up to my face. With every step, I had to fight the urge to gag.

  We finally reached the bodies and I was surprised to see how advanced the decomposition was. Even greater than what the smell indicated.

  “Do you think the rapid decomposition has anything to do with the arrows that killed them?” I said.

  “I’ve heard of certain poisons that accelerate the decomposition process, but I’ve never witnessed the results,” Reggie said.

  Despite the strong stench, I knelt down beside Barnaby. Little remained of his face and it was only the patches of hair that told me that it was indeed Barnaby and not Flamish.

  His skin was dried up and crackling, and around the entry wound, no skin remained at all.

  “This is so unusual,” I said, almost to myself.

  His eyelids were gone, leaving the bare eyeball visible, and while the whites of his eyes were now riddled with tiny red blood vessels, the iris was completely drained of color and was pure white.

  Ollie knelt down on the other side of Barnaby’s body and retrieved the arrow. The dried blood caked off as he examined the tip.

  “What do you think?” I said.

  Ollie brought the arrow up to his face.

  “Be careful not to take too much of a whiff,” Reggie warned. “It could be potent enough to harm you just by inhaling it.”

  Ollie nodded his understanding and took a careful sniff of the tip. “I don’t know.” He handed the arrow to Reggie who had come up behind him. “You’re the one who has studied Alchemy. What do you think?”

  Reggie examined the tip and carefully sniffed it as well. “Monkshood,” he said simply.

  Ollie and I simply looked up at him.

  “It smells like monkshood,” Reggie said.

  “What the hell is that?” Ollie said.

  “It’s a very pretty and enticing blue flower whose nectar is quite toxic. When it comes in contact with the mucous membranes, it is devastating. It doesn’t take much to be effective, but the flowers are very rare.

  “Do you think these flowers grow on this island, or did they bring the toxin in from another island?” I said.

  “There’s a long and jagged peninsula that stretches out from the main island. Every now and again, during certain extreme weather accompanied by a high tide, access to the tip of the peninsula becomes impossible. No one lives there due to this. But the plant life there is spectacular.” He continued to examine the arrow.

  “Does that mean this blue monkshood grows there?” Ollie said.

  “I’ve seen it a few times in the past. It’s the sort of flower you really want to avoid any and all contact with. Just walking amidst these plants can leave you with a terrible rash, or worse.” He pointed to Barnaby’s burnt off skin.

  I watched him as he continued to examine the arrow. He smelled the wood then scraped part of it off on a rock and smelled it again.

  “Most of the arrows that are made out here use birch. Sometimes cedar or oak when they can find some. But this…” He smelled it again and took a closer look at the grain. “I believe that this may be braccareus.

  Ollie and I exchanged curious glances.

  Reggie looked pointedly at us. “Braccareus are very small rigid trees that grow straight up and very slowly, but the wood is very dense. Many refuse to work with it because it is so hard, but I guess someone really wanted to use it for this assassination.”

  “Why do you think they would want to do that?” I said.

  “I can only assume that they didn’t want the wood to absorb the poison. Notice how these arrows don’t use an arrowhead. They’ve simply chiseled the tip to a point. Using this highly dense wood, they had only to dip it into the blossom of the monkshood and they were assured the poison would simply stick to the tip.”

  “And where do these small trees grow?” I said.

  “Don’t tell me,” Ollie cut in. “In the same region as the monkshood.”

  Reggie nodded. “Exactly.”

  “Okay,” I said as I got to my feet and stood. “So, we have an assassin who used both the flower and the wood that grows here on the island of Arcadia.”

  “It would appear so.”

  “Yet you say that no one inhabits that portion of the island because it is too rugged,” I said.

  Reggie nodded. “Not the last time that I was there.”

  Ollie stood. “I think we should head out there to investigate. If someone does live out there, maybe they saw who harvested the wood.”

  “I agree,” I said.

  “Well, then,” Reggie said. “Follow me.”

  I followed behind him with Ollie behind me. The path that Reggie took was initially wide and easy to see, but it became increasingly narrow and soon it seemed like there was no path at all. Tall ferns all but obscured our feet as we walked, and we had to occasionally disentangle ourselves from long vines that seemed intent on gripping onto us with their sharp and curved thor
ns.

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” I had to ask.

  “As you can see by the lack of an actual trail, I don’t come out this way very often. No one does. But, yes, I’m certain this is the right way.”

  We descended until the distant sound of crashing waves came to our ears. The path became increasingly rocky and soon, plant life became sparse with only a few patches of greenery here and there.

  Up ahead, the churning waves of the sea struck both sides of the rocky peninsula that jutted out into the water.

  Reggie stopped just short of a tiny bush with small blue flowers. “There it is,” he said, pointing to the appealing little plant.

  “That?” Ollie said. “It’s so small and seems so innocent.”

  “That’s the trickery of it all,” Reggie said with a grin. “The plant is actually quite enticing, but to anyone who dares touch it or, heaven forbid, put their nostrils to it to take a whiff, well… the end is painful but swift.”

  “We’ve been walking for well over an hour,” I said, glancing back at the forest. “Whoever killed Barnaby and Flamish had to know for certain that this plant grew out here. It wasn’t a chance discovery.”

  “And they had to be pretty determined to use this very poison,” Reggie added. “There are other, less potent, poisonous plants that grow on the island.”

  “But whoever this assassin is,” Ollie interjected. “He wanted to be certain that the marked men would die.”

  “And die swiftly,” Reggie added.

  “Could they have feared the Barnaby and Flamish might expose some secret with their dying breaths?” I said.

  “It’s a possibility,” Reggie said.

  I looked out to the sea, its spray of foamy water crashing up against the rocks and filling the cracks and crevices. “It’s far too dangerous for anyone to sail to this portion of the island and hope to anchor here. The sea is positively ferocious.”

  Reggie nodded. “And it is comparatively calm today.”

  I cocked a brow, finding it difficult to imagine a more tumultuous sea. I turned around to bring my attention to the forest that we had emerged from. It seemed peaceful and enticing compared to the huge strewn boulders that blocked the salty sea.

  “But we’ve not seen any of the small trees you spoke of,” I said. “Didn’t you say they were in the same portion of the island as the monkshood?”

  “Yes,” Reggie said, coming up behind me as I headed back to the forest. “I’ll admit I’m a little perplexed. On the way out I looked for them but could not spot one. Not that it is a common tree, but the last time I came, I easily spotted a dozen. Today, nothing.”

  We walked through the brush, seeking the tree.

  I looked through the small thorny bushes to try to spot the diminutive tree when a small dark shadow caught my attention.

  At first, I thought it was Reggie or Ollie as they sought out the small tree, but I saw them farther back walking through the brush with their heads down.

  Another small shadow rushed toward my left and then another.

  A wolf? A squirrel? A racoon?

  The movements were too quick to make out the forest dweller who seemed intent on running circles around me.

  But then I saw enough of the small creature to see that it was neither wolf, nor squirrel, nor racoon. It was like no forest animal that I had ever seen before.

  “Reggie!” I called out, my voice a lot shakier than I would have liked. “Ollie!”

  But before I could say more, a half dozen of the small and strange beasts surrounded me.

  I wanted to scream, but the sound remained trapped in my throat. I suddenly felt like I was caught in an awful nightmare and tried desperately to wake up.

  It was just too unreal.

  The small creatures had big black eyes and snouts like a swine. Their round furry heads were attached to small human bodies that had no clothes. They seemed furious at our intrusion and ferocious enough to kill.

  They all held in their little hands, a small but deadly looking spear.

  Chapter 5

  Violet

  Guys,” I finally managed to croak out as I stared at the strange creatures before me.

  Neither Ollie nor Reggie heard me. They were too far away and my voice too frail to reach them.

  “Guys!” I called out again, trying to bring more strength to my voice.

  “What?” Reggie shouted back without bothering to raise his head and look my way.

  Damn it. Didn’t he hear the fear in my voice? Didn’t he detect the urgency of the moment? While I knew it was important that we find the source of the wood used to make the arrow, the urgency of the moment was far more important.

  “Trouble,” was all I could say as the small but terrifying creatures continued to close in on me.

  Their eyes were dark and bleak with just a touch of curiosity about me.

  “Trouble doing what?” Reggie said, still intent on finding one of his damned trees. He was hunched over, cracking a small branch.

  At that moment, the last thing on my mind were those small trees.

  “Get over here!” I shouted, finally finding the full strength of my voice.

  But the little creatures were startled by my sudden outburst and one of them stomped over to me, shaking his spear violently as he cried out sounds that were completely foreign to me.

  Ollie, who was considerably farther away from me than Reggie, raised his head and frowned.

  Finally, I thought. They’ll come to my aid.

  But no. From where Ollie stood, he most certainly could not see the small creatures that were surrounding me. All he could see were the dense bushes around me.

  “I found a tree,” I decided to shout.

  “Great!” Reggie said, instantly making his way over to me. “So did I, but I’m not sure it’s the right one.”

  Ollie also made his way over only to stop abruptly when he saw the beasts around me.

  “Oh,” Reggie let out when he, too, saw what was truly happening. “What do we have here?”

  “It’s about time you guys come around,” I shouted at them.

  “Sorry,” Reggie said as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t think it was anything serious.” He looked curiously at the little creatures. “Where the hell did they all come from?”

  A dozen more of the little beasts had emerged from the brush and now surrounded Ollie and Reggie.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But there seem to be more and more of them coming out from everywhere.”

  “Well, they’re so small,” Ollie said. “We should be able to fight them off.”

  “I don’t think so,” Reggie said. “They look small but mighty.”

  “Do you know what they are?” I asked Reggie.

  “I’ve heard stories about beings who live in far off corners of the island, but I always assumed they were just that… stories.”

  I looked to Ollie.

  “Same here,” he said. “My mother once spoke of these mythical beings who lived out in the woods. I always thought it was just her way of scaring me so that I didn’t wander off too far.”

  The little beast that had come up in front of me, shouted and waved his spear.

  “What does he want?” I asked the guys. But the more I listened to the odd language, the more familiar it became.

  “I have no idea,” Reggie said. “But he doesn’t look too happy about having us out here.”

  The beast came closer, slapped my thigh then pointed to the depths of the forest.

  “I think he wants you to head that way,” Ollie said.

  I glared at Ollie. “You think?”

  The creature slapped my thigh again then gently poked the tip of his spear into my calf.

  “All right,” I said, looking down at the ugly beast. “All right. I’ll go. Just stop with the poking, will you?”

  I took to the direction the beast had pointed to and briefly glanced back to see Ollie and Reggie were also being guided i
n the same direction. I didn’t want to be separated from them.

  We walked on for a long while, and soon the brush became increasingly dense and difficult to walk through. The smaller island men seemed to have no trouble at all as they passed beneath the sharp, thorny branches, but my legs were already scratched and bloodied.

  Reaching a particularly dense patch of bushes, I stopped. My legs burned from the dozens of tiny cuts and I didn’t think that I could take anymore.

  The little leader came up behind me and pushed my bottom.

  “Hey!” I called out to him, turning to slap his hand away.

  Incensed, he shouted out his anger in his foreign tongue and the small men around him quickly became agitated.

  He pushed and poked me, insisting that I continue on through the brush.

  Again, I slapped his hand away as he persisted in placing both hands on my bottom and pushing me.

  “Stop it,” I shouted.

  His eyes black with anger, the little creature grimaced, snorted then violently pinched my bottom.

  “Ow!” I let out. I wanted to slap the belligerent little beast.

  “I think you should stop arguing with him and simply go on,” Reggie said.

  “Oh, you do, do you?” I said, not at all enchanted with the idea of having this strange little beast get away with repeatedly pinching my bottom.

  I looked to the little man and showed him the scratches on my thigh. “Look,” I said to him. “Look what you’re doing to me. If I go on like this, I won’t be able to walk at all.”

  “Here,” Reggie said, stepping forward. “What if I go through the bushes first and try to clear the path a bit for you to pass through without scratching yourself up so much.”

  “Good idea,” I said as I took a step back and let him pass in front of me.

  “I’ll pass behind Reggie,” Ollie added. “Between the two of us, we should clear a good path for you.”

  Anticipating a bit of a fight from the little creature, I looked defiantly down at him. Although he grimaced, he let Reggie and Ollie pass before me then looked happy and relieved when I finally walked on.

  We walked on and on, at times finding it difficult to keep up with the creatures that were remarkably swift despite their short, stubby legs.