"Your dad is taking a nap upstairs," my mother said, ruffling our hair, "You should go surprise him."

Aleksei tried to discreetly put a spoonful of the beef gravy into his mouth, but my mother noticed and snatched the spoon from him, causing him to smile innocently, "Right, we'll go wake him up now, mama."

We trudged up the stairs and entered my parent's bedroom quietly, where my father was snoring like a broken lawnmower.

I winced as it got louder for a moment before he snorted and went back to his hoarse wheezes. Aleksei patted my shoulder and pointed to the other side of the bed, and we approached him from either side and leaned over his body.

I grabbed his arm and shook him gently, "Dad?"

"Wha–" his eyes fluttered open, and he blinked a couple of times, "Alrik?"

Then, his gaze traveled to Aleksei, "Aleksei?"

"Yes, old man. It's me. Your–"

I slapped Aleksei upside his head, and my father's eyes darted to me, and he breathed out in disbelief, "Alrik?"

He started breathing heavily as he turned his head side to side, gaping at our faces. His hands suddenly gripped each of our chins, and once he had confirmed that both of us were really there, he whispered, "Am I in heaven? Did I die in my sleep?"

"Papa, if you died, you'd be going to hell with the rest of us," Aleksei said, patting my father's hand comfortingly, "It's alright. We'll join you soon."

Instead of chastising my brother, my father began to smile as if he was in a daze, "My pups are in the same room, and there's no blood."

"Yeah, Alrik's not on his period for once."

"Are you really the older one? You act like an adolescent."

"I just don't have a stick up my ass consta–"

"My pups!" My father exclaimed, taking us by surprise as he tugged our heads into his embrace.

He trembled a little as he kissed the tops of our hair and ruffled it, "I haven't held the two of you in my arms since you were little pups."

"This is too much mushiness for my liking," Aleksei muttered from my father's armpit.

Before any of us could reply, my phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled away to answer.

"Jaslynn? Everything alright, kroshka?"

There was no reply, but I could hear her sniffling before she released a loud sob.

My heart nearly stopped, and I quickly got up and started walking out of the room with my father and Aleksei in tow, "Kroshka, what's wrong?"

I glanced at the two men behind me worriedly, and Aleksei appeared to be mind-linking Yerik from the dazed look on his face.

"He said she got a phone call and started crying," he whispered after a few terrifying seconds of me listening to Jaslynn break down.

I frowned and ran down the stairs toward the front door, "What happened, Jaslynn? Who called?"

"Al–Alrik," she whimpered, "The Minister was killed."

***

The woman who had been sobbing hysterically yesterday had no tears to shed today.

Her expression was cold and closed off as we waited for the Minister's sons to carry his coffin in, and I could not figure out what was going through her mind.

The pull on our bond told me that her heart was aching immensely, and there had also been a rush of fury that had startled me at first because it was so sudden, but it had simmered down to slow thrums rather than the violent tremors.

I knew that even though her hands were deep in the pockets of her coat, her fingers were clenched into fists– the only physical indication of emotion in her.

She was still processing the loss of the only fatherly figure she had left, and I had no doubt she would come out of this with unparalleled resilience.

Because every time someone fell from the nest of her heart, her wings flapped harder to fight the intruding vultures who attempted to knock her down.

A soft hush fell upon the crowd, and we rose to our feet as Helene and her daughters walked through the aisle and stood off to the side, next to the table where the Minister's coffin would lay.

Then, we all bowed our heads as the Minister's sons appeared at the entrance, carrying a polished black coffin with calm and confident strides as if they had rehearsed this before. The only member of the family with visible emotion was Dario, who had dried trails of tears on his cheeks.

They placed the coffin down carefully and lifted the lid, revealing the charred remains of the Minister's body.

I swallowed the lump in my throat at his disfigured form. His face that once used to hold the most charming smile was partially burnt to the extent that his bones were protruding through the blackened flesh. The thicks locks of white hair he had were gone as if he had been scalped, and all that remained of his beard were little pieces across his chin and jaw that had not managed to burn. He was missing an arm and the lower halves of both his legs.

I could only imagine how slow and painful his death was.

One by one, leaders and relatives began to pay their last respects by placing a white rose on his chest, and when it was our turn, I gently tugged Jaslynn forward, and we took our roses from the man.

She stepped ahead to the coffin, and I stayed behind to offer her some space as she bowed her head slowly and placed the rose on the Minister's body. She continued to stare at him, and I moved toward her quietly and muttered a prayer to the Moon Goddess as my hand dropped the rose on his chest softly.

I turned to Jaslynn and found her in a daze with a familiar glint in her eye– one that I had in my eyes very often.

Bloodlust.

She was craving the blood of Malcolm and all those involved in tormenting her loved ones.

And I knew that even if she wanted to drink their blood in a fit of rage, no one would be able to stop her from doing so.

***

What I would give to torture Malcolm into the depths of hell.

I wanted to rip his appendages apart and damn his lineage to hell until his ancestors rose from their graves and begged for forgiveness on his behalf.

But even that would not be enough.

"Jaslynn?"

A soothing voice brought me back from my violent fantasies, and I squeezed my eyes shut as a warm hand clasped onto mine to calm me down, "Come, kroshka. Let's speak to Helene."

I nodded and opened my eyes as we faced the Minister's family. His children were speaking to other guests, but Helene was waiting for me with a pained expression.

But I could not even look her in the eye.

Everyone knew that it should have been me who had led the trek to the cave. If the Minister hadn't stepped in, it probably would have been my burnt body encased in the wooden coffin.

"Jaslynn, come here, dear," she said softly.

I raised my head and walked over to her, and she opened her arms with no sign of resentment on her face, pulling me into a tight embrace.

The second I fell in her arms, my wrath was replaced with grief and guilt, and I began trembling against her strong frame as she stroked my hair, "Don't cry, my dear. He's very happy where he is at."

"Helene, I–I should have–"

"No, Jaslynn. This was meant to happen," she said, wiping my tears, "Darrel wasn't one to express his distress, but he knew his time was coming. You know, you were not the only one prepared for Malcolm, Darrel was too. Dario was not here to visit us, dear, he came to take the title."

The smallest smile formed on her face, "There's a proverb that Darrel loved to refer to, 'live by the sword, die by the sword', and that is exactly what happened here. No matter how much he hated war and bloodshed, he was still a soldier at heart, and when the opportunity presented itself, he took it as the chance to leave the way he came. He pushed to the position of Minister by fighting, and he left the position fighting. "

She lifted my chin, "So be proud of him, Jaslynn. He could have died miserably of old age and illness, but he died valiantly. He became known to the world for his strength, and today, we bury him with the memories of his courage. He won't ever be forgotten."

I exhaled deeply and looked back at the body in the casket.

The candle of his life might have flickered away, but his essence would remain in the air and in all of us.

As my heart grew a little warmer at the thought, Helene gave me a knowing look and directed her attention to the other guests. An arm curled around my back, and a familiar pair of lips pressed against my temple, "Are you alright?"

"I think so," I said lowly, "Alrik, I want to finish this once and for all."

"I know, kroshka. And we will."

"Ms. Jaslynn?"

We swiveled around and came face to face with a young man. He had a bandage wrapped around his head, and a part of his cheek was red and swollen. One of his arms was in his cast, and he was holding onto a crutch with his uninjured arm because of what appeared to be an amputated leg.

He smiled at us humorlessly and bobbed his head in greeting, "Ms. Jaslynn. Alpha Alrik. I'm Leon, the head dragon warrior of Master Daxton's clan. I was assigned on the mission with the Minister. "

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Leon," I greeted, "Although, I wish it was under better circumstances."

"As do I, but I'm afraid to tell you that I'm not here to make your acquaintance. I was told to give you these," he reached into his pocket, yanked out some neatly folded papers, and handed them to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows and unfolded them carefully to not rip the delicate pages as Leon continued speaking, "The Minister had attempted to destroy the Book of Demonic Magic but was not able to due to the rogue dragons. The book was ripped apart, and these were the pages he had managed to hand off to us for you before he threw us off the cliff. We rushed back to the scene, but it was too late. The rogue dragons had taken the remains of the book for Malcolm, and the Minister," he trailed off, swallowing hard.

I glanced at the pages and realized I would have to take the time to translate them from Latin.

"I actually skimmed the pages, and I can tell you that they discuss how to close the portal to the underworld. The Minister knew what he was doing when he handed them to me."

Bless the Minister. Even though his death was sudden, he still managed to make things a little easier for me.

"Thank you, Leon," I said gratefully, "How did you discover that the rogue dragons were working for Malcolm?"

He sighed, "One of the warriors had managed to injure one of the rogues, and when we returned to the cave, we forced him to give us a name."

"Does that mean Malcolm has the rest of the pages in his hand at the very moment?" Alrik chimed in.

Leon scratched the back of his head, "It's a possibility, sir. We don't know where he lives so it could take the rogue dragons a while. Enough time for all of us to reassemble and rush there before he do–"

He stopped abruptly and stared at something behind us.

"Alrik, you called for m–"

My eyes widened in realization as Reece also cut her statement off, no doubt because of Leon. Alrik and I exchanged a look, and I stepped to the side so the two could get a proper look at each other.

Leon, however, decided to make a quick exit, "If you'll excuse me Ms. Jaslynn, Alpha Alrik. I need to speak to Master Daxton about our plans for the dragon warriors."

He wobbled away, leaving us to stare at his back.

"Commander, I want you to get in contact with Beta Conrad because his mindlink is closed off and ask him to force the location of Malcolm out of Bartholemew and Ester immediately."

Reece blinked and cleared her throat, shaking her head slightly, "Yes, of course."

She grabbed her phone from her pocket and walked out of the crowd to make the call.

"Do you think they're mates?" I asked quietly, taking a peek at Leon, who was still hobbling over to Daxton.

Alrik pursed his lips and gazed down at me, "From the way they acted, I would think so, but neither of them actually said anything."

"I guess we'll have to wait for them to acknowledge it themselves. Until then, we have to come up with a plan."

I ran my fingers over the pages and muttered,

"Operation: Murder Malcolm."