Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 393: A Perfect Fit

Chapter 393: A Perfect Fit

Prince Nathaniel had experienced all sorts of ridiculous incidents since he was unceremoniously kidnapped by King Atticus and his people.

There was the matter of the dead blonde women, callously experimented and discarded. Then there was Alistair’s murderous vampiric self out on the loose, as well as Daphne’s near death as she fought to rescue her kelpie Nereus. Of course, who could forget Prince Silas’s remarkable talking head and then Zephyr’s sudden illness.

Which was why he should not have been surprised when he was accosted by Daphne while preparing for bed. He had stayed up the previous night to create the tonic for Zephyr and was looking forward to some well-deserved rest. Yet, Zephyr had flown into his rooms, bearing a note with awfully familiar handwriting tied to his feet.

Daphne wanted to meet him in the sewers. Alone. In the middle of the night. If it were anyone else, Nathaniel would have assumed this was a prank and headed on his merry way back to dreamland, but this was Daphne. No one else would have been able to convince such a haughty creature like Zephyr to act like a carrier pigeon, not even King Atticus.

In fact, Nathaniel reckoned that if King Atticus tried to order that griffin around, he might be dealing with sudden balding from Zephyr’s beaked attacks.

For Daphne to make such a ludicrous request, she had to have a very good reason. Besides, why was she in the sewers at midnight? The very same sewer tunnels that Silas and Alistair fought in!

If Nathaniel hadn’t shown up, Daphne might wait all alone by herself in such a disgusting place in the middle of the night. His honor as a gentleman would not allow him to reject her.

So, reluctant as he was, Nathaniel resigned himself to another sleepless night, changing into something warm. He had to trudge through the dark eye rings and the endless string of yawns, pulling his body weight across the room.

It felt as though he was dragging a whole stack of lead across the entire world― just a few paces across the room took half of Nathaniel’s life away. He was never talented in physical exercise, especially when his body was exhausted beyond salvation.

In the end, he wasn’t even sure how he managed to get himself dressed.

When it was time, he made his way to the sewers underneath the tunnels. The grounds were eerily dark and silent, and Nathaniel jumped at every suspicious shadow he passed. He wrinkled his nose as he gingerly made his way to Daphne’s proposed location. The sewer smelt no better in the night than it did in the day, and he only had a tiny lantern to guide his way.

The shadows that illuminated the walls looked eerily like the monsters of his nightmares. Everything about every day in Reaweth felt like a bad dream, in all honesty. Prince Nathaniel wished he would just wake up back in his cozy bed in Raxuvia. Alas, he was the one that insisted on coming to Reaweth.

This was the price he had to pay.

Thankfully, he found Daphne in no time at all, since there was simply no one else in the tunnels. In her arms was Zephyr, who was letting out tiny snores.

Nathaniel found himself uncharacteristically jealous of a griffin. He, too, wanted to sleep.

"Nathaniel, thank you for coming," Daphne said with relief. "I know this is on short notice, but there was simply no one else I could call."

"You’re welcome," Nathaniel said, briefly considering if he should’ve just been honest and told her that he would rather be anywhere else but here. He looked around cautiously, but they were alone. "What did you want me for?"

"For this," Daphne said, and she pointed to a lump floating in the moving water in the sewage tunnel, a flame lit in one of her hands, bathing them in light to provide greater visibility.

Nathaniel’s eyes widened in panic as he finally realized what he was staring at; what he thought was a lump turned out to be two bodies stacked on top of each other as the current carried them to a stop in front of Daphne.

Well, that definitely wasn’t natural. There was only one creature that could manage such a feat and true enough, Nereus appeared almost immediately, staggering to the side, his face pale with exhaustion.

"Nereus, you did it!" Daphne praised, and she hurriedly went towards him. He held out a hand to stop her.

"I smell. Daphne, do not touch me," Nereus said with a pained look on his face. He turned to Nathaniel and gave him a respectful nod. "I’ll leave things to you then."

"What?" Nathaniel asked in confusion.

Daphne waved him over as she tried to shift the body on the top. Nathaniel quickly helped her, trying not to gag at the foul, moldy smell that wafted off the men. They were dead, and being soaked in water didn’t help matters.

These bodies looked just as bad as they smelled too. If Daphne wanted him to revive these people, perhaps she needed more rest than Nathaniel did.

"Queen Daphne, what do you need me for? These men are beyond saving," Nathaniel said with confusion.

"I need you to examine them to figure out the cause of death," Daphne said. "And I need to show you something."

Daphne grabbed his arm and pressed it against the underside of the jaw of the dead man.

Nathaniel froze, his heart beating loudly in his ears. The dead man’s skin was cold and clammy; this was not how he expected any physical contact between them to go!

"Daphne, what’s the meaning of this?" Nathaniel was not proud of how high his voice went, but it was better than fainting.

"Feel his jaw," she instructed. "Do you feel some strange bumps?" Daphne asked hopefully.

She pulled her hand away, and Nathaniel tried to get his heart rate back to normal and focus on his new task. This was doable, at least. His fingers felt around the dead man’s jaw, and there were a series of suspiciously even bumps that went around the man’s entire face.

Daphne saw the dawning horror growing in Nathaniel’s eyes as he pressed down on them, realizing that his fingers could tug away at a layer of skin without revealing the decomposing flesh underneath. She held her breath as he slowly revealed the true face of the dead man.

"Queen Daphne, where did you get these bodies from?" Nathaniel asked, holding the fake skin up to the flame. "This is reminiscent of Alistair’s previous work, but I doubt he wasted such valuable materials on disguising men."

"This isn’t Alistair’s work, it’s Atticus’s. Or at the very least, Sirona’s," Daphne said grimly.

Here was the definite proof that her husband had been lying to her. He had meant for her to overhear the entire conversation between Sirona and Jonah. Her husband had staged this entire play just to throw her off his tracks. If not for Zephyr’s actions, she would still be clueless.

"Do you know who this man is?"

"No, but I’m sure I can find some clues," Nathaniel said, and he began to strip the man. "Queen Daphne, you might want to look away first."

"It’s fine," Daphne insisted. "There’s no need to be modest in such circumstances."

"His soul is coated in filth; he is no true knight," Nereus declared. "The stench of a hardened murderer wafts off him."

"And here I thought it was decay," Nathaniel mused to himself.

Nereus huffed in sardonic amusement, his lips tilting into a brief smirk.

Daphne wondered when they became friends. Her lips threatened to move into a matching smile as well, but it quickly disappeared when she remembered where they were and what they were up to.

Then she looked down; Prince Nathaniel had removed all clothing from the corpse, and he began his examination.

"There are no clear entry or exit wounds in the body, yet the spine has been cracked in certain places. This could not have been possible without the use of powerful magic to crush their bones from within, especially not in someone so young and healthy," Nathaniel reported with a shiver as he felt the man’s spine.

Underneath the firm back muscles was his spine, and there were breaks where a whole segment of bone should be.

"Magic," Daphne repeated dully. There was only one person she knew capable of using magic in such a manner, and she happened to be married to him.

Atticus had killed this stranger to disguise his body as a dead guard.

"Yes, magic. More importantly, I’ve also found this mark, please take a look." Prince Nathaniel gestured to a small tattoo in the middle of the man’s back.

Daphne and Nereus leaned in for a better glance.

It was the mark of a serpent. Daphne immediately reached for the knife wrapped up in her pocket, pulling it under her own flames, and there it was.

A perfect fit.

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