Chapter 153: Spell
"Your king is falling under the spell of your goddess," Dorian replied, leaning.
For a full second, Alaric’s mind went blank then sparked. The king, smitten with the goddess. A pawn falling for the very piece meant to be moved around the board? Ordinarily, this might have been cause for concern but Alaric wasn’t ordinary. And the idea wasn’t entirely unappealing. If Herod fell hard enough, he’d finally find a way to be rid of Queen Eliza. That particular royal burden had been chafing at Alaric’s larger plans for a while now. And if Eliza was removed, neatly and violently? Well, then... wasn’t that fate doing his work for him?
A smile curled across Alaric’s face.
"You may go," he said, waving Dorian off. "I will handle it."
Dorian tilted his head, deeply skeptical. Still, he shrugged and left.
*****
Herod strolled through the corridor like a man freshly kissed by spring. His smile refused to fade. That woman was something else. She laughed like the world hadn’t tried to break her. She teased him like she’d known him for years. She found joy in the strangest corners of the day, and Herod, poor fool that he was, kept wanting to chase after that joy.
He pushed open the doors to his chambers, expecting peace, maybe to replay Ava’s laughter in his mind again.
Instead, he walked straight into a royal thundercloud.