The Maker gets the final say and She did not think highly of my self-proclaimed vigilante status.
So She allowed me the greatest love of all, the most happiness one could attain, before taking it away almost just as quickly.
Two years.
I had two glorious years with my light before that bitch, The Maker, allowed it to burn out, allowed it to flicker, fade then disappear right before my very eyes.
But I will have justice for my light.
I will avenge her.
I will free her soul from the confines of the limbo it has been wandering these last centuries; free her to find me once again.
"Havok?"
My eyes flick to Karel, a concerned look on his face before understanding registers in his gaze.
If anyone knows my pain, understands my agony at losing my mate, it is this man and he sympathizes with my need for justice.
Lucky bastard was able to obtain his.
Mostly.
Which is why I am sitting in the war room of the Dragovihk Clan compound with him as well as my most trusted and loyal friend, trying to get my head in the game enough to help them strategize their next moves.
"Did you hear us, brother?"
I shift my stare from him to Andrej then back before one shake of my head.
Andrej grunts. "Ninety-one."
I blink.
I search my short term memory for any indicator of what the fuck ninety-one means.
It means nothing.
Karel sighs. "Ninety-one of Cyril's followers remain. They were mostly left in Slovakia but have intent to come this way and with Ivan still unaccounted for—"
"You fear a second uprising."
He nods as Andrej folds his arms against his chest. "Thoughts?"
I lift a brow. "My thoughts are irrelevant. It is up to you, up to the king as to which course of action is taken."
Andrej's eyes flicker white and I can't help the grin of satisfaction that peeks from beneath my beard. Seems I've pissed off his dragon with my lack of participation.
"There is a reason we reached out to you last summer, Havok. A reason my nephew hunted you down like the reclusive beast you are." Karel sighs. "You have fought alongside us for decades, long before you became an insufferable bastard. You are family to us; loyal and trustworthy. And a brilliant strategist with eerily accurate intuition of malice, skills unmatched and unattainable by others. We are requesting your help yet again."
I sink further into my seat and tip my head back against the chair. My eyes slide shut as I finger the chain again. "Ivan is too stupid to lead on his own."
Andrej snorts. The closest he ever comes to laughing.
"We are aware of his ignorance."
I draw a deep breath and speak on the exhale. "With Cyril's skull sitting at your family's altar there is no brain left behind the operation. If Ivan wants a second uprising then he will have to obtain a new leader."
Karel's eyes drop to the maps in front of him as if they will show him this new leader. "There are no dragon elders, no other kings or queens left. All that remains are the ninety-one, most of which are farmers and females, none of which have even set foot on American soil before. They do not have another leader among them."
