Queen

I licked the spoon, the sweet strawberry cheesecake ice cream melting against my tongue. I hadn't felt so relaxed in days. I relished the feel of his soft t-shirt against my skin- a feeling I hadn't had in days since my pettiness extended to boycotting his clothes. I relaxed on the couch in Syn's office, quiet music playing in the background.

He sat on the floor in front of the couch, legs crossed and his glasses perched on his nose as he read one of the hundreds of papers in front of him. After he finally got the energy to tear himself off of me, we took a shower and he went to the store, bringing back tampons and a much-needed pint of my favorite ice cream.

His hand caressed my leg that was draped over his shoulder and I realized that this actually calmed him. He threw himself into work afterward but at all times, he had to have at least one part of us touching. Whether it be our hands, his hand on my thigh, or my leg dangling over his strong shoulder— like it was now.

I leaned closer to him, the smell of his soap filling my nose before offering him a scoop of ice cream with my spoon. He took it into his mouth, his eyes still glued on the papers and I tilted my head. I wanted to help him, I just didn't know where he needed me. I set the ice cream down before speaking up. "What are you looking at?"

"A report." He flipped a page. I looked at him, his vagueness making me frown and he turned his head to glance at me before sighing and turning back to the papers. "I'm sorry. It's a report from an explosion that happened here a few months ago. I'm trying to figure out what the fuck happened."

"The orphanage?" I asked.

He raised a brow at me. "How do you know about that?"

"Don't worry about that," I dismissed it. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't think so. I've gone through this shit over a hundred times. It's all bullshit," he replied in frustration before glancing at me."And you being here already helps more than you know." He placed a kiss on my knee.

"Maybe you need fresh eyes," I said, standing up. "Switch spots with me."

He hung his head to the side, giving me a disbelieving look and I smiled at him, reaching my hands down to help him up. He sighed in defeat, not wanting to say no to me, and placed his hands in mine. I pulled him up and when he was standing he placed a quick kiss on my lips before taking my spot on the couch. "Work your magic, baby girl."

I smiled, tightening my ponytail before kneeling on the floor, my back to him. I sat on my heels, looking down at the mountain of papers with a determined look. Syn's hands moved to my shoulders, massaging me as I silently read through countless files. I asked questions every few minutes and even though to him I hadn't gotten very far, I could tell he loved that I was just trying.

"So everyone died," I said.

"Everyone. Children and volunteers. There was nothing left," his voice trailed and my heart broke for him. I had never so desperately wanted to figure something out, just so he could have one less thing on his plate.

I continued reading, highlighting every piece of information that seemed useful. After a few hours passed, I was still on the floor...my mind racing as the images of people lying in the rubble were stuck in my mind. What started as a need to do this for Syn grew into anger for every one of the victims and their families. We needed to figure this out for them.

I was pacing the office, a banana in one hand and a folder consisting of the info for the renovations and construction in my other. I took a bite of the banana, Syn insisting that I eat something if I wasn't going to take a break.

I read the file, my eyes looking at the diagrams and workload before a question surfaced in my mind and I stopped walking.

"Syn," I called out, swallowing the bit of banana in my mouth.

"Yes, Princess," he said, not taking his eyes off his laptop as he had for the past hour when answering my endless questions.

"When did you start building the orphanage?"

"July twentieth of last year, I believe," he muttered.

"Was there security on the site?" I asked, and he glanced up at me, adjusting his glasses. "I mean while it was being built."

"Sure." He shrugged. "At night we had a couple of guards."

"And how did you keep track of the construction workers coming and leaving?"

"They had badges. They were scanned before they were allowed to enter the property..."

"Does the name George Smith ring any bells?"

He stopped typing, focusing his attention on me and shaking his head slowly. "Not really. It sounds like a fake name."

I nodded. "Well, according to these logs; He checked in manually on July twenty-first at eleven at night when everyone was scheduled to leave at..."

"Eight," he filled in for me, closing his laptop.

"Exactly," I said. "Now, he was asked to fill out this form for manual entry since working hours had passed." I held out a paper for him and he stood up, taking it from me. "He said he left his jacket on the site."

"Yes..."

"Me personally if I left my jacket at work I wouldn't come back hours later and go through all the paperwork of getting back inside after hours...when I know I'm coming back to work tomorrow morning..." I said. "But he never came back after that night. Not once."

"Fuck..." Syn whispered, taking the folder from my hands and sifting through the logs.

"He didn't even leave a bank account to get paid which means—"

"He didn't have any intention of coming back."

"Exactly," I said. "You've all been looking for the bomb being planted after everything was built and everyone was there. I believe that he did it. That night. Way before construction was ever even close to finished."

He let out a scoff, his mind running a mile a minute as he took in my words. "That's why we couldn't detect the blast origin," he said lowly. "We fucking built over it."

"There you go." I snapped.

"Oh, I fucking love you." He grabbed the back of my neck, pressing his lips against mine before kissing my forehead. "And this magnificent brain of yours." I smiled and he let go of me, grabbing his phone from the couch and dialing a number.

After a few moments, he spoke. "Mario, I need you to get everything you can on a George Smith. The name may be an alias so I'll send you a picture of the ID he gave us. I'm going to need a name and address within the hour," he told him before holding the phone away from his mouth and looking at him. "Please send the ID to him, use my computer. There's a file with everyone's identification."

I nodded and sat down on the couch, placing his laptop on my lap. As he said, all the files were there and I searched through all the driver's licenses and IDs until I found a George Smith. When I saw him, my blood ran cold- all the warmth leaving my body. I stared at the man, his familiar eyes lifeless as he looked straight at me through the picture.

"One moment," Syn said to the phone before looking at me. "What's going on?"

"I—" I shuddered, my hands becoming numb as I held the computer. "Syn..."

He furrowed his brows, questions circling his eyes as he came toward me and plucked the laptop from my hands. When his eyes landed on the image, he froze. "Piece of shit!" He snapped, throwing the laptop against the wall and letting it shatter.

I jumped at the sound, my eyes watering as I buried my face in my hands. I had experienced some of the worst betrayals in my life— from my "parents", my friends...people I loved...But none of them cut this deep because not only was my image of him completely shattered.

He was a murderer.

I heard Syn list off a string of obscenities. I could almost feel the rage coming off of him and I felt like it was all my fault. Once again I had let my guard down and here we were.

"Mario," I heard Syn shout into the phone. "Forget everything I just said. I need you to find everything you can on an Aiden Greene."

I shut my eyes as his name— if that was even his real name was mentioned. I thought back to the moment we met, and every interaction we've ever had since then and wracked my brain for any form of deception. But I couldn't find a single one. I trusted him and even when I doubted that trust, I gave him the benefit of doubt.

Syn was right the whole time.

After he ended his call with Mario I braced myself for his "I told you so" and "you should've listened to me". I would've deserved it. Instead, I felt the couch dip next to me and him wrapping his strong arms around me. He pulled me against his chest and every emotion I was fighting to hold together poured out and I sobbed.

He stayed silent, holding me and gently rubbing my back. It couldn't have been easy for him- holding me as I cried for a man he despised. I wasn't crying for Aiden though. My heart broke at the idea of the man I thought I knew. He'd been in my house, in my bed...bile rose in my stomach at the thought and I held a hand over my mouth as every hair on my body stood on edge.

"You need some air?" Syn asked looking down at me and I nodded. He helped me up, leading me to the balcony and opening the door for me. I stepped out, the cool and icy air slapping my body. I wrapped my arms around myself, closing my eyes and taking deep breaths until my nausea went away.

I let him hold Saint. That thought- more than all of them disgusted and petrified me the most.

I thought I was thorough. Every person in my new life had been background checked and with every single one of them, nothing came up. Including him.

He knew everything about me from the moment we met. He knew who- what...Saint was. He clearly pretended to not know Syn when they met...it was all fucking calculated and I had no idea why.

And that goddamn peanut butter allergy. That right there was the last of my good karma sending me a hint that he couldn't be trusted and I didn't follow up more on it. My mind went back to the moment a couple of weeks ago when he came to my home, demanding to know if Syn was hurting me.

He made Syn out to be some monster when all along it was him. Syn may have had his fair share of deaths on his hands, but he would never lay a hand on a child. The son of Lucifer, no matter how flawed he was, had a fucking moral compass and Aiden, this "ordinary" man, didn't. That was fucking terrifying.

I felt Syn place his large jacket on my shoulders before standing next to me and resting his hands on the rail, looking down at the rest of the dark Underworld. "Stop," he said simply.

"Hm?"

"Stop blaming yourself." He looked at me. "You couldn't have known. I hated the guy because he had you, but I was completely blindsided as well. Never in a million years would I have ever guessed he'd be capable of something like this," he said. "What matters is what we know now. We have the upper hand."

I nodded. He was right.

"Mario is looking into him as we speak, but are you prepared to let me do what I need to if it comes up that he's the one responsible for this?" He asked.

"No." I shook my head. "I'm not prepared for you to do anything to him."

I watched him close his eyes in disappointment, his jaw clenching as he hung his head. "Queen..."

"I want to be the one to do it."

He let out a breath. "Please stop doing that shit. You've been doing it all fucking day and it's terrifying."

"I'm sorry." I smiled, wiping my eyes.

"Come here." He opened his arms. I stepped into his hood and leaned my head against his chest. "This is one of the rare times I'll let you cry over a man that's not me." He sighed. "I know you cared about him and it hurts. So cry and be sad all you want because after today I don't want to see a single tear or ounce of remorse wasted on him."

I nodded, not protesting as I was already done crying over the asshole. I didn't want him to die. Death would be mercy for him.  After what he did to all of those innocent children, I was going to show him how truly dark and twisted I could be.

"I can just feel this anger of yours, Princess." Syn sighed. "It's easy to get lost in it and let it consume you, we've both been there. But we need to be smart about this. We have way too much to lose."

"Then what should we do?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Well thanks to you we have time to act, but I'm not sure how long," he started. "First thing we need to do is make sure our family is safe. They need to get out of that house and come to the palace until we figure this shit out."

"Okay," I agreed.

"And umm." He scrunched his brows. "I don't know how close you are to that friend of yours."

"Xoe..."

"Her." He nodded. "Do you trust her?"

I wanted to say yes. She had been there for me through everything in the last year and a half but I couldn't in good faith say yes without a doubt. Especially after being blindsided by Aiden. Besides, knowing that she was the one that introduced us made me second-guess everything.

"I don't know." I frowned. "I have no idea anymore."

"Well if it means anything to you, I think you can," he said. "I have a good feeling about her. Besides, the night I met her she was trying to protect you from me. Nothing about her anger told me she knew who I was."

I bit my lip, nodding. "Maybe."

"I'm only asking because she knows Aiden. And if everyone is suddenly gone and she's still on Earth..."

"You're not suggesting that she come to the palace as well, are you?"

"It's just something for you to think about," he said. "It might be safer for her."

"But absolutely horrible for the rest of the Underworld if she decides to leave and tell the world," I said. "She's an influencer, Syn. Her talking, even if they don't believe her will spark some attention. All it would take is one or two or her millions of followers to spread the word before we have a clusterfuck of humans asking questions."

"That's why I'm leaving the decision up to you. It's your call."

I nodded, placing my head back on his chest and he rubbed my back. "It's like we have a great day, and then a shit storm happens."

"I think it's still a good day."

"How could you think that?"

"Well, you said yes..." he listed. "I took one of your firsts." My skin tingled at the memory of what he was referring to. "Your beautiful ass mind solved a mystery I've been struggling to figure out, and you're coming back home. Yeah, we found out some shit today but it dulls in comparison to some of my really bad days..."

"The infamous really bad days I'll never know the truth about."

He inhaled a deep breath before releasing it. "One day," he said. "You've had enough excitement for today."

"It's okay if you never do, you know," I said.

"No. It's not."

꧁꧂

Welp, I for one am flabbergasted.