Betrayed By The Hero, Loved By The Lord
Chapter 164: Empty graves (2)

Chapter 164: Empty graves (2)

When Lucas arrived, he found Xavier standing around the graveyard without any bodies in sight.

"Lord Blackthorn! You dug them up already. Where did you place them?" Lucas asked, looking around for the couple.

"They are gone and I can’t get a scent for them. It’s like they were never here and the caretaker can’t remember when last he saw someone coming around to ask about them. I’m trying to think," Xavier said.

Taking Selene to see her other family might help but Xavier started to think of her grandfather not wanting her to go there.

If they were to know Selene could heal, would they try to keep her there? They had every right to protect Selene and to keep their secret but Xavier wouldn’t allow it.

Selene shouldn’t be hidden away in some corner of the kingdom.

Lucas got down into the hole with the open coffin to try picking up a scent but he couldn’t find anything. "This is a time you should have a werewolf working for you but they’ll attack us and not listen. What do we do now?"

Xavier closed his eyes. "I am trying to think," he repeated.

It would be good for them if Selene’s grandfather was still a wanderer. He might be the most sensible person to reach out to.

"I want to search out for her grandfather. If you come across him, tell him that his granddaughter is looking for him urgently. If he’s asleep somewhere, wake him without speaking about what you know. I’m not certain how they will react to what she can do," said Xavier.

"There are some purebloods who are good at picking up scents. Normally, it is the faintest scent of blood but if they were stabbed and the blood leaked-"

"There’s not a trace of blood in either coffin. The coffins might have been switched which explains why I can’t pick up on a scent. It’ll be faster if we simply search for her grandfather. If he is not resting, a man whose daughter was set to be killed and his granddaughter is alone in this town cannot be far," Xavier assumed.

If Selene’s grandfather was well aware of all that happened and he was not the one who moved her parents or had been helping her recently, then he would join the list of people who needed to stay away from her.

"Shouldn’t the Harrisons know where to find her grandfather?" Lucas asked since many Harrisons lived around the town.

"Hearing how they acted when her parents died, if I go to her family I am going to kill all of them. Besides, I wouldn’t keep in touch with them after what happened. We’ll have to hunt him down ourselves," Xavier said, sticking to his plan.

He continued, "I want some men to head north to find any clues about where he could be and search the town for any trace of her family. When you are guarding Selene, keep an eye out for anyone suspicious or following you."

Xavier got out of the hole he made since it was time to head back to the estate. Knowing Selene, she wouldn’t be able to sit still until he returned home.

Seeing that Xavier was done, Lucas called the men he came with. "Cover the holes with dirt."

Xavier dusted off his clothes as he walked away from the graves. The sound of wood being hit over and over again reminded him of a problem he had forgotten about.

"Oh," Xavier turned around. "Take that fool out of the carriage and bring him along with you. He now works for the Blackthorn estate."

Xavier couldn’t let Martin out of his sight since he was the only one who saw the faces of the people who came looking at the graves. With how foolish Martin behaved, if it wasn’t Xavier who killed him, someone else might before Martin could help Xavier with what he needed.

Lucas opened the coffin and found the caretaker with tears in his eyes.

"Who are you now?" Martin cried, fearing the grim reaper had come for him. "I’m just a simple man who looks after graves."

"You’re not very good at it," Lucas said after a quick look around the graveyard. "If I had family here and I came back to the grass overgrown and the tombstones not cleaned, I would have put you in a grave while you’re still alive."

"They don’t pay me enough to care for all these graves!" Martin argued.

The weather in the town was odd and with all the trees around, there were always leaves for him to clean up.

Lucas smiled, unknowingly scaring Martin more than Xavier did. "You work for Lord Blackthorn now. The pay will be better and you will have your life so it’s a good day for you."

Martin didn’t see it as a good day. "I don’t want to work for that man. Don’t you hear everything said about him and he was so quick to try to kill me before."

"I suggested you keep quiet while he is being kind-"

"Is he being kind?!" Martin exclaimed, only for the coffin to be closed again.

Lucas looked back at Xavier who was still around. "Can I take him back to the estate like this?"

"Of course not. You want my wife to see a stranger in the coffin meant for her father?" Xavier asked, annoyed he needed to say this.

"Right," Lucas opened the coffin again. "Gather what you need and send a letter to the court informing them to find someone to replace you. You’ll be given a room and everything else you need when we get there."

"Don’t I get a say in this?" Martin asked. He preferred the quiet life he had now and didn’t get wrapped in why bodies were missing. It couldn’t be anything good.

Lucas grabbed Martin’s shirt to lift him out of the coffin. "It’s either you come with us or I fill this hole with you."

"I’ll need to get a few clothes," Martin said, choosing life. It might be momentarily but at least he would live a little bit more.

Martin feared what would happen once Xavier realised that he remembered very little about the people who came asking around about the two Harrisons. Martin could only cry since it was fated for him to die at Xavier’s hands.

Lucas got out of the hole before Xavier could fly off again. "You should take my horse. I noticed some people on the way here and the sky isn’t too cloudy today. We shouldn’t take any more chances. I’m sure the lady will understand."

Lucas was confident that while thinking about her parents, Selene wouldn’t like for it to get back to the palace so that Xavier could fly. It also wouldn’t be good for the Blackthorns to hear since they would become more interested in Xavier’s future children and claim she wasn’t fit since this new secret couldn’t be shared.

"I need to take Selene to her childhood home. If you find anything out from that fool, come straight for us," Xavier ordered Lucas.

Xavier headed out of the graveyard to get a horse to ride back to the estate. It was going to take some time for them to get their answers but maybe there were a few in Selene’s old home.