Chapter 7

Clint heard a thunk and looked across the office. Aiden had allowed her head to hit the desk rather hard. Her husband laughed at the sigh he heard come from her. Obviously she had checked the background checks on all their potential Council candidates and was happy that all of it had come back clear.

A few minutes later she pushed her chair back and stood, stretching out all the kinks then walking to the window. He watched her stop at the glass and stare out it. He could see her figure in the shadow as it flared throughout the room.

If he didn't know any better he would think she was bending the shadows around her but he knew it was impossible without a Dark Lighter doing so first.

"Happy?" he asked as he cast his eyes back down to his paperwork.

"Very. We get all this mess over in a few days," she replied. She looked at the paperwork in front of her, eyes scanning each name slowly. Her expression turned thoughtful. "I'm so glad this will be done. It means we can operate at maximum capacity."

"Don't get too excited about that." She turned to look at him then leaned against the window. "I got Keldin's reports in. Something's going terribly wrong with the building process."

Her brow crinkled. "What does he say about it?"

"He says the men working on the palace aren't working at full strength. He says they work maybe four hours then stop. Completely. At this rate the palace won't be complete until next Christmas."

"Our time frame for having the palace finished is the end of February. As in the end of next month."

"I know. Mikey says the men he hired are the best." Aiden's mouth pressed into a thin line. Clint looked up when his wife didn't say a word. "What is it? What are you thinking?"

"What if it wasn't Mikey who hired them? What if it was Igor Everwood who hired them?"

"Are you saying you think some of the Golden Kingdom are deliberately trying to sabotage the construction of our own?" Aiden nodded unhappily. She fumbled through several files looking for a specific one. "Well, we'll try calling your brother and see… What do you mean no?"

"Don't call Mikey. There's really nothing he can do. We'll have to deal with it. We need to get evidence that they aren't working all they can. Once we know they aren't, we can question them. If I find out Everwood's behind this, I won't be nice."

Clint snorted. "When are you ever?" She looked at him then shook her head. "I'd rather have nice Aiden than annoyed Aiden any day of the week."

She smiled then walked towards the door, disappearing from the room quietly. Clint sat back in his chair and thought it over. What would his wife do to make sure she got what she wanted? He knew she wouldn't force anyone to do anything they wouldn't want to do but she had other ways of getting information.

He'd seen it once before when there had been allegations against a worker at their son's daycare. Dylan hadn't been involved but it hadn't stopped the concerned mother from looking into it herself. She'd turned up so much information in a two week time span the daycare's lawyer was still digging through it all.

He had thought at first it was coming from the thoughts of an abused child. But he'd heard her talking to Keldin one night. She was doing it for the mothers who didn't have the money to defend themselves or their children. The attorney had tried to railroad them into settling out of court instead of getting justice, making it sound like the allegations were true but they didn't want to deal with it.

Clint could have run then because he witnessed first hand how thoroughly the four friends where when united for a cause. He probably should have, but something had told him to stay. This was where he belonged and he had to see it through. He may not have known where she had gotten all that information on the daycare, but he had seen the relief on her face when she'd looked at those mothers.

As he sat there quietly, he thought about how he could help in this instance. Then it hit him.

"Damn it! She's going to listen to their thoughts!" He jumped up from his desk, whacking his knee in his process. Cursing he limp-ran through the halls.

"Whoa, Your Majesty," Austin laughed as he ran into his friend's husband. "What's the rush?"

"My wife –your friend- has this crazy theory about Igor Everwood making sure the builders don't have the palace built in time for the first official Court proceedings in February," he said as he rubbed his bruised knee.

Austin made a face. "Maybe her theory isn't so crazy." Clint opened his mouth to protest but the younger man silenced him. "Wait a minute. Let me explain. Igor Everwood has never like the Lowen family or their regime. If I'm correct, Koen Lowen, the Father-King as we call him, called Igor out for his first attempt to take out the family. He made him swear he wouldn't do it ever again. I guess when the then Empire shifted hands, Igor figured he could take out Mikey."

"Now with the Silvers making their own Kingdom, he thinks he can take out both at once. Two birds, one stone." Both men turned at the additional voice. Tyler leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "I felt you up here so I figured you'd want to know what I found, Your Majesty."

"What is it?"

"What Aiden suspects and what Austin says is true. Igor Everwood is attempting to take out both Kingdoms at once. If the Silver Palace isn't erected by February 29, we can kiss our independence goodbye. The Golds will rule with an iron hand and they will turn on Mikey. When that happens, Igor can, and will, take over the throne and he will persecute the entire family, blood and married."

Clint frowned then narrowed his eyes at the black haired man. "How do you know all this, Tyler?"

Austin laughed and clapped a hand to his King's shoulder, a gesture he would never do in front of the Council. "Tyler isn't our techie for no reason. He created Mikey's security systems so he can hack into them whenever he pleases. That's how he got all the information that cemented the fact that we were creating a new Kingdom. I just trust you're creating a completely new system for us to use."

Tyler nodded slightly. "Yeah, I am. It's been in the works for the better part of three years so it should be perfect."

"Good. We need a little perfect," Clint muttered.

The dark headed man's face was rife with knowing. "Your wife's birthday's tomorrow. You can make that perfect for her."

Austin's face lit up. "Yeah! Aiden's twenty-one tomorrow. Take her away from the palace, away from Court for the day and just show her what you fell in love with in the first place."

"That means Dylan will have to come with us," the King replied.

"So take him with you! He's a big part of your relationship and of you. What did she do for your birthday?"

"She took me to dinner and then a play. Get her mind off all this for one night. She's dealt with it night and day for the last three weeks. Not to mention the countless meetings with us and city officials."

"Then do something you know she'll like. I can make you reservations." Austin was chomping at the bit to do something nice for his friend, but now that she was married it technically wasn't his place anymore.

Clint waved his hand in front of his face to get him to be quiet. "No, I got the perfect thing. I just need you to take care of things for the afternoon."

"We will. Don't worry."

He looked at the smiling auburn haired man. "That smile makes me worry." He shook his friend's hand then headed back the way he came.

Tyler snickered as the King walked away. Austin finally pierced him with a blue-eyed glare. When the snickers died away, they both nodded.

"We have to work twice as hard tomorrow to make sure we get these men working," Austin said as they turned and headed down the hall towards the stairs.

"I agree. Aiden's already finalized the building plans. All we have to do is make sure they actually fulfill it," Tyler replied. "But there's something else that I didn't tell Clint."

Austin stopped and looked at his ex-partner and best friend. "What is it?"

"Once Igor hears that the building isn't complete but the Council is, he's going to insist on declaring war on us."

The I.L., or soon-to-be International Liaison once the Kingdom was up and running, made a face. "Just for conformation, how do you know this?"

"I read it in his files days before Aiden's coronation."

"So Mikey's been throwing this idea around for a while now. But why now? Why now suddenly ask his sister to take over the Silvers?

"He must have been having a harder time than we thought."

Austin knew it wasn't the only answer. "Or he's dealing with issues privately, issues that no one on the Council or Court knew."

"If that's the case, then he wouldn't have had very much time to see what Igor was doing." Austin nodded. "I guess I need to dig a little deeper into the committees and subcommittees before we can get to the bottom of this."

"Better make it quick. We only have four weeks until our deadline."

Tyler pierced him with a droll stare. "Boy, I've been hacking systems long before we became friends."

Austin smiled then punched his friend before they went their separate ways. If anyone was talented enough to find anything, it was Tyler. He'd been the one to find his late brother's extracurricular activities but had been too late to do anything about them before tragedy struck. He wasn't about to let that happen again.

Tyler was the only one of the four who could prepare and stop whatever was coming at them. It only took a click of a mouse, but he had to know what he was up against first. Knowing their enemy was the first step.