Chapter 29
Rhyland’s POV
I felt foreign in my own body, the only think I could do was protect her. Thats the only thing I cared to do.
My eyes snapped from my father’s bloodied body to the petite little maid crying over Queen Fara’s body.
“Rhyland! Get Raven out of here now!” Cassius struggled in the ropes until he let out a gurgled shout and his arms burst into flames. The ropes sizzled as they collapsed off of him.
“As your only ruling hand I demand each and every one of you retreat now!” My mother shouted throughout the room and every guard listened. My eyes shot towards Raven who was lying still on the floor.
I ran over and scooped her up into my arms, not minding the burn of the ropes against me.
“You! You killed my mother!” Eladia jumped in front of me, blood covering her hands. Her red puffed eyes were filled with anger and I couldn’t help but to laugh at the poor sight.
“Your mother was already dead, remember?” I spat through gritted teeth before shoving her aside.
“Guards, lock her in the cells.” The sound of rustling armor made it known that they were doing as they were told.
Without a second more, I ran towards the stairs and down to the bottom floor where the family doctor was stationed. Raven’s head had went limp against my arm and I practically skipped three steps every time to get there faster.
I pulled her body as tightly as I could possibly could to put pressure on the wound with my chest.
When I reached the door, I didn’t bother knocking because I knew someone was there so I kicked it open.
“Prince Rhyland, I thought you were-,”
“Help her, she was stabbed right here and a good bit of blood is soaking her side.” I gestured to the spot where my father had pressed the knife deeply into her and the doctors wrinkled face coiled up at the sight.
“Let me grab my glasses, sit her on that table.”
My eyes flicked over to the table he was talking about and I moved across the room, easing her body gently down against the metal.
The doctor appeared beside me, tilting his glasses up almost casually.
“Excuse yourself, your majesty.” He cleared his throat, not even sparing me a glance and I could feel my anger begin to spark up once again.
“Hell no, I’m not leaving her side.”
He clipped away at her shirt so that her side was bare and reached to grab something out of a case.
“Son, I don’t know what happened but news spreads quickly in this gods forsaken castle and I wont be apart of it. Now for my sake and for hers I need for you to leave.”
I didn’t make a move, I sat and watched his every motion he did and I watched as he cleaned her wound before grabbing a needle.
“I’m only going to say this one more time, you need to leave son. You can come in and check up on her but I need to get her stable and I can’t do that with you here watching my every move.”
My eyes narrowed down at the brittle old man in front of me. I’ve been seeing him since I was just a child and I knew I could trust him with her. But the thought of leaving her pulled at me on a deeper level and I hated it.
He slid a chair over to him and sat down so he was almost eye level with the wound.
“If anything happens, you will be the first one alerted your majesty.” He assured and continued to ignore me completely.
I took a step back and looked towards Raven one more time.
“If she wakes up-,”
“I will send for you. You have my word.” He assured again and a part of me wanted to say fuck his wishes and stay to make sure she was perfectly okay. To see those sparkling brown eyes when she wakes up.
But the other side knew of me knows I have a prisoner in a cell that has some explaining to do.
I let out a deep breath before walking out of the room and stepped down the hallway. Maids and guards were rushing past me down the hallways no doubt cleaning the enormous mess I had made in the throne room.
Did I feel bad about it?
No. Not a single fiber in my body felt remorse for either of them.
I followed behind all of them but instead of going up the stairs, I took the next set of steps straight down to the cells. Walking down them you could easily tell the temperature drop and the moisture in the air became more prominent.
The smell of mildew grew stronger as I went lower and lower down in to the cells, but what caught my attention was the shouts.
“Tell me!”
The sound of metal slamming together echoed through the tight hallway and I knew instantly who the voice belonged to.
“I would rather die than speak to your kind you mutated fucking bastard!”
Cassius came into view and so did Eladia who was gripped on to the bars she was held captive by. Both looked like they could rip each other’s heads off if given the opportunity.
“We can have that arranged.” I spoke up and both of their heads snapped towards me.
“I’d rather enjoy your head dangling from a post out in the court for everyone to see.”
I spotted her eyes widening slightly but she covered it with a threatening glare.
“You have no heart, no compassion, you will never see the day where happiness finds your poor, dark soul.” She gritted her teeth and I couldn’t stop the laugh the escaped my throat.
“Let’s skip the lovely speeches and cut to the chase. Why’d you lie about who you were? What was your purpose in all of this?” I asked and a sly smile lifted up on her lips.
“Wouldn’t you just love to know.” She spat and Cassius hit the bars with a metal pole, making her jump back.
“Yeah, that’s kind of the entire point of this.” Cassius sarcastically waved his hand around and if the time wasn’t serious, I would’ve laughed, but right now I wanted nothing more than to break into her mind and make her tell me.
I closed my eyes and began to push, knowing good and well I could get her to tell me. As soon as I reached the barrier of her mind she began to panic, her breathing picked up immensely.
“Wait, wait please!” Her voice shook and I snapped my eyes open to look down at her.
Her big blue eyes were filled with tears but they held no meaning to them. Just empty droplets.
“I had to lie and ease my way into Raven’s life. I had to get her to trust me and my mother in going to Zanatra.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and motioned for her to hurry up and continue, when she answered with silence I spoke up.
“Why did you need her to go to Zanatra? Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of bringing her right back here to my father?”
A small smile spread on her lips and she shook her head.
“You’re dumber than you look. We’ve always heard about the myths of the island itself and we wanted to know if they were true. We wanted to know if she was the key and so did your father. He planned to keep her in a cell after concurring Zanatra with her help, otherwise the land would kill him and any soldier that entered without permission.”
Within a quick second, I shoved my hand through the bars and gripped her by the neck. Her eyes went empty and she looked like she had just accepted her fate.
As if death didn’t bother her.
“Death is too good for you. I think I have a better idea.”
I looked over at Cassius who had wide eyes.
“Guards, grab your finest Soul Witch and grant this lovely little woman immortality.”
“What!?” Cassius shouted beside me and I held my finger up to him.
“Then take her out into the roughest part of the sea and tie her down with something before tossing her in. She’ll spend eternity drowning.”