Chapter 150: A foolish decision

Chapter 150: A foolish decision
~Third POV~

After tossing and turning in bed all night, Ragel called the meeting in the war room at dawn.

Everyone Theron had mentioned was there; Darius looking serious and anxious about bringing his wife to the abyss.

While Garius was still half asleep but alert, Seraffim with her notebook already open, and Sarai standing slightly apart from the rest like she wasn't sure she belonged since it was the first time her now husband was bringing her before the king and his brother all at once.

"We have six weeks," Ragel said without giving them a second of respite. " I believe you know what the blood moon is and how it rises in six weeks time. The god Theron has advised us to breach Hades' realm. He says we need specific people for this to work."

He looked at them to make sure they were listening. When he sees they were, for the sake of the people that weren't there when Theron was explaining everything.

He did the work, he explained everything. The mythology, Arianna's death, Selene's curse, the loophole that Hades had discovered.

He explained what blood moon born meant and why Lyra was the key to everything.

"Theron also acknowledged that Sarai is a siren," Ragel said finally. "Her power and blood can affect divine magic and we need that."

Garius suddenly stood up. His heart filled with rage. Everyone who is old enough knows the abyss is like the journey of return.

So just like his brother, he didn't want his wife going there. "No," he said, cutting off Ragel.

Ragel's expression went very cold. He understood him but once again, Garius had forgotten the presence of whom he was standing before.

"Garius," Darius started, but Garius was already shaking his head more, his decision not to allow Sarai to follow them becoming solid.

"You all know how Sirens were used by Underworldlians to advance their own power," Garius said. His voice was tight with anger that had nothing to do with Ragel and everything to do with history and how scared that Sarai could have been one of those people killed.

"Our family owns the records. I know what happened to them. I know how they were hunted, how their gifts were stolen, how they were…" He stopped and then looked at Sarai. "I won't do that to her. Not even for Ragel. Not even for a god we don't know if he is speaking the truth.”

Sarai opened her mouth to speak but Garius cut her off with a look.

"It's decided," he said.

Darius stood up slowly. "Brother, would you accuse a god of lying?"

Garius turned to face him. "If that god is asking us to send a defenseless woman into a realm controlled by another mad god, then yes. I would."

"She's not defenseless," Darius said softly. "And she's not your decision to make. She is her own person."

He turned to Sarai. "What do you want?"

Before Garius could interrupt again, Seraffim spoke.

"Sarai," she called with a sad smile. "Would you come with us to the abyss realm to help rescue the queen? If you say no, I will understand. No judgment. Just the truth from you."

Garius made a sound that was half protest, half anguish.

Sarai looked at each of them. Then at Garius, whose anger was rooted in love and protection. Then at her mistress Seraffim, who she refuses to see as being equal to her simply because she was now married to a grand Lord.

She was sincerely grateful to her for asking instead of deciding like her husband was doing.

"I will," Sarai said. Her voice was steady. "As long as my lord comes with you and you, my mistress, are going, then I'll go. But I don't know how to help yet with my powers."

"You're a siren," Ragel said. "Your blood affects magic itself."

"Of a truth, my king, I know I am a siren because my father says so," Sarai said. "And my mother was among the last sirens that were fed on by Underworldlians. I didn't grow up knowing what I was, but I knew at the death bed of my father, what I am trying to say, I truly do not know how to use this power." She paused. "But I'm willing to help in any way I can."

Garius looked upset. His hands formed fists at his sides and his expression went very dark. But when he spoke, it was calm with a resigned tone.

"Then we do this together," he said to Sarai. "And I will protect you."

"Alright," she said.

After the meeting ended, everyone left, Ragel went into his study to work and gave strict orders not to give Alvira access to his study.

When night came, Ragel couldn't sleep. He lay in his chambers staring at nothing when he suddenly fell into a dream.

A figure appeared beside his bed; tall build quite different from Underworldlian with an aura shone divine.

The face was unfamiliar, but silver eyes looked like the ones of Theron but the bone structure was different, even the hair a different shade.

But something in the energy was unmistakably that of a god.

"You," Ragel said, sitting up. "But you look…"

"Different," Theron completed with a sigh. His voice was the same. "Siofra stripped away my usual form as punishment for meddling in her creatures' affairs. That's what I get for helping you." He paused. "But the good news is it made me angry enough to help anyway, out of pure rebellion. So here we are."

"Why are you here?"

"To warn you," Theron said. "At the banquet that is coming tomorrow night, Alvira will try to poison you. She'll give you wine personally. You must not drink it."

Ragel's stomach went cold. "How do you know…"

"I am a god and I can't explain," Theron said. Frustration flashed across his unfamiliar face. He raised his hand looking really frustrated.

"Siofra placed a restriction spell on me. I can tell you not to drink but I can't tell you why. But Ragel, you have to listen to me. Don't drink anything from Alvira's hands."

"But people will notice if I refuse," Ragel said. "At a public event, if the king won't drink the wine the former queen offers…"

"Then you must find a way," Theron said. His voice was fierce. "But don't drink it."

He faded before Ragel could ask anything else.

The banquet began at sunset.

Alvira had planned everything perfectly; the flowers, the food, the chosen guests.

She greeted people with warmth and genuine charm. No one would have guessed she had spent the morning preparing poison with Zehran to harm all of them.

Ragel arrived already exhausted. He had no more dreams after Theron's warning, which meant he'd spent the rest of the night awake, trying to figure out how to avoid drinking wine at a banquet without causing suspicion.

He couldn't find an answer.

By the time Alvira approached him with a glass of wine and a devoted smile, he'd already decided.

Every eye in that hall was on him. Every noble was watching to see how their king behaved with his supposedly beloved ex-wife. Refusing the wine would start a thousand rumors. It would show weakness.

It would make people wonder why.

So when she offered him the glass, he took it.

"For you," she said softly. "For everything you've done for Salvatore."

He drank. It tasted fine. Like wine should taste. Nothing off about it.

Around the room, other people were drinking too. Servants, nobles, some of Ragel's own guards. Everyone was safe. Everyone was…

The room started to tilt.

His legs didn't want to hold his weight when he tried to stand. His mind felt foggy in a way that had nothing to do with alcohol and everything to do with something flowing through his blood.

He reached for the table to steady himself and his hand shook.

Alvira was suddenly smiling very wide.

"Did you really think you could find her?" she said, loud enough for people to hear. "Did you really think you could hunt through the abyss and bring her back?"

Guards moved forward, confused. Nobles looked alarmed as dark smoke began to come out of her hands.

They all recognized it as dark magic. Zehran appeared at Alvira's side with the same dark magic, his robes flowing as he moved.

He was smiling widely. "You were always so busy playing king," Zehran said. "That you never noticed us building something better."

After that statement the doors to the banquet hall swung open.

Soldiers poured in; they weren’t Ragel's soldiers, but soldiers wearing Alvira's colors.

They'd been moving them into the kingdom for weeks while Ragel was distracted by Lyra, and too focused on searching to see the betrayal happening in his own palace.

The palace guard tried to hold the line. They fought hard, bleeding into floors, dying for a king who couldn't even stand properly.

Ragel saw everything as his people died before him. He tried to get up but couldn't. His body had betrayed him and was going numb.

Alvira grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her.

"I waited for you," she hissed. "Two years I waited. And you chose a werewolf over your own wife."

"You were never my wife," Ragel managed. "You were never anything if you could turn out like this."

Alvira hit him hard, and around them the banquet hall erupted into more chaos.

Nobles screaming, guards fighting, blood spilling everywhere. Alvira and Zehran stood over Ragel like conquerors.

"He loves a mere dog," Zehran announced to the room. "Our king has abandoned Salvatore for a pregnant werewolf. Is that the king you follow?"

Some nobles looked uncertain. Doubt was a weapon. But fear would make anyone do anything to survive.

The palace guard was losing ground outside. Screams filled the courtyard. Soldiers dying in the name of a king they couldn't help.

Suddenly the sky broke and divine light poured through the windows so bright that everyone had to shield their eyes.

It wasn't painful but it was enough to dispel the dark magic that filled the hall.

Theron appeared in the center of the banquet hall. Not in his punished form. But something else entirely; a form that made Alvira and Zehran go very still.

"That's enough," he commanded, his voice echoing.

Zehran tried to fight but even he knew it was a foolish decision but he still threw his dark magic in the form of a sword at him and watched them dissolve before reaching the god.

Alvira ran, which was wise. Theron didn't chase her; he simply locked the exits and let Ragel's remaining guard handle it.

Outside, the attack stopped the moment soldiers realized a god was involved. They dropped weapons and ran or surrendered.

Inside, Ragel was still on his knees.

The poison was still in his system, still doing its work. His body was giving out.

Theron knelt beside him, silver hands glowing with divine light as he pulled the poison from Ragel's blood.

It was slow work because the poison was potent created with Hade's blood. But Theron was patient and he was powerful to battle it.

"Sleep," he told a struggling Ragel fighting to be awake. "Your body needs to heal."

Ragel tried to speak but darkness was already pulling at him. He let it take him not before seeing Darius and others running towards him with panic in their faces.

And as he fell into unconsciousness, his last thought was of Lyra in the darkness and the blood moon rising that he must not miss.