Chapter 52 Don't Do Anything Rash
CHAPTER 52: Don't Do Anything Rash
Aric's POV
My mind couldn’t make sense of it. This broken bleeding vision… it couldn’t be her. Her clothes were nothing but rags, stained with dirt and dark and ugly splotches of blood. Her skin, usually so warm, was pale and smudged with grime and her hair was a wild tangled mess.
She trembled from head to toe, swaying on her feet like a leaf in a storm but her eyes… gods, her eyes. They were wide and burning with a storm of pain and a fire so fierce it shattered my heart.
“Seraphine?” My voice was barely a whisper with a broken sound I didn’t even recognize. I took a stumbling step forward. “What… what happened to you? How are you here?”
She took a weak, staggering step into the room with her gaze locked not on me but on Vespera.
“Why don’t you… ask your wife-to-be?”
Vespera’s composure shattered into a million pieces and I saw panic flashed in her eyes before she masked it with a shriek of fury.
“Lies! Look at her, Aric! She’s a madwoman, covered in blood! She’s come to finish what she started!”
She whirled on me, her voice climbing to a hysterical pitch.
“Call the guards! Now! Have this treacherous human chained! She tried to kill you in your sleep! She’s back to finish the job!” She didn’t even wait for me, turning towards the door and screaming, “Guards! To me! Seize her!”
Just as two guards rushed in, following Vespera’s command, another figure shouldered her way through the doorway..
Lyrin.
Sbe looked like she’d walked through hell itself and she ignored everyone else with her furious gaze pinning Vespera to the spot.
“Your time is up, you bitch,” she snarled with her voice low and deadly.
My head was spinning.
“Lyrin? What is this? What’s going on?”
Seraphine tried to speak but Lyrin gently placed a hand on her trembling shoulder, calming her.
“Let me, You’ve been through enough.” She turned her fierce eyes back to me. “Brother. Vespera had her taken. Hidden in a cave deep in the northern pass. She was torturing her, Aric. Starving her. Beating her. And she told Seraphine every single day that it was you who authorized it. That it was your command!n”
The floor fell out from under me and the air vanished from my lungs while I felt the color drain from my face.
“What?” The word was a choked disbelieving gasp. I looked at Seraphine, at the brutal evidence of her suffering and Lyrin’s words painted a nightmare I couldn’t bear.
My vision tinted red and a lowdangerous growl rumbled in my chest as I slowly, so slowly, turned to face Vespera. My breathing was a ragged thing with my chest rising and falling in sharp painful bursts.
“You.” The word was a promise of violence.
Vespera saw the truth in my eyes.. the game was over. She backed away with her own mask of confidence crumbling to reveal the coward beneath.
“You fool,” she hissed but her voice wavered. “The elders will have your head for this! The pack will rip you apart! You’ll be exiled, you and your wretched human!”
I didn’t hear her. Rage pure and blinding rage consumed me. The world narrowed to her terrified face.. a sharp searing pain shot through my hands as my claws unsheathed long and lethal and I advanced on her.
One of the guards who had come at her call, a loyalist to her cause, moved to stand between us with his hand going to his sword.
I didn’t even think.. a snarl ripped from my throat and I moved faster than he could blink. My clawed hand swung in a brutal arc. The sound was sickening and final. He fell and I didn’t even watch him hit the floor.
But that one second was all she needed. With a shriek of sheer panic, Vespera turned and threw herself toward the large stained-glass window.
She didn’t try to open it. She crashed straight through it, the beautiful glass exploding outward in a shower of glittering shards. Mid-air, her form shifted, bones cracking and reforming, clothes tearing away and a grey wolf landed on the courtyard below and instantly bolted.
A wild primal roar of fury tore from my lips. I lunged for the shattered window, ready to leap out after her, to hunt her down and tear her throat out with my teeth.
A small hand grabbed my arm, yanking me back.
“Aric, no!” Lyrin shouted, straining to hold me.
“Let me go!” I growled, my voice barely human. “I’m going to kill her!”
“Think!” she yelled, wrestling me back from the ledge. “If you catch her in this rage, you will kill her! Is that the story you want? The king murdering his betrothed in the streets? That’s all the excuse the elders need! You need to be smart now, brother. You need to calm the pack down, not give them more reason to riot!”
Her words cut through the red haze but only just. My entire body trembled with the need for vengeance. I turned away from the window, my gaze desperately searching the room. It landed on her.
Seraphine.
All my rage evaporated, replaced by a pain so profound it stole my breath. She was still standing barely, watching me with those huge wounded eyes.
I walked to her, each step feeling like a mile. The culture, the rules, the watching eyes... none of it mattered. I reached out, my bloodied hand trembling and gently cupped her bruised cheek. She flinched for a second then leaned into my touch, a single tear tracing a clean path through the dirt on her face.
“I’m so sorry,” I breathed with my voice thick. “I didn’t know. I swear to you, I didn’t know.”
I was about to say more, to promise her everything would be alright, when a new sound filtered in from outside. Not cheers, like before.. this was a low angry rumble and shouting.
Beta Caspian burst back into the throne room, his face grim.
“My King,” he said, his voice tight with urgency. “The pack… word has spread. They saw her brought in and they’re gathering outside. They’re… agitated and calling for her head.”
I looked down at Seraphine. At her trust in me, even after everything. I looked at the uncertainty in Caspian’s eyes and I looked at the statue of a lie still standing in the square.
I took her hand. Her small, cold, injured hand, and I laced my fingers through it. I didn’t care about the blood or the dirt.
“No,” I said, my voice finally steady. “We face this together.”
I walked out onto the balcony, pulling her gently beside me. The sight that met us was a sea of furious faces. Hundreds of my pack members, their eyes glowing with anger, shouting and chanting.
Then they saw us.. saw our joined hands an the noise swelled into a deafening roar of betrayal and outrage. They saw their king choosing the human over their traditions, over the future Vespera had promised them.
I looked at them, at their rage and I looked at Seraphine, at her strength. I knew there was only one thing left to do. Only one truth left to show them.
I turned to her, ignoring the roaring crowd, ignoring everything. I cupped her face again, my thumb stroking her cheek. Her eyes widened, full of confusion and pain and a flicker of hope.. and I kissed her…