Book2. Aksel - Worse than my enemies 1

Book2. Aksel - Worse than my enemies 1
Learning that Lady Ivy was to be wed not only snapped something deep inside Aksel, but also brought to the surface a jealousy he hadn’t known he was capable of.
He should have claimed her. He should have made it clear to everyone that she was his and that he intended to protect her. Instead, he had kept his distance, believing that staying away from her would keep her safe. It didn’t. It only made her more vulnerable because the male who was supposed to be by her side was busy running away from her because he didn’t feel worthy of her. He had made everything about him, and he had never once stopped to think how it would affect her. 
Essy had tried to comfort him, but knowing that his mate was to become another man’s wife was driving him insane.
When Essy had fallen silent, a sign that she was asleep, he pulled at the chains, desperate to get out, to reach Lady Ivy and get her away from the palace. But no matter how hard he pulled, there was no escaping the cruel fate awaiting them both. Not that he really cared about what would happen to him, but Lady Ivy… she was his to protect, and he had failed her spectacularly.
Desperation soon gave way to tears, and he knelt in the middle of the cell and did something he had never done before—he prayed.
He prayed to the Gods, to anyone who might be listening, begging them to prevent Lady Ivy from becoming the wife of a man who not only didn’t love her, but would most likely treat her poorly. He couldn’t stand the thought of her suffering at the hands of an evil man. There was no doubt in his mind that anyone associated with the Necromancer was rotten to the core.
He remained on his knees until morning came, promising everything to the Gods, even his worthless life, in exchange for Lady Ivy’s freedom, because his life meant nothing to him without her.
He hated that it had taken him so long to realize how impossible it was to exist without her, for she was the very breath filling his lungs.
Even though he was more than ready to lose his life if it meant Lady Ivy would be saved from her cruel fate, he only asked that he live long enough to right the wrong he had done by freeing the Necromancer. He wished he had done things differently, but it was too late for regrets now.
He only stopped praying when the sound of approaching footsteps belonging to a man reached his ears.
Slowly, he got up, his legs unsteady after spending so many hours kneeling, and waited.
It didn’t take long for the footsteps to stop in front of his cell.
First, Aksel took in the man’s boots, then his strong legs, before his gaze traveled up to his torso and finally reached his face, where he found a gaze full of loathing.
Caesar.
“The Necromancer wants to see you,” he said, his voice so different from before. It was as if every emotion had been sucked out of him, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.
Aksel couldn’t stand seeing Caesar like this, but he forced himself to take in the pain and hurt he had caused someone he cared about deeply, for he had always viewed Caesar as a brother. And he hadn’t been the only one. All of Commander Jayden’s men loved Caesar.
Caesar opened the cell and entered, walking slowly until he reached Aksel and stopped before him.
The hatred emanating from him wrapped around Aksel’s throat, choking him.
It wasn’t Caesar standing in front of him—not truly. Just someone wearing his face like a mask. The real Caesar had died the day the Necromancer attacked Athea.
Whoever this man was—if he could even be called that—he was not the same one Aksel had met during the war.
The previous night came to mind, along with Caesar mentioning Kara—another person Aksel had failed, and he could only hope nothing had happened to her. It was because of that that Aksel dared to ask for help.
“I know I have no right to ask anything of you, and if not for the desperation I’m finding myself in, I wouldn’t even dare open my mouth,” he said as Caesar released him from the chains, leaving the iron and silver handcuffs around his wrists. “But this is about Lady Ivy, not me.”
He had hoped that some flicker of recognition would cross his gaze, but the only thing shining brightly in his eyes was the pure hatred that had him in a chokehold.
“Caesar. Please. I’ll do anything.”
Lifting his once-hazel gaze—now a shade so dark of brown that it almost looked black—Caesar hissed, “I pleaded too, you know. I begged for my life, for that of Shaun. But you weren’t there to see it. Where were you, Aksel, when the Necromancer was killing me?”
Aksel couldn’t stand that accusatory gaze any longer and looked away, prompting Caesar to let out a cruel laugh.
“You always looked away. Do you remember during the war, whenever the enemy soldiers would spend the entire night tormenting him before putting him out of his misery, you would always look away and never say anything. Why was that?”
Because he was a coward.
He had always been a coward.
When he had killed his father, it wasn’t bravery that had led him to commit such a heinous act, but cowardice.
And it was his cowardice that had led him to keep pushing Lady Ivy away, even when both of them knew they belonged together.
If the Gods took pity on him and gave him another chance to be with her, he would push aside all his fears and become a male worthy of her. He would court her, making sure from the start what his intentions were—not only toward her, but toward her father as well.
And when she was ready, he would ask her father for her hand before taking her to Isyleon Island for their nuptials.
His gaze returned to Caesar. “Don’t punish Lady Ivy because you hate me.”
A cruel smile spread across Caesar’s lips. “I don’t hate you. Hate pales in comparison with the loathing I feel for you. I hope you feel the same desperation I felt when I took my last breath knowing that soon your mate will be claimed by another male.”
“She is your friend,” Aksel kept trying.
“And you were my friend,” Caesar reminded him. “But that didn’t stop you from betraying all of us.”
At that, Aksel had nothing else to say, because Caesar was right.
“How… how is it that you are alive?” Aksel couldn’t help but wonder.
Something unholy flashed in Caesar’s gaze, sending a cold shiver down Aksel’s spine.
“What makes you think I’m alive?”