“You should have seen it coming,” Kareim says, approaching. His sister Marayke is supporting him, and he holds a hand at his now bandaged neck. I can smell the healing magic that imbues it from here. “She is the daughter of Hades, and the descendant of Merlin. You took it the wrong way when I warned you against her, Milord, but I hope you see your mistake now.” He climbs the stairs to the throne podium without waiting for invitation or permission. “But all I had at heart were your best interests.”
“Yeah, sure you did,” Draven says, blocking his way. He turns to look at me, his shining black eyes conveying to me once again that, no matter the evidence, he has serious doubts. In the end, all the information about what Cerys has done came from Kareim.
Kareim looks at me past Draven. “I know it’s hard to believe, but can you ignore the evidence, Milord?” He points to his neck. “Look what she did to me. The soldiers she killed, they’re still lying in her cell, the ground covered in their blood. She gave herself to Samael, and then plotted with him.” He turns to the crowd, saying out loud what his sister told me before I entered the castle. I want to snarl out my rage, but he claims to have overwhelming evidence, plus a confession from her.
“Cerys Dark is what brought Samael’s armies to our doorstep,” he declares. “The Archangel of Death has brought the armies of Hell upon our realm just after she and our King got married. He had insisted that she gave herself over to him before that happened, because he wanted her for himself. For real. And forever. But she wanted to secure herself the right to inherit the Fire Realm when the King fell.”
“Death to the traitor!” voices yell from the back, and then more join in.
“Death to Cerys Dark! Death to the traitor witch!”
Every one of those demands tears another piece of my heart. Veins of fire start to show through my skin. Draven holds up his hands, addressing the crowd.
“Brothers and sisters, please.” His raised voice is enough for the noise to die down. “Remember that, traitor or not, Cerys Dark is our King’s fated mate. Her death might have repercussions on our King that we don’t yet understand.”
Murmur travels through the hall, and people start talking and arguing. I soon tune them out. Fireblood thumps in my temples. I walk down from the high throne podium without a word, moving through the crowd towards the exit. I can feel Draven’s eyes on my back, and I know he’d like to join me, help me deal with these feelings because I have no experience with them, but he can’t. He must deal with the people while I struggle with my own emotions.
Cursed realms, how could I have been so blind. So stupid. How could I put myself in Cerys’ hands like this. I speed down the stairs towards the dungeons where I know they’ve put her, driven insane with relentless questions. I have the evidence that she betrayed me with Samael in the worst way possible, and yet part of me refuses to believe it. It’s like if I accept this truth it will hurt too badly and I won’t be able to live through it. But I’m the King of Flames, damn it. My heart was nothing more than a lump of dead volcanic rock until I met her, when it caught fire in a way I didn’t think it could.
She ravaged me. No, it wasn’t Cerys who betrayed me. It was my heart that did.
I bend the bars to her cell, unloading my anger on them, and step inside. She’s crouching by the wall, bracing herself, her blue-black hair so messy she resembles a witch who’s been living in a forest for months. Her face is dirty, her army camouflage catsuit slashed along the arms, and she seems to be in pain. The moment my eyes rest on her my heart drops into my stomach. Not just because of how wretched she looks, but it’s like I’m looking at another woman. Her glow is almost completely gone.
Her face is now pale, her skin translucent. Only those honey eyes, they feel like home, which tears me apart.
“Tell me it’s not true,” I rasp through my burning vocal cords, in the voice of a devil.
She stares at me, saying nothing. I walk over and grab her by her shoulders, bringing her up to her feet. She rises to the tips of her toes, looking small and helpless in my hands, her face twisting in a grimace. She’s in pain. I scan her up and down to locate the injury, but then she says something so cruel that it almost knocks me over.
“It’s true, it’s all true,” she cries, and I freeze.
I don’t even blink. I just stare down at her face, at her expression of pain. Tears gather in the corners of her red and puffy eyes. But the fact that she’s in pain hurts more than her betrayal. My hand slides down her back. I want to pull her close to me, demand that she stops playing games and finally tells me the truth. Force her to look me in the eyes so that I can read in hers what happened, who’s putting her up to all this. Someone must be threatening her. No, I refuse to believe my Cerys could betray me like this
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” she cries out, as if desperate to convince me. “I did it, I gave myself to Samael.”
The whole world crumbles down on me. Her words just smashed all my hopes to smithereens, and no matter how hard I try to catch a broken piece and hold on to it, I can’t. I press her to me. She tries to push herself away, her grimace harder, her face redder, but I won’t let her.
“You,” I growl through my teeth, fire running through my veins. “After everything we’ve been through together, you did this to me?” I shake her. “How could you?” I snarl.
She cries out, and suddenly turns as soft as jelly in my hands. It takes me a few moments to realize she’s fainted. I scoop her up, staring at her face, the look on it showing that she couldn’t put up with the physical pain anymore. Cursed realms. Her skin has lost all its glow. There’s no doubt—she did something so bad that she lost her beautiful aura. She is a traitor.
Xerxes
“HERE,” DRAVEN SAYS, offering me a drink. I take it, and turn my face to the red view of the Fire Realm. I don’t know for how long I’ve been standing at the window in the sitting area of the master bedchamber, looking out at the volcanoes and houses carved in volcanic rock. The Realm is a safe place again, but I don’t know for how long.
“People are recovering from Samael’s attack, but they’re already expecting the next one.” Draven’s voice is low, calm, easy on my nerves. “But it can be avoided. If we just give him what he came here for, Xerxes.”
“Never,” I growl.
“But the Queen, she admitted she did it. If you don’t hand her over to Samael, she will face trial by the courts. They’re all waiting downstairs, eager to tear her apart.”
“No one will lay a hand on her.”
“You know what I mean.”
I do. The courts will suggest punishments, but in the end I, as the King, am the one who’ll have to make the final decision. I’ll have to speak out the final sentence. And they’ll make sure I’m forced to choose a cruel one.
“Her back,” I say. “I’m not sure about that injury. I’m not convinced she got it the way she said she did.”
He puts a hand on my shoulder carefully.
“I don’t want to believe it any more than you do, trust me. I actually liked the Queen. But her confession makes perfect sense, Xerxes. She tried to seduce the guards in order to escape. When it didn’t work, he turned to violence. They got killed and Kareim got injured.”