It was a long walk and blood trailed behind her. She muttered to herself, as if she was chanting a charm, but it was simply an encouragement for her to keep going.
“One step at time, one step at time… one step…”
It was a long march, but with one step that she took, she would get closer to him. She knew that they put Dacre behind the palace’s wall, his execution wouldn’t be a public one, at the very least, Khaos spared him from that humiliation.
One step at time…
Nycta’s lower dress drenched with her blood. Her healing ability couldn’t keep up with her, since she kept hurting herself. She knew that she wouldn’t make it. She wouldn’t be able to return to her kingdom, but it didn’t matter.
This was her kingdom. She was the queen. This was where she would stay. Dacre was her mate and her place was by his side.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, as blood dripped and stained her dress and ground she walked in.
She was so close, she could see the palace. Just a little bit more… hang on just a little bit more.
But, on the third floor, at the balcony, Zuri could see Nycta. She was so close to get herself to Dacre, but with her speed, she wouldn’t make it, as they were going to burn Dacre now.
“Hold on,” Zuri said to the warrior, who informed her that they were going to burn Dacre. They had burned all of the dead warriors and this time, it was the fallen king’s turn. “Not now.”
Zuri stared at Nycta and her determination. She couldn’t understand why she returned. But then, the former queen reminded her of her own mother.
Karina chose to follow her mate to his death.
That was stupid.
‘Do you really think that’s stupid? That’s the right thing to do as a woman.’
From the corner of her eyes, Zuri could see her mother was materialized out of thin air. Her hallucination. She didn’t fear them anymore, but she preferred them not to make any appearance.
‘You will do the same thing for Khaos. You are going to follow him to his death.’
I will not do that.
Her mother laughed to hear such blatant lie.
‘Oh, dear. Seeing how infatuated you are with him. I am very certain that you are going to follow him to his death.’
I will not. Because no one would be able to harm Khaos…
Her mother kept talking nonsense, as she stood behind her, watching Nycta dragged her bloody body toward the pyre.
‘That’s will be you, since you are so willing to sacrifice yourself for him.’
“No, I am not.”
‘Keep denying that. Both of us know that you will. He doesn’t want to erase your memories even after the completion of the beauty blood. He wants to keep using you because you are useful, not because he loves you. He loves his empire more than you, or else, he wouldn’t have allowed those magic users to hurt you.’
‘He marked you because he wanted to tie you close to him, not because he wanted it. It will be harder to break the mate bond.’
“I have broken one, I can do it again,” Zuri said.
Meanwhile, the warrior behind her, who was waiting for her instruction to start the fire on the former king, looked confused, because Zuri had been talking to herself. There was no one there, but she had a conversation with someone that he couldn’t see.
‘Are you sure? You can’t even deny him. What can you do to stand up for yourself?’ Karina snickered, Zuri almost could feel her cold breath against her neck. ‘Ah, I forgot. You are so eager to be useful for him. You don’t care about dignity. Hm. I don’t think you have one. You are always like that, so eager to please those who has power over you. Just like a whore.’
Zuri didn’t say anything after that, because down there, Nycta finally reached where Dacre was, she went to him and hug him, she cried so hard, you could see with the way her shoulders were shaking.
The last fight between the king and the lycan, Khaos managed to cut Dacre’s left arm, it was cut off to his elbow and he also managed to gauge one of his eyes, while the he didn’t sustain any injuries at all. It was obvious that the king was not on par against Khaos.
“What are you doing here?” Dacre growled when he saw Nycta, he was tied to a pole and they were ready to shoot fire to the hay around him, eliciting fire. They were going to burn him alive. “Go.”
Dacre couldn’t push her away, because his body was bound to the pole and he only had one arm that was tied tightly to his body.
“No.” Nycta shook her head, she cried so hard. “I want to be with you.”
“You are stupid!” Dacre hissed.
“I know.” Nycta already called herself the same thing, thus it didn’t bother her much when Dacre said it. “I want to be with you. I don’t want to be with anyone else.”
She was young and impulsive and was blinded by love.
Despite everything, Dacre was her first love, the man, who touched her for the first time and the man, who treated her so well.
Putting aside the problem with Killian, Dacre was everything that she wanted for her. He was the man that Nycta always dreamed of when she played house with her sister when she was little.
“I will not go. I will not go. I will be with you…”
Nycta hugged him tightly and Dacre wished, he was not tied, so he could hug her back. He wished he could offer some comfort in their last moment together.
And from the balcony, Zuri finally gave the order. Five arrows with fire on the tip of them, were shot toward the hays and in a blink of eyes, fire licked everything that it touched. Burned the hays, the pole and the two people there.
Zuri watched everything. The fire reflected in her eyes and she felt there was something stirred inside of her. Something that no one could understand.
She felt… elated to watch their body burned.
She imagined if the world was burned to the ground too. If a city with people in it, was burned to ashes. Their screams and the way their body writhed in pain.
Somehow, she found comfort.
It was a pity that she didn’t see the burning city closely before, because Khaos always put her in safe distance and she only came to the city once it was taking care of, so she didn’t have a chance to see how it burst into flames.
It was a pity… she wanted to see a city burned. She wanted to see people died. It felt satisfying, just like how you stepped on insect and watched them writhed in pain.
The feeling was akin to when you kicked ant hole, ruined their home and watched those ants scattered. It was so satisfying.
Or when you plucked butterfly’s wings and watched it wriggled. Butterfly without its wings looked like worm. So ugly, but so satisfying…
Zuri shook her head and the images vanished from before her eyes. Her body was shaking. She hated herself because she indulged herself for such cruelty and she liked it.
“Where is Khaos?”
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