74 | ACT V, SCENE I

P R E V I O U S L Y

I cried by her side, I cried all night, I cried waiting for her to open her eyes again. But she never did.

ARCTON FORTRESS, RIMEBAY, VERTGATE.

TRISTAN

"OH GOD, WHAT HAPPENED? I just heard!" Nyx's voice drifted in as the doors of the chamber opened again. She burst into the room, followed by Helios over the commotion raging outside.

His eyes lingered over the room.

Over Edwina, lying motionless with her eyes closed, her skin blazing hotter than any fire I'd ever known. Over me, sitting beside her with her hand in mine. Over Vivian leaning against the wall, his face watchful and furrowed with concern. Over Rosalva and Cymbeline weeping silently in a corner. Over Vincent, who had arrived just an hour ago and had Halette shuddering in his arms even as he gently rubbed her back and coaxed sips of water down her throat. Miriel had curled up near the bed, shaking with sobs as her tears glistened in the firelight.

Helios paled, and so did his sister beside him.

"I... oh god," he croaked, slowly moving towards us. My grip on my blade tightened as I raised my hard jaw to meet his, lined with threatening protectiveness. Cursed be I if I let any of them ever harm her again.

"Who... who did this?" Nyx whispered, her eyes faintly glittering with moisture. Behind them, Llewelyn entered the room with Vanessa, both their faces white.

I couldn't bring myself to answer. Atherton put a hand on my shoulder and answered for me.

"The Everly children. Favian, Celestina. And... Aidon."

"Her own brother?" Nessa flinched in horror and raised a hand to cover her mouth as a gasp slipped out of her.

The sorrow and tears glinting in my eyes were the only answer.

"She didn't kill those children," Halette whispered, her eyes red and distraught. "Celestina did, and she escaped."

"I will find her," I swore out harshly, my voice terser and sharper than cut glass. "And when I find her, I will look right into her eyes and ask her why she did this... before I gouge them out of her damned skull."

"When Lucius finds out... that his son tried to kill his own daughter," Helios spoke in a voice strangled with emotion. "Lords... oh god-"

Outside, a volley of raised voices commanded my attention.

The LeVanes.

"I swear, your Grace, please!" I heard Daniel speak to someone. "I swear it. They brought her in last night - they tortured her!"

"Lies," I heard Eric spit out, his tone uneven and harsh. "They spin lies of her death. Just because she is scared of attending her Trial. She knows what faces her-"

"Oh, really?" I heard Edmund demand with a growl, and a black panther roared with him. "Why come here at all, Eric? Since your sleep is more important than your cousin dying, why don't you go back to bed?"

"You forget who you are speaking to, Edmund!" Amphitrite screeched from the other side of the door. "Do not forget that he is a King!"

"I came here because it is protocol," Eric sneered at him. "Because I follow my protocols even when Edwina Tremayne doesn't. Now open the door and let me pass so that I can see what bloody farce has Tristan conjured up to deceive me this time," he snapped.

Edmund, who had been guarding the door, swung it open as Eric stormed in with Amphitrite at his heels. Their daughter, Verona, hesitantly walked behind them, her grey eyes downcast.

"What is this-" he began, then stopped as he took two more steps into the room, his eyes on her, on us. "I - what... what happened?"

"Who... oh lord - oh god-" Amphitrite stuttered, recoiling in horror. Her finger raised to Edwina, but no sound came out of her mouth. "I - no - oh lord... no," she whispered, not daring to believe what her eyes saw.

"Is that... is that -"

"They tortured her," Vivian quietly said with a nod, his golden eyes dim and dark.

I could see Eric struggling with the cruel accusations he'd placed on Edwina all these weeks, yet his impassiveness remained even as Atherton silently poured out the story. Amphitrite tried to act like it wasn't true, not all that she had heard - but she slowly dared to reach out a hand to place a hand on Edwina's head, when my blade suddenly blocked her path.

"Don't," I hissed, "presume to touch my wife ever again."

"But..." she whispered. "But... she - she is my sister-"

"A fact you seemed wholly unaware of when you sentenced your sister to a Death Trial for a crime she did not commit."

Eric shook his head, his eyes still cold and darker than the night sky outside.

"Where is she, then?" he asked with a haughty tilt of his hard chin. "You say Celestina did all this - where is she, then?"

"She escaped," Atherton said.

"And I will find her and kill her, if that is the last thing I do," I harshly added, my voice a rough gravel. I could see the struggle in the eyes of the LeVanes, a struggle between accepting the bitter truth and a sweet, sweet lie.

"Keep your voice down!" Edmund snarled from the other side of the door.

"KEEP MY VOICE DOWN?" a man shouted at him, his voice black and strained with rage. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAUGHTER? DAMN IT, BOY - ANSWER ME!"

"Your daughter came here carved up like a piece of meat, screaming with pain for the last three hours! She needs rest and you insist on making a scene!" Lunette snapped back.

I heard Lucius Tremayne give a shrill cry and then push open the door. His green blue eyes were now a pitch black as he strode to us.

"What have you done to my daughter, Valmont?" he hissed, shaking with tears and rage.

"Why don't you ask that question to your son, Tremayne?" I gritted my teeth and lashed out.

"Aidon had no part in this," he snarled back. "What have you done to her, Tristan?"

"You dare ask me that?" I growled, "you dare ask me that? You left your daughter and refused to listen to her pleas, and you have the fucking audacity to ask me what I did to her?"

"I-" Lucius began, but was brusquely cut off by Deimos and Rayden, who had burst the door open without warning, fire and blood flickering in their eyes.

"My children," Deimos snapped. "Give them back to me."

Tendrils of his power began to leak out from his furious gaze alone, and I unflinchingly looked into his eyes as the others began to cowl and shudder.

"Get the fuck out, Everly."

"Absolutely not," he snarled. He slammed me to the wall, hands around my neck, still as stone as I levelled my knife at his chest.

"I told you to get out," I threatened.

"I will when you give me back my children," he barked, livid.

"Return Celestina and Favian to me at once, and I will leave without causing harm to your..." Rayden Rotavelle delicately looked at Edwina, "loved one."

"I killed Favian," I whispered. "Your bitch of a daughter escaped, Rotavelle - but I will make sure she meets the same fate. And you," I gave Deimos a nudge in the rib with my sharp knife, "you will leave at once before I kill your blasted children as well."

"So you do have them," he scowled blackly with a hiss.

"I'm not a liar, unlike you," I sneered.

I pulled him off me as he slammed a fist into my chest and I sunk my knife right into his neck, watching the blood trickle.

"Get out," I barked at him, "before I forget that Drusilla is a woman and toss her heart at your feet."

• • • • •

EDWINA

Dying was easy. Breathing was hard.

I was greeted with darkness.

Unending, unyielding darkness.

An agonizing cascade of pain hit my lower back, spreading outwards with impossible pain.

Pain - so much pain.

It spread higher and higher, licking me like a flame. Charring me alive. It began to claim me, leaving a burnt pile of bones behind. Upwards it went, slowly inching towards my heart, and scalding it alive like a fire from hell.

I was tied to the stake again, no matter how hard I tried to open my eyes, there was eternal blackness. I suddenly realized that there was something over my eyes. I tried to scream, tried to make them listen, didn't they see, I was dead. I'd die in the fire, I'd die, I was burning alive, didn't they see! No one seemed to hear, though, and I wrenched up my arms to pull off whatever was covering my eyes. To my horror, I felt leather bite my flesh, cold buckles and soft leather strapping my arms down, strapping my legs down, like an animal for slaughter.

I couldn't move, I couldn't even scream.

The darkness loomed closer and closer - welcoming and cool, something that didn't hurt so much. Give in, Alaric seemed to leer at me. Give in, Edwina, Drusilla seemed to hiss. We hurt you. We broke you, and we killed you, and you are now dying.

I wanted to give in - I wanted it to end. I wanted it all to end. To go back, to go back into that darkness from which I'd escaped, to return to that cool, unknowing, comfortable territory.

I couldn't scream, I couldn't tell them to kill me.

Come, the oblivion whispered. Come to me and I will end your pain.

I began to drift off again, my senses deadened and numbed once more by the morphine - another hand brushed the skin at my neck and pressed a syringe in. I wanted to die, I wanted to go - to follow that easy darkness, to walk upon that path that would let me go home.

I began. I began to follow it, and my soul fluttered away to it, hovering over my mangled, twisted corpse to pay its last respects.

Finally - allowed to leave, to wander off.

Suddenly, a new tightness gripped hold of me, dangling a light at the far end of the tunnel of oblivion, going farther and farther away.

Stay, the light pleaded. Stay with me, the light begged. I love you, the light fell to my feet. I tried to catch it but it went back a few inches, making me reach out harder.

I love you, Edwina. I love you, and I want you.

Harder and harder did I try, but the light moved back further every time I tried to take hold of it, going further and further out of my reach, impossible for me to touch.

The darkness loomed even closer, until it was a wall of black unconsciousness smiling in front of my face. It reached out to me with open arms, pleasantly cold - like blushing peaches on a crisp autumn morning.

Come, the darkness invited me. Come with me and I will ease your pain.

Stay, the light begged me from afar. Hold on to the pain a while longer.

I tried. I really tried. But I couldn't swim to the light, no matter how hard I tried.

Come, I told the darkness. Take me. Take me away, and take me to my mother.

Don't go, the light tugged at my heart. It reached out a hand to me, it reached out to me with an anchor of safety, dangling it right in front of me eyes even as the darkness grabbed hold of me, making ready to go.

Pain lingered in the light. The light was pain, the light was warmth.

I finally placed my hand in the palms of the light.

I could hold on. I could hold on a little while longer.

I could hold on for him. For him, him, and only him.

It could have been days. It could have been years, or centuries, or millennia. But I held to the light, to the warmth flickering at the end, to the safety and protection it promised.

And whatever the pain threw at me, I never dared to let go of that light.

• • • • •

HAHA.

GAVE Y'ALL A SCARE, DIDN'T I?

Nope, she's not dead. She's alive, but barely. Too much pain and trauma for one lifetime to handle. Though we can all definitely agree she's going to be a shipwreck after this... I mean, you don't come out an experience like this without a part of your soul darkening to black and rotting away. You should be equally worried about Tristan too, in fact. Poor man's an emotional mess.

Stay tuned for another episode of melodrama next week to find out if our Queen Regnant can make it past her trauma and maybe those two idiots finally get to confess their love to each other!! 💕