52. Reign
S itting up in bed, I realize I am alone. Lukene is gone, but on the bedside table is a handwritten note. As I read it, the words settle heavily in my heart.
My Reckless Reign,
You were sleeping too restfully. I didn’t dare wake you. I went to get us breakfast. Just know, the few minutes I will be away from you will be pure torture for me. I need you like I need my next breath of air. I will miss you like the stars miss the sun, when it descends from the sky. You are my everything. You have been since I first met you. You are now and you will be for eternity. If we ever part, just remember where darkness kisses light, I will always find you.
Yours forever,
Your Dark Prince.
Thinking over the last few days, I can’t believe what my life has come to. I love this man with everything I have. He has healed my heart in so many ways. And yet, I feel an overwhelming sadness. It hits me like a ton of bricks, so powerful it nearly brings tears to my eyes. What in the double burning hells is happening? Then comes the anger and heartache.
Something is wrong—terribly wrong.
I jump up, dressing swiftly, trying not to be overwhelmed by emotions that don’t even feel like my own. I strap the dagger Lukene gave me to my thigh and tuck away the two palm blades I always carry.
Just as I’m about to leave, I notice the note. Not wanting it to be accidentally thrown out by someone cleaning, I grab it and place it in my pocket. I step into the eerily empty corridors, a haunting sadness pressing down on me. As I pass the main entry room of the palace, I hear a strange noise—a wet, gurgling cough.
Deciding to investigate, I find Elm lying on the floor in a pool of blood. I rush to his side, flipping him onto his back and cradling his head in my lap. “Elm, who did this?”
“The pri…” He coughs up more blood, and tears streak down my face as I take in his broken, bloodied form. “The prince is coming to kill you. Run.”
My eyes widened at his words. Shock. Heartache. Betrayal. I feel it all. “Lukene did this to you? Why? What happened?” I scream as I try to make sense of it all. How could he do this to me? I swear the world around me starts to crumble into ruins, or is that just my heart?
“I am so sorry, Reign.” Blood dribbles out of the corner of his mouth, staining his porcelain skin red. The metallic tang of his blood fills my nose. “My husband is dead. I found out last night from a villager in a tavern. Vanna’s guards must have killed him when I went to the Hollows.” He starts breathing in short, gasping pants. “I tried to poison Vanna when she asked me to bring her and Lilyana tea. I had to—for him and for you. But she brushed against my hand when I gave her the cup with the poison in it. I guess she saw I was going to kill her, and she gave it to Lilyana.”
“Is Lilyana dead?” I ask, my breath hitching. My pulse crashes in my ears, pounding out a desperate, frantic rhythm. Please don’t let her be dead. Please, Mother above, don’t let her be gone. I’ve already lost Larah, and Lilyana became one of my best friends. I can’t lose her too.
Tears stream down Elm’s face, and he nods. “No!” I sob, the crushing grief squeezing my heart, the sting of Elm’s betrayal cutting deep. He promised. We had agreed not to act.
“I’m…” Elm’s breathing grows more irregular, each gasp shallower than the last. “I’m so sorry, Reign. I let my pain and anger get the best of me.” His voice fades. He braids his trembling, bloodstained fingers and kisses them.
Tears stream down my face as I mirror his gesture. “You are the sister I always wanted. I love you.” With his final words, his chest stills, and his eyes stare unseeing into the void. A guttural scream rips from my throat as fire bursts around me, flames fueled by my grief and rage. My brother, my best friend, lies dead in my lap.
Sobs shake my entire body. Sobs for Lilyana. Sobs for Elm’s betrayal. Sobs for Lukene, who has lost his sister. And sobs for myself, because I know I’ll never forgive Lukene for taking Elm from me. I will kill him.
“Well, it looks like we both lost someone we loved today,” Lukene says as he walks into the entry way from the corridor, his voice cutting through the air with a sinister, bone-chilling coldness.
My flames sputter out, his words breaking my concentration on Elm’s lifeless body. I immediately realize my mistake because the moment I falter, shadows lash out from Lukene, wrapping around my neck and slamming me into the wall. The tendrils hold me mercilessly, and pieces of my shattered heart sink in my stomach. Pain—unimaginable, suffocating pain—consumes me, mingled with the betrayal and guilt gnawing at my soul.
“What have you done, Reign?” he whispers, his voice ragged. Then he screams, the room echoing with the raw agony in his words, mimicking the heartache he must be feeling, which matches my own. “What have you done!”
I can’t breathe. His shadows tighten around my neck, and the world starts to blur. I kick my feet as I dangle against the wall, trying to catch purchase on anything. Finally, he releases me, and I collapse to the floor, gasping, tears streaming down my face. My heart breaks, torn between the need to comfort and the need to kill him. The emotions are overwhelming, both mine and somehow not mine. Love and hatred. Broken trust and betrayal. Longing and suffering. They mix together in a way that makes no sense.
Lukene steps forward hesitantly. “Stay back!” I shout, drawing a palm blade and holding it ready.
“What are you going to do, Reckless?” he asks, tears streaking his anguished face. “Stab me in the heart? Go ahead. You already shattered it.” He takes another step, his voice breaking. My own tears fall harder, my chest heavy as my heart fractures even more at the sight of my broken, dark prince.
“You killed him!” I scream, pointing to Elm. “You took him from me!”
“And he took Lilyana from me with your poison!” Lukene shouts back, taking another step. “Was that your plan all along? Make me fall in love with you, then destroy me and my family?” His eyes are haunted, dark with betrayal.
I must look guilty because he shuts his eyes, more tears spilling down his face. The sight of his pain crushes me, and my heart twists even more, torn between everything we’ve lost and everything that can never be.
“Did you plan to kill us, Reign?” Lukene asks calmly, using the sleeve of his tunic to wipe his nose.
“At first, yes… I planned to kill all of you, but?—”
Lukene stumbles back, clutching his chest. The shock and pure unadulterated anguish in his eyes makes it seem like my words have physically wounded him. Shadows pour out of him, dark and menacing. I grip my palm blade tighter, my heart shattering. I don’t want to hurt him, but I know he’s going to kill me, and the knowledge crushes my soul. Deciding on a non-lethal strike, I throw the blade, aiming for his leg. It strikes true, but not before his shadows slam me back against the wall, restraining my limbs.
He yanks the blade from his leg and steps closer, his expression broken. “I had hoped it wasn’t true.” Tears stream down his cheeks, and the light in his eyes dims, any hope of saving this shattering. “I thought what we had was real. I thought…” He pauses, his voice breaking. “I thought you loved me, Reign.” His voice is soft and broken.
“I do! I—” My words are cut off.
“Luke! Don’t do this!” James’s voice rings out as he rushes down the corridor into the entry room. Lukene throws up bars of shadows, blocking him from getting through. “Luke, don’t do this. Let’s talk. We’ve all suffered great losses today.”
“She planned to kill us all, James! My sister lies dead in the next room!” Lukene roars, his voice vibrating through me, shaking my heart and soul. Vanna approaches the shadow bars, tear-stained and full of hatred. It’s her fault, and yet she’s crying.
“Tell them! Tell them how you planned to kill us all,” Lukene demands.
Sucking in a shaky breath, I speak. “Vanna was having an affair with my husband. She sent guards to kill him—and me. I killed a guard and ended up in the Hollows.” Lukene’s eyes shift to Vanna, disbelief cutting through his rage. Vanna only shrugs, unbothered.
“I met Elm and Larah there,” I continue, tears streaming down my face, nausea burning in my stomach. “Vanna did the same to them. We swore if we ever had the chance for revenge, we’d take it. When we won the fighting ring and were brought to the palace, we thought it was time to make good on our vow.” My voice shakes. “But we decided no?—”
“Enough!” Lukene screams, unable to stomach any more, his anguish rippling through the room.
He walks over to my restrained body, my fractured heart starts hammering its tiny pieces into my chest, as I try to control my rapid pants.
“You have rattled me, my Reckless Reign,” he whispers, his voice strangled with pain. He runs a trembling hand down the side of my face, and twin tears stream down his distressed features. His eyes are pools of agony, so full of raw, broken emotion. Whatever, tiny pieces I have left of my heart just smash into dust seeing him like this. “You… have… rattled me,” he gasps, his breath hitching as though the weight of his sorrow is suffocating him.
“I said I would take a blade to my heart for you, not from you. Your betrayal is sharper than your blade. After all those threats, you finally stabbed me,” he says, placing a hand over his heart, his voice cracking as he tries to contain a sob. His face contorts showing his sorrow and deep-felt pain—the feeling envelops me like a thick fog.
“Lukene, please, listen to me. I decided not t—” I break down, sobs wracking my restrained body. “I decided I cou?—”
“Silence!” he roars, storming up to me.
James’s voice cuts through the tension. “Don’t! Don’t Lukene! Listen to me. You will never forgive yourself. Don’t hurt her.” His hands spark with lightning, little bolts zipping around his clenched fists. His voice quakes with desperation. “I will save you from yourself, Luke, if I have to. Don’t make me do it.”
Lukene stands inches from me, pressing the palm blade against my chest. His face is tormented, his tears falling like mine. Both of our chests heave, mirroring the heartbreak, the betrayal, and the cruel twist of fate that has brought us here. Two souls meant for each other, now destined to destroy each other.
“I love you, Reign,” he says, his voice breaking. “Thank you for showing me that I could love someone so deeply I’d lose myself in them. Thank you for teaching me to never fall in love again. Thank you for teaching me how weak love can make a person. You taught me to refreeze this thawed heart of mine.” He leans in and kisses my lips one last time, while I feel the point of the blade enter my chest, then stops.
Breaking the kiss, I grunt from the pain then whisper against his lips, “I love you, Luke.” Just as I feel the blade slip in the tiniest bit more, stinging as it tears some of my flesh, poking into the muscle underneath. I gasp, the pain sharp and real. Lukene’s anguish deepens, and he pulls away, his face twisted in torment.
With a sudden, heart-wrenching cry, he throws the dagger to the ground. The blade clatters against the stone floor, and Lukene releases a guttural, soul-crushing scream. Tears stream down his face, the sound of his heartbreak echoing through the room, shattering the air. He realizes he can’t do it. He can’t kill me—the woman he loves.
He releases me from his shadowy grip, and I collapse to the floor, gasping. He turns slowly to face me, his expression hollow and broken. “Today, I mourn the loss of my sister… and the love I have for you.” He spreads his arms wide, as if exposing his vulnerability. “I am just a man who loved a woman too deeply.”
My sobs shake me violently, as I feel the suffocating weight of the situation. Grief, sadness, unimaginable heartache, betrayal—all of them cloak me, weighing my shoulders down. “I trusted you, and you betrayed me,” he says, each word a dagger.
“I didn’t have Elm kil—” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Enough!” he snaps, stepping back as though trying to keep control. “Flee, Reign. Never falter, never fumble. But feel fear… for when I find you, I will fucking kill you.” He wipes his tear-streaked face, the hatred burning in his eyes.
“I will have Vanna wipe every memory of us, from the moment I met you until right before I found my sister. So when I find you, I won’t be weakened or tainted by the love I once felt. Make no mistake, that love won’t be there, and I won’t hesitate to put a dagger through your heart, the way your betrayal pierced mine.”
“No! You can’t—” James yells.
“Not another word, James!” Lukene growls, shooting him a death glare before turning back to me.
I can’t breathe. My chest feels heavy. Disbelief and confusion now litter my mind. This can’t be it. It can’t be over. Everything was perfect last night. How did we get here? I’m suffocating in sadness and my body trembles from the heartache I feel.
He wouldn’t have Vanna touch him. Not after everything he told me. As if he could read my mind, he lowers his shadowy bars and Vanna starts walking to him.
My world comes crashing down. I can’t move or speak, as the shards of my heart break just a bit more. He really is going to let her take his memories. “You’ve shattered my heart, Lukene. When you killed Elm, and now. You won’t even let me explain, and you’re having her erase our love. You’ve shattered my heart into a million sharp fragments, each one stabbing deeper into my chest with this betrayal.” I pull out the blade he gave me and slice my palm, the pain grounding me in this nightmarish reality
“I will be everywhere you look but nowhere to be found. You will long for me as long as you live, but you’ll never have me again. Even in sleep, you won’t escape me. You’ll dream of me, beautiful dreams that will make you yearn, only to wake to this shitty reality, drowning in sadness and emptiness. That will be my revenge on you, Prince. I vow it.” Blood drips from my sliced palm, splattering on the floor as I utter each painful word.
“Better get going, 7296. Vanna’s about to begin. I’d hate to be you when she’s done.” Lukene smiles wickedly, though tears still glisten in his eyes. “Remember, never falter, never fumble. And watch those shadows. You never know when I’ll step out of them. Where darkness kisses light, remember… I’ll find you.”
With that, I turn and run, bolting outside. The sun that had shone so brightly earlier is now swallowed by storm clouds, which pour freezing rain over me. Even the sky weeps for the tragedy Lukene and I have just endured.
I whistle loudly, hoping Ember is nearby. Moments later, he lands with a heavy thud, his wings casting droplets in every direction. As I climb onto his back, I catch one last glimpse of Lukene, standing in the doorway, his heart is broken, and tears still kiss his cheeks. Vanna steps beside him, placing her hands on either side of his head.
A sob bubbles up from my chest, and I can’t contain it as Ember takes flight. The sound of my own heart breaking, like glass shattering on stone, echoes in my ears. The pain is overwhelming. We fly directly into the storm. Between the beating rain, the cold howling wind, the flap of Ember’s wings, and the sound of my grief form a perfect ballad of broken hearts and betrayal.
I have no idea how I’m supposed to survive this. I have no family left, my best friends are gone, and now I’ve lost the love of my life. I am utterly alone on this continent. As Ember flies through the relentless storm with no destination in mind, I’m cloaked in heartache, suffocating under its weight. So, with my mind in shambles and heart shattered, I ride off into the raging storm that mirrors my emotions, and I can’t help but think… This is my life now.
THE END