43. Isabelle
Chapter 43
Isabelle
At ten o’clock on Monday morning everyone gathers at Raventhorn Hall in the trial room. Like the Court of Nephilim it is used for trials and executions, but this room is reserved for leaders who have committed crimes against the Knights.
As such this is one of the only exceptions where the entire student body has been invited into Raventhorn Hall. The rules are normally that you can only enter if you’re a Knight or married to one.
I would have loved the chance to admire the place because it’s absolutely stunning. But all attention is taken up by Parker as he’s carried out before us in chains. The guards set him to kneel on the ground before Aleksander and the Knights’ council, who are sitting at the head of the room under the colossal statue of Raventhorn.
Parker is the shortest serving Lord Chancellor of the school. He’s also the only one in history to be in this position. He will be executed today according to the old laws.
I’m sitting next to Dad who also can’t take his eyes off Parker. I think that if Parker wasn’t being executed, Dad would have killed him himself. I wish he’d gotten the chance to. I wish I had gotten the chance myself.
Like how Kade killed Nikoli. I knew he had Dmitri take me away because he didn’t want me to see him kill that way.
This will do for me. For justice.
At least it’s happening. It doesn’t matter who gets to end Parker as long as it’s done.
Kade is with his parents at the front of the hall. Seeing them together is the only thing within these stone walls that warms my heart.
I met them briefly yesterday. Kade wanted to introduce us. He actually introduced me as his girlfriend. We haven’t even spoken about us yet. We’re meeting tomorrow, but I don’t need to talk anything out to know I want to be with him.
He’s the one thing I’m sure of in my life.
Aleksander clears his throat and an extra layer of silence descends on the room.
“Parker Cornelius Federov, you have been called before us today to answer for your crimes,” Aleksander begins. “We as the Knights council take these charges very seriously. You have broken the Oath and the vows you promised to live by as a Knight. As such we have agreed that the punishment should match accordingly.”
While Parker hangs his head, looking like a shadow of his former self, Aleksander proceeds to read the charges.
He sounds like a judge in a normal court of law. But this is not like that.
Aleksander lists fifty different charges and to each one Parker pleads guilty.
When they reach Mom’s murder and he pleads guilty the wound in my heart grows, hurting more than when he confessed nights ago. It feels more real today.
But the darkness shifts from my soul. The heavy burden I carried all these years loosens and I feel that lightness of hope I always felt when my mother was alive. I want to believe that she’s sitting here with us soothing me and allowing the truth to set me free.
She’s not screaming in my head anymore. Instead I see her smiling as she created art and loved her favorite people.
Dad and me.
Moments later parker is executed.
I look away, not wanting to start my new path with the remnants of darkness clinging to my mind.
This is enough. Now I feel that justice has been served.
Butterflies flap around in my stomach as Kade walks through my door.
The last time he was here we were breaking up.
Today feels like we’ve been placed on a new path. We go into the living room and stop by the sofa.
“Is your old man around?” he asks.
“He left an hour ago. He stayed over last night because of the execution. Then we went to visit my mother’s grave.”
He reaches out and brushes my cheek. “How are you both?”
“Everything feels raw, especially for my father. But I think we’ll be okay from hereon. What about you? You must be so happy to have your parents back.”
“Words can’t describe it. They’re going to move to Boston so we’ll all be closer. They didn’t want to go back to Orange County because we’ve been apart for so many years.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“I wish I could have brought your mother back, or work some kind of spell to turn back time for you.”
“I know. Me too.”
“Isabelle, I owe you the biggest apology in this world.”
I shake my head. “No you don’t.”
“I do. I’m ashamed of the way I behaved and the way I treated you. I’m ashamed of the way I blamed you.”
“Kade feeling responsible for your parents deaths was absolutely awful, but I understand how the trail led back to me. The evidence was very strong.” I accepted that. “We would never have known what really happened if not for Tobias, so regardless to this outcome it was still reckless of me to work with a strange man I didn’t know. Things could have still happened the way we thought they did. That’s something I have to live with and be grateful that it didn’t turn out that way.”
He takes both my hands into his and squeezes them. “I’m crazy about you. In case you didn’t notice.”
“I think I did a little bit. You also told your parents I was your girlfriend.”
“Because you are. So, can we just start over but remember the good parts?”
I smile back at him, loving this idea. “Where should we start from?”
“The beginning. The first day we met. Just be warned that I’m the rebel. And I don’t follow rules I don’t like.” He grins.
“That’s what I love most about you.”
He gives me a cocky smirk. “At least you’ll never be bored and I’ll always, always love you.”
“I love you too.”
“That sounds like we’re back on the same page. So what do you say, Lolita? Be bad with me?”
I grin back at him. “Yes. Yes forever.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“I know you will.”
Kade pulls me in for a kiss that’s filled with promises of hope and true love.
He picks me up and carries me to the bed where we strip off each others clothes.
Laying me on my back, he parts my legs and guides his massive cock into me.
My body welcomes him and he buries himself inside me, filling me up.
He moves inside my body, making me feel complete.
Kade makes love to me and all the shattered pieces of my heart go back together, healing in a way that they’ll never break again.
Every part of me is held in place by his love.