25. Consequences #3
Hael was drenched in sweat. The necklace he wore was sticking to his pectoral as his chest heaved ragged breaths.
I couldn’t see his back, and I didn’t want to.
Blood covered his legs, pooling around the floor…
It was all too much. If I looked too closely, I could see chunks of his flesh soaking in his blood on the ground.
His eyes met mine for a second before they shut on reflex as the whip struck his back again.
And again.
And again.
Until the man reached twenty lashes.
Hael sagged in the chains, his black locks curling as they plastered against his forehead from sweat, and I had the sudden urge to push his hair back.
Actually, I wanted to run down there, rip the spiked whip out of the man’s hand and ram it into King Elion’s face before dragging Hael far, far away from this hellhole.
It shouldn’t have bothered me so much. I’d seen worse.
I’d done worse. I kept telling myself that it was just the crowd that bothered me, that it was disgusting how Elion was making a spectacle out of it.
Dahes did everything in private. He didn’t need an audience for his reputation to spark fear into everyone.
But a deeper part of me was terrified at why I couldn’t stomach this.
My eyes kept trailing over every inch of his upper body—refusing to look into his eyes again because I was a coward. Instead, I was staring at his abdomen, at the fact that it was coated in sweat…
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
It’s over Nollie. You can relax now—
“Another round,” Elion sneered, and my heart stopped.
My head jerked away from the droplet of sweat I just watched run through Hael’s waistband as I whipped my gaze to Elion.
He was glaring down at Hael, and to my surprise, Hael didn’t look away, his gaze unflinching, his face drawn, as he stared right back.
I half thought he’d be unconscious by now, instead he straightened his back, his knuckles turning white as his grip against the heavy chains tightened.
His breathing was still ragged, his panting becoming increasingly heavier, but he didn’t say anything.
“Sir, you said two rules were broken…” someone from below the dais stuttered. “His crimes were properly punished, what would be the reason for another ten lashes?”
Elion smirked down at Hael. “He knows what he did.”
The masked-man pulled the spiked whip back again, thrusting his arm in the air before bringing it down onto Hael.
I couldn’t watch. I had to fight the urge to bend over and vomit. It was hard enough to listen—to hear Hael’s grunts of agony, to know the moment the spikes connected with his bones, the metallic stench thickening with each new lash, then his guttural rasp as it was yanked out.
Elion flicked his fingers and the guards holding me up pushed me closer to him.
“Do you think you would scream if you were down there?” he crooned over the crunch of bones.
He wasn’t looking at me, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew where the question was directed. Hael wasn’t screaming, even if he should have been.
I didn’t answer, but Elion took my silence as resignation, his eyes honed solely on Hael with a smug smirk plastered across his face.
I’d be bawling my eyes out, begging for mercy after the first lash. I learned how to shut off my emotions, I knew how to push past pain, but everyone had their limits. And watching this… it was brutal.
Hate festered deep inside of me at Elion’s words, at the entire fucking spectacle he was putting on, and for some reason it felt so much worse than what Dahes would do.
Dahes was pure evil, but he didn’t pretend to be good.
Everyone followed him out of pure, undiluted fear.
But Elion had everyone wrapped around his finger in a more twisted, sadistic kind of way.
They followed him blindly even though I never saw him act out on his own.
His rules were punished by others, enforced by others, and carried out by others.
Hael was the one who dragged the girl into the fire.
He was the one who murdered the recruits yesterday…
And now Elion was having someone else carry out his punishment.
Whereas Dahes wouldn’t hesitate. Dahes craved pain just as much as he craved watching me inflict it, knowing how much I hated it.
The most deaths I’d seen were from his own hands.
The only time he delegated was if he was using one of his monsters or me, and even then, it was direct orders of what he wanted. But I never saw Elion lift a finger.
Even now, he sat reclined on his throne as we watched the whip crash again and again and again into Hael.
Thirty—that was how many times the whip shredded Hael’s back, how many times it was yanked out, how many times I heard his bones snap, how many times it felt like it was crushing me alongside of him.
And it was how many times my hate festered and grew for the king sitting perfectly relaxed next to me.
Two riders came to unchain Hael’s wrists, and I couldn’t believe he was still standing.
“Get him out of the throne room,” Elion ordered the riders with a flick of his wrist. “I want the entire castle cleaned before the festivities start tonight.”
The riders offered their shoulders for Hael, but he didn’t take it. Instead, he straightened his spine, stifling back a wince, before he turned to walk out of the throne room. Our eyes locked for a moment, one single second, before he turned his back to me, and I gasped.
His skin hung by threads. I swore I saw glimpses of bone under a series of deep zig-zag cuts. Blood poured down the worst of them with each step he took.
“Nollie,” Elion drawled.
“Yes?” My voice stuttered as I felt everyone’s gaze turn to me.
“You have a pass since you weren’t aware of my rules regarding Arrik.
” His gaze flicked toward the door, and I tried not to notice the trail of blood that was left or the fact that servants were already cleaning the puddle from the middle of the floor.
“He should have known better.” His gaze snapped back to mine.
“But now you know, so if you break my rules again, you’ll be down there next to him, and I’d find great satisfaction in watching you scream. ”
I gulped, trying to find my words—
“Do you understand?” His voice rose, echoing off the now silent walls.
“Yes.”
“Good,” he grinned. “Now go back to your room. Your servant will get you ready for the ball when it’s time.”
I practically sprinted out of the throne room, trying to keep my composure as I narrowly avoided the blood splattered across the floor.
Hael went through that because he stopped my training last night? Because he brought me to MonClem…
I couldn’t stop thinking about the third rule he broke. The one that Elion didn’t admit to, but then something else was wracking my brain—why?
Why the hell did he do it, knowing this was the consequence? Because one thing was certain after today—I no longer believed the king was setting Hael up to investigate me. Whatever Hael was doing, it was all on his own, and Elion was pissed.