Chapter Twenty-Seven
R aven
“I don’t understand...” I took a step back, my thoughts running rampant, a headache brewing. My world was falling around me, even more so than it already was.
“Slade is the actual heir to the throne. You have no claim to it....” Elijah was annunciating in a clear tone, but my head couldn’t keep up.
How was Slade the heir? That wasn’t possible unless...
My eyes widened. This couldn’t be happening. Could it?
Slade reached out and took a step forward, but I took another back. I should’ve remained sitting in that chair.
My head shook as I tried to process. I didn’t want to process it though. I was the heir. I have always been the heir. That’s why Father was so hard on me. But if the information this folder held was true, then I didn’t have to be Queen. All that pain and torture would’ve never happened.
I would’ve been free.
My stomach twisted; the invisible knife was shoved so far into my gut I was becoming nauseated. My back touched the wall, and I slid down it, not caring that Slade and Elijah were watching me process, waiting for my next move.
My gaze met Slade’s, and it was unclear what he was feeling. Was this his plan all along? To make me fall in love with him and then rip my feet out from under me? Did he hate me that much?
“Rav,” his tone was soothing, cautious, and he used my nickname, but I couldn’t seem to care.
My whole life was a lie; Julianna’s life was a lie.
“Give me the file,” he whispered to me, trying to take it away in my delicate state. I gripped onto it harder. This was proof. Actual proof that the pain I had suffered at the hands of that man was null in void. It didn’t have to happen, but he wanted it to. He wanted to make me weak and broken. He wanted to make it so that when the time came for me to take a husband, it wouldn’t be Slade. He knew that Slade was the true heir, and he wanted to do everything in his power so he couldn’t gain access to the throne.
What a fucking...I couldn’t even finish my thought because I started to see red. My hands curled around the file, and he noticed the change and tried to take the folder from me. I gripped it tight, but he eventually ripped it from my fingers.
“Please go put that somewhere safe,” he handed it off to Elijah who wore the biggest shit eating grin on his face.
“With pleasure, King.” Elijah said the words to him, but they were directed at me. He enjoyed placing jabs when he could.
That snapped me out of my daze. I stood up and glared at him, using the wall for support. “What the fuck is your problem? I didn’t do shit to you.”
“You’re my problem. You couldn’t stay away, and leave him the fuck alone. He’s better off without you. Julianna is better off without you. This Kingdom is better off without you. You’re a fucking waste of space, you can’t do your job correctly and everyone is suffering because of you. Yeah your Father is a piece of shit too, but you’ve enabled his behavior making it worse on us civilians who are just trying to survive.”
“Shut the fuck up, man.” Slade said through gritted teeth, but Elijah didn’t shut up. Instead he lashed out at his best friend. There was a white noise that went through my ears, and the words Elijah had said were on repeat in my mind.
Was I really that bad of a person? Did the whole kingdom feel the same way about me? Was I enabling Father’s behavior?
A single tear fell down my cheek, and I took their arguing as a chance to run out of the room and out of the compound. I heard my name behind me, but didn’t care. I needed to get away...to process the information I had been given. I didn’t bother going to get Julianna because Slade was right, she was better off at the compound with him. He could take care of her as well as Lewis, and while Elijah was my least favorite person at the moment, I knew he would take care of her too.
I unlocked my car, got in, and drove off. I didn’t look back, I just went to the one place in the world where I felt somewhat at peace. A place I wouldn’t be bothered.
SLADE
“What the fuck was that?” I roared, wanting to wring my hands around his fucking neck. Elijah was my best friend, but the shit he pulled sometimes made me want to kill him.
I often thought he was secretly working his way up my ranks so he could take my place on the throne. That wouldn’t fucking happen.
For some unknown reason, Elijah hated Raven with a burning passion. He couldn’t stand her and wanted her out of the picture. That shit pissed me off.
“Dude, she deserves that shit. She’s acting like she’s a holier than now princess who can do whatever the fuck she wants. It’s bullshit. There are people out here suffering, and she’s planning a wedding to that fucktard.”
I picked up Raven’s journal and smacked him across the face. “God dammit! What the hell?” He held a hand to his face and cursed some more.
“Don’t talk shit when you don’t know what the fuck that woman has been through. You wouldn’t last through half of it.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, man? She’s lived a life of luxury. She’s a princess for Godsakes, the King and Queen doted on her.”
I shook my head and laughed. He had no idea. Suddenly, I had the urge to flip her journal open to her training, just so he could read, maybe even feel something different towards her other than hate. If Raven and I were to ever get back together in the future, it would make it impossible for them to be around each other if they were constantly going at each other’s throats.
So, I did exactly what I should’ve done in the first place, and gave him a small glimpse into Raven’s fucked up reality.
I flipped open the book, and turned it to the exact page. My stomach churned at the thought of reading it again, but I wasn’t the one diving back into that world. It would be him.
“Here. Read this.” I gave him the journal, went to my desk and poured another glass of whiskey. My thoughts went to Raven.
How was she processing this? Or was she processing it at all?
Lord knows that woman was a strong headed bull when it came to anything else, but that file changed her whole world. Her trials and tribulations were all for nothing. It was like the King was playing with a caged animal, torturing it in anyway he could for nothing. All harm and no love.
Completely fucked up in every sense of the word.
Elijah grew quiet, as I knew he would. I watched his facial reactions, trying to see if it would phase him at all. It did.
His fingers curled around the book, his knuckles turned white. His eyebrows creased and his jaw clenched. After what seemed like hours of silence, he finally looked up at me.
“What kind of shit is this?”
I took another drink, enjoying the burn the whiskey gave to my throat. “Raven’s reality.”
He looked down at the journal and then up at me. “She actually went through this?”
“Yes.”
“What the actual fuck, dude?”
I downed the whiskey, got up and took the journal from him. “Maybe now you’ll start having some respect.”
I walked out of the office, heading off in search of her. I needed Raven on my side. Why couldn’t he get that?
I was an unknown in this world, apart from possibly being the Queen’s killer, I needed someone who knew the people as well as she did, so she could earn me some of the Kingdom’s respect.
Now to make sure she didn’t do something stupid, and get us all in a bind.