Chapter 85
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE
Ryker
One week later
I was pretty sure that all of Tempest, except for some of the children, had turned out for the duke’s execution. They crowded the rolling fields outside of the fallen palace, leaned eagerly forward, and exuded bloodlust as we led the duke through the crowd.
He kept his head high as he ignored the jeering crowd and items thrown at him. Some of those objects bounced off Tucker and me as we each held one arm, but neither of us acknowledged them.
The gargoyles had decided against coming here today. This was for the amsirah alone.
I wasn’t sure we’d make it to the stage erected for this day before they jumped on Veni and tore him apart. The only things holding them back were Tucker and me. They wouldn’t hurt us.
“What happened to Dahlia?” I asked as we walked.
“Who?” the duke inquired.
“The prostitute you captured. The one you believed I had a relationship with.”
She was an old friend from the Ghoul War. I’d paid her to make it look like we’d been seeing each other, and she’d been captured because of it. She hadn’t been in either of the dungeons, no one had seen her in the villages, and Tucker didn’t recall removing her from the debris.
The duke hesitated so long before answering that I wasn’t sure he’d respond. When a rotten tomato hit him square in the face, it exploded juice all over the three of us. I wiped away the seeds dripping down my face and flicked them away.
“You rotten piece of shit!” someone shrieked.
“I hope you burn, you bastard!”
Veni ignored the tomato sliding down his face. He didn’t have any free hands to wipe it away as he shuffled forward with his ankles chained and his wrists manacled before him.
“I remember the whore,” he said as more shouts sounded. “She begged for her life while being cut to pieces.”
Tucker, somehow still able to be shocked by this man, looked at him in horror. I stared straight ahead while sickness churned in my stomach. Dahlia was a good woman and a better friend. She didn’t deserve such a fate.
I couldn’t wait for him to die.
For centuries, I’d yearned to be the one to destroy the man who helped create me, but now that the time was here, ravenous hatred didn’t boil within me. I almost felt a little sorry for him.
Never once, in his entire life, had he known love. My mother had believed herself in love with him, and I vaguely remembered her trying to show it to him, but he’d rejected her every time before destroying her.
I’d tried hugging him when I was still too young to understand that this man despised me.
The last time I tried, I was four and clearly recalled the way he’d shoved me to the ground, straightened his tunic, and sneered down at me.
My mother had rushed forward, scooped me into her arms, and carried me away.
“Do not baby him!” the duke had bellowed after us.
That was the day she stopped loving him, and I was sure it was the day he started seeing her as an obstacle to me. She only lived for two more years.
Veni deserved everything he’d gotten over this past month, including his death today, and he’d die without ever knowing the greatest gift of all: love.
When we reached the top of the stairs, my gaze fell on Ellery, my gift. She held Scarlet’s hand while Ruby stood on the other side of her daughter.
Ruby had decided against bringing Billy here; she felt the boy had experienced too much death and violence recently. He wasn’t happy about it, but he’d agreed to stay home.
When the duke spotted the tree trunk set at the top of the stage and the amsirah crowding the stairs and gathering around the chopping block, his knees buckled, but he quickly steadied himself.
He raked the nearby amsirah with a look of utter disgust. Despite everything that happened, he still believed they were less than him.
After this, only three aristocrats would remain: The Countess of Halsbad and the Baron of Muzek’s two daughters.
We would execute them one day, but first one of them had to open a portal out of Tempest. I was sure at least one would do so without too much persuasion.
However, the amsirah, in a realm-wide vote, decided against opening a portal anytime soon. Yes, we all wanted the freedom to do so again, but we also had a lot of rebuilding to do.
Most amsirah felt it best to accomplish that rebuilding without fear of another realm invading while we were weakened. Most residents were happy with the vote, but others harbored resentment over it. We could never please everyone.
Eventually, the time would come to open a portal. When it did, the amsirah would find a way to break the curse keeping us trapped.
Until then, we had to work on establishing new laws, a new way of life, and castles to keep each village and town safe from invasion. We wouldn’t tear down all the standing castles, but some would fall, including the duke’s newly built monstrosity that he’d been so proud of.
I’d already informed him of this decision and smiled as his face turned red; he didn’t respond, but his rage was palpable. I was the one to make this choice, since I was now the rightful owner of that awful place.
The castle served no purpose in terms of location. We would use the stones to build other castles better situated in the towns and villages they would help protect. I hated the place, but some good would come from it.