Chapter 44 Shattered Sacrifice
Shattered Sacrifice
KAEL
The pirate’s words seeped beneath the large, sealed doors as a percussive warning, carrying with them the weight of my arrival and my father’s expectations.
“Fine. You have a deal. I will give myself to the crown if you uphold your end of the bargain: the removal of the bind and the safety of those I love.”
Percy stood beside me, but unlike our usual arrival into my father’s throne room, he wasn’t accompanying me in his usual manner.
Where Percy carried the weight of protecting me with his life, this moment felt far too minuscule, like he was being robbed of the chance to do so as a means of punishment for both of us.
Flanked on both sides by men I didn’t recognize, his title had been stripped, and my usual circle of guards was nowhere to be found.
It was a statement, a reminder of how fragile autonomy was in a world ruled by forces so tainted that there were no routes to atonement.
Tearing me from my internal spiral, Percy squeezed my hand once. “Whatever this entails, I hope you know that I—”
The king’s jarring timbre cut him off before he had the opportunity to finish. “Enter.”
Both guards moved with a near-robotic nature, stepping forward to push the doors open with a forceful shove. Simultaneously, as if controlled by some unseen force, they both glanced over their shoulder and ushered us into the room beyond.
Obliging with hesitance, I crossed the threshold, the large mahogany slabs sealing behind us alongside our fate.
My nerves spiked with the sudden closure, and I raised a shaky hand to brush down the front of the royal attire I’d been required to change into immediately upon my return.
Once the fabric was smoothed, I counted each step of my approach to distract myself.
But my mind wandered to the endless possibilities of our summoning, and that method of ceasing my anxiety became null and void.
Before I knew it, I landed in front of his dais, glancing up at the man who granted me life in this realm, sprawled atop his crimson throne.
Nestled just a few steps down sat a woman with a colorless bob, her ember-like eyes flicking to me with amusement.
There was something familiar about her presence, but something equally dreadful.
Something… inhuman.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I held the king’s stare. “Father.”
“Kaelivan,” he huffed, disgust clinging to the three syllables of my name. “How were your sails?”
Glancing out of the corner of my eye, my attention landed on Caspian, who stood with his hands behind his back.
Tension lingered in his posture, seeping into his demeanor.
Frame unmoved, he stood by one of the many pillars that kept the space intact.
Just when I thought he wouldn’t pay me any mind, he gazed at me for one short second, and within his crimson irises glinted a mix of caution and what looked like sorrow.
It almost looked as if he were apologizing for something.
“Can we cut the bullshit?” I snapped, my patience fracturing beneath the billowing tension. “What do you want? To berate me for my decision to leave? To disown me for my criminal behavior?”
My father drummed his fingers along the stem of his wine glass. Taking a greedy sip of the liquid that mirrored both the hue and texture of blood, he smacked his lips once before electing to speak. “Neither of those things.”
“Then what?” The question came with heightened ire, my fists clenching at my sides with enough tension that my knuckles whitened. “Get on with it.”
He merely shrugged. “Percival,” attention shifting, the corner of his mouth curled, “you brought the sword you are required to carry, yes?”
My brows furrowed as I watched Percy retrieve the blade from its sheath on his back. “Yes, your Majesty.”
“Perfect. You may pass the steel off to Caspian.”
My stomach sank, and I struggled to draw in a breath. As Percy stepped forward to do as my father commanded, I tried to follow, but the men responsible for guiding us into the room pulled me back.
Hands curling around my arms with bruising force, they yanked me into submission. As I thrashed against them in an attempt to get away, the king grinned with unsettling satisfaction, and the sight alone was enough to earn a guttural cry from me.
“Stop!”
Halting briefly, the man I loved looked back at me. “I’m sorry, Kael.”
Tears welled in my eyes as I kicked my legs, my glossy glare settling on the throne once more. “What the fuck do you want?! What do you want?! I will do anything—anything. Just… don’t. Please.”
“You are well acquainted with how I feel about my child entertaining another man, especially when he has a kingdom to run and children to bear, which is impossible without a woman on your arm. Your willingness to oppose me, to continue to taint yourself while sharing a bed with one of the same sex, has led to this point. I warned you, Kaelivan, and you chose not to listen. Which, in a power-based society, is worthy of punishment.”
Ripping against the soldiers’ vice-like grips, I tried but failed once more to free myself. “Then punish me! I am the one in the wrong. I am the one who went against your command. Me. Not Percy.”
“You see,” he pushed himself up from where he sat, traveling down the steps like a predator sizing up its prey, “a man is only as strong as his gravest weakness, and in your instance, that happens to be Percival.”
“Please,” I forced out on a shuddered breath. “I am begging you, father. I will do whatever you want, no matter what it entails. I will wed that woman to strengthen the lands, to solidify things for your ruling, just… leave Percy out of this.”
“You see, this exchange would’ve been far more influential if you had come to me instead of leaving the kingdom.
Word spreads quickly, and now the people of Serevalen believe I am weak because of your lack of drive to succeed me.
” His soulless steps halted as he came to stand before me, brows hooding his cold, dark gaze.
“Frailty is something to be exploited, and I refuse to have my son weakened to such a state. There are duties to uphold and roles to fill. You will be marrying Olliviera, just as you will be taking over this throne. Perhaps this moment can serve as a reminder of those things.”
Stepping off to the side, he gestured toward Caspian with his chin. It was an unspoken command, an inescapable order, and it was then that I understood why his expression seemed to be carved with such apologetic lines.
The pirate reached forward, taking the sword from Percy.
Settling his hand on the shoulder of the man who held my heart, striations danced across his jaw.
There was a flicker of consideration there, a flash of contemplation that carried with it the fire of rebellion.
Yet, instead of acting on it, he offered two words that drove a stake through my chest.
“I’m sorry.”
With one thrust forward, blood and flesh squelched. Crimson-stained, the tip of the sword that once belonged to him jutted from his back. A rasped breath followed, Percy’s knees threatening to buckle. Before he could collapse, Caspian retrieved the blade and aided him in his descent.
“No… No, no, no!” I sobbed, my attempts to escape becoming just as harsh as my breathing. “P-Percy!”
All it took was one wave of my father’s fingers, and their grips loosened.
Already lunging forward, I barely caught myself before I collided with the shadowed marble. Crawling forward, I pushed myself to standing and rushed toward the man who had become my everything. The man I wanted to spend the rest of my years with.
My knees slammed against the blood-soaked floor, a guttural scream tearing itself from my throat as I pulled Percy into my arms. Stroking my fingers through his curly onyx locks, my bottom lip quivered. The rhythm of my inhales and exhales splintered further.
“P-Please…” I begged, pressing him against my chest as I rocked back and forth. “P-Please… I can’t… I-I can’t… I can’t do this without him. P-Please!”
“Let this be your lesson, son,” my father replied from behind me, not a drop of remorse in his tone. “If you oppose me, then I will strip you of everything you love until you fall in line.”
My head snapped over my shoulder, rage mingling with the onslaught of suffocating emotions.
“I will fucking kill you,” I snarled, every word coming out with a venom so sharp, so defined, that he flinched.
“When the gods, the true gods, grant me the chance of ending your pitiful existence, I will waste no time gutting you with a rusted fucking blade. I will—”
Trembling fingers brushed against my cheek, halting my threat as soon as I felt their gentle coax. My attention shifted from the man I loathed to the man I loved, Percy’s fading emerald irises finding mine. “W-What… I-I was trying… t-to tell you… in the hallway… w-was… that… I-I love… I love you…”
My heart fractured, the feelings I’d held off on sharing coming back to haunt me.
“P-Percy… I-I…” A whimper slipped from me; the walls I built around myself to ensure I remained emotionally sound were obliterated by the wave of sadness that overtook me.
“I… I love… I love you… P-Please… I-I can’t do this without you. I-I can’t… I can’t… I can’t—”
“Y-You can…” He smiled weakly, combing his fingers through my hair as if to remember its texture.
“A-And you will… because… There is so much l-left in this world… T-There are so many places to explore… S-So much freedom… to be e-earned…” He coughed, the sound rasped and final.
“S-So promise… P-Promise me that you… will k-keep living… K-Keep fighting… K-Keep shining… Do not… let him… d-dim the light that I-I fell in love with… D-Do not let him t-take away… the strong s-soul I came to care s-so deeply for…”
Pulling him flush against me, my forehead met his. “There is no point in me continuing to live if you are not by my side.”
His chilled lips met mine with a kiss so soft, so delicate that I knew he was already slipping into Elaros’s arms. His arm slid into a heap on his stomach. Slowly pulling away from our connection, a wheezed breath shook his frame, his ribs rattling with the fleeting ability to gather air.
“T-There are plenty of points…” he whispered, nuzzling his head against my chest. “Y-You… have a c-continent to save… A-And only you are s-strong enough to do so… K-Kael…”
Holding his gaze, his lids fluttered slightly, and his frame settled against me even more as I whined, “Y-You make me strong… W-Without you… I am nothing.”
He weakly shook his head, a soft smile caressing his blood-covered lips. “Y-You have always been everything… And y-you always will be… T-To me… T-To this realm…” Skin paling even further, his exhales slowed as a sign of his impending departure. “I-It… was an h-honor… l-loving you…”
Whimpering, I tucked my face into his neck, inhaling every drop of his scent—of him—that I could. “I… I-I love… I love you too… I’m s-sorry. Gods, I-I’m so fucking sorry…”
A sigh was his answer, and he sank even further. The sound of his breathing vanished, and with it, so did every ounce of my light.
I clung to him as if my touch could force him back to life, but no matter how hard I clutched to his lifeless frame, he didn’t return to me.
A guttural cry escaped me, and I remained kneeling on the throne room floor with adamant refusal to let go of him.
Letting go meant leaving him, and he couldn’t be alone. Not when… Not when…
“Send in men to clean up this fucking mess,” my father barked, his voice somewhat distant yet close.
Heaving, my vision darkened before returning, and I lost count of how long I remained there, how long I stayed with him until I was forced away. I barely felt the arms grab hold of me, barely felt the presence that loomed beside me as they hauled Percy’s body away from me.
Knees threatening to buckle, an arm swept under mine, and I caught a flash of that crimson stare. “I’ve got you, and gods, I am so fucking sorry, Kael.”
“Shut up,” I whispered, trying to pull away from him, but my body only proved to be weak once more.
I was too weak to escape their hold. Too weak to save him. Too weak to protect him.
Too weak.
Too weak.
Too fucking weak.
The walk to the doors became an incomprehensible blur of movement, and just as the mahogany fell into my line of sight, my father piped up from behind us.
“Oh, and Kael.” There was a brief pause, his timbre circling around my throat like a noose.
“I forgot to officially introduce you. This is Caspian Vayne, and starting now, he will be replacing Percival as your personal guard.”