Chapter Twenty-Five Xander #2
“Cade hated it as much as I did, and during our patrols, we would often talk about what it might be like if someone else were in charge. If someone were to challenge King Dolian’s reign.
It was blasphemous talk, of course, but our friendship was only strengthened by knowing that Cade felt as strongly as I did about the injustices brought to those who already shouldered so many of the kingdom’s burdens.
” I press my lips together to keep myself from saying any more.
The foundation of the resistance had been my risk to take, but Cade’s belief in it—in me—was one of the main reasons why I thought that, perhaps, it could actually be a force for good.
“One day, before heading out to our assignment, we were stopped by Commander Miles. He had just been promoted and put in charge of our unit. He told us that one of the business owners in Vitour—a butcher—overheard his neighbor trying to rouse others to rise up against the king. To demand change. We were to bring him in for questioning.”
Of course, this man had no idea that there was a quiet rebellion brewing.
But his brashness reinforced the idea that, in order for this to work, we needed to take our time.
We needed to be patient. I didn’t want to arrest him.
To send him off to his death when his ideas mirrored my own.
However, I understood then just as I do now that sometimes the only way to best an opponent is to make sure that they don’t view you as a player in the game at all.
“On our way there, Cade expressed that he was growing weary of always obeying the king. That he was tired of taking from good men and women. And he knew, I know that he knew, that there would always be sacrifices required in order to help the greater good. Yet, on that day, Cade was tired of being the one to execute those sacrifices. When we showed up to the man’s home, we were greeted by his wife and children at his side.
I moved to arrest him and bring him to the dungeon, but Cade stopped me.
It was the first time we had ever fought in our many years of friendship.
The first time we deviated from our duties. ”
Her voice is soft when she asks, “What did you do?”
“Despite my better judgement, I gave in to what he wanted, and we came up with a plan. We would give the man and his family a day to leave Vitour. Then we would go to the commander and tell him that the man attacked us and we were forced to execute him in his residence. We were sure they would not question it, as the man was going to be dead either way. And we’d never broken protocol before.
” The plan had seemed foolproof at the time.
It should have been foolproof. Except that I forgot just how much my father hated me.
Forgot just how deeply his obsession with ensuring that I suffered every moment of every day ran.
“I take it the commander found out,” Bella says, dread thick in her voice.
“We were being watched because of—” Me. It had been because of me.
But those words lead to a deeper conversation than I am willing to risk, so I cast them aside and push forward, ignoring the way she looks curiously at me.
Clearing my throat, I add, “I knew that we’d been caught once we were both called to the throne room.
I found Cade in the hall on my way there and made him swear to let me take the fall.
He had a family he was close with—parents, siblings, and grandparents.
He would often send them money, the steady income from being a guard helped to make their lives easier.
At best, he would lose his job and be forced into becoming a laborer for someone else. At worst, the king would kill him.”
“Did you not fear for yourself?” she asks, a breathlessness to the question that wraps around me.
I shrug, offering her a grim quirk of my lips.
“I did not. There was no one but Cade left for me to care for.” Grayson too, but again, a thread that doesn’t need exploring now.
“We both assumed that all they could possibly know was that the man had gotten away. So the story would be that while Cade searched the man’s home, I attempted to apprehend him.
But he managed to overpower me. This way, the brunt of the blame would fall on me and hopefully leave Cade unscathed.
We entered a full throne room, the king there with Commander Miles, the councilmen, and Simon—his advisor.
We fed them the story we came up with and waited for our punishment.
But then King Dolian made a command, and suddenly, the man we let go was thrown before us, bloody and beaten to the point he could hardly open his eyes.
” Bella’s amber gaze widens, mirroring the horror I felt then.
“He told them everything. Explained that it was Cade who wanted to free him. I tried to insist that he was lying, that it was me who let him slip through my fingers, but it didn’t matter.
” The man had sobbed his apologies as he was ordered to die at our hands.
I thought that might be the worst of it, but I was so terribly wrong.
“That day, I realized that our deviation had damned us, and so I vowed to never do so again.”
Silence in the wake of my words trickles in, and while a part of me wishes I wouldn’t have to speak this next part out loud, I know that there is no avoiding it.
“What happened?”
“Commander Miles spoke of having knowledge that Cade and I were great friends. I think he did it with the hope that the king would just kill us both, but he underestimated just how much my— Just how much the king hates me.” I blow out a breath at the near slip in my words, my heart suddenly pounding.
“King Dolian demanded justice for the slight of lying to his face. He ordered that Cade’s dominant hand be severed from his body so that he might never again work in the guard or any other job that could bring in decent coin.
” My eyes close, bile working up my throat as I remember how his screams echoed out into the room, permeating my soul with his agony.
“And he commanded that I be the one to do it.”