CHAPTER 57 - The Price
The moment her head rolled from the scaffold, something inside me cracked open. Violent and merciless. Images flooded my mind, sharp as glass, tearing through me one after another.
Every life.
Every single one.
I remembered them all.
A sound tore from my throat, raw and excruciating. It ripped through the air, silencing the roaring crowd in an instant. My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the scaffold, the world spinning, collapsing in on itself.
"NO!" I screamed, my voice breaking. "NO, NO, NO!"
Soldiers backed away, fear flashing in their eyes as I clawed toward her. Toward the woman I had yet again failed.
Ser Bastian reached out.
"Your Majesty, what—"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" I roared, the sound laced with thorns. The vines around the platform quivered as if they, too, felt my rage.
Then I gathered Raine's body into my arms as her blood soaked my armor. It was still warm... She was still warm... I pressed my forehead to her chest, shaking as sobs wracked my soul.
It was only ever once she already died that I remembered our lives. Every. Time. A cruel trick played by that cunning elf... And then I'd have to go back and make the deal all over again.
Except this time, it was over... I had used all one thousand lives.
There would be no more chances.
No more Raine.
I held her tighter, her lifeless weight pressing down on me until I thought I would break.
Then the sobs stopped.
The storm inside me stilled, replaced by something cold. Something final.
It would not end like this.
I would not let it.
The price would be steep... The price would destroy me and my empire... But I would pay it.
Slowly, I lifted my head, my eyes burning with something inhuman. I turned toward Bastian, my voice low and edged with death.
"Prepare a riding party," I ordered. "We ride back to Dornhold."
Even if it meant becoming a monster...
I would bring her back.