RIVER 'S REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 4

Morina

My blood ran cold inside my veins. Alpha River had a sinister smile as he stared at me.

“How did you know?” I managed to say.

How did he know I was going to escape? How did he know I was going to use this particular route? This human-sized hole on the wall that only I and Ciara… knew about.

A sense of realisation washed over my being.

“It seems like you already know the answer to your question,” Alpha River said.

I ground my teeth. I’ve been played for a fool so many times now that I didn’t even know who to project my anger towards.

“It’s not like you expected I would sit down prettily and wait for execution.” I bit out boldly, finding my backbone.

I was raised to be confident in all my doings. I couldn’t shed off my arrogance, even in the face of certain death.

“Who said I was going to execute you?” Alpha River asked slowly as he stood up from his chair.

“Y-You’re not?”

He didn’t answer my question. He only began making his way towards me slowly, like an intimidating predator going in for a kill.

My eyes darted left and right to search for a gap in the formation of soldiers surrounding me, but I couldn’t find one.

Fuck.

“Why would I do such a thing?” Alpha River said, less than a metre away from me. My confusion was displayed on my face as I stared at him.

“You see, I like being entertained,” he began saying. “And with the way you are able to fool both yourself and the people around you, I have a feeling that keeping you around will be very entertaining.”

What a sicko…

Just as I was about to tell him that I’d rather face execution, he made a signal with his finger. I was immediately restrained by four of his soldiers and forced to get on my knees.

“But in order to keep myself and everyone else around me safe, I have to make you harmless.” Alpha River said.

“What is that supposed to me- arrgh!”

Someone tightened a rope around my mouth to prevent me from speaking further. The only sounds I could make became, “Grrr, grr, grrr.”

Alpha River placed a hand on my head and patted it twice before saying, “Behave gently, now. Growling and thrashing all over the place is not exactly ‘Crown Princess-like.’”

I thrashed even more, trying to get his filthy hand off me, but I was unsuccessful. His hand remained on the top of my head. He even had the audacity to let it slide down to my face and caress my cheek.

I glared at him hard, swearing to myself that I would make him regret demeaning me in such a manner.

I didn’t know if he had read my thoughts, but he immediately retracted his hand and backed away from me.

“You can come out now,” he said to no one in particular.

I grew silent as I waited to see who he was talking to. A moment passed before a short person wearing a dark cloak emerged from the forest. Once the person got closer, I recognized her immediately.

This was one of the witches I had been to when I was looking for someone to teach me how to use dark magic years ago. She had rejected me. But now… here she was.

“You know what to do, Ingrid,” Alpha River said to her, and she nodded her head in understanding.

My gaze bounced from him to her, and it dawned me what they were about to do. I immediately began thrashing once again, using all of my might to struggle.

The soldiers tightened their hold on me and even went as far as to press me down to the ground. But I didn’t stop struggling.

Ingrid ignored my display and knelt down on the ground. She began chanting in the ancient language of witches. Being someone with little knowledge of it, I could understand a few of her words.

I was able to decipher the words, “seal”, “bind”, and “obey” from her chanting.

I screamed through the rope tied to my mouth and extinguished every single drop of strength in me to escape. But still, it wasn’t enough.

At the end of Ingrid’s chanting, her thumb made contact with my forehead, and I felt like my entire being was being squeezed to death.

The pain didn’t last for long as it was replaced with the feeling of being released, only to be bound once more. But this time, the pain was only restricted to my left collarbone.

Ingrid stood up from the ground after that and turned to Alpha River, saying, “It is done.”

A smile made its way to his lips as he told her, “Thank you. I’ll be sure to repay this favour in due time.”

Ingrid nodded and disappeared into the forest once more. After that, Alpha River returned his attention to me and waved his soldiers off.

Two of them came off me, and the remaining two eased their grip.

“Ah… now, you won’t be able to use your little tricks to deceive me or anyone else,” he remarked, then he reached for me.

I snarled at him, but that didn’t stop him from ripping off the sleeve of my dress aggressively. I looked away in shame.

This disgusting man… just what was he trying to do?

I got my answer when his finger traced an R shape on my collarbone. I turned back to look at him and what he was doing, only to see that the letter R had been brandished to my skin with dark ink.

R for River.

I gave him a look that said, “How dare you?”

To this, he smiled.

“Now, you belong to me. Because of this mark, you will do whatever I ask of you. If you try to escape or disobey me, even slightly, that would mark the beginning of your suffering.” Alpha River explained.

I scoffed internally. I just had kill myself the second these soldiers let go of me. Problem solved. Dying would be better than living a life that was under the grace of my enemy.

“You can’t kill yourself,” Alpha River said, seeming to read my mind. “You won’t even be able to. You’re restricted from causing your self harm. And restricted from doing the same to me and anyone else under me.”

What the hell? Why would he do such a thing? Why would he want to torment me in such a disrespectful way?

“So, what do you think about that, Princess?” Alpha River taunted, then went ahead to undo the rope tied to my mouth.

“Why!?” I yelled the second the rope came off.

“Why not?” he responded with an icy tone.

“I haven’t done any wrong towards you. Why are you doing all of this? Why did you take my Empire away from me? What do you want?” I asked, locking down my urge to tear up.

Since the beginning of his tyrannical reign three years ago, I’ve been asking myself this question. Why was he doing all of this? Why did he suddenly wake up one day and decided to paint the Empire with blood so he could reign over it?

Why was he so obsessed with becoming the Emperor of Vinory? Why did he harm so many people just to sit on a throne that didn’t even belong to him?

To my train of questions, Alpha River only replied to me with a single sentence:

“I want it all.”

I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t, leaving me in a limbo of confusion.

“And you think I’m just going to let you have it all? In your dreams! One day, maybe not today, but I swear, I will make you pay for all that you’ve done to me and my Empire.” I swore before him and the goddess above.

Alpha River regarded my words with a smile, saying, “I’d like to see you try.”

Just then, a newcomer arrived at the scene and whispered something into Alpha River’s ears, then disappeared away.

Whatsoever new information he was given brightened up his being as he looked up to the night sky and said:

“How very interesting…”