CH 4: The Rebel 1
828 Words
Kael froze, for the first time since the blade had pierced her flesh, Ivy walked away from him. Her back straight, unyielding and resolute.
She did not look back…not even once.
Something ugly twisted in Kael's chest. His fingers tightened around the danger, his knuckles whitened, revealing the fury he was barely containing.
He had expected her to collapse, broken, shattered and pleading for mercy with tears, or better still defend herself of those accusations.
But she walked away, as if he no longer mattered.
As if his hatred meant nothing.
His jaw tightened, as fury flashed across his eyes before sinking into something colder, and darker.
“ Run,” he muttered under his breath, his voice edged with venom.“ Go and try to save him.”
A cruel smile slowly curved his lips.“ I'll make sure you watch him die.”
Yet, even as he said it, his gaze lingered on her disappearing figure –on the woman who had once looked at him as if he were her most important treasure.
And for some reasons he refused to acknowledge, the sight of her walking away felt like a blade buried in his chest.
“Master.” A shadow guard, one of Karl’s secretly trained men, appeared before him, bowing in greeting.
“Is it done?”
“Yes, Master.”
Karl’s gaze dropped to the floor, the place where Ivy had stood, now stained with her blood.
Memories of their tender moments flickered through his mind, a cruel reminders of what they once shared, though one-sided, or so he thought.
He closed his eyes,his fist tightening as if to crush the emotions within.
“Hmm.”
Silence ensued between them.
Then, with a voice sharpened by resolve, Karl commanded as he strode toward the palace hall, “Assemble the secret guards.”
His sister’s peace had been delayed for too long. Tonight, he needed to put an end to it.
“Yes, Master,” the shadow guard whispered before vanishing into the dark.
---
The palace hall was decorated almost to perfection.
Every detail reflected careful dedication, fit for a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Ceremonial wedding flowers adorned the hall, mixed with sapphire blue to match the couple’s attire.
But what shattered the aesthetic was this:
Instead of two lovers bound together in union, with laughter and merriment filling the air, the hall pulsed with tension and trepidation.
Armed rebel forces surrounded the hall, their weapons raised, The ruler of the Elarion Kingdom, King Austin Laurent Vance, stood at the center, besieged on all sides, with rebel blades and spears pointed directly at him.
“You”
King Austin stared at his own soldiers raising their blades against him— their king, then at his council of ministers now standing shoulder to shoulder with the rebels, joining hands with the rebels of the previous dynasty to besiege him.
“What is the meaning of this?” King Austin demanded. “Have all of you gone mad?!”
Fury burned in his expression, yet it did nothing to dim his striking presence. His black hair was tied neatly behind him, his gaze sharp and blazing, yet it still carried the compassion that had once earned his people's trust.
“Are you all staging a coup?” he asked, his eyes sweeping over the ministers before settling on the former prime minister of the previous dynasty. “Is this your doing, Mr. Zhaeroth?”
“Oh? You’re mistaken, my king, or should I say, Austin Laurent Vance,” Mr. Zhaeroth Thornton said mockingly, delight gleaming in his eyes. “You won’t be king for long.”
He watched King Austin’s predicament with open satisfaction.
The siblings who had ruined decades of his careful planning , there was no way he would let them walk away.
Death was the only ending he had prepared for them.
Mr. Zhaeroth Thornton, the former prime minister under King Laurent Vance of the previous dynasty, had spent years weaving influence through every corner of the government, feeding his hunger for power.
He was a notorious schemer who had once pulled the former king’s strings with ease, until the throne slipped beyond his grasp.
“King Austin Laurent Vance, you are hereby charged with the murder of King Laurent Vance, the former ruler of the Elarion Kingdom, and the murder of his beloved wife, Concubine Susan Blackwood, and the murder of their child—committed in your bid to seize the throne. ”
“You and your sister, Ivy Laurent Vance, are hereby placed under arrest for the murder of the former king.”
Huh?!
King Austin wondered what was going on.
“Don’t go too far, Mr. Zhaeroth Thornton,” King Austin rebuked coldly, fury blazing in his eyes.
“Tsk… soldiers,” Mr. Zhaeroth Thornton called sharply.
“Yes, Master!” the soldiers responded in unison.
“Seize the rebellious king,” Mr. Zhaeroth ordered. “Restore peace to the kingdom.”
- Writer
