Chapter 166: The one I once loved.
~ Raphael's POV~
Before I could hear Drogon's answer about time, Alasia's laughter breaks our connection. I gazed at her to see the reason for her laughter but then I realized, it wasn't a good one.
Gods, I hate this woman. I never thought a day like that would ever come in my life, considering how much I once loved her.
"Oh, Isla," Alasia said, her voice dripping with mock pity. "You pitiful, foolish woman. Did you really think I would keep my word?"
Isla's face went pale. She took a step back, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. "But... but you promised. I did everything you asked. I brought them here, just like you wanted."
"Yes, you did," Alasia said, circling around Isla like a predator stalking its prey before they finishes them. "You led them through that cursed forest. You made them trust you. You played your part perfectly. But did you honestly believe I would reward you for it?"
"My son," Isla whispered, her voice breaking. "You said you would send my son away from this place. You said you would free him."
Alasia's laughter grew louder, echoing off the stone walls. "Free him? Oh, my dear, sweet, stupid Isla. Your son was never captured."
The words made Isla paled further. She has always been a pale one, now she was no different from snow.
Isla staggered backward as if she had been smacked. "What... what do you mean?"
"I mean," Alasia said, her voice now deadly serious, "that your precious boy came to me willingly. He walked into my domain with his own two feet, driven by greed and ambition, well, I just throw morsels of the things I can do in the streets and he bought it." She shakes her fingers as if removing sand or dust.
Isla shook her head violently. "No. No, that's not true. He would never..."
"Wouldn't he?" Alasia's smile was cruel and knowing. "Let me tell you the truth about your son, Isla. The truth you've been too blind to see."
I watched in horror as the woman I thought dead, a thousand years ago continues to cause havoc and pain to people.
"Your son came to me months ago," Alasia continued, pacing in front of Isla like a cat playing with a mouse, taking some strands of her hair between her hands. "He didn't come as a prisoner. He came as a willing partner. Do you know what he wanted?"
Isla's face was as white as snow. She could barely speak. "What?"
"Power," Alasia said simply. "He wanted his father's throne. He wanted to be king. And I promised it to him."
"No," Isla gasped. "He wouldn't... he's just a boy. Barely eighteen hundred."
" Hmm... you are right. However, your son is a boy with a man's hunger for power," Alasia corrected. "A boy who was tired of waiting for his father to die. A boy who saw an opportunity and took it." She shrugs her shoulders.
Caleb and Gemma exchanged shocked glances. I could see the horror on their faces as they realized what Alasia was saying.
"Your son made a deal with me," Alasia went on, clearly enjoying Isla's pain. "He agreed to help me destroy both his parents. Both his mother and his father. He was willing to betray everyone he had ever loved for the promise of a crown."
Isla fell to her knees, her hands covering her face. "It can't be true. He's my child. My only child. You did something to him. He wouldn't do that. What did you do to my son?!" She suddenly screams leaping for Alasia.
Alasia just laughs and continues dodging her attempts to touch her.
"Your child who planned to kill you," Alasia said without mercy. "Your child who saw you as nothing more than an obstacle to overcome. He came to me with a plan, Isla. A beautiful, terrible plan. I never forced him. I don't force people. My services are out there and if it aligns with what they want, they come to me. Simple and nothing else."
"What plan?" I found myself asking, too curious to mind my business.
Alasia turned her cold gaze toward me. "Oh, the plan was quite simple, really. First, he would help me capture you, my dear Raphael. Then, while I was busy with you, he would kill his father, Nordic. After that, he planned to kill me as well. With both parents dead, he would go to battle against your kingdom and take it."
The chamber fell silent except for Isla's quiet sobbing.
"But here's the truly delicious part," Alasia continued, her voice filled with dark pleasure. "He never loved you, Isla. Not really. Do you want to know what he called you when he spoke to me? He called you weak. He called you a fool. He said you were too stupid to rule, too gentle to make the hard choices that kings must make. He played you cleverly. Made you think, you would be king until he is of age after you both killed Nordic. I wondered what that fine man might have done to you?" Alasia starts humming to herself truly satisfied with her evil work.
"Stop," Isla whispered. "Please, stop."
"He laughed when I told him my plan to use you," Alasia pressed on mercilessly. "He thought it was funny that his own mother would be the one to deliver his enemies to me. He said it would serve you right for being so trusting."
I felt sick listening to this. Even though Isla deserved this treatment, seeing her broken like this was hard to watch. No mother should have to hear such things about her child.
"Where is he now?" Isla asked through her tears. "Where is my son?"
Alasia's smile became glowy. "Oh, he's very close. Much closer than you think. In fact, he's been watching this whole conversation."
She clapped her hands once. From the corner at the far end of the chamber, a figure stepped forward. He was young, maybe eighteen or nineteen hundred years old. He had Isla's dark hair but none of her kindness in his eyes. Instead, his gaze was cold and calculating.
"Hello, Mother," the young man said, his voice flat and emotionless. "Did you like my surprise?"
Isla looked up at her son, her face streaked with tears. "Marcus? Oh, my baby, I thought... I thought she had hurt you."
Marcus laughed, and the sound was almost as cruel as Alasia's had been. "Hurt me? She's been teaching me. Teaching me how to be strong. How to take what I want instead of waiting for it to be given to me."
"But I did all of this for you," Isla cried. "I betrayed them for you. I led them here to save you."
"You did it because you're weak," Marcus said coldly. "Just like Father always said. Too weak to see that I didn't need saving."
"Now," Alasia said, clapping her hands together, "that we've cleared up that little misunderstanding, we can move on to more important matters."
She turned toward me, her eyes gleaming with joy "The real fun is about to begin."
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