Chapter 209: Still A Coward.
~Raphael's POV~
I jumped up. I knew that tone; it was the sound of a man pushed beyond his breaking point.
I ran toward the courtyard, which serves as a training ground for the knights in charge of the royal family. What I saw when I arrived made my heart stop.
Caleb had a Mesodomica soldier by the throat, his grip so tight the man's face was turning purple. The soldier's feet barely touched the ground as my friend held him suspended in the air like a rag doll.
Caleb drew back his fist and threw the first punch with bone-crushing force. The sound of impact reverberated across the stone courtyard.
"Caleb, stop!" I shouted, rushing forward to grab his arm. "You're going to kill him!"
But Caleb shook me off with unnatural strength, his eyes blazing with a fury I'd rarely seen.
"You want to know what happened, Raphael?" he snarled, not taking his eyes off the gasping soldier. "These bastards were trying to flirt with Gemma. When she refused their advances, when she told them she wasn't interested, they decided to teach her a lesson."
My stomach dropped. "What do you mean?"
"They slapped her first," Caleb continued, his voice growing darker with each word. "Called her names, said she thought she was too good for them. But that wasn't enough. Four of them, four of these cowards, tried to rape her."
The words made me see red, and I started feeling a burning sensation within. It was a feeling I recognised all too well. "Gemma... is she..."
"I sensed everything through our mate bond," Caleb said, his voice breaking slightly. "Her fear, her pain, her desperation as she fought them off. I felt it all, Raphael. I felt her clawing at them, screaming for help while they held her down and none of the others said anything to help her."
I released the soldier Caleb had been choking, and the man stumbled backwards, gasping for air. But instead of showing remorse, he straightened up and spat blood at our feet.
"We're only giving back how your people treated our women," he wheezed, his voice filled with venom. "Your kind has taken everything from us, our lands, our dignity, our peace. Since you and your mate aren't part of us, you had to pay the price. She's just collateral damage."
"Collateral damage?" I repeated, my voice deadly quiet. "You call attempted rape collateral damage?"
The soldier's companion stepped forward, emboldened by his friend's words. "Your people have been terrorising ours for months since they found out about our return. What did you expect? That we'd just roll over and take it? Your friend's woman got what she deserved."
Something inside me snapped. All the restraint I'd built up over two months, all the patience I'd practised, all the hope I'd held for peace between our peoples, it all evaporated in that instant.
My claws shot out before I could think, and in one fluid motion, I separated the soldier's head from his shoulders.
The courtyard erupted in chaos. The remaining Mesodomica soldiers roared in outrage, their voices mixed with hatred and fear.
"Murderer!" one of them screamed. "You're nothing but a savage beast!"
"This is what your people really are!" another shouted. "Monsters pretending to be civilised!"
"No wonder your own kind took your throne !"
The rage built inside me with each of their insults ready to erupt.
When another soldier spat in my direction and called Gemma a "worthless whore who got what was coming to her," I lost all control. My claws found their mark again, and another life ended in a heartbeat.
That's when I saw her. Ava stood at the edge of the courtyard, but she wasn't looking at the fallen soldiers or the chaos around her.
She was looking at me, and her eyes burned with a rage that matched my own, except hers was directed at me.
"Ava," I called out, my voice hoarse from shouting Stop Caleb. "Let me explain what happened here..."
But she raised her hand, and I felt her powers. Before I could react, Gemma, who had been standing shakily near the training posts, was suddenly lifted off her feet and hurled backwards with tremendous force.
"Gemma!" I dove forward, catching her just before she would have slammed into the stone wall. She was unconscious, blood trickling from a cut on her forehead.
I looked up at Ava with all the betrayal I felt burning in my chest. "She's the victim here," I said coldly. "She's the one who was attacked, and you... You just..."
The crowd that had gathered began to cheer. They were cheering for Ava, celebrating what she'd done to an innocent woman who had already suffered enough. The sound made me sick.
Through our bond, the connection that still existed despite everything, I felt Ava's pain.
"You don't understand what's going on," I said, raising my voice so everyone could hear. "And I hope you know that what happened a millennium years ago was a mistake. A terrible, tragic mistake that I've regretted every day since."
I gestured toward the fallen soldiers, toward Gemma in my arms. "Your people were preying on an innocent woman. I had to intervene. I couldn't stand by and watch..."
A wind began to blow, shutting off my words. It carried with it a familiar energy, something that made my skin crawl with recognition that reminded me of Drogon's portal.
"I know this feeling," I whispered, and my blood ran cold.
The courtyard began to glow and shake. A circular ring opened, its edges shining with a blue light that hurt to look at directly. The first figure to step through made my heart stop.
" Grandmother," Ava whispered.
She looked exactly like Ava. Just an older, stricter version of her, although she doesn't look that aged.
Behind her, she dragged a chain, and at the end of it stumbled a figure I knew all too well. My nephew, Landon was being dragged out. Ahh... So Ava hasn't forgotten?
But they weren't alone. Following them through the portal came others, and I recognised each face with growing dread. Not for them, but I fear that my mate might never forgive me.
"Helena," I said, naming Ava's step-sisters as they emerged. "Annabelle. And their father, Landon's father."
The family that had torn everything apart. The family that had started this cycle of hatred and revenge for Ava. They were all here now, in the second realm.
Lorraine's cold gaze swept across the assembled crowd before settling on Ava. Her smile didn't reach her eyes as she spoke.
"Hello, granddaughter."
At the same time, another portal tore open nearby. Three men came out, their faces cold. They carried between them a woman who appeared to be unconscious. Her form was limp in their arms, long silver hair trailing almost to the ground.
Who is she? Again, I saw a resemblance to Ava. How is this possible? Could this be what I am thinking?
" Uncle right? Please save me," Landon cried out. I looked at him. "Please, I don't know them."
" Good to know you are still a coward."
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