Chapter 82: What had I done?
Raphael’s POV
The night smelled of blood. Blood, blood. Those were the only thoughts running through my mind. “ Kill them all!” Grey roared in my mind restlessly. The death of the assassin wasn't enough.
“ Kill them all! All the ones we smelled on him. They must die. Or I will kill everyone!” Grey snarled. Almost making me shift in the streets of Lystra.
“ Yes, kill them all,” I growled out. My mind foggy, not recognizing anything I am saying.
The smell of blood clung to my skin, sank into my claws, filled the air with its stench. My mind was a haze of fury, a storm that refused to calm.
“ Kill them, all.* Grey and I murmured. I ignored the frightened gazes people were throwing my way.
All I could think about is how they had tried to take Ava from me. They had sent a man into my chambers, my palace. Had dared to stain my territory with their treachery.
It wasn't bad enough that the witch clan had dared to make a move on my mate under my very nose, now, my ministers, they had dared!
And for that, they would die. Every single one of them I smelled on that assassin.
I found the first one in his estate, surrounded by his hoes, drinking wine and frolicking. The idiot wasn't scared of me.
No, he had found a false sense of safety wrapped around him like a shadow. For someone that had guts to harm my woman. He sure is a fool.
His guards had been nothing. They fell before they even realized death had come for them. I would have left them. But they had attacked me first, so of course, I gave them what they wanted.
The minister, Lord Halvor, stood frozen, his lips trembling. His wife ran out of their estate and clutched his arm, her eyes wide with terror. To think, this idiot would deliberately cheat on his mate in her very presence.
Well, I am doing her favour.
“Y-Your Majesty,” he stammered, stepping back, his heel catching on the edge of a chair. He fell to his knees, his hands raised in surrender. “Please! Please, have mercy!” The smell of urine fills the air and I look down to see the idiot drenched in his urine.
“Mercy?” The word felt foreign in my mouth right at that moment.
He began to weep, his body shaking violently. “I have children, Your Majesty! A family! They need me!” The one you were cheating on. My gaze fell on the shivering women that were rubbing on him, before I came in.
“So did she,” I said darkly, my voice a deadly whisper. “Ava needed to live. She needed to live for me. But you tried to take that from her.”
I grabbed him by the throat, lifting him with ease. He kicked and thrashed, his face turning red, then purple as he struggled for breath. I watched still not satiated as I saw life slowly drain from his body.
His wife screamed. “Please! Spare him! He’s just a servant of the court, he had no choice! It was the others, they forced him…” so she knew. My eyes fell on her and I met her gaze as I crushed his throat.
Bones cracked under my grip. The light in his eyes faded as his body twitched once, then went limp. “ Not enough,” Grey roared. “ Kill her. She knew.” I just ignored Grey.
I let the corpse drop. A useless sack of flesh.
The wife sobbed, clutching at his body. The children peeked from the doorway, their faces pale, too scared to cry.
I turned away. If I looked any longer, I might begin to feel something.
I couldn't afford that. Not now. They all deserve to die.
The next one, Lord Dorian, ran.
He must have heard about Halvor. He had left his home, fled into the forests beyond the castle walls, thinking the night would protect him.
He was wrong. I was night itself.
I stalked him through the darkness, my eyes locked onto his trembling form as he stumbled over roots and rocks, his breath constricted, his desperation choking him.
He turned suddenly, his face drenched in sweat, unable to run anymore.
“Please! I will leave the kingdom! I will vanish! You’ll never see me again, I swear it!” To think, he was foolish enough to beg. I heard he was the mastermind from Halvor before died.
I didn’t stop. I just stalked him, slowly and watched him crawl back on his knees. Tears streamed down his face.
“I have gold,” he choked out, still crawling backward. “I have lands, name your price, Your Majesty! I will give you everything!” I just scoffed. Wealth? Does he know I have everything?
“Everything?” I asked sarcastically. A slow smile curved my lips, cold and humorless. “Then give me your life.”
He turned to run again, but I was faster.
I caught him by the hair, yanking him back. His scream echoes through the night. My claws sank into his stomach, tearing through his skin, flesh, and muscle.
Warmth splattered against my face as he gasped in shock, his body jerking violently.
I let him fall, watching as he tried to hold his insides together with shaking hands.
His mouth moved, lips forming words I couldn’t hear. Prayers, maybe. Or curses. It didn’t matter.
I stepped over him and moved on. Going for my next target. Lord Mikhail. He begged the most. Was the loudest among them. Funny how they kept offering me wealth.
Mikhail fell to his knees before I even entered his chambers, his face smeared with tears, his body hunched in pathetic submission. Showing me his neck. A sign of submission. Too late for that.
“Your Majesty,” he sobbed. “I have always been loyal to you! I only did what I thought was right for the kingdom! I was deceived! Tricked! Please, I beg you…”
I said nothing.
He kept talking. Words, words, useless words.
I grabbed his hand and snapped his fingers back one by one.
His screams filled the chamber.
“I know you hired the assassin,” I murmured. “I could smell you on his body, the most.”
“I-I only…”
I twisted his arm. Another scream.
I was not in my senses. I was not thinking. I was only feeling. And all I felt was rage.
He tried to crawl away. I let him. It was pathetic to watch. He dragged himself across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind.
Then, with a swift motion, I tore his head from his body.
It rolled across the floor, stopping at the feet of his wife and son, who had just stepped into the room.
The boy opened his mouth to scream.
I vanished before I could hear it. I kept going.
One by one, I hunted them down.
Some pleaded, some ran, some fought. It didn’t matter. They all died the same.
By the time the night was over, I had drowned the kingdom in blood. All twenty-one out of my two hundred ministers, dead.
And when I finally returned to the castle, when I finally stood before Ava again, something inside me cracked.
The madness that had carried me through the night vanished like a tide pulling back from the shore. And what it left behind was... An empty void.
I stumbled to the edge of the bed, gripping the mattress for support. My hands, Goddess, my hands, were still stained with the blood of my own people.
I had done this.
I had become the monster they feared.
I buried my face in my palms, my breath shuddering.
What had I done?
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