Draven was unconsciously dragged between the last two guards’ arms.
He was thrown on the ground at Rhaif’s chair, and his chains were wrapped around the stone legs of it. The guards left him and filed back out the same door. She watched as they came to stand in the gallery above the open room.
Aydra’s chest constricted with seeing him again, his hair cut short to his head, the lashings on his back. She struggled against the rope bindings despite herself.
“Draven,” Aydra managed. “Draven, can you hear me?”
He stirred just slightly, head moving around on the stone as though he were drunk. His palms pressed to the cold floor. She heard him grunting as he pushed himself up to his knees.
And then she saw the realization of where he was grace his features.
“Aydra—” He yanked on the chains, desperation in his widened eyes. “Aydra, no—”
Tears streaked her face as the doors at the back of the room opened once more.
The Council filed in, followed by her brother.
And then finally her youngers.
With Lex bringing up the end.
Aydra struggled against her bindings at the sight of Nyssa’s sobbing face and Lex attempting to hold herself together. “No—No, Lex! Get them out of here! Take care of them!” she shouted. “Don’t—”
“They will watch their traitorous sister burn with the rest of us,” said one of the Council members. “Watch what happens when you betray the crown.”
“Enough,” Rhaif said, coming around to the front. He paused in front of Draven. “Venari King on his knees, void of the shroud of hair he so called his crown.” Rhaif pushed his hands behind his back, chest puffing out proudly. “I always knew this day would come.”
“Coward,” Draven spat.
The back of Rhaif’s hand seared across Draven’s face.
“You will watch her burn, Venari. This is all because of you. This is your fault,” Rhaif hissed.
Draven spat the blood from his mouth onto the ground. “Long live my Queen,” he breathed.
Rhaif’s jaw tightened so that the veins in his neck popped to the surface. He pulled his sword from his belt and struck Draven across the cheek again, making him fall to the ground.
With a final huff, Rhaif handed his sword to Bard, and he stepped to the edge of the pool directly in front of Aydra.
“Last words, my sister,” he asked of her.
Her nostrils flared at the sight of him standing there, injured yet proud, in front of her. She swallowed hard, begging her voice to be loud enough so that they could all hear her.
“I hope you remember the days we played together,” she started shakily, her chest beginning to heave. “I hope you remember all the times we laughed. The times we cried. When we loved each other… I hope those beautiful moments haunt you for the rest of the cursed days you walk this land. I hope the sounds of myscreamsfill your ears when you sleep, and that every time you use your fire on another that all you see is my face in the flames. For every time you burned me. For every time you raped me. For every time you told me it was the last. For every promise that you didn’t keep. And when the day comes that someone does finally end your life, I hope they do it with as little mercy as you showed your loving sister. Your sister who was put to death for simply falling in love with someone who wasn’tyou.”
The words seethed from her lips, and she felt her body tremble violently, saliva dripping from her mouth. Rhaif’s eye glistened, and she could see the flame rising up from his core.
“Burn her,” came his final words.
Aydra’s core emptied itself of its void.
The council filed out one by one. The doors closed behind Rhaif. Aydra could see them lining up to the next level above the Throne Room as the Belwarks had done before. Lex wrapped her arms around both Dorian and Nyssa, and then she held up a tightened fist to the sky. Aydra saw the ring on Lex’s finger, and Lex gave her a slow nod.
“Aydra—”
Her gaze averted from down to Draven’s struggling figure. His eyes pleaded with her as he sat full up on his knees, struggling once more against the chains. She could see his chest heaving up and down, and he swallowed hard.
“From once a wind—”
