Page 77 of Crown of Chaos

“When did he do this?” Killian asked. Hope flashed in her eyes, and she exhaled.

“Right after Liliana’s funeral rites, brother.” She whimpered, flicking her gaze to me before turning it back on Killian. “Knox dragged me into his chamber and forced himself on me, even though I begged for him to stop.” Celia searched the surrounding faces, finding no one willing to save her.

“You know that I was aware of you entering his bed chamber after he’d gone to bed, right?” Killian asked, watching the anger fill her eyes. “I am his eyes and his ears when he’s disposed, Celia. I am aware of every female who passed the threshold to his chambers. It is my fucking job to protect my king from his enemies. You tried to convince Knox he’d slept with you, but he couldn’t have. Knox had already passed out from drinking, and I was the one to tuck his ass into bed that night. In the morning, I was the one who found him still dressed and still tucked in to his fucking bed. I thought you’d merely checked on him until you began spreading rumors of your wicked night spent in the arms of the king. Did you never wonder why those rumors never caught fire and spread? Because I’m the king’s fucking security and protection against poisonous, lying bitches like you!”

“Then you failed!” she snarled. “I was defiled, and told if I ever whispered a rumor of what happened in his chamber, that he would make sure no one believed me. He took my maidenhead and raped me brutally!”

“Are you that fucking stupid?” Killian snarled, laughing coldly while he peered at her through narrow, angry slits. “Did you forget you fucked half of the staff at our keep? You couldn’t have been a maiden. If you were, I wouldn’t have had to hear my staff pleading to be sent elsewhere to escape my scandalizing sister, who forced them to worship her as if she’d already been crowned queen. My God, Celia, what the fuck happened to you that turned you into this selfish, twisted bitch that lies, and betrays those who are closest to her?”

“You bastard! I hate you, Killian. I always have, and I always will!”

“Enough, no one here cares to hear your spiteful words. You made a deal with Hecate, and now you’ll die because of that choice,” I informed coolly. Her eyes widened, giving me pause as she opened her mouth.

“It wasn’t Hecate,” she whispered. “Her name was Haora, and she claimed to be Hecate’s first-born daughter. She was the same witch who tended to our mother and the other ladies of the court when they suffered hysterics. I know it was the same one, because she used to treat me, too!”

“What did she look like?” I questioned, observing her.

“She had midnight hair and one blue eye, one green eye. Dark ink-colored runes covered both of her hands, starting right before her nails and moved up her arms in strange writing. She often talked nonsense the entire time we were forced to wait for her to finish the amulet. It was her who came to the palace wanting me to do more. I refused, but I explained how well that played out.”

“More what?” I asked carefully.

“Access to you and to the kingdom,” she admitted, hope slowly growing in her gaze.

“The witch you made a deal with wasn’t the one the palace kept in the cottage. I know, because she was the first witch I murdered after the news of our parents deaths reached me. The only witch who is powerful enough to possess, or use magic against your bloodline and mine? Hecate, which means you’re complicit in your crimes, and you will pay for them. Say goodbye to Killian, Celia. I’m giving you a chance to offer him last words, so take it. Do the right thing for once in your pathetic lifetime.”

“You think this’ll end it? They have eyes everywhere. They’re already inside the palace. Any time I refused to do their bidding, someone would place dead ravens on my bed. You can use me to figure out who it was,” she stated, her eyes pleading as she moved them from one male to the next. “I am still receiving threats when I don’t do as she wants.”

“Maybe it was one of thefiftywitches you slaughtered on your way out? The one’s Gideon visited right before he marched into the library and used an enhanced blade to sever his fucking head from his shoulders?” Lore’s words were full with malice and hate. The gold flecks in his eyes had spread, and pain he struggled to hide flitted over his face before he concealed it behind the mask I’d trained him to hold in place.

I loathed her just a bit more for forcing him to feel the pain of losing a brother all over again. Tightening my grip on the hilt of my blade, I swallowed hard. I was about to end the life of the sister of my friend.

“I didn’t kill any witches. They placed a letter in my chamber. It said I’d been discovered, so I ran. I couldn’t have killed the witches, because I’d left already.”

“And how the fuck would you know when it happened?” Brander asked with a frosty chill, layering his question.

“I heard it,” she admitted. “I can hear them whispering in my head. I think they did something to me, something bad. I’m spelled, or something?”

“Let’s go with something,” Killian stated softly, his eyes watery with the tears he refused to cry for the treacherous bitch he’d raised.

“Killian, look away,” I ordered.

“No,” he whispered as he shook his head, jaw clenched so tightly I could see the muscles straining.

“That’s an order from your kingandfriend. Look away.”

“Knox,” Celia whispered through trembling lips.

“Look away, Killian,” I repeated, turning back to the traitor. “Celia, I find you guilty of treason and sentence you to death,” I declared, as hatred continued to burn in her eyes.

I’d promised Killian her death would be swift and painless. My mercy wasn’t for her, and had she been anyone else, she would have been strung up and hung from the walls for Gideon’s death. Celia deserved a painful death for any of the multiple acts of treason she’d committed against the kingdom.

“No!” she screamed as I lifted my blade, but my hands didn’t hesitate, and my strike was sure and swift, removing her head as my stomach tightened with resentment that she’d forced me to make this choice. Her body dropped to the ground, and I slid a glance to Killian, who peered down at his sister’s lifeless body.

“Killian,” I uttered, but he backed up, shaking his head.

“I need a fucking moment.” He turned away to head toward where we’d left the warhorses.

“Brander, follow him and make certain he returns home,” I instructed in a hushed tone. “Callista is in the clearing a little way from here, severed into two pieces. Retrieve her and bring her back to the palace, Lore. I’ll see that Celia’s placed into their family tomb,” I muttered, scrubbing my hand down my face with exhaustion.

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