Page 183 of Devious Knight

The nightmare is over. I can wake up now. I don’t have to live in the darkness anymore.

I have so much to live for now. I got my parents back and I found the girl of my dreams.

Having the life I want with Isabelle Kolyav is next on my list.

Because she was always mine.

Chapter 43

Isabelle

At ten o’clock on Monday morning everyone gathers at Raventhorn Hall in the trial room. Like the Court of Nephilim it is used for trials and executions, but this room is reserved for leaders who have committed crimes against the Knights.

As such this is one of the only exceptions where the entire student body has been invited into Raventhorn Hall. The rules are normally that you can only enter if you’re a Knight or married to one.

I would have loved the chance to admire the place because it’s absolutely stunning. But all attention is taken up by Parker as he’s carried out before us in chains. The guards set him to kneel on the ground before Aleksander and the Knights’ council, who are sitting at the head of the room under the colossal statue of Raventhorn.

Parker is the shortest serving Lord Chancellor of the school. He’s also the only one in history to be in this position. He will be executed today according to the old laws.

I’m sitting next to Dad who also can’t take his eyes off Parker. I think that if Parker wasn’t being executed, Dad would have killed him himself. I wish he’d gotten the chance to. I wish I had gotten the chance myself.

Like how Kade killed Nikoli. I knew he had Dmitri take me away because he didn’t want me to see him kill that way.

This will do for me. For justice.

At least it’s happening. It doesn’t matter who gets to end Parker as long as it’s done.

Kade is with his parents at the front of the hall. Seeing them together is the only thing within these stone walls that warms my heart.

I met them briefly yesterday. Kade wanted to introduce us. He actually introduced me as his girlfriend. We haven’t even spoken about us yet. We’re meeting tomorrow, but I don’t need to talk anything out to know I want to be with him.

He’s the one thing I’m sure of in my life.

Aleksander clears his throat and an extra layer of silence descends on the room.

“Parker Cornelius Federov, you have been called before us today to answer for your crimes,” Aleksander begins. “We as the Knights council take these charges very seriously. You have broken the Oath and the vows you promised to live by as a Knight. As such we have agreed that the punishment should match accordingly.”

While Parker hangs his head, looking like a shadow of his former self, Aleksander proceeds to read the charges.

He sounds like a judge in a normal court of law. But this is not like that.

Aleksander lists fifty different charges and to each one Parker pleads guilty.

When they reach Mom’s murder and he pleads guilty the wound in my heart grows, hurting more than when he confessed nights ago. It feels more real today.

But the darkness shifts from my soul. The heavy burden I carried all these years loosens and I feel that lightness of hope I always felt when my mother was alive. I want to believe that she’s sitting here with us soothing me and allowing the truth to set me free.

She’s not screaming in my head anymore. Instead I see her smiling as she created art and loved her favorite people.

Dad and me.

Moments later parker is executed.

I look away, not wanting to start my new path with the remnants of darkness clinging to my mind.

This is enough. Now I feel that justice has been served.

Butterflies flap around in my stomach as Kade walks through my door.

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