"And where are you going?" Zharus lets his eyes fall over the burning castle with me, his panic settling just enough to get his own mind right.
I chew over the thought of whether or not I should tell him. I've let him keep his secrets, and for far too fucking long because I always knew that I was never going to take being the king too seriously to demand the things my father did from people he should trust. But this is not a matter of secrecy. This is a matter of fixing what I fucking started and further protecting the one person who didn't deserve what I did to her.
Pushing all of my thoughts of my own needs aside, I decide it's time to put someone else first.
"I'm going to find my wife."
2
to kill a black widow
Rivian
Groans and faded cries resound against the walls of the bloodied hallway that lead me to the main room of the Gilded Hollow. I already know the mess I'm going to be met with before I see it. The smell of blood is the tell as I make my way to the second door.
When I open the door, the metallic scent wafts under my nose making my eyes shift in hunger.
I look around at the bodies lining the floor, wondering if she's even realized what she's done.
I walk further into the room, the disco lights from the ceiling creating a disturbingly ethereal effect against the shine of the thick, crimson liquid that layers the floor, the chairs, the tables, and the walls; splattered like stars in the sky.
Faded music echoes in the hollow of the night as I make my way to the bar top where my wife sits rather eloquently, herfingers tracing the tops of a glass cup, her back to me and her heart beating at a slow and calculated pace.
"Have you come to join the party,Husband?" Her tone is dark, twisted, and cruel as she keeps her eyes trained ahead.
As I approach, I see blood seeping into her clothes; her white dress now riddled with the evidence of what she's done, and I have to admit that I have never seen anything more inhumane yet captivating all in the same breath.
"Party's over, Lucynda." Puddles of red liquid squelch under my feet as I walk up to my wife. I look down seeing a head completely severed from its body, likely somewhere piled in the center of the room with the other Outsiders she seemingly ate through. "I think it's time you come home and-"
"And what, Rivian? Talk?" She chuckles demonically. "Let's talk. This is what you wanted, is it not?"
Part of me feels conflicted with what I'm witnessing. She has every right to feel anger but that's not what I detect in her. I sense that right now, she feels nothing at all. The curse she's been plagued with is taking over her humanity and that's what I fear the most. Soon there will be nothing left of her except the shell of the monster I created and I can't let that happen.
Though I won't lie. I grew obsessed with Lucynda when she was broken and hollowed by the loss of love, only for me to deny her of the same in order to get her where I needed her. But the idea that she might be so destroyed at my own betrayal, and the way her hunger seems to have devoured her in the most visceral way, creates a craving inside of me that begs for her to let her demons go. Rebel with me. Let our darkness intertwine together and enjoy the luxury of being so villainous, the world has only us to fear. The way her eyes glow reflects my own desires; strength in bloodlust and power.
And maybe I would have wanted that, maybe I would have enjoyed it and encouraged it. But something shifts inside me,looking back at the girl I once drew from the shadows to fulfill my own selfish needs in more ways than one. I am hurting her and I know all too well how that feels.
"You have to understand, Cyn-"
"Oh, I understand, Rivian." She cuts me off, her tone dripping with a maniacal calm, stirring unease inside me. "TheDark Princewanted a queen who could breathe seamlessly in the wake of revenge." She turns her head to look at me, her silvery eyes exuding with the chaos of lavender, caressed by dark swirls. Her white hair drenched in the same colored liquid that drips from the corner of her mouth.
Lucynda stands from her chair and takes a few steps toward me, not caring if she steps on the hand of one of her poor, unsuspecting victims. "You wanted to recreate me because you assumed I wouldn't understand your desire for revival in the form of vengeance unless I lived out the same fantasy you so eagerly attempted to force on to me. You can't live in the light, so you feed off the dark. You led me to this idea of power in darkness and you denied me of my own true happiness only because you thought I couldn't be happy if I knew your truth.”
Another step forward, jabbing her finger into her chest.
“Truth you kept from me, truth you knew would confuse me and in turn, ruin your little game of cat and mouse with my mother. You hate her for ruining your life, am I correct? Your hate for her was far more important than actually following some stupid tether for what it was worth. No.”
Another satanic chuckle.
“Instead, you used me to forge your path to the end game you engineered in your shallow-minded head." She sighs a careless sigh, sarcasm and boredom dripping from the sound. "Wow. You really are pathetic." A small devious smirk curls against her wine-stained lips.
It's hard to remain in power in her presence especially when she is dangerously teetering the line I don't allow anyone to cross. I feel my blood boil at her childish attempt to get under my skin, hating that she's so eager to knock me down.
But still, I ache for her. Despite the threats she's made and her attempt to kill my sister, I want nothing more than to drown in the pool that is my desire for my little sinner.
Her head tips at me, a demonic look salvaging from her once reticent irises. She's lost in her own demise, or rather hiding behind the vulnerability that she refuses to share now after weeks of doing nothing but. She might not have recognized that her heart was displayed on her sleeve, but my little sin isn't as shadowed as she claimed to be. I brought that out of her. She is born in my blood. And now, I am responsible for all that comes next.
With the castle likely still on fire and Lucynda's will to rectify her broken heart by lashing out against anyone who gets in her way, there is no hope to solve the case of treason that also threatens the fall of Hollows Trace.