Page 87 of Gift from the Source
I don’t blink. I don’t think. Hell, I may not even breathe.
I just consume.
Time passes me by without another thought in the realm and the pounding in my heart intensifies with every word. The tension, the anticipation, the way she’s so descriptive with the brutal accounts that transpired makes me feel like I’m standing in the middle of the arena watching it go down.
The end of the Realm Trials steals my breath from me.
I could not cast the final blow.
He had not once struck out against myself, my family, nor my Nexus. He could not. He was not capable. Alas, he was not worthy of the throne of Elementra either. The realm needs rulers who could protect them.
Through the whispers my Nexus could share through our minds, I forbade any of them from killing him. It was contradictory to the violent acts we had already committed to his family. The Dew family, the Newort family, the Beyla family. They all fell to us. The Vito family.
He would not fall to our hand, though.
In all things he was innocent and too weak to defend himself even if he wanted to.
It was as though this trial had made my Nexus forget that we had known him all our lives. Until the first thread of magic was casted, we were all comrades. I would not forget that.
Begrudgingly, Loris put him into a sleep so deep you could not find a pulse. To the surrounding crowds, it looked as though we stood over a corpse and they erupted with our victory.
We claimed our victory.
For one full month, we kept him asleep as we entered our roles as the Ruling Nexus. Hidden away in a cave within the forest of the palace.
The day we awoke him, he trembled with confusion, anger, and mourning. All of which we were understanding of. We had lost people too. He demanded answers, though, and I gave them to him.
After all, I still viewed him as my friend. That is what he was only a short time before.
I made him aware of my decision to spare him, but he was not satisfied with that.
A fire lit in his eyes that I had never seen. It was the determination he should have carried with him into the trial. Although it would have only served him his death.
The echo of his fury still rings in my ears at night. He did not take my words as I meant them. I had tried to explain it was unfit of me to kill one so beneath me when he had done nothing but what his family had told him to do. I knew he never wanted a part in the Realm Trials. He was not worthy of the throne, but that did not mean he should die.
When his anger grew to worrisome heights, I ordered him to leave before he said or did somethinghe would regret.
His final words to me were that I would one day regret taking everything from him.
Including his right to a fair trial and Elementra’s blessing.
He staggered from that cave, never to be seen again.
I do not fear his empty threat. Elementra will bless my line with time. She will see that my first rule as the new Matriarch of her realm was one made with compassion.
My first compassionate, yet fair rule was to spare Malvolio Choice’s life.
I stand by my decision.
I jump from my seat, sending my Primary sprawling across the floor, and her yelp of surprise barely penetrates my mind.
Over and over and over I reread her words.
This can’t be right.
But it is. I know it down to my soul.
“What in the realm, Cas?” Willow asks, pushing herself up using the ottoman as support.
