WARHAVEN

Thirty-Three

"No. I will never lose you again. You will be with me for eternity whether you like it or not. And I suggest you learn to like it. You've been treated like royalty while in my home. What do you even have to go back to? The abusive orphanage Mothers? Working non-stop? Or maybe it's being groped by other men in the tavern?" His jaw was incredibly tight and spit flew through his clenched teeth.

"That's disgusting. I was caring for starving children. I would do anything to make sure they wouldn't go hungry. I endured years of abuse. And that is something I will never endure again. And you didn't lose me if I was never yours to begin with." Our faces were getting closer and closer together. I could almost feel the warmth of the rage radiating off of his skin.

"And you've endured no abuse in my home, and never will. You need to look around and see that you are safe. You have an abundance of food, books, and art. You can have whatever you want here. What else could you possibly need?!" He yelled. His voice shook my ears.

"I want to be happy and free. I can be neither here. I don't know why the fuck you think I belong to you, but I don't. I belong to myself. And I deserve to be free." I would stand my ground. If there was any possibility he would release me, I needed to push for it. "Sitting here and walking around this empty castle with nothing to do and no one to talk to is not free."

"You do belong to me. You are mine and have been mine for as long as you've been alive. You will live here with me whether you like it or not, like I said. And you need to recognize that I have done the same thing for my people that you have done for those orphaned children. Except I've done it for hundreds of years, and I will never stop. I will never leave them or abandon them. They are taken care of because of me. My kingdom has endured vicious hardships and I shelter them from all that I can." He snarled. "You sound incredibly entitled."

Oh, is he fucking serious? "I'm entitled?" I laughed, genuinely. He was hilarious. "How could I possibly be entitled when I have worked for everything I've ever had? I wasn't born into riches. I wasn't placed onto a silk blanket with a silver spoon in hand from birth. Your Highness. And how the hell have I been yours for as long as I've been alive? What are you even talking about?" His fist flew into the wardrobe behind me, splintering the wood with a loud cracking noise. My heart nearly stopped. I had never felt this fearful of him. My hands shook with fear and I tried my best to keep it hidden.

"You know nothing of the pain...of the horrors that I have endured in my eight-hundred years." His voice was a quiet noise then, and I could feel some of the pain within him. "You know nothing of the loss...you quite literally don't know." His last words were barely a mumble. He pressed his lips into a straight line and pushed himself away from the wardrobe and myself. He backed up and just looked at me. The pain that was etched into his features was heartbreaking. His shoulders fell and he closed his eyes. The breaths he took in were savored, slow and calculated.

I had no idea what I could've said. There was nothing to say. He clearly was harboring a lot of pain for something in his past.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly. I was now looking at my hands, wringing my fingers. I did feel bad. I knew nothing about what he had been through. He was right. "Please, just put him in prison. Those were horrible things that he was suffering through. Two wrongs don't make a right."

A single, powerful knock sounded throughout the room then. He sulked toward the door, opening and stepping to the side to let Nargue in.

"It's done." She said, as my heart dropped. He was dead. She tortured him to death.

Augustus looked at me with hard eyes. "Too late." Was all he got out. He turned and left the room, leaving Nargue and I.

I looked at her, observing the blood all over her hands and feet. The spots on her clothes. When I met her eyes there was no more of the feral snake-like features I had encountered earlier. She just looked at me. Her eyes held such sadness. I couldn't decipher whether or not she felt bad for what she had done, or something else. She just shook her head softly, like she was disappointed in me. She turned and left the room, shutting the door softly behind her.