Fallen From Grace | BOOK 1 ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cassius' P.O.V

I stare absently at the abandoned gates wondering who would allow these doors to be left unattended. Never mind that, I'll just have to have a word with Stevens. Usually he had always known to do this without me having to remind him. Everyone forgets every now and again I suppose.

My hands touch the golden door embedded with carvings of weres of the old, battling, dying. I look at the etched expressions of them causing my eyes to fall. It was record of The Battle of the Borders. It was the night when I had lost my father and so many of my kinsmen. It was the night it had rained blood.

I bring my thumb to my face and bite down against it until I draw blood. It's only fitting that I must use this way to enter my own kingdom. Soon I begin to smear it around the sides until I formed our sigil. The doors groan and shift as they opened with gradual movement. I make no hurry attempt at entering. Somehow, with the eyes of my ancestors on me I feel as if I had done a grave undoing.

Warily, I touch the side of my neck until it slides down to my collar bone. I can still feel his touch, his mouth, his kisses, on me even at this moment. I can still remember how his warm body felt against mine, his skin on mine ,and the sparks that came with every touch, big or small. I remember how he held me in his arms like I was the most precious thing to him.

It did not feel wrong then and does not feel wrong now. It felt nothing but right. All my worries and troubles seemed to melt away with each touch...each smile...each laugh he gave me. It was as if I was living in a world of bliss.

As I walk through the corridor brimmed with gold on every corner I feel the faces of the olds' stares at me from above. When I was younger my brother used to say these walls held some of the spirits of our predecessors. My clench into fists as I continued my steady walk through these abandoned halls.

He is my mate, given to me by the Goddess, Avatea, herself. She chose him for me and I could not have been any happier than I am now. He's been everything I have ever desired. You cannot judge me on that.

They are angry. I can feel it. Yet, I also feel the unease and wariness coming out in waves. Unable to take the atmosphere any longer, I quicken my footsteps and exit out of those walls of thoughts and into the Gardens of Life. However, it is lacking just that.

The sun is setting in the sky. Yet, not a single child's voice can be heard. There is no one to be found. Something's wrong.

I spin around looking for any sign of my people, but they were all missing. Gone. My eyebrows furrow in deep thought at what this could possibly mean, but nothing came to mind.

"The Palace Grounds," I mutter.

Before I take another step I hear a cry come out from a man. I turn back around and start off towards where the sound came from. Once I turn the corner my eyes widen in horror at the limp bodies of my kinsmen splayed across the ground. Their blood soaked the sands. The last cry of the man echoes off into the distance as his body falls with the rest.

"Regenul! Cease this immediately!" I shout with rage and confusion. Why would Regenul ever do such a thing such as this?

One of my most leal Enforcers looks at me with conflicted eyes and hesitates for a moment at what to do before tightening his hand on the whip. "I cannot do that."

"Do not tell me what you can do! Put it down now! That is a command!" Under the raw power of my voice he bends his knees to the ground and throws away his object of torture.

"Why would you do such a thing? To your own people, Regenul, answer me!" He had always been an apt Enforcer. Never once had I ever thought he would be capable of such cruelty.