The Kingdoms of Blue and Green.

Part 65

"YOU KILLED THEM?"

"She was in a coma" Aiden eyes drifted to Azrael, his eyes a sea of darkness, as his silver eyes filled slowly with self-reassurance. As a small smirk appeared on his lips. "It was easy." He scoffed crossing his arms and continuing to watch Azrael for a reaction.

Azrael felt it begin to crumble from underneath his feet. His morals and values he had struggled to uphold had crumbled beneath him. She killed his father so why did it feel so wrong for him to do the same to her? But something inside him hurt, like an aching pain that burned inside his chest. It was wrong, really wrong but the desire for revenge didn't echo in his bones like before, he never wanted to hurt her, just the system.

The system he helped dictate. The system that told him his body was a vessel for higher power, his mind not his own. The Triad bellowing in his bones. The blood of his ancestors the words plastered in books and in the gold that he wears. The crown on his head is a lasting symbol that conquering and leading are what the lasting Triad descendants do. To rule. But she was Triad too. Evelynn; her blood as easily split as his, and as equally important to the system. And this system needed to be changed. Triads shouldn't fight but lead together as one. Azrael's hands clenched at his sides as he swallowed. He loved her. The system was broken, but so were they.

"Just as easy to slit your throat?" Azrael kicked the back of Aiden's knee, sending him to the marble floor. He seethed his sword and lifted it to the scruff of Aiden's neck, blood drawing above his Adam's apple.Aiden exhaled in fear, the breath sending shivers down his spine. For the first time, he watched as his friend turned into someone he was not. A fighter. A warrior and a King. He watched Azrael's chest heave up and down as he kneeled in silence, the ballroom echoing the sound of nothingness and Aiden didn't like it.Azrael panicked as his body gave in. His hands flew to his sword. Now placed against his friend's neck.Azrael slowly removed the blade from his throat, and placed it back in its holder, attached to his hip. His gaze lifted from the marble to Aiden silver eyes. Recent plagued him. Azrael resented himself for letting Aiden do this to her.He turned away from Aiden and stared back at the throne. The chair called to him in some sort, the gold effortlessly shining. Azrael began to walk to his throne. The echoing of his footsteps resonated with Aiden's sharp breaths. As Azrael sat on the throne he stared at his friend who remained kneeling.

"Why didn't you take Audria's hand?" Aiden asked lifting his eyebrows, hiding them in his black hair that fell over his temple. He looked up to Azrael, the King sprawled on the throne above him. His knees burned with the cold sensation that grew on the tiles."Cause I didn't love her the way I loved Evelynn," Azrael spoke, his voice resonating throughout the ballroom. His Kingly tone burned the back of his throat. The words waged truth, meant the truth. His heart thanked him greatly for it.

"Do you still love her?"

Azrael didn't halter, didn't stumble as Aiden questioned him. "The girl I met that night was someone I did not deserve." He emphasized, "The woman waging war is still the same girl I met that night,"

"That's presumptuous," Aiden scoffed lifting one foot to the tile. He pressed his hands onto his knee forcing himself up as he spoke, "She killed your court and your father and was going to kill you, and you still have hope?" He laughed.Azrael inhaled sharply, "I don't know,""Yes would be an understatement then,"

                                                                                               ~

Evelynn drew back the damp curtain with a gloved hand and studied the rain that continued to pour. The dark clouds grew across the camp. The sound of the rain's patter on the tents drowned out the thumping of her soldiers' boots and scattered voices hidden behind the canvas tents. The tall canopy of trees that stretched across the border laughed at the pitiful attempt to keep dry as the rain heaved and water rained across the grass, seeping into the soil like blood on a battlefield.Evelynn swallowed as she walked forward into the rain, the squelching of the mud underneath her boots and brisk wind introduced the Queen to the newly formed Winter that plagued the country. Stamping through the mud towards the rain-stained stage and damp stairs that accompany it, Evelynn's eyes immediately drew to the three bodies strung by a post. Their bodies swayed in the wind, the cold rain eating them away.

The man in the middle his large, elderly build strung her attention. The whimpers and pleas that ran out of his foul mouth before being put to rest by the clean effortless snap of his neck strung up by the rope. To hell with the Boarder General. His cruel nature leads to his demise. His failure to comply and slaughter of innocents stunk the air of its purity. But nothing about that man was pure. He took them away from her. He took their lives and to hell with him for it. Evelynn was adamant that this was war. The war broke the contentment and even the foundations of her country. Loyalty is only a meaningless word to those corrupt. And people like Marlin and Collin had to pay. Their blood was on him.

As Evelynn turned away from the hung bodies of damp flesh as her Commanders were posed up against a tree behind her. Pressing his back into the damp tree, its leaves giving him an incremental amount of protection from the rain and its dark storm clouds from above.He peeled himself off the tree to face her. His eyes slid to the strung-up bodies. Evelynn watched him visibly swallow before speaking,

"When does a monster stop being a monster?" He spoke, his voice hoarse and dry. Evelynn thought of him. And the word attached to his actions. But deep down Evelynn believe that in his heart he was good. Sincere, remorseful even. Evelynn however, was dirty with numerous shades of blood on her hands. Evelynn was the monster she dreaded. Not Azrael- her peoples' Queen. And when she spoke, her heart rattled as she swallowed the pain that crept up behind her. Like her shadow when she stood in the sun; the truth always is there you just don't acknowledge it. Until it eats you whole."Oh, when you love it."