The royal city of Port Cressida has a new King.
Casper Ashe.
After spending years chained to the floor of a dungeon, haunted by visions of a beautiful woman, Casper is finally free. As Port Cressida's new King, he has two priorities: restore peace t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sophie Ashe
The Lake
After Nico left, I got dressed and went to the lake.
I found Casper standing on the foreshore, watching the black undulating waters of the lake. This had been one of the first places he had brought me to after I was turned. This was before I knew he was King, and I had known about the dead girls in the forest. Casper had taken me out in a boat to the middle of the lake to watch the stars. It had felt like a lifetime ago.
As I approached him, he heard my footsteps and glanced over his shoulder. "Have you come to yell at me?" He asked bitterly.
I noticed the five o'clock shadow around his jawline and the slightly dishevelled state of his clothes.
I folded my arms across my chest and replied, "That depends on whether you will help me get Christie back."
He let out a humourlessly laugh and turned back towards the lake. "It's too late. Rudolph has taken her back to Port Cressida, and Jacques has left too. So, it's just you and me, babe."
I furrowed my eyebrows and inhaled the night air. I could smell the pines and snow, but I could also smell alcohol. I took another step closer to Casper and breathed in.
"You've been drinking," I replied.
"I cracked open a bottle of silver scotch and drank the whole bottle after Jacques left. I felt it was necessary to commemorate the worst night of my life with mind-numbing liquor," he said, picking up a stone and throwing it into the lake. "I guess you disapprove of me drinking, my beautiful wife, the ever-righteous Saint Sophie."
I rolled my eyes at his childish remark. "Don't put this on me. You could have put Rudolph in his place. You didn't need to cave into his ridiculous demands and threats," I snapped.
Casper raked a hand threw his hair and then turned to face me. It was then I noticed his eyes were red and bleary from exhaustion. It was clear he hadn't slept all night. He had probably taken his scotch and downed it by the lake during the sunlight hours.
"I was protecting you," he mumbled to himself.
"I don't need your protection, Casper. However, Christie needs your protection. Those people living on the Spit, who exist like dogs, need your protection," I yelled.
"You really think I don't care about those people? Well, I do. But, I can do nothing for them yet while my crown hangs on by a thread."
"I never imagined you would be a coward," I said, fed up with his excuses.
"It's easy to say that when you don't know what's it like to be woken up in the middle of the day and dragged out of your room by soldiers at gunpoint," he yelled. "I have seen what happens when the court turns against a man. When the court turned against me, I spent years rotting on the dungeon floor, wondering if my older brother and his court would have the balls to execute me. Even now, I feel the executioner's sword hanging over my head, waiting to drop the moment I make a single mistake."
