Revenge

Chapter 13

The smell of stale liquor permeated the air. Empty bottles lay scattered throughout the room. The pain in my head wasn't enough to drown out the pain in my chest. 

I was alone. Again. 

The New Years celebration had come and gone. I barely managed to make an appearance. 

One week, gone.

Two weeks, gone.

Time didn't matter. Nothing mattered. 

He was gone and he wasn't coming back. 

Did I really expect him to? After what I said? It was for the best, at least, that's what I told myself. I was protecting him. It was the only way. 

I grabbed a half empty bottle of wine that was laying on the ground by my bed and start taking in the bitter contents. My head that was slowly starting to clear went fuzzy again. 

What time was it? It didn't matter. I don't care. 

He's gone.

He's gone and it's all my fault. 

I felt dizzy but this time, it wasn't a good kind of dizzy. I sat up, too fast. I was tilting, then I was falling, then I was throwing up. 

The taste of puke on my tongue made me throw up some more. And more.

But it was just liquid.

There was nothing in me to throw up. 

Fuck. I got some on my shirt. I felt it dribbling down my chin. To get the taste out of my mouth, I take another swig of the wine.

Gods, I was a mess. 

Maybe I should try to find him. We could run away together. I'll come back when my father's dead or something. I don't know.

I don't know what to do. 

My birthday was coming up. I'll be nineteen this summer. I'll have to start sitting in on meetings with nobles, learn how to run the country. 

I tip back the bottle. My insides felt like they were on fire. 

What was the point in being king if I couldn't have the only thing I wanted? 

And what about Lyle? My mother? My people? If only they could see me now... I laugh but it was as bitter as the wine I was chugging. I had all but given up on them. I haven't been training, I haven't been doing anything to help.

My people were still dying and I was sitting here because my love life went to shit. 

I didn't deserve to be king anyway. 

With my mind made up, I stand but the world tilts and I'm stumbling into my nightstand. Something falls and breaks. When I step forward, a sharp pain lances up my foot. I look down and see wine- No, that was blood. There was glass on the ground, my foot was stepping on it.

Thank fuck for the wine or that would hurt a lot more than it did. 

I start walking, or stumbling really, leaving a bloody trail in my wake. There was probably glass in my foot. Oh, well.

I throw my door open but before I could even lift a foot to go outside, I was being shoved back into my room. 

My back hits the ground, knocking the wind right out of me. I don't get the chance to even process what happened before there's someone on top of me. Their features were obscured by a black mask and hood but when they speak, the voice is male. "The king sends his regards." 

I don't get to figure out what that meant because then he was stabbing a blade into my chest and no amount of alcohol could numb the pain of that. 

The male pulls the dagger out and I gasp, blood spilling past my lips as I try to talk but I'm unable to make a sound. I watch as the male cleans the blade off before running off through my window. 

I couldn't tell if my heartbeat was getting slower or faster but my breath was becoming more shallow and all I could taste was the coppery tang of my own blood. There was so much, I was choking on it.

But I couldn't move to sit up, I couldn't do anything. I blink back the tears that had gathered in my eyes. I was going to die. I would never get to apologize to Dante. I was going to die and he always hate me for what I said to him. I won't get to tell him it wasn't true. 

My vision was darkening around the edges and I knew it was almost time. 

I was going to die here, alone. I was alone, alone, alone-

A face appeared above mine and I smiled, knowing for certain I must be dead if I was seeing him. 

Lyle.