SGE His Darkened Heart (A Japaric Fanfiction)

BONUS CHAPTER #3

As the days passed, Sophie could see the determination still in Japeth's gaze, but beneath all that conviction was unrelenting frustration. Japeth was getting antsy, impatient as time went on. It was like he was so desperate to find Tedros and get that last ring back that he could no longer sleep. Indeed, in the mornings, Sophie began to notice the bags beneath Japeth's eyes and the way he'd stopped cutting his hair to mimic Rhian's cropped hair style.

Sophie was strolling through the Camelot castle when she spotted some Camelot guards looking fearful one day. They were plastered against the wall opposite of the king's bedroom as if they were afraid of going inside.

"Something the matter?" Sophie asked, walking towards them. The guards' attention snapped to her when they heard her speak and seeing their queen approaching, they all bowed quickly.

"My Queen," One of the guards said, clearing his throat. His voice sounded strangled as he spoke as if he were nervous. "His highness, King Rhian, is throwing a. . .well, a fit of sorts. Anyone of us who tries to enter his room, he says he'll throw in chains. He has an important meeting to attend with some of the rulers from the neighboring kingdoms, but he refuses to go."

"He just snapped when he read a letter from a town beyond the woods," Another guard piped up, rubbing the back of his neck.

"A town?" Sophie wondered, curious. "What town?"

"It was Gavaldon, your majesty," The first guard responded, dipping his head respectfully.

Sophie felt surprise jolt through her at the name of the very village she'd grown up in. The Reader World, is what some referred to it as. But why would Japeth receive a letter from Gavaldon? Who was the letter even from, and why had the letter made Japeth so angry?

"Get out of here," Sophie ordered the guards. "You're dismissed. I'll convince the King to come out. Don't let anyone come near here until than, got it?"

The guards looked wary as they were unsure whether to obey Sophie or not. "But Queen Sophie," A third guard spoke up, his jaw stiff in uncertainty. "King Rhian seemed very angry. What if in his rage, he--"

"I said I'll handle it," Sophie interrupted him, moving towards Japeth's closed bedroom door. "Leave now."

Sophie could hear screaming and tearing within the bedroom as she placed her hand on the doorknob, prepared to open it and see the carnage Japeth had wreaked. She recalled Rhian telling her that Japeth had used to have fits of rage when he was young. It was the sort of fits that'd made Rhian and their mother, Evelyn Sader, feel trapped. The fits that had driven Evelyn to abandon her sons in the first place.

Sophie already knew the bedroom was going to look a mess when she walked in, but she didn't anticipate the scene she saw when she stepped into the room for the first time. The golden bedsheets on the king sized four poster bed had been torn to pieces. The rug embroidered with a lion head lying on the floor was riddled with holes, and the doors leading out to the balcony had been torn off their hinges and thrown aside. In the middle of all the carnage was Japeth, his body bare and as naked as the day he was born.

Sophie saw his face was screwed in rage, a deep rage that scared her for a moment. The Sophie a few weeks ago would've run from the boy before her, called him a treacherous Snake and spit on him for all the times he'd hurt her.

But Sophie wasn't that girl anymore. She pushed away her fears and stepped to Japeth's side. In the sunlight shining in through the balcony doorway and shattered glass windows, she saw Japeth's skin was covered in blood, and for a moment, Sophie felt her heart lurch.

"Japeth?" She murmured, reaching out slowly to touch him. She'd thought the blood was his own, until she inspected every inch of his skin and saw he had no wounds or cuts to confirm it was. "What. . .What happened?" She whispered, crouching on her knees to push a few hairs away from Japeth's face.