Christophe's P.O.V
"What you are doing is treacherous! If you have any fear for your life, you would stop this immediately! This is folly! Cassius is your cousin! He is your blood!" I hear the auburn haired woman yell till her voice grows hoarse. It causes the sides of my mouth to upturn into a grin.
She tries to lunge at me, but I push her back into her chair before any of my men can do serious harm to her. After all, she is no young she-wolf any longer. I must treat her with some delicacy.
"You cannot do this, Christophe!" Tears begin to brim from her eyes as her voice breaks under my cold gaze. It matters little to me the blood my cousin and I share. He never meant anything to me. After all, he was nothing more than a replacement for me.
I suck on my teeth before my gaze on her intensifies. She is a shrewd and shallow woman, that she is. All of her cunning and trickery had lead to my father's death and her place sealed on the throne beside my uncle.
"He is my son!" she cries out which only incites more of my anger.
"I am your son as well! Or have you forgotten, dear Mother? Yet, you do not hold me in the same regard as the Mighty Cassius!"
"Is this what this is all about? If it is, then let us reconcile. You do not need to do this. Cassius will never forgive you. Stevens...Stevens will never forgive you." The drops of water slowly begins to trickle down her saddened face. She is pleading for the inevitable. I will not relent. Not until he lies beneath my feet.
"Forgiveness is not what I want, stupid wench. I want what is mine, what was promised to me!" I spit with so much anger I even surprised myself.
"You were never meant to be conceived. You were born from unwanted love. That is why you have no right to the throne!"
"Enough, woman. Keep her locked up here. Make sure to treat her well. We cannot let my dear cousin know what I have done and what I plan on doing." He bows and takes my mother by the arm dragging her into the next room as she screams and wails.
The time has come. There is nothing in this world or the next that will ever convince me otherwise. I walk out the room with a smirk trying to hold in a bout of laughter.
"How could this have been so easy?" I murmur to myself while the laughter began to surface from my throat and out my mouth.
"If it was not for me risking my life, you would have nothing right now." Her voice pervades my ears causing me to roll my eyes.
"Ah yes, a simple eavesdropping makes you the hero of the hour."
"You wed me to him! I had to agree to a farce marriage because of your wretched plans. For a moment, I had half of mind to disclose this ridiculous plan of yours to him." Her green eyes peer into mine with so much resolve I had to give her a small smile.
"My dear Cecilia, do not feel bitter now. What you did was for the good of the kingdom that you and I shall have." My arm wraps around her thin figure as my lips brush lightly against her cheek. "You made a fine choice, indeed."
"Promise me you won't harm him in any way. He was very kind to me, even when he caught me. I could have been executed Christophe. Yet, he still spared my life."
"His mistake is my gain." I kiss her cheek as her mood only begins to sour. "It is too late to show actual human decency now, don't you believe? Do not try to act like something you no longer are."
Her eyes begin to water as she bites down on her lip to stop herself from shedding any useless tears. I can care less what she decides to do now. Her role has already expired.
"Christophe, doing this will not make you feel any better than what you feel now. Doing something like this is a sin upon the Goddess Avatea. You will be cursed. We all will be!"
I roll my eyes at her banter and continue to walk away from her. The moment I heard he had found his mate I was more than disgruntled, but him being an Easterner made it all the better. I said once before I would take everything he ever held dear away from him and mark my words it will happen.
His mother, his kingdom, his Beta, his friends, and lastly the most precious of them all...his mate. Never would I have thought it would be Pierce. The one he saved. I let out another chuckle at this. The Lunar Gods are funny. What a trick of fate indeed.
I pat the pocket holding the silver rope making sure it is still in there before I enter into the room of the love of my life, who just so happens to be now my enemy. After hearing about Cassius and his secret love affair, I would have thought I finally would have a chance with him. However, he himself, had been with an Easterner as well.
The Gods are cruel.
With a knock, I walk in and see Stevens going through some records and files. There must have been a new birth and now he has to document it. The poor thing.
"Stevens." He looks up and gives me one of his warm smiles. It makes my stomach grow hot and my heart beat faster. However, I strengthen my resolve and walk towards him with a light smile of my own.
"What are you doing here? I heard you were sick with wolf's bane fever... " He drops what he is doing and closes in the small amount of space quickly. Soon I feel his cool hands on my forehead causing me to bite down hard against my bottom lip.
"...You recovered quickly." His eyebrows furrow together as he tries to put the pieces together.
"I was sick, yes, but not with wolf bane. Just this place. Just my cousin and all of his leal followers." Stevens' mouth falls open. Confusion is written all over his face and soon he begins to shake his head.
"Christophe, this is nonsense. He is the-"
"I am the King now." He tries to grab my hand, but I move it away before he could reach it and swing the silver rope around his wrist and bind it together with his other one. I kick the back of his knees forcing him to kneel.
"And you have the choice to choose now... which king you will serve."
The smell of burning skin hits my nose making me sick to my stomach that I'm doing this to him. But this has to happen. He won't understand. He never has understood me and he never will.
"Stop this now!" His voice is wrought in pain as the silver confines sinks deeper into his skin from his struggle.
I do not know why I do this to myself. Even in a situation like this, I know who he is going to choose. There should be no wondering about it. Yet, I kid myself on a string of hope that just once, he might just choose me.
"Choose Stevens."
"You know who I will choose." He glares at me through the pain coursing through his body. I only give him a passive stare back and nod.
"I want to hear it. Tell me."
"The rightful king, the bearer of the blood of the olds, the first in line to the throne after his fore bearer, King Cassius Castille the first in his name." The pain is laced through his words, yet he continues to stare at me with defiance.
Loyal to the very core of his being, a blessing and a curse. I scoff as a short smile splays across my face. "I was never wrong about you, not once. You know that?"
He spits on the ground near my feet causing my heart to fall to very bottom of my stomach. I do my best ignore that act of blatant disrespect and continue on. "I'm sure Grimm will be a little harder to subdue than you, so I need a little leverage and you just so happen to be it."
"We do not have time for this Christophe. Fighting amongst ourselves will cause us to lose everything! What you are doing will destroy us. All of us!" He stresses, but I shrug him off.
"Then, let us burn."
"Christophe!" I shut the door behind me as his yelling grows louder and more apparent. My eyes shut, but I open them just as quick as I shut them. There is no use dwelling on past feelings for someone who would stoop so low to be with an Eastern mongrel.
I'll do away with them soon enough.
Every single last one of them.
I feel a burning sensation in my eyes as my vision begins to blur. What I am doing is wrong. I know that. However...some wrongs may need to be done in order to open up other possibilities for the future.
I bite down against my lip that is beginning to quiver and made my way down the hall. With Stevens secured, all I have left to do away with is Grimm. "Regenul, Arthur, Analia, go into the room and hide yourselves. Grimm will be coming in there shortly."
All of them give me a questionable gaze before I give them a heartfelt, sad smile. "He also has been charged with treason along with Stevens and Lily." Their eyes widen with shock before quickly gathering themselves and bowing.
"I will serve as Interim King until Cassius gets back, however."
"At your command, Your Highness."
It may be wrong, but it feels so right. As soon as they scurry off to the room I had given them, I let out the smile I had been holding back for a while. To lose everything... how awful it is going to feel. For me to be the cause of it only makes this victory taste all the sweeter.
"To think it is almost his name day..." I let out a hearty laugh. "My do I have a surprise in store for him... and I cannot wait to give it to him."
I won't just stop at him losing everything.
I want it to become intangible.
Dead.
Permanent.
As soon as I approach his office I wipe the lingering smile off of my face and replace it with a grief-stricken one. "Grimm!" I charge in with a fake lack of breath.
"It's dire! Stevens-! Stevens he's-"
Grimm whirls around and faces me dropping everything he had been doing. There is paperwork sprawled all across his desk and a worried expression had already been present on his face. What could have happened, I wonder?
"Calm down Christophe and tell me what happened!"
"He's..He's being charged with treason against the King as well as the Kingdom. Lily is under grounds of suspicion." Grimm's eyes widen.
"Where is he?" His voice is thick with concern.
"They are holding him in a room right now over in the East Wing." He lets go of my shoulders and rushes out the door. A gradual grin goes across my face as a small bout of laughter comes out of me. Soon it turns into something louder, more hearty until I cannot take it anymore and let it all out.
I cannot believe how easy this was. All these years of planning...has come down to this. It was well worth it.
See... Mother was wrong in one thing she said.
I do not want this kingdom. I want it to be destroyed. I want to watch it burn with my own eyes so maybe then he will understand, maybe everyone will understand, the emotions I have held inside for all these years.
What he has now, will all burn with it.
Oh how I cannot wait for his return. "King Cassius Castille, the rightful king, first in his name, bearer of the blood of the olds, the first in line to the throne after his fore bearer, the last direct line of the Castilles... It all ends today."
"I'll destroy you from the inside out." That brought on another wave of laughter I had been suppressing this entire time. I laugh and I laugh and I laugh, yet hot tears begin to rain down upon my cheeks. I continue to laugh and allowed for these drops of water to coat my face.
"I promise I will make you suffer as I have."
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[A/N] Just when things were looking brighter...Christophe man! How do you guys feel about the unwinding events unfolding and about to unfold?
♡ Comments/Critiques/Feedback/Suggestions all appreciated and welcomed my little lovelies! ♡