Lahat ng Kabanata ng His Regret, The Crown's Claim : Kabanata 121 - Kabanata 130

Zara's green eyes were flecked with a predatory amusement that made my skin crawl."You said you were expecting me," I said, my voice echoing off the stone walls. I stepped closer, my knuckles white as I gripped the cold bars. "How? How do you know what I am? What did the True Bloods do to me?"Zara tilted her head, a stray lock of dark hair falling over her shoulder. She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she began to pace the small, cramped space of her cell like a caged leopard. "You have no idea of the value of the blood in your veins, do you? You think you’re just a girl who got lucky…” she turned her head to me slowly, a grin forming on her lips. “Or unlucky ….if you think about it.” She giggled. “But the True Bloods have been tracking the resonance of the Speaker for decades. We knew the line hadn't ended and we certainly knew the Goddess was just waiting for a vessel weak enough to inhabit.""Tell me what you know," I demanded, the headache behind my eyes pulsing in time wit

I'm about to do the stupidest thing ever. The darkness of the palace at night wasn't silent, it was alive with a thousand breathing shadows. Every creak of the floorboards sounded like a gunshot in my ears, and every gust of wind against the stained-glass windows felt like the cold hand of a guard on my shoulder. I moved through the service corridors, my heart hammering, it was as if my pulse were saying, “traitor, traitor, traitor,” in my ears. I finally managed to reach the stairwell leading to the Cells. My breath was shallow, coming in short gasps that burned my throat. I was halfway down the spiral stone steps when the heavy iron door at the bottom groaned open.I froze, my foot hovering over the next step.A guard emerged, his armor clinking softly. He was carrying a torch, the white light swinging rhythmically, casting long, distorted shadows up the walls as he moved. I didn't have time to retreat. I pressed myself into a shallow alcove, a space barely deep enough to hold a

I threw my entire body weight into her back, tackling her to the ground.We collided with a heavy thud and began to roll down the path, hitting woods and rocks along the way. The world became a sickening blur of dark sky, sharp stones, and tearing thorns as we fell down the steep mountain path. My shoulder slammed into a protruding root and Zara’s knee cracked against a boulder. We groaned in unison as we finally came to a halt on a narrow dirt plain right at the edge of the mountain.The wind was howling over the drop from the mountain, a hundred-foot fall into the rocks and waterfall below.I didn't give her a chance to recover. I crawled over her, my hands scratching through the dirt until I grabbed a fistful of her thick, dark hair. I yanked her head back roughly, pinning her torso down with my knees."Tell me!" I screamed into her face, my voice cracking with desperation that didn't sound like mine. It sounded like the ancient, heavy thing that had awakened in t

~ Kael's POV ~“Witch!” they had shouted. Every insult they threw at Risa felt like a stone cast at my own flesh. They didn't see the fragile girl who loved the sun and the quiet but they saw a threat to their archaic blood-laws, a wildcard they couldn't control. And when Elder Thorne had brought up the ancient text of the myth of the Speaker…my heart had stopped for a terrifying beat. The old man’s words had been a death sentence wrapped in a nursery rhyme and I would never want Risa to go through such a terrible thing. Such weapons always bring fire…but Risa can never be a fire that consumes. She was like a beautiful summer day that warms my heart. I had lied to them without blinking. I had used the absolute authority of the Alpha Command to suffocate their dissent, forcing my aura down their throats until they flinched and Valerius choked on his own rage. But as the heavy doors had slammed shut behind me, the mask of the iron King fractured."Thorne knows," I had muttered to Axel

We were searching for them all over the cliff but we couldn't spot them.I was seriously getting uneasy, what if something bad has happened? I wouldn't be able to forgive myself and I doubt I would be able to sleep easily again. I was never one to sleep easily, but I trusted Risa with my life, and she had done this. We kept looking, then, the spotlight caught them behind a massive boulder. I watched through the high-powered thermal scope as they began to argue. I saw Risa lunge at Zara, saw Zara strike her in the abdomen, and saw them both roll down the crumbling cliffside path, rolling into a violent, chaotic heap on a narrow dirt right over the edge and if they move roughly, they might fall.They began to fight each other and it was a desperate brawl. Risa grabbed Zara's hair, pinning her down, her lips moving in frantic screams that were drowned out by the rotors."Descend! Now!" I roared at the pilot, unclipping my seatbelt.The helicopter tilted, the wind buffeting my face as w