Page 113 of A Monarch's Fall
I didn’t know what to do, where to look, or how to respond. I’d never interacted with the King before.
“Speak, girl,” he commanded in a frustrated tone.
“Yes, sir… my King… Your Royal Highness,” I said, hurriedly thinking of every title that would be appropriate.
He sighed, “Upon being reunited with my daughter, the princess and future queen, you are to immediately request to be freed from the soul match,” he instructed.
I opened my mouth to reply in fierce refusal, my forehead had already scrunched in shock and outrage, but he waved his index finger back and forth and tutted dismissively.
“Failure to do so will result in the death of all your family and friends,” he threatened in such a manner to suggest he was bored with even speaking to me.
“But… I… but it’s formed, and… and I can’t undo it… How?” I stuttered out, a coldness like nothing I had ever felt before dripped down my spine, and I struggled to think, to speak. A soul match couldn’t be undone… But he would kill my family. I had no doubt. Where was Edward? Had he betrayed me?
The King growled.
“How will the soul match bond be broken, or how will I kill your friends and family?” he asked.
The threat repeated sparked something in me, defiance and a need to protect the people I loved. I raised my head to look at him.
“A soul match can’t be undone,” I stated.
“Perhaps, yet I have reason to believe that it may be possible to break the bond entirely; at the very least, your forced separation has proved that to be apart is not fatal,” he told me.
“Selene would never let me go,” I said, my voice still low, and I wasn’t sure if how true the statement felt filled me with hope or dread.
“You will convince her of it!” he snarled, “You have taken nearly everything from her. Her dignity, her power, her discernment to judge what is right and wrong for herself and the kingdom. I will not allow you to take her future.”
“She loves me,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I was arguing or pleading.
“She is under the effects of the soul match, without which she would never have entertained you for more than a snack. If the bond cannot be permanently broken, then with the knowledge that you do not wish to be with her and the impact of time, what she thinks she feels for you, I am certain, will fade,” he answered.
Was he right?
I had worried that being separated from Selene would have real physical consequences, but other than the feeling in my chest, I was physically fine. What else had I believed about the soul match was just a myth? Would her feelings for me fade over time?
“I don’t know if I can,” I admitted after a panicked silence.
Even if it was true, I loved her. What he said didn’t change how I felt about Selene, and I didn’t care if she could never love me without the soul match; I was sure I would still love her.
“You can and you will. I am cleaning up the mess your existence has created. I have lined up a husband suitable for my daughter, and critical to the stability of the kingdom and the future of Borealis. You need to no longer be part of the picture,” he raised his hand in a signal, and the guard behind him opened the door, and a different guard dragged a broken Edward into the room.
“Edward!” I screamed and ran towards him, but the King himself reached out to stop me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pushing me back with such force that the middle of my back hit the windowsill of the wall that had been at least five feet behind me. I fell to the ground in pain.
“You will do as I command,” he turned and nodded to the guard who held Edward upright with a fist in the back of his black hair. Edward’s face was red and black, his eyes were so swollen I didn’t know if he was even conscious, but if he was, I didn’t think he could see anything. His clothes were torn, and I saw gashes dug deep across his torso. The guard took a knife from his belt and brought it down to Edward’s throat.
“NO!” I screamed and began crawling towards him on my knees.
My screams didn’t slow the guard’s hand; they didn’t stop the knife from slicing with precision through Edward’s throat.
Blood pumped out of Edward’s neck in a slowing, pulsing rhythm, running to his collar and soaking through his clothes, falling in a steady flow to the carpet.
I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t breathe.
I watched as the blood from his neck stopped pulsing, and the guard released his hold of Edward’s hair, and his body fell hard and lifeless to the floor. His face pointed toward me.
“As I speak, there are in place those watching and awaiting my command to take by any means and return here — preferably alive because, as you can now attest, deaths witnessed first-hand and in the flesh are far more impactful — your other friends and acquaintances within Borealis, your school friends, your travelling companion, Ana of Syngeneia, and I have not forgotten your kin: Oceanus of blood Auster and his wife and their newborn child, along with the order to burn their village and everyone in it to the ground,” he said, stepping in front of me and leaning down to me.