Chapter 52: Theron: Bound By Blood (II)
Theron~
"Oh, come on! Why aren’t you awake yet?" Rael kicked the table in front of him, startling Evelyn, who had been silently watching our quarrel the whole time. "Why do you keep defending that old bastard?! It’s obvious he broke our mother on purpose, so she could become his perfect doll! If it weren’t for him, she would never have ended up with a rope around her neck!"
"Rael, enough!" I snapped, my voice firm but shaking a little bit. "I know you’re hurting. I know you’re angry about everything we’ve lost, but do you think I’m not?! You can’t keep throwing accusations without proof! You can’t just blame him for everything!"
CRASH!
My fist slammed into the wall beside me, the impact sending cracks spiderwebbing across the surface until a deep hole caved in. The sound echoed through the room, making the air itself feel heavy.
Then I spoke in a low voice. "I gave you so many chances, Rael. So many chances to admit your mistake, to stop throwing your rage at an innocent man. But this—" I clenched my jaw so tight it hurt, "—this is what you’ve chosen instead?"
Step by step, I closed the distance between us. When I was close enough, I leaned in, my words nothing more than a whisper meant only for him. "Tell me, Rael ... was killing him not enough for you?"
My hand shook as I pointed a finger at his chest, my eyes burning into his. "I told you never to set foot on this land again. Never. But—" my voice dropped even lower, trembling with fury, "you dared to come back."
Sixteen years ago, after disappearing from the palace for two long years, Rael suddenly returned.
But unfortunately, he didn’t come back to make peace. He didn’t even come to see me first. The very first thing he did was break into my father’s chamber ... and kill him.
I can still see it even now. He stabbed my father’s heart again and again, more than fifty times, until the bed was nothing but a sea of blood.
My father never screamed because he couldn’t. Rael had already slit his throat before driving the blade into his chest.
I could witness the murder myself, because I had followed the Rael’s scent in my father’s chamber, thinking he had finally come back to apologize, to beg for forgiveness.
But no.
He never apologized.
Rael didn’t stop stabbing him. With his hands soaked in blood, he reached into my father’s chest and ripped out his heart. The sight burned into my memory, a nightmare I could never erase.
He turned to me then, the bloody heart dripping in his hand. His eyes burned with a wild fire as he shouted, "This man—this so-called king you call Father—he was the mastermind behind it all! He’s the reason our family was destroyed, the reason our mother suffered!"
Then, with a twisted smile, he added, "But don’t worry, brother. I’ve already taken our revenge."
I thought Rael had finally lost his mind. I told myself it was the trauma breaking him apart, that he was only lashing out, throwing tantrums because he couldn’t handle the pain.
I told myself he killed my father only because he needed someone to blame, someone to unleash all that rage on, since we could never track down the pack that had destroyed ours back then.
I convinced myself he was just sick, broken by everything we had gone through. But in the eyes of the court, none of that mattered. To them, he was nothing more than a criminal who had murdered a king, and for that, the punishment would only be death.
Maybe he was sick. Maybe he was crazy. Maybe he had truly lost his mind.
But no matter what I told myself, no matter how much anger I felt toward him, he was still my brother ... the only family I had left in this world.
The king might be my father, but I had lived with Rael ever since he was born into this world.
Because of that, I couldn’t hand him over to the court. Even if the world called him a murderer, even if his hands were drenched in blood, I still couldn’t condemn my own brother to death.
So instead, I made a different choice.
I shoved him over the balcony and said, "Go! Leave now, and never set foot on this land again!"
At that moment, he looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing. He turned away and left me behind, disappearing from my life for years.
Then out of nowhere, last year I heard his name again. Rael Covern. The Alpha who had suddenly appeared in the Valedorn Kingdom and who had stirred up chaos with his pack the moment he set foot here.
I truly didn’t understand why he came back, and every time I crossed paths with him, the only thing he ever did was provoke my anger, whether it was stealing from the soldiers delivering supplies or stirring up trouble in the villages under my rule.
It was as if he had returned only to test my patience, to push me to my limits again and again, like a stubborn cat knocking a glass off the edge of a table just to watch it shatter.
"That old man really messed with your head, didn’t he?"
Rael’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I braced myself, expecting him to explode again, maybe to flip the table or scream at me. But instead ... he just stood there. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, his shoulders trembling, and his emerald eyes were filled with nothing but sadness.
"You said I had no proof," Rael muttered. "But even if I did ... you never wanted to hear it from the start."
He gave a weak laugh. "I know I can be a jerk, but you never listen. No matter how much I shout, you just won’t hear me. Maybe ... maybe you just hate me. Maybe you’d even be glad if I were gone for—"
Rael stopped when Evelyn suddenly stood up and covered his mouth with her hand. "Don’t say something you’ll regret later," she whispered.
Her eyes softened as she looked at him. "Your brother doesn’t hate you, Rael. I can see it. I can feel it."