The air inside Queen Evelyn's chamber was thick with the scent of incense and sickness. The dim candlelight flickered, casting long, wavering shadows against the stone walls. Every breath she took felt like shards of glass piercing her lungs, her body trembling with the effort to stay alive.
Lady Seraphina knelt beside her, her gentle hands supporting Evelyn as she coughed violently, her frail body jerking forward. A dark stain of blood bloomed across the delicate white silk handkerchief Seraphina held. The Queen's once rosy lips were now cracked and pale, her golden skin drained of life.
Seraphina swallowed the lump in her throat and steadied her trembling hands. "Your Majesty, easy," she whispered, helping Evelyn lean back against the pillows.
A few court members stood in the chamber, watching in a heavy silence. Their expressions ranged from somber sadness to detached indifference—as if they were merely waiting for her final breath.
Evelyn's clouded eyes drifted across the room, searching. Her vision blurred, but she still recognized them all. Familiar faces. People she had trusted. People who had stood beside her for years.
But the one person she wanted to see was not among them.
Her fingers trembled as she grasped Seraphina's wrist, her voice barely a whisper. "Where is… Lucien?"
Seraphina hesitated.
Evelyn saw it in her eyes before she even spoke.
"The King—" Seraphina's voice wavered. "He has left to find more physicians from the neighboring kingdoms. He refuses to give up."
A cold shudder passed through Evelyn's weak frame.
He refuses to give up.
For a moment, she wanted to believe it. Wanted to believe that her husband was out there, desperate to save her life. That he was fighting for her, for their love, for everything they had built together.
But something inside her—something deep and aching—told her otherwise.
Before she could dwell on it, the doors flung open.
The sound thundered through the chamber, making several nobles flinch.
And there he was.
King Lucien.
Evelyn's heart stopped—not from the illness, but from the expression on his face.
He was smiling.
Not a soft, relieved smile. Not a sorrowful, pained one.
It was the kind of grin a man wore when he had won.
A slow, knowing, victorious smirk.
The room fell into stunned silence.
Evelyn's fingers clenched weakly into the bedsheets. Her lips parted, confusion and disbelief twisting in her chest. "Lucien…?"
He stepped forward, his royal cape billowing behind him like a cloak of arrogance. He wasn't rushing to her side. He wasn't frantic with worry. He looked satisfied.
Then he spoke.
"I have waited for this day for far too long."
A wave of horror crashed over the chamber.
Seraphina gasped, stepping protectively closer to Evelyn. Murmurs erupted among the nobles. Some of them stiffened, hands moving toward their swords.
Evelyn froze, her already fragile body trembling violently. "W-What?"
Lucien chuckled, shaking his head. "You really never saw it, did you?" He let out a mocking sigh, as if her blindness amused him.
Her stomach plummeted.
Seraphina stepped in front of the bed, her voice sharp. "Your Majesty, have you lost your mind?! The Queen is dying, and you—"
"Stay out of this, Seraphina," Lucien cut in coldly, his gaze like a blade. "This is between me and her."
Evelyn's lips trembled. "Lucien… what are you saying?"
Lucien stopped at the foot of her bed, looking down at her with nothing but cruelty in his eyes.
"I never loved you, Evelyn."
Her heart cracked.
"I only married you because you were the key to the throne. Without you, I was nothing. But with you…" He spread his arms. "I became King."
The chamber erupted in whispers.
Some nobles stepped forward. One of them raised his voice. "Arrest the King at once!"
Lucien didn't even blink.
But Evelyn, with what little strength she had left, raised her trembling hand.
"No."
Everyone froze.
Evelyn's hollow eyes stared at Lucien.
Tears blurred her vision, but she refused to let them fall.
"I want to hear it from him," she whispered. "I want to hear everything."
Lucien tilted his head, amused. "How noble of you." He leaned in, voice dropping to a taunting whisper. "I've been waiting for you to die since the day I married you."
A sharp pain twisted inside her chest.
Her entire life had been a lie.
Her love.
Her trust.
Her marriage.
All of it.
A violent cough racked her body, and this time, more blood spilled from her lips. Seraphina sobbed quietly, kneeling beside her.
Evelyn's vision darkened at the edges, but she forced herself to speak.
Her voice, though weak, was laced with a deadly promise.
"Lucien…" Her lips curved into a ghost of a smile. "I swear on my soul—I will return."
Lucien's smirk faltered for just a second.
Evelyn's eyes glowed with something dark. Something eternal.
"I will haunt you," she whispered. "I will torment you, your soul, your bloodline. You will never know peace."
Lucien's jaw tightened.
Then, with one final, shuddering breath, Queen Evelyn succumbed to death.
The room fell silent.
Seraphina fell to her knees, her shoulders shaking. The nobles bowed their heads, some in mourning, others in silent terror.
But Lucien…
He stood still.
And for the first time, he did not smile.
>>>>
General Cassius shook Damien awake roughly.
"Damien, wake up! Now!"
Damien's eyes snapped open, his mind sluggish from sleep. "What is it?" he muttered.
"The Queen is dead. The court is assembling as we speak."
Damien exhaled sharply. He dressed swiftly in his warlord uniform, fastening his sword belt without a word. He didn't say anything as he rushed outside his estate into the his prepared carriage which General Cassius Is already seated in with the horses reins ready to move.
But Damien's mind was elsewhere. As they parted for the journey to the palace.
He barely noticed the angry mob that stood in middle of the lonely road until Cassius cursed.
"Move! Get out of the way!"
Before he could barely reacted, the carriage lurched violently.
His body slammed against the walls as the wheels screeched.
"What the hell—"
The carriage took a sharp turn, the world spinning.
And then—
They went over the cliff.
The last thing Damien saw before the darkness swallowed him whole was the image of Queen Evelyn's face—
Her radiant smile.
Her crowned red hair glowing in the sunlight.
And then—
Oblivion.