A Tale of Shadows - THE OUTDATED VERSION

Chapter 25 - Bitter Heart

"I am waiting, Jeffrey," Melinda told him, a grim reminder of his doom, which rang in his head like a sad song of the bells. He could not blame her for wanting to know what was going on so much. In her position, he would have acted the same, but he was aware that, in his position, she would have stayed quiet for a long time as well, the words never seeming to come. He knew what he wanted to say, he simply didn't know how to put it into words. Then, once the fire started to spread, he remembered just how urgent the situation was, and all the words came to him at that moment. After he let out a sigh, he started talking.

"You're not going to believe what she told me. Her relationship with her husband is a complete mess. She sent forth an important letter to an unknown address, and also went to clandestine meetings, and her husband read that aforementioned letter. She, of course, sent more letters, and the exchange has been going on for a long time now. Because of what that letter said, he thought that she was cheating since he read it all wrong, but the truth is, in some strange, perverted way, even bleaker."

He would have continued, but his soul didn't want him to continue, so he sighed.

Melinda furrowed her eyebrows. "You were saying something?"

He sighed again. "Yes, I was. She, well, you're not ready for this... She wants to overtake this country somehow due to her thinking it's for the best, and she was sending letters to Patrick and Patrick was sending letters to her. She is anticipating him to usurp the throne so she can take it from him."

Melinda laughed so loudly, he could have sworn that his eardrums broke for several seconds. He narrowed his eyebrow while waiting for her to be done, not having a clue as to what could have been that amusing. It took her some time to realize that he was indeed serious, and that prompted her to stare at him unblinkingly.

"At least you grasp how stupid of an idea that is, right?" she asked, waving her hands in the air in utter befuddlement.

He shrugged. "It's not fully stupid. I think it could work. In fact, I expressed my support to her when it comes to that idea."

In a moment of blind rage, she sunk her nails into his collar, shaking him vigorously, allowing him to accidentally slip from her hands. He fell onto the ground, and she released a low scream. Knowing that there was no better solution, she cast a spell to help him rise from the ground. The blood in her veins began to boil, especially thanks to her mind being unable to grasp the possibility of him, the man she loved very much despite all their disagreements, getting killed.

Her hands were red, and she was pulling him as if he was tied by a long rope. Her whole body was drowning in immeasurable pain, but her heart didn't mind it. It would all be worth it if he came out of this alive, it said. But he didn't. Her hands couldn't handle the weight anymore, and he fell into the fire again, this time getting devoured by the voracious flames, which were waiting for the best moment to suck him in. Unprepared and inconsolable, she shrieked enough to make her thoughts melt for quite some time.

Douglas came out of nowhere, startling the lonely Melinda. She turned around to face him, breathing heavily. At first, he did not know the reason, but once he saw the corpse of his dead friend, all became clear. He unleashed a stream of tears from his eyes, losing his grasp on his surroundings, incapable of caring about anything else. The screams of his people were the thing that woke him up. He and everyone who had enough power to cast the spells needed for the process soon gathered in a group, and the extinguishing of the fire was much difficult, because of which he forgot what was tormenting him for plenty of minutes. Once that was done, with a lot of collateral damage, as expected, everyone separated, moaning about their futures, which would be uncertain for an unknown period of time. Those who arrived there with Melinda moved aside, waiting for her to do everything else she had to do.