THE BLOOD ROYALS Book 2: Long Live The Queen!

Chapter Twenty Eight: Conviction

Cray Thera.
Prince Relian's POV
"Anything?"

Griffin sighed as he took off the round glasses. He massaged the bridge of his nose. "I once told your father that the soldiers Chea Niva builds are formidable. This particular one, won't break. I have tried everything General, but he won't break."

I feared it would be like this. I told Griffin why Stephen will be the newest tenant of Cray Thera. He had instructions to do what it takes to get information out of him. I gave him an opportunity to tell me who murdered Thalia. I don't have a problem with Stephen. I have a problem with the person he's protecting. That person has a tight hold on him and it's that hold that is keeping Stephen's lips sealed. If he doesn't want to talk and surrender Thalia's killer then it should be tortured out of him. It should have worked. Most people have a breaking point. It hasn't worked.

"I think he's determined to die." Griffin added.

And that is what worries me. Who would I die for? Who will I persevere torture for? Someone I deeply love.

"Bring him to me."

I have so much to do and the hours in a day aren't enough. I want to avenge Thalia. I feel like I'm stuck in one place. My feet aren't moving at the lightning speed my mind is. She has to be avenged if I am ever to find any peace. I can't move, I can't go on until it's done. Now more than ever with my father incapacitated, I need to move on, take a wife and have an heir. I can't until this matter with Thalia is out to rest.

Griffin accompanied the two guards who are literally dragging Stephen. He can't stand on his own two legs. He has been beaten, probably broken but his lips remain sealed. There can't be a more loyal soldier. But that loyalty isn't mine. It's someone else's and that makes him dangerous. If he can conceal a murder, he can kill for that person. When the time comes, he will kill for that person. I can't allow him to live if he won't betray his master. If he does not comply, he dies today.

Thalia's death has suffocated the pacifist in me. I want blood. I want someone to pay for ripping her away from me.

"Y-your highness." He spoke in a hoarse voice and bowed his head.

I rested on the warden's desk and really looked at the man I have known since I was 17 years old. It's been a decade. It's long enough to have an idea about how a person is put together and I honestly believe I knew him. I want to see that faithful man who has been with my family for this long but all I see is the man who covered up Thalia's death.

"Leave us." Griffin took his men with him. Stephen remained chained, wrists to ankles and on his knees. "Why did it have to come to this? Who are you protecting?"

"I accept my punishment your highness."

Lightning flashed across the sky. It thundered outside the stone walls of the dull prison and soon enough the dark clouds hovering above released the heavy rain. It pelted against the windows restricting the little light that was coming into the room. Even with the bulbs on, it's still dark and gloomy. This place on it's own is enough to mess with the mind. Yet Stephen won't break.

"Who are you protecting?"

"Forgive me for my incompetence. I should have saved her. I understand your pain."

"No you don't!" I raised my voice.

He does not understand what I felt when I saw the woman I love lying still and lifeless. He does not understand how I felt when I saw her in the coffin. He does not understand how I felt when they closed it and I saw soil being poured into the grave. Thalia is rotting in a hole because someone Stephen knows murdered her. That person cut short her life. That person denied me a marriage that would have happened. That person denied me a soul mate I could have made a life with. That person denied me heirs that would have resulted from my union with Thalia. That person paused my life and threw away the fucking remote! I'm stuck in one place and I am angry and vicious for revenge. He will never understand.