Renouncing the Emperor's Heart

I See It All (Part II)

Jovine crumpled to the ground, her knees withering from the shock.

Elias caught her with ease.

"H-haven," she whispered in mortification. Jovine clutched her brother's arm with an iron grip. "W-what have they done to it?"

She felt his hard glance branding the side of her face. "You tell me."

Trembling, Jovine slowly turned to him in anger. "Are you implying I was a part of this?"

"I suspected it." Elias curled his lips in deranged entertainment. "But you really didn't know."

Jovine shoved him away, anger bubbling in her veins. "WHAT. HAPPENED. HERE?"

"Look around, darling sister. I think you can figure it out."

It was marked and unmistakeable.

Amid the scattered debris, renovation arrangements were embedded in the loss. As if someone had broken Haven just to piece her together into something unknowable.

Haven had been sold. And placed into the profit pockets of a noble.

"Where are the children? The families?" she whispered.

"Most likely sold. Or indentured."

Jovine closed her eyes, reigning in the insurmountable wave of guilt and despair. "Who?" she seethed, her eyes traveling through the crumbling bricks and wooden shards. Who did this? Who now owned the place that belonged to the people?

"Harrison Ballio."

She froze, her eyes shooting open. "Harrison Ballio is a powerless Lord."

Elias scoffed. "He's a Baron now. With an elevated status and the Emperor's favor, you can imagine how simple it was to obtain a place like this."

No...

A faint recollection of her Coronation suddenly came to mind.

"Emperor's favor..." Jovine's words trailed off, unable to admit what she already speculated.

Elias grasped her arm again, turning her to face him. She met his stormy eyes. "Who do you think Harrison Ballio brought to the Capital all those months ago?"

She bit her inner cheeks.

"Who do you think brought Emilia Syrene?" he sneered, his fingers digging into her arm.

The sight of her brother's distress overcame her initial shock. His body quivered violently. The once-familiar look of his savage blood-thirst shined through his glazed eyes. Jovine grasped his shoulder, ignoring the burning pain from his strengthening grip.

"Elias," she called gently.

When a twisted smirk lifted the sides of his face, panic surged through her veins. If she lost him to his shadowed mind, she didn't know when he'd be back again.

"Elias. Don't give in to it."

His face dropped. His eyes cleared. Pushing her away, he swiftly turned. Jovine watched his shoulders heave in harsh, panting breaths as he brought his dagger out. A low grunt sounded before he faced her again with a bleeding palm.

Her heart shattered. She wanted to rush to him and embrace away the darkness he always felt. But he'd refuse her. He always had.

Casually wiping his hand against his trousers, he blankly asked, "Do you recall it now?"

Jovine clenched her jaw. She did.

On the night of her Coronation, when she had danced with Richard, Lord Ballio had proposed a gift. A singer. Emilia Syrene.