Drakkon

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I had fainted for a split second, falling forward and everything darkening around me, but my vision cleared up a few seconds later and I was trembling, my stomach roiling and my chest heaving as I shakily pushed myself up. My eyes barely roved over the dead bodies and when I accidentally caught a glimpse of one of them, I whimpered pathetically, too weak to do anything.

"Empress, you don't have to worry about anything," Remus told me as he wiped the blood off his hands, not seeming to notice I had blacked out for a second. "They're all dead and I don't sense it anymore."

Right then, there was a rustling noise from behind me and I whipped my head to the side, scared that another man was going to come through and try to hurt us. Atreus came through the clearing, Nikator and Minos trailing after him. They all paused when they saw the scene before them.

"Empress," Atreus said as he came towards me, kneeling down and touching my shoulder. When I trembled at his touch, he raised his head to look at Remus. "What happened here?"

"They were bad," Remus said simply. "So I killed them."

Minos sighed and scrutinized one of the bodies. "As usual, you don't kill them cleanly." He crouched down and picked up the discarded heart, looking at it closely before tossing it. "A clean kill feels so much better and prettier than . . . this."

Nikator was peering at the man that had his chest ripped open. "You shouldn't have dragged Lady Daiyu into it," Nikator said offhandedly as he grabbed one of the man's hair, pulling his head to the side and examining it. "These guys don't look familiar."

They were too relaxed with the scene around us.

"Check to see if they have any letters on them," Atreus said as he glanced at one of the bodies, looking casual.

"This is . . . normal for you guys?" I whispered, gripping onto Atreus's forearm and leaning forward until my forehead was against his shoulder. My whole body shook, and I was breathing unsteadily. "I'm sorry for . . . for being too weak, but I can't . . . I can't look at it."

"Atreus, get her to the palace," Minos said.

"Right." He gently scooped me off the ground and walked away from the mess. My head was nestled against his chest and I knew that if I had eaten anything this morning—I had been planning on eating later—I would've retched everywhere. My empty stomach was churning and I felt nauseas.

Throughout the whole walk, I couldn't stop envisioning the man's death, over and over again. Although he had wanted to kill me, seeing him get ripped apart before my eyes was gruesome and something I wasn't used to. At least when Meilin had killed that spy at the base, it hadn't been as traumatic and gruesome as this bloody death was.

"Empress, I'm sorry you had to see that," Atreus said to me when he entered the palace. A few soldiers slowed down when they saw me and Atreus, shooting curious looks at each other.

"Is something wrong?" one of the soldiers asked as he neared Atreus.

"There was an assassination attempt," Atreus said calmly.

The men's eyes widened.

"An assassination attempt? What do you mean, Atreus?" a loud voice called out from the halls.

Atreus turned to his right and saw General Hai marching towards us, a worried look on his face when he saw me. His dark eyes darted from me to Atreus, and he waved dismissively at the men standing around. "What happened?" he asked once more when he was right in front of us.