Wanderess

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

THE FINAL BLOW

The light was gone. He could see again. But what he saw wasn't what he remembered. He still lay on the ground, pinned by mass weight of the Demons. Except; this time- when Adrian looked around, the only people still standing were Fayre and his grandfather.

Every other being in the room was on the ground in a pool of their own blood. He felt stickiness on the side of his face, and he could no longer feel the pressure at his neck. With some courage, he shoved himself up- the bodies that previously lay atop him toppled to the floor. They were dead.

They were all dead.

All but the three of them left standing. Adrian looked to the King who stood up, looking utterly shocked. Beside him were the crumbled bodies of Fayre's treacherous Aunt and cousin. He guessed that the only person who knew what had happened was the blonde bombshell who was currently lifting her tattered and bloody wings from the floor. She looked up and their eyes connected. Relief flooded through her gaze before hardening as they focused on his grandfather. She managed to get herself walking, her steps were clumsy yet efficient as she made her way towards Adrian. He decided to meet her halfway, scooping up his sword on his way to her. Mikael was a weight in his tired arms, yet she carried no weapon and if the King decided to attack, then he needed to be ready.

When they met, he hurriedly scooped his arm around her waist t support some of her weight. Her breathing was heavy and laboured, but the fire in her eyes proved that she had some fight left. Careful to avoid her wings, he let her lead the way up the dais- towards a still-baffled looking Demon King.

"H-H-How? What happened? What did you do?!" Malvat shouted.

They reached the top of the steps and stood before the man who raised Adrian to be a monster.

My monster.

His words bounced around inside his head as he tightened his grip on Mikael. He would feel no remorse once this bitter man was gone.

His Princess smirked as she held onto his shoulder for support, "It helps when you're Cael's descendant and he owes you a favour."

Adrian froze at her words, as did the King. What was she talking about? What had happened when she blinded everyone?

"That-that's not possible. Cael died thousands of years ago. What did you do?!" Malvat had gone red in the face and seemed to be grasping at straws, looking for his sanity.

Too bad he lost that hundreds of years ago.

Fayre reached across Adrian and held his sword in her grasp. He let go and focused his energy on keeping her upright and she held the heavy weapon.

The Princess lifted the sword and pointed it at the unarmed, confused and angry King. Stumbling back at the weapon in his face, Malvat fell back into the throne he had stolen.

She held the tip of the sword aimed directly at his heart, "You murdered my people, decimated my home, killed my family, shredded my wings, burnt my cities and now you will die. No one will mourn you. You will be a forgotten whisper on the winds. You will not have askes to be scattered or a body to be buried. You not even be granted peace in knowing you give nightmares to young children. No, you will be forgotten outside of these walls, outside of us. And even then. We will not remember you; we will not mourn what we have lost because of you. We will mourn the happy times a tyrant took from us- but we will not speak your name. Your legacy and your tyranny will end here today. You will not get any last words; you will never be remembered for what you took. You will be erased from history and you will be nothing."

With those final words, Fayre plunged the blade with all her strength through the King's unarmoured heart. She ran the blade through his body and buried it in the wood of the throne. The look of surprise and alarm on his face was frozen in time, his unpreparedness and his over confidence in his army was what killed him in the end.

Fayre was right.

Not one person would mourn the loss of the empire he created, or the man he was.