The Emperor's Concubine

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The bright white light disappears from my vision, revealing the palace halls in front of me. I look around, confused to how I appeared in the hallway.
Ahead of me, the palace halls glow a deep orange-red hue, with black smoke fuming through the hallways as I notice the palace is ablaze.

Looking around scared, my body begins to tremble at the sight of the chaos.
"Cabel?" I call out, worrying about what to do.
Suddenly, a scream rings through the hall.

Quickly running towards the scream, I turn the corner to see a massacre of servants and knights. Their bodies cut and burned, my vision fills with red as I stare at the blood spewed through the hallway.
Running up to a maid who tries to move, I try to reach out to her.

"Are you okay?" I exclaim.
I reach out to tap her back, yet my hand moves through her.
Jumping back surprised, I watch as she continues to move as if she can't see me.
"W-What's happening?" I stand, looking at my shaking hands.

In the distance, voices speak. Recognizing a deep voice of a man, I run towards the room.
Turning the corner, I enter through a doorway, into the bedroom where Cabel stands ahead of me.
In front of him, the previous king and queen lay on the ground. Their shaking cut up bodies, trying to move back.

"C-Cabel-" I cut myself off, my hand reaching through his arm.

Trying to touch him, it's as if I'm a ghost.
I freeze where I stand, confused about why I can't touch anybody, until noticing the state his body's in.
His shirtless torso, injured and dripping blood with a large bloodied cut on his left chest. A chill hits me as I notice the thick steel cuffs around his wrists, the chains dangling from them, broken.
Taking a step back, a heavy—overwhelmingly strong—aura hits me.

"You... You were supposed to be our gift." The king struggles to speak through the pain.
He coughs up blood, his arm severed with his eye dripping blood.
"I am not your puppet." Cabel's voice deeply growls.

Entering the bedroom, a group of knights, and a man dressed in a royal uniform runs in.

"Cabel, enough! You aren't fit to run a kingdom!" The man shouts.
A slight grin appears on Cabel's lips.
The sight of expression causes my body to grow cold as I look back at his heartless smile, with eyes that seem to have no life in them.

"You might be right for once. I'm not fit to run a kingdom... However, I am fit to run an empire."
The man's expression falters into a shocked one.
"You can't serious. You'd be destroying the ties we have!"
"Why would the ties, they have, matter? Emperor Cabel has such a better ring than King Cabel, doesn't it?"
Cabel suddenly lifts his arm.

The shadow at his feet begin to transform, shooting out of the darkness in the form of spikes.
Instantly, the spikes puncture all the knights in their chests and heads.
The man wears a horrified expression, his feet taking a step back.

Practically flying across the room, Cabel instantly appears before the man.
I fall to my knees, stunned as I watch the scene.
Cabel's arm stabbed through the man's chest, I watch as the blood pools at their feet.
The man coughs up blood, his body growing limp as he falls towards Cabel.

"You... You'll live remembering all of this. How will that make you feel?" He weakly questions.
"Did seeing what was inflicted upon me for years, ever cross your mind?" Cabel's voice coldly asks, "Did knowingly take part in what I had to endure, every day, every week and month, ever ruin a night of sleep for you?"
"You would never understand... I did it for them. It was necessary!" The man shouts, his complexion going white.
"Than you can understand that this is necessary to me. Goodbye, brother." Cabel calmly speaks as he looks into his eyes.