Chapter 417 - No.

"You know what—I am going to kill this sorcerer first." Edyrm walked to Caleb who was standing only a few feet away. He circled Caleb slowly and said, "His magic is strong. I will kill him and absorb his magic too. Then can you imagine how powerful I will become?" He curled his fingers beneath Caleb's chin and forcefully lifted his face up. "Only this sorcerer could thwart my magic on the first day." He tilted his face to the left and then to the right. He hissed, "My magic is so ancient, and I thought no man could equal it, but you—you have surpassed my expectations, Caleb." Edyrm leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. "Do you know I have thought about you every night and brought myself to release?" 

Caleb narrowed his eyes with contempt. "You are a sick bastard," he hissed back. 

"And you would be so delicious," Edyrm growled. "Why don't you join me, hmm?" He stroked Caleb's neck with his thumb.. "I could mark you as mine." 

"Fuck off!" Caleb snarled, feeling utterly disgusted. 

Edyrm clenched his teeth and curled his hand around his neck. "No Caleb. I have special punishment for you. You and I are going to create history. I will throw you in dungeons and keep you locked. I need that power you have, and I will harvest it!" 

Caleb's fangs lengthened and he tried to throw his claws at the king to rip him apart, but the chains were too strong, laden with magic. He couldn't move more than an inch. Edyrm smiled and revealed his ivory fangs. "I will have a great time controlling you." He turned his attention to Rolfe who was now standing close to Iona, and he only smiled. Iona was on the floor and was too scared to lift her head. Edyrm knelt beside her with one knee up. He braced his forearm on his knee and said, "Do you want to say anything, Iona?" 

"H— how did you know of our plans?" she asked, trembling like a dry leaf. 

"Ah! The first relevant question of the evening. But don't you know the answer already?" He traced her jawline and forced her to look at him. When her golden yellow eyes fell on him, he said, "It was because of Ara. She revealed your plans to me every day." He laughed again, shaking his head. "Sometimes, simple tricks that don't involve magic are better. There's a secret door that leads to the palace from the tunnels. She would send me messages through one of my spies. "It wasn't very difficult, you see." 

"That's enough!" Rolfe retorted and tried to pull his chains to come near to her. He grimaced in pain because his magic was being suppressed by his father's. "Let her go and take me instead." 

"Why would I release the most important link of the whole fiasco?" 

Iona closed her eyes. She felt as if she was responsible for putting everyone's life in jeopardy… again. The freedom that she got after being the Dark Witch was so good, it tasted like strawberries in maple syrup and it was too good to be true. It was all ruined. It was only for a few days. 

"Such a lovely design you made to solve the water logging problem. Ara showed me your design after she successfully copied it," the king said. "If only Rolfe would have been slightly discreet about it and not shared it with his men, I would have never found out. See, the thing is that Rolfe is my youngest son and I know him, but with you as his mate, he has gone from bad to worse. There is no escape from me. And Galahar will not move an inch towards development without my consent." He smirked at her. "Has my son told you the secrets of this palace?" He pulled her tunic's collar down and revealed her marks that were still red and healing. "Oh! I see that my son has marked you." He pressed his fingers over those marks and she shrieked with pain. 

"You better leave her alone!" Rolfe shouted. "How dare you?" He hated the way Iona was trembling beside him. He pitied her only because she was his mate that she was seeing this day. Her agony burned through his heart. She was his innocent and delicate flower. His mate...

Iona lifted her gaze to meet Edyrm's. Her lips quivered but her eyes blazed with fury. "You are the worst king I have ever seen. You are worse than Etaya because you are fed with your stupid notions of ruling the Lore or conquering Vilinski. You are still living in the past, when you should look forward to the future. Your son, Rolfe, would be a better monarch than you. Along with your enemies, you left no stone unturned to convert me into a Dark Witch and use my powers in your favor. Do you have the slightest remorse that you and Etaya were responsible for ruining the lives of two, very young and very innocent girls? But you see, we have come back—Anastasia and me." She turned to look at Rolfe whose face had become white with fear for her. He shook his head slowly as if asking her to not speak. "I was given a second chance at life after Anastasia plunged the sword in me. And I didn't know that it was a way of the Lore to bring me to you. Do you realize the irony of the situation? I wasn't supposed to meet my mate. But I met him. And I wish we had had more days to be together. I wanted to explore the world with you, help you realize your dreams."

Rolfe was so touched by her words that he gulped. He dropped to his knees and looked at his father. "Please father. What is your price to leave her? You can ask your soldiers to take her and throw her out of the kingdom. I will stay here. I will stay without her. I am ready to take that punishment on me. You want to see me suffer? You got it. But please leave her. I will do exactly as you say." 

"No! I won't leave without you," said Iona as she shook her head. 

King Eydrm looked at his son for a long time. His gaze riveted to Ileus, Caleb, Kaizan—all deathly still and quiet. Then he looked at his son who was kneeling down before him and said, "No." 

"No." The word dropped heavy in the thick air, as if it sliced the souls of all who were present there. Edyrm got up from there as Rolfe watched him go back and sit on the throne. When he sat back, swishing his cloak away, he looked at the guard who was holding the sword on Iona's neck and nodded. 

The guard lifted his sword and was about to strike her neck, when a blood-curdling shriek erupted beside the throne. It was a sound that Ileus had heard many times before. His gaze swiveled to the side from where the scream came from and his eyes became wide as he stared into green eyes. A head rolled on the black stone of the floor.