Her footsteps echoed down the hallway like hammer strikes against her chest. Each step forward dragged her deeper into the pit forming in her stomach, but she couldn't stop. She wouldn't stop.
Her mind clung to faces that would never smile again. Katy. Her laugh was so light it could brighten a whole room. How many nights had they shared wine and whispered like girls in their teens? And for just a moment, forgetting the titles and responsibilities cast upon them.
Steven. His warmth, his way of pulling everyone in with that patient voice, and the way he had looked out for her son, even protecting him from his own.
And the children—Amadna and Quinn, so bright and kind, and nothing like their grandfather or the shadow of nobility that hung over them their entire lives. They had been proof that not all royals were the same, proof that your blood didn't have to corrupt who you were. Katy had believed that with all her heart.
She was a major proponent of the Royals being brought to justice for their crimes, and she got justice for some hurt, and with her condemning her own son for his many crimes, her movement was getting somewhere; more and more people got behind it.
It even seemed as if something in this country would change, but...
But now. All gone. Every last one. Snuffed out in smoke.
Because of him.
Gabby's teeth dug into her lip until she tasted blood, her nails biting into her palms as she forced her hand onto the door handle. Her chest burned, grief and hatred warring in equal measure. She wanted to scream. She wanted to tear him apart until nothing remained. But Julius's face—her sweet boy's fragile smile—kept her moving forward.
The door creaked open.
The interrogation room swallowed her whole, its heavy silence pressing against her skin.
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And there he was.
Riven Cross.
Yet he didn't look the same; he didn't look like the arrogant, sharp-tongued boy who used to sneer down at everyone from his gilded throne of birthright. Not the crimson-haired royal who tormented her son and walked the world like it belonged to him.
No—this boy on the floor looked like a hollow husk with a passing resemblance.
He was still on the ground where she had tackled him, his arms still hanging loosely around him. His gray hair hung in uneven strands, nothing like the gel-backed hairstyle he usually had.
The stands cast a shadow over his pale and lifeless eyes. He hadn't moved since she tried to strike him, not even to wipe the thin trail of blood that painted the cracked tile beneath him.
Smoke drifted lazily from his body in faint, ghostly wisps, curling through the air as though his very being was unraveling.
He hadn't bothered to get up.
He just sat there, staring at nothing.
Gabby's breath hitched. For a heartbeat, she thought of Katy again—Katy, who once told her in a drunken stupor, "Riven is my biggest regret. Sometimes, I truly wish he hadn't been born."
When she first heard this, she wanted to hit her friends because how could you ever say that about your own child, but now she...
"Stop," a voice said, cutting off her thought.
Looking to the source, a flicker of confusion flashed over her face. The voice was coming from Riven. This was the first time she heard it so clearly, and she noticed it didn't sound like him at all or anyone, for that matter.
His voice had nothing behind it, not arrogance, kindness, sadness, or even hollowness—just nothing, as if she was talking to a computer.
"What?" she said instinctively as she took a step back out of wariness, the kind of wariness you get when you hear a voice in the dark.
Not bothering to look at her, he continued to speak in his monotone voice.
"I assume the detective told you to come in here and beg for my forgiveness in hopes I would spare your son and just kill you," he stated plainly.
This made her fist clench and her teeth grit till she heard them crack. She was coming here to get on her knees and beg just to find out he had no interest in sparing her son at all, and then the tears welled up. There was nothing she could do if he wouldn't listen; then her son was as good as dead. She couldn't hide him anywhere, he couldn't find him, and no one was strong enough to protect him.
"Please, he's just a boy; he didn't do anything. It was me. Please, Riven, please just kill me instead," she begged as she got on all fours and bowed deeply, her tears pooling underneath as the fear of losing someone else spiraled through her chest.
Sitting up, he finally looked at her and said, a flicker of emotion touching his voice, "I'm not going to kill you or your son," he stated.
"You lost enough today."
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