Chương 48: The Price of Victory

Following Ontari along the dark and dank tunnels underneath Troit made me a little nervous, but I was ready. James had trained me for this. Well, more specifically, he trained me to defend the Heda, but I was ready to fight in this war.

The three point attack on Azgeda territory had only just begun a few days prior, word already reaching the capital city of Troit like an all-devouring storm. People's reactions were mixed. Some were angry at the Heda and the coalition as a whole for such an act, while some were angry at Queen Nia for her underhanded treasonous actions of attempting to assassinate the Heda. The city was divided, and Ontari and I took advantage of the division to sneak into the old Pre-Praimfaya sewer system.

From what we heard on the streets while laying low, the Heda's armies have begun to use bombs, and these bombs have been laying waste to Azgeda's strongholds. No doubt that was Raven's doing, that woman was a genius and she seemed to have a hard on for things that go boom.

"We're almost there." I heard Ontari whisper to me quietly, causing me to speed up my pace. Was I nervous? A little bit, but the nightblood in front of me gave me all the strength that I needed.

James wanted someone else to go with Ontari on this infiltration/assassination mission, but I insisted. I knew this mission was going to be dangerous, and I didn't trust just anyone to keep Ontari safe. Using Ontari's knowledge of the capital, we were to use a secret tunnel to sneak in and assassinate Queen Nia in hopes that the war would end quicker. Without the head, the army should fall apart. That was the theory, anyway.

Azgeda was beyond patriotic, almost in a fanatical way. Eliminating Nia was no guarantee that they would surrender or even stop fighting. If anything, it may just create some type of power vacuum with a bunch of people pining for the empty throne.

Ontari said that there was a high chance that the Prince could talk his people down, but no one in the coalition knew where he was. He's been a ghost since his exile, apparently. The last war with Azgeda had happened before the dropship ever came down, so I had no idea what these people were like or even what Queen Nia looked like.

Walking through the dark tunnels underneath Troit with Ontari wasn't the most romantic outing for us, but it was our first, together. Once this mission was over and we made it back to Polis in one piece, I planned to take her out for drinks or even perhaps dinner. From what I heard, Jasper was in Polis and he made some killer alcohol. I just hoped that it wouldn't be too awkward between us since I tried to kill him that one time.

Thinking about how I used to be, I couldn't help the low chuckle that rumbled from my throat. Ontari seemed to have heard it because she turned her head around to look at me weirdly. "What has you laughing like that?" She asked incredulously, not seeing the humor in the situation they were in.

"Just thinking about how much of an asshole I was back when I was still in Skaikru." I answered honestly with a small smile.

Raising her eyebrow at my answer, she had no hesitation when she quipped with a smile of her own, "What do you mean was?"

Feigning hurt, I placed a hand over my chest dramatically. "Words hurt, you know." I tell her seriously, embracing my birthright to be one of those actors of old. Rolling her eyes at my dramatics, Ontari just turned back around and resumed her walking.

Though she didn't say it, I knew her well enough to know that she was nervous about their mission. She couldn't hide her feelings from me now that I know what she's like when her walls are down.

Soon enough, we made our way to a nondescript hole in the sewer's wall. It was more of a dark alcove than a hole, really. If it weren't for our torches, we could have easily walked past it without being the wiser. The alcove led into somewhat of a short hallway with a steel door at the end of it. I was worried that the door would be locked, but Ontari assured me that Queen didn't bother locking it due to how secret it was, and in case there was an emergency need to evacuate using the tunnels.

Queen Nia's arrogance would ultimately be her downfall.

On the other side of the door was another hallway, though this one seemed to exist for the sole reason of discrepancy. Ontari mentioned before that most of the tunnels and secret passages used in Nia's palace were so the servants wouldn't be seen as they moved around and performed their duties.

We moved quietly, barely making a sound as we snuck around the palace. Overall, we hadn't experienced any real issues. There was a servant that we had to hide from, but that was all. Luckily for us, the servant was too much in a rush to look around her surroundings. If they had, they would have undoubtedly spotted Ontari and I huddled up against the wall in the shadows together. One could easily confuse our close embrace with a romantic one if it weren't for the seriousness of our mission.

Eventually, according to Ontari, we reached our destination. "Ok, right on the other side of this wall is Nia's throne room," She whispered to me. "We will exit out of the passage right behind her throne. Once we're in the throne room, we have a clear shot to her sleeping quarters."

"Sounds like a plan. Do I get a kiss for good luck?" I asked teasingly, looking at her with wiggling eyebrows. Rolling her eyes at my behavior, she leans in and plants a sweet and sensual kiss upon my lips. Though no words were spoken, we both knew that kiss was a promise. It was a promise that we'd both make it out of there alive.

***

Sliding the stone wall aside, John and I slowly crept out from the secret passage. Looking around, we made sure that the coast was clear before fully committing. The throne room was quiet and well lit, the torches and braziers around the room burning brightly.

As we walked around Nia's throne, we heard the wall slide shut behind us, prompting us to whirl around in alarm.

There standing next to the now closed secret passage entrance, was one of Nia's elite guards. Then as if that was the signal, more guards came out from different hiding places around the throne room and surrounded us. My stomach dropped at the sight.

"Shit…" John stated, our backs together as we pulled out our swords.

"Agreed," I voiced, looking around with a critical gaze, trying to think of some way out of this. There were a lot of guards, and we were absolutely surrounded. The likelihood of us coming out of this unscathed was slim. "John, whatever happens, stay close to me. We'll make it out of this."

"Right." He uttered quietly yet firmly, resolution clear in his voice. John wasn't someone who backed down easily, and neither was I. If this was where our lives ended, then we'd go down fighting till our last breath.

I don't know who struck first, whether it was us or Nia's guards, but it was a bloodbath. John had been personally trained by the Shield gon Hedas for months, and it showed in the way he expertly swung his blade. If I wasn't busy deflecting and counterattacking, I'd watch him in awe. His skill was to be admired.

The throne room was filled with the clashing of blades and groans of pain. With nearly every swipe of my sword, blood was sent splattering across the walls or floor.

Ducking underneath an enemy's sword swipe, I plunged my blade deep into his stomach with a swift and precise thrust. With my sixth sense, the hairs on my neck prickled as I felt an enemy coming up to attack me from behind. Without even hesitating, I pulled my sword out of the man's stomach and spun around, blocking a heavy overhead strike that would have no doubt killed me if it connected.

Kicking my attacker in the chest, which pushed him back several paces, I quickly deflected an incoming thrust of a spear that came from my left. Sliding my sword along the spear's shaft, I smiled viciously as I was rewarded with a scream of pain as my bladed cleanly sliced through my attacker's fingers. Before I had a chance to revel in my small victory, a large savage looking woman came charging at me with a heavy ax.

Turning my body to the side, I barely dodged her ax's downward swing, hearing it cut through the air as it passed by my chest. Getting close to the woman, I smashed her in the face with my elbow, snapping her head back before I split the skin of her neck with a swipe of my sword before spinning around to dodge another blade.

There's so many of them… I thought frantically, my body moving on autopilot with the thousands of hours of combat training I'd gone through.

Risking a glance at John to see how he was fairing, my breath caught in my throat when I saw him take a heavy punch to the face. The punch didn't seem to bother him though, he fought on like nothing happened, even as blood began to run down his nose and over his lips. He looked fierce, and I couldn't have been more happy to recognize him as my flame—my mate.

I only hoped that we could both make it out of this alive. However, the longer we fought, the less likely it seemed like that would be the case. I couldn't allow my fear to overtake me, though.

John and I were warriors. Even if the odds weren't looking too good, we didn't allow them to shake our resolve as we both fought tooth and nail.

Barely even acknowledging when a random blade swiped my arm, I fought on. I couldn't risk becoming distracted, I couldn't risk succumbing to the exhaustion of my body. I knew that if I did, we would be dead.

"Switch!" I yelled, changing places with John to mix things up. Just like we practiced, John smoothly transitioned from one target to the next as he fought my previous opponent. We were a team in more ways than one, we wouldn't go down without a fight… and fight we did.

As the pile of bodies around us steadily grew, so did our exhaustion and fatigue. John and I both were running on fumes, and the enemy knew it too. They just kept coming. When we cut one down, two more would show up in their place. It was as though they hoped to take us down with pure numbers alone.

The sad thing was, it was beginning to work. More often than not, the wounds we began to receive grew more and more. We were covered from head to toe with blood. It wasn't all ours, though. John and I seemed to bathe in the blood of our enemies as we fought. My senses were overwhelmed with the metallic smell of copper.

Eventually, our luck seemed to run out. With my body as exhausted as it was, I could barely react as the guards swarmed us. Before I knew what was happening, my hands were tied behind my back and I was shoved to my knees painfully.

Looking over at John, I was thankful to see that he was alive as well. It seemed that Nia didn't want us dead right away, she wanted us alive. I knew that was worse, though. She would mercilessly torture us and make us yearn for death to take us, only for her to deny it with a sadistic grin on her face.

It wasn't just from rumors that I knew what would happen… I was trained by her personally. I had my fair share of experience with her torture methods.

When the throne room's doors opened up, my heart dropped at the sight of Queen Nia entering with a large smile on her face. Turning her gaze over the many dead bodies of her guards and the blood that seemed to be everywhere, a smirk replaced her smile as her eyes seemed to sparkle.

"Ontari, my dear. It's so good to see you," She practically purred as she approached the down forms of John and I. " I was wondering how you've been. I'm glad to see that you haven't lost that edge of yours."

Smacking my cheek lightly, Nia turned towards the bound and gagged form of John. "Please don't hurt him." I begged, knowing exactly what the Queen wanted. She wanted to break me, make me regret that I had ever entertained the idea of helping the Heda.

Without even looking at me, she swiped the blood-soaked hair across his forehead in an almost caring manner. I couldn't see her face, but I knew she had that sadistic smile of hers present like always.

"Don't hurt him?" She inquired with amusement, analyzing John's face and drinking in his look of fear mixed with defiance. "Why would you care if I hurt him or not? Wasn't it you that told me of this plan of yours to lead him here?"

I widened my eyes at her blatant lies. Hearing what Nia had said, John shot me a look of utter betrayal that just broke my heart. "John, she's lying. Please believe me, I would never do that." Though I denied the Queen's claims, I didn't know if he would trust my words or not.

"She's lying to you, boy," Nia ignored me, roughly grabbing John's chin to force him to face her. "Ontari told me everything. She told me how she had successfully infiltrated the nightbloods, how she fooled the Heda and her ignorant guards… She was never one of you… She always belonged to me."

"John, don't listen to a word she says, none of it is true! I told you the truth back in Polis, you know I did! Please don't listen to her!" I panicked, not wanting her caustic words infecting our relationship with lies.

Placing herself between John and I, I couldn't see his face any longer. "She told me all about you, of course. How she wooed Shield gon Hedas' second… how she gained your trust…Ontari told me that you were weak. And as you kneel before me here and now, I can see the weakness she raved about in her letters." Nia told John, almost whispering to him as she fed him her lies.

Since I couldn't see his face, nor could he see mine, I had no idea what kind of effect her words had on him, but I hoped that he wouldn't believe her. "She's trying to turn you against me, John. Nia is nothing but a serial liar! She's a manipulator!"

"Do you hear her blithering about? She is nothing but a coward who can't come to terms with what she's done." Nia hissed into John's ear, one of her hands fumbling with something in her pocket.

I couldn't do anything if I tried. As I sat there on my knees begging John to believe me that I had nothing to do with this, I didn't realize what she was doing until it already happened. With one swipe of her dagger, she slit John's throat and stepped back so I could get a good view.

"Noooo!," I screamed out, not even hearing my own voice as all I could hear was the blood rushing to my ears. I viewed the world in slow motion, watching distraught as John's eyes seemed to roll back into his head, watching as he began to choke on his own blood. "Please no! Please, please, please!" I begged and cried, knowing there was nothing I could do. The binds on my hands were tight, and the guard's grip on my shoulder was unyielding.

Nia looked at me with a sick twisted smile of satisfaction, twirling the knife she had just used between her fingers. "I told you, girl. Love is a weakness, and weaknesses are easily exploited." She declared as if I was still a young girl who saw her as my teacher.

As tears streamed down my face, I looked towards Nia with the most deadly glare that I could muster in my sorry state. It was as if I was hoping that my look alone would be enough to kill her. "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" I promised, my throat hurting with the force I screamed at her.

Ignoring my outburst and constant threats of death, Nia looked at the surrounding guards before telling them all to get out. She wanted to speak to me in private, but there wasn't anything more I wanted to say to her. As the guards filed out of the throne room one by one, the guard holding me down on my knees was the last to leave. But, before he left, he subtly undid my bindings.

I couldn't believe it, why would he cut my binds?

Not noticing, Queen Nia turned her back towards me and began to walk towards her throne. If I had to guess, she wanted to do a whole monologue before sending me to the dungeons. Alas, I didn't give her the chance. Sweeping a sword off the ground that belonged to one of the guards I killed, I charged at her with hot fury and despair pumping through my veins.

She must have heard my approach, because just as she was turning to face me, I slammed the blade into the top of her skull. The momentum of my charge pushed her down while I landed on top of her, straddling her as I began to drive my sword into her face over, and over, and over again. With each swing, I yelled, trying to release all of the pain and sorrow that I was feeling. I felt overwhelmed.

I didn't know how long I was there brutalizing Nia's corpse, but by the time I got up and ran to John's body, her head was nothing but a pile of shattered bone, blood, and brain matter.

Reaching John's cooling body, I kneeled by his side and cradled his head desperately, caressing his bloody cheek as I cried. His eyes were dull and lifeless, and if I had a mirror in that moment, I'm sure mine would have been too. "I love you so much, please, please don't leave me." I sobbed, cradling his head against my chest even harder. John was the one who taught me that love wasn't weakness, he taught me that love was strength.

But in that moment as I sat alone with his corpse, I felt weaker than I had ever felt before. I felt as though a piece of me had died along with him. I felt broken, fractured… it was like my whole world crumbled down around me.

So overcome with grief, I didn't notice someone come up behind me until I felt their hand on my shoulder. On instinct, I grabbed the sword that was next to me and swung around ready to kill whoever it was. As if they were expecting it, they raised their own weapon up to block my blade. Only then did I notice who it was, it was the guard who had undid my binds.

We stared at each other, neither saying a word as our blades were locked in a standstill.

Eventually, I was the one who broke the silence. "Why did you help me?" I asked him, confused why one of Nia's elite guards would risk their lives to help me kill her.

He didn't respond right away, I could see the conflict in his eyes behind the mask he wore. But ever so slowly, he released the tension on his blade and stepped back. Perplexed, I watched silently as he reached a hand up to his face and removed the bone mask.

I dropped my sword, my bloodshot eyes widening as I realized who had saved me.

"Prince Roan..?"