THE WINTER AND THE CROWN // Harry Styles (#TCTM2)

Saviour

Warning: gore, violence, character's death. 

We have one more chapter left :)

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By the time Reyna and the remainder of her army arrived at their camp, Vossler and Calanthe were already there with the Thero army. Reyna wondered why her soldiers had let the enemy just casually enter their camp without a fight. But when she saw whose throat Vossler was wrapping his long dirty fingers around, her heart almost came to a stop.

"Jo," Reyna mumbled, horrified as she pushed her way past the soldiers to get to Jo, but was blocked by two Theros guards with hands on their swords.

"Your men couldn't lay a finger on me because of this precious little thing," Vossler said, stroking Jo's cheek with his thumb. "Who would've thought a maid's life could be so valuable?"

Reyna didn't speak. She silently observed her surroundings, looking for an opportunity to strike, yet she knew one swing of her sword would start a bloody battle, and the first to go would be Jo. Jo wasn't just a maid; she was the only family Reyna had left, the only one who had been with her since the beginning. Reyna would let them take her own life before they could harm her best friend.

"Found this one in the woods," Vossler said in a casual tone as if he was telling a nice little story for the children. "Your Majesty, if you were to have your lady in waiting escorted back to the castle, you should have sent some real guards who would finish their jobs. I feel bad for having shot down the ones you chose."

"You lost," Reyna said, her voice loud yet calm. "Let my maid go and return to your kingdom. Accept defeat like real men."

Vossler arched an eyebrow, challenging. "How did we lose if you were the one who lost your king?"

"Reyna!" Harry snapped as Reyna clutched her sword-hilt and was about to charge. One look from Harry and she froze. Realisation clicked in her mind. She remembered that her recklessness had caused Lance his life, so she wasn't going to make the same mistake out of anger.

"Your Majesty!" said Sir Seren, her general. "We can still fight!"

Reyna swallowed hard. Sweat trickled down the side of her face, and the smell of dried blood numbed her senses. Around the camp, her soldiers stood in lines, waiting for a command that never came. The air grew colder as snow fell slowly all around them. Reyna could hear her mother's voice at the back of her mind telling her to put on her gloves. Her heart clenched as she tightened her fist around the hilt of her sword to hide her trembling fingers from the enemy.

Vossler's laugh thundered as he pressed the blade a bit harder against Jo's throat, causing poor Jo to huff, yet unable to make a sound, for Vossler's large arm was locked around her delicate neck.

"Tell him to let her go. She cannot breathe," Reyna told Calanthe, who looked more than a decoration in the background than a queen.

Calanthe didn't speak. Vossler did. "Is this the Queen you chose?" He scanned his dark eyes across the line of Isolde soldiers behind Reyna. His gaze flicked back to her, and his mouth curled spitefully. "She's soft and weak. What a shame for a kingdom like Isolde to have such a ruler."

Reyna didn't turn around, yet she could feel her men exchanging looks of distrust with one another. Her jaw tightened as she clenched her teeth.

She was about to say something when Harry raised his voice. "Are you going to let this traitor turn you into one?" he asked the soldiers, his voice loud and hoarse, silencing the murmurings. "Vossler is plotting to dethrone his queen. And now he wants you to commit the same crime and betray your own."