Keditha's Beloved

Chapter Twenty-four

His boots click across the floor as he enters the room. He crouches behind me, running his hand down my back. "I'm very disappointed in you." Philip whispers in my ear, causing me to shutter.

"I lo-loved h-him." I sob.

Philip sighs, brushing the hair out of my face. "I know dear, I know. But I loved you more."

"You don't love me, you never did." I say.

Philip gently caresses my arm. "That doesn't matter now. I have you and you have me." He glances down at my hands. He grips my hand, prying the ring from me. "You won't need this anymore." He tosses it across the room.

"No!"

"You're mine, you don't need another man's ring." Philip leans towards me, kissing my neck.

I scream, shoving him back. "Leave me alone, I don't belong to you!" I shout, moving to my feet.

Philip follows my movements. He wraps his arms around my waist. "I'd like to say different." He says, forcefully moving me to the bed.

"Philip stop!" I yell. I pick up a candle from his end table, throwing it in his face. The flame and hot wax burns his face, causing him to scream out in pain.

I try to run for the door but Philip trips me. He drags me back to him. "We're not done yet!" He snaps, pulling me to my feet.

"I never did anything to you! Just leave me alone!" I scream, fighting him. I shove him into one of the bed posts.

I try my second attempt to escape, but Philip grabs me again. He spins me around, choking me with his hand. I desperately gasp for air but it wasn't coming.

"You're only going to get yourself into more trouble if you continue to struggle." He pins me on his table.

I attempt to pull his hand from my throat but it wasn't working. Reaching behind me on the table, I feel something cold and sharp.

Grabbing it tightly. I swing up, stabbing him in the neck. Philip stumbles back, surprised.

His eyes roll back into his head, and he falls to the ground. I gasp, sucking in as much air as I could.

A small blood pool formed around Philip's body. I stare at it stunned, then I laugh. I laugh and cry out of relief.

He was dead and I was safe. Free.

I scramble to my feet, going to look for Julian's ring. I search around the bed. I know Philip threw it around here somewhere but I didn't see it.

After a couple minutes of searching, I finally find it resting under one of Philip's dressers. I hold it tightly, sighing out of relief.

I sling it on my mother's necklace, clipping it around my neck. I needed to move before someone came in and found his body.

But first, I needed to help Brynjar. I exit the room, careful to stay away from any halls containing guard patrols.

Slowly but surely I made it to the dungeon. "Woah, what are you doing here?" A guard who was standing watch there, asks.

"I wanted to talk to the prisoner before he is executed." I tell him.

"Did King Philip approve this?" The guard questions.

"No but we can go ask him." I move to the side motioning for him to go first. Once he walks past me, I pick up a vase that was lying on the ground, hitting him in the head with it. He hits the ground like a bag of rocks. "I'm sure Brynjar would be proud." I smile to myself, crouching down to grab the keys from the guard.

I rush over to Brynjar's cell before anyone saw me. "Doing types of treasonous things today huh?" I mutter to myself. I stop in front of Brynjar's cell. Brynjar was chained to the wall, his face badly bruised and bleeding.

"Brynjar!" I say, unlocking and swing the door open. I move to remove his chains.

"Athena?" He questions, drowsily. "What? Where's Julian?" I remain silence while unlocking the chains. He rubs his wrists, studying my dress carefully. "Wait, whose blood it that?"

I burst into tears not being able to contain it anymore. "I don't want to talk about it. Let's just go." I say moving to exit the cell.

Brynjar's eyes widen. "Oh..." He says quietly. He doesn't bother getting up.

"Brynjar, we need to go." I sniff, wiping my tears that continued to fall.

"Why? My brother is dead. I don't care if they kill me." He mutters.

I give him a agitated look. "Brynjar, I lost my parents and the love of my life all in one month yet I'm still fighting. Now I know I didn't knock that guard out for no reason, so let's go." Brynjar only watches me. I soften my tone. "Brynjar please, I can lose anyone else."

Brynjar sighs, standing up. "Fine, we can go but first..." He wraps me into a tight hug. "Who did it?" He asks.

"Who do you think?"

Brynjar shakes his head. "I'm going to kill Philip." He snaps.

"I already did." I mutter.

Brynjar pulls back to look at me. "You knocked out a guard and killed Philip? Well look at you!" He says grinning. "How'd you kill him?"

"A letter opener."

Brynjar smiles at me, a sadness crossing his face. "Julian would be proud."

I bite my lip, trying not to cry more. "I know."

Brynjar nods his head towards the exit. "Let's get out of here." I follow him out of the cell. We took a different way out of the dungeon. The one we attempted earlier that day.

Brynjar brings me to a grate that led to the forest outside. I could see the sun was setting. "How are we supposed to get out from here?" I question.

"Please this thing is old and rusted." Brynjar kicks the grate until it falls on the ground. "I'll take you to our horses." Brynjar takes my hand and the second we exit the castle all together, warning bells started to sound.

Either they found Philip or noticed Brynjar was gone. "Brynjar?" I question.

"Don't worry, they're right around this tree." Brynjar says.

Two horses come into view and I almost burst into tears again when I see Feltar.

"You can take her." Brynjar says, noticing me watching her. "Julian would've wanted you to have her anyway."

"I don't really know how to ride." I tell him.

"Then Feltar is a great horse to learn on. Here let me help you up." Brynjar helps me on Feltar before climbing onto his own horse. "Where to?" He asks.

"Astoan." I inhale sharply. "I want to go home."