The Devil's Son and His Fated Bride
Chapter 250: If you love her...

Chapter 250: If you love her...

Her words struck harder than anything.

Hector held her gaze, conflicted. He didn’t answer immediately. There was no need. Her question planted something inside him, a fracture in the narrative he had clung to.

She’s a hybrid... yet she’s nothing like them. And he is a hybrid too. He knew how it felt to be different.

And truth be told, he hated the vampires he had once aligned with. They were wild and reckless. Their lords never controlled their hunger. What began as a movement became madness, amusement, turning anyone they could, even children. It was chaos in the name of vengeance.

"Fine," he said, at last, his voice rough. "I’ll summon them. I’ll bring them all to the North. But you’ll keep your word, no harm to the half-blood children. Swear it."

"They will," Lora spoke before Ren could. Her voice trembled, but not with fear, with conviction.

"She saved me," she added. "From that mad princess who shattered my bones. She treated me like her sister, even when we were nothing but strangers. She is my Queen."

Lora’s voice cracked at the end, but her eyes glowed with fierce loyalty. She had lived in Ren’s shadow long enough to know the truth, Reneira did not harm the innocent. She fought to protect them.

And for once, Hector believed it too.

"We will see," Hector murmured with a crooked smirk, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He turned his gaze to the King, cold, unreadable. "And what will you do with your courtiers?"

"They lack the courage to defy me," the King replied, calm but heavy with bitterness. Then, narrowing his eyes, he asked, "Tell me something, have you ever worked with Karon Kalia?"

There was a fire in his voice now. That name carried centuries of disdain. The King wanted him dead, desperately. He just needed a reason that wouldn’t spark rebellion.

"We only knew Oka," Hector replied without flinching. "If his brother was involved, he kept us in the dark."

He said it plainly, and it didn’t feel like a lie. He wasn’t afraid of anyone in this room. That made his honesty harder to question.

"True," the King murmured, sighing. "I only wish there was evidence."

The frustration etched into his face deepened. The thought of dying while Karon Kalia lived, manipulating shadows behind Ren and Gloria’s thrones, was a bitter pill he could hardly swallow.

Kai looked at him sternly, his voice low and calculated. "Do you want me to end his life? Quietly?"

The King shook his head. "No. But after I’m gone... keep your eyes on him." His gaze moved between Kai and Ren. "Never let that man near the truth. Not a whisper. Not a word about the hybrids."

His voice dropped into something darker, an old king’s final command:

"He won’t hesitate to kill them. Or worse, enslave them. He dreams of restoring the world to the era of tyrants, where power was hoarded, and compassion was weakness. He is mad for power."

And that warning wasn’t just for his daughter and son-in-law. It was for every soul in the room.

"I’ll warn Gloria about it too. She must not trust Dankin," Ren said, her voice warm with assurance.

Later, in the great throne hall of Jaigara, the air was thick with power and expectation. The kings and royals of all realms were seated in their designated places, an assembly of legacy, magic, and war-born scars.

They waited in silence for the King of Alvonia. But none expected this.

Gasps fluttered across the hall like scattered leaves when the grand doors opened, revealing Gloria, strong and solemn, pushing a wooden wheelchair.

And in that chair, like a ghost of a myth once told, sat the once-unshakable King.

The throne, the glowing, legendary Ruby Throne, remained untouched. He could no longer ascend its steep platform, but his throne was the wooden seat.

The room, which had been abuzz with whispered judgments about sorcerers, now found a new subject: the crippled King.

The murmurs were venomous, curious, and absolutely disrespectful.

Ren clenched her fists. Her nails bit into her palms, but not as sharply as the sting in her flesh. They were mocking him. The man who had carved peace from war, was now dismissed as weak, reduced to whispers by fools who had never stood on a battlefield. And then she saw it.

Dankin.

He wasn’t seated beside his father, where protocol demanded he be. No, he sat beside Minister Karon Kalia.

Her blood went cold.

He was smiling. That smug, secretive smirk that meant nothing good. Dankin had always been slippery, but now he looked almost serpentine. Too calm. Too calculating. Her eyes shifted to Gloria. Her loyal, fierce, and honest cousin was majestic. But I was too kind. Could she survive these demons?

"She must not trust him," Ren whispered to herself again.

And as her gaze briefly caught Hector’s across the hall, standing in the shadows with Rail and Axe, her heart twisted. No, even trusting him fully is dangerous, she thought. Not even he is able to start safe from the thirst for power.

Some scars could fade, but not vanish. Not yet. It all depended on time.

"He is going to die. Look how pale he is!"

"Dankin should be there, not that maiden."

"Tsk, cripple King. He wasn’t that formidable, I see."

...

More whispers reached Hector’s ear. So this was the royal court, full of ungrateful people who had forgotten what this King had done to keep them rich and safe.

"See, you are not the only one who hates him. The difference is that these are pigs, you are a vampire." Rail murmured next to him.

"Why? After all he has done, they are humiliating him!"

"Because they cannot take the throne from him even in this situation!" Axe replied and looked up.

Sunkiath was on the glass dome and his piercing eyes were inspecting these royals that were so consumed that they didn’t realize his presence. But Hector could feel it, his anger.

"That beast up there, he is angry."

Hector muttered.

"No worries, he wouldn’t roast them without a straight command."

Rail replied, his eyes following Gloria and Hector spotted that instantly.

"If you love her, never leave her side. These people will devour her and kill that giant lizard too."