SOPHIE POVI stared in shock at the decapitated hand that rolled on the floor. There was a stream of blood that gushed from the stump that remained. I could see Jax's shocked face which mirrored mine. We both hadn't expected it. It had happened so quickly.“What the fuck,” He finally shouted backing away and spraying rivulets of blood as he moved making the place more messy. “You cut off my hand!”“Consider this a friendly warning, you won't get off this easy next time,” Luke said kicking the hand on the floor away from him.Jax bent down and picked it up, I could see the effort it took him to do so because I could see that he looked dizzy. At that moment, I felt bad for him and wanted to reach out to help him. I shook off the thought quickly, it would only make things worse for everyone.“That should teach you never to come back here again. You expect her to take you back after all you did.”We watched him back off slowly, his gaze flitted from Luke to the hand he was holding and then
MAGNUS' POV We've been planning on how to take down Luke for a while now but being rash with it was something we avoided at all cost. We made different plans and collected ideas from every one of us until we were finally able to choose one which was mine. "We will do this, right?" I questioned as I looked at their pleased places. These men did not start as mine but through daily interaction and coming together, they had grown used to me and respected me as a leader. They would do everything I said even though I always asked them for their opinion too because I knew their life was in danger too. Following me meant death for each of them and thank goodness they all knew that but still decided to follow me anyway. According to one of them, he said he would rather die a soldier than get killed while being used by someone as treacherous as Luke. It was nice to hear and it boosted not only their morals but mine too. It was a different story if I was the only one facing Luke because no m
SOPHIE'S POV I sat down, thinking about what to do and what way to go about my situation when I heard footsteps coming toward me. I wondered who it was as it had been a while since someone visited me this way and I was curious to see who it was. The footstep got closer and closer until I could finally see who it was. "What are you doing here?" I asked coldly as I glared at him. The last person I wanted to see was Luke and it was annoying to see his face. The fact that he got me locked in this room was enough to make me want to pluck out his eyes and feed them to the dogs. He stared at me for a while and chuckled "I can't believe you are still so strict although you are behind a cell." He mocked as he looked around and signalled for the guards to leave. "Oh, did you think I would become fearful just because you locked me here? You are someone that can't defeat me, no matter what you do, I will always find my way out somehow and you are the loser here." I said to him with my eyes
MAGNUS' POVI was curiously walking around the castle, looking for where to start my operation when I heard noise from a distance. I knew meeting Luke head-on without a proper plan would put me at a disadvantage, especially when everyone already saw him as their leader of some sort, not knowing how much of a dick he was. If only I could climb up somewhere and let them know who he was, it would have been nice but that alone would come with a lot of work which might later be in vain because people's minds are the hardest to predict. Not even when I had the littlest chance of succeeding and surviving against someone who was already in power. "Hey! Can't you hear? The king just called for an emergency meeting!" One of the guards I walked with earlier said to me as he ran past me. The king called for a public meeting. Thinking about it, for a minute, my heart felt like it was going to explode. Different thoughts ran through my mind and the fear of him having noticed and planned to trap m
SOPHIE'S POV After seeing what happened to the man, I couldn't keep standing there anymore as my whole body was shaking with fear and disgust. It was much more than I could handle.I had never been to the war front before so seeing such a gruesome scene was something that felt new to me and it took a toll on me. I quickly turned my back to leave, ignoring the council members who were calling my name. To hell with them all. They must have wanted me to confront Luke like I always did but after what happened to me, I never wanted to confront him again and the fear of him cutting off my head like he did to the man kept me at bay. I grabbed my gown tightly as I rushed away from the scene and made my way toward my room with my maids coming behind me. I was just a few miles away from there when I heard Luke's next word and my legs froze bringing me to a complete standstill. I turned to look at myself to make sure I had heard wrong but damn! My ears weren't hearing shit!"Did King Luke jus
MAGNUS' POV I couldn't believe my ears. I knew Luke wasn't out for my mother but for me. He was doing that to get to me and he would stop at nothing to make sure I lost everything so I would never be able to return to the palace again. If the situation was different, I would have ignored the whole thing and continued with my plan but with the way he had decided to do things, there was no way I could just keep quiet about it. it didn't sit right anyway.He said everything he needed to say and called off the meeting after which the people started dispersing with everyone having different thoughts in their mind about the whole issue. The guard behind me groaned angrily "What was that? The King's mother wouldn't have killed her son and why would she collide with someone that once hurt her son? This whole thing is crazy and Luke is crazier to even plot things like this." If anyone hated Luke with passion, then the guard would be the one. He hated Luke so much and he wasn't hiding the di
MAGNUS' POV "A duel, you say?" Luke questioned as he looked at me with horror in his eyes. The thought of having a duel with me seemed to put him off and I was sure of it. "Yes, A duel," I replied, not backing out. All the council members were confused, they seemed to have something to say but the tension between Luke and I was so high that they had no choice but to keep quiet. "My King, you should know this is..." One of the men behind me wanted to say but I shook my head, stopping him. "He challenged me, he defiled the rules and inflicted my people. What better way to put him to shame than to beat him up in front of the people he tried so hard to rule over?" I asked him. Everyone had things to say, they were all staring at me with questions in their eyes but the one that stood out the most out of them all was Sophie. She wasn't just staring at me like the rest, she had tears in her eyes, she looked relieved and at the same time, worried and sad. I let out a deep breath as I
I ordered the guard to leave after which I returned to the room to wake my men up. If anything, I would have loved to let them be in the room to continue sleeping but the last thing I wanted for them was to be slaughtered while sleeping. This might be my castle but I had been away for a while and at the moment, Luke still had much more control than I did. Waking them up, I explained the situation to them and I could see the worried gaze on their faces. "Don't worry. It's going to be alright." I said to them as I returned to my bed to put on the things I would need for the grand duel. "We tried our best to follow the men to find out what they were doing but in the end, we realized we were tricked. It seems Luke already knew we would act and he set some men up to trap us. Fortunately, we were able to beat the men and get out unharmed but we were unable to get any information from them and we don't know what Luke had planned for today's duel." One of them explained. They had explaine