Chapter 137: Your Mother is alive
The ruling wasted no time. Liam found the baron guilty on all counts, abandoning his duty to the kingdom when trouble came. Soon, he was dragged out by the guards and taken to the center of the town.
He was tied before all the kingdom and placed on his knees, head down, too heavy with shame to allow his face to be seen.
People gathered around him in large numbers. Everyone watched with interest to see what was happening, and when they saw the baron there, they were shocked and confused. But those who had some knowledge of the issue were filled with rage and anger at the baron, and they showed it, yelling at the baron and cursing at him.
Liam stood beside the baron with a sword in his hand.
"Today, we will execute the former baron of Raventowk for attempting to abandon his town when the situation went bad.
As nobles, we are held to the highest standards in Vermilion, and we must act accordingly. With all the riches and glory that come as well, comes responsibility to the people, to the kingdom."
Liam raised his sword into the air. "Today, I, Count Liam, will take the role of the executioner and deliver the justice that is needed."
He turned and faced the baron, ready to get through with it.
Lia was standing at the front of the crowd, and she looked right at her father with steady eyes. There was no remorse in her eyes at all. She kept her gaze steady.
Her father finally lifted his head. He looked at her with eyes that said it all. He regretted every action that had brought him to this place.
The count gripped his sword with both hands as everyone watched.
The baron opened his mouth. "I’m sorry, Lia, for failing."
Lia was unfazed by his words. The sword began its journey down.
"Your mother is still alive. Find her," the baron said before the blade slashed through his neck. His head fell to the ground with a loud thud and rolled away.
Lia stood there with shock on her face. She was frozen. The count walked toward her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"You did what was right," he said and walked past her. He thought that what she was feeling now was because her father had died, but it was not.
"Your mother is alive."
"Your mother is alive."
The words played over and over in her mind like a recording.
’That’s not possible. There is no way it is.’
Lia thought to herself. She stepped back in fear and shock, only to hit someone behind her. She turned around, and it was Ren standing right there.
"Hey."
"Go away," she snapped and turned, running at full speed.
Liam saw her run past at full speed.
"I guess she actually loved her father," Liam said.
"That’s not it. Something is wrong," Ren said and dashed after her. He gave chase through the town. She burst out of the town and rushed toward the forest, but he caught up as fast as he could and grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Lia," he called out, but she immediately turned with a slash. Green flames exploded from her sword. Ren crossed his arms and blocked the attack. The blast pushed him back several feet.
She gritted her teeth and charged at him, yelling in agony as she did. She came in with a large slash. He weaved to the side and got behind her.
"Lia, what’s wrong?" he asked, but she did not listen. She came at him again before he finished speaking.
The green flames followed every swing, each arc wider and more desperate than the last, the attacks carrying the raw force of someone who had stopped thinking about technique and was running entirely on something that had nowhere else to go.
Ren moved.
He stepped around the first slash, letting the flames pass close enough to feel the heat across his cheek. The second came diagonally, and he ducked under it, the blade cutting through the air above his head with a sound like something tearing. The third he sidestepped, and the fourth he weaved back from, each dodge smooth and unhurried, his eyes never leaving her face.
She was crying.
Not the quiet kind. The kind that happened when something broke open that had been held shut for a very long time, her face twisted with it, her breathing ragged between swings, the sword still moving because stopping it meant the thing underneath had nowhere to hide.
"Lia," he said again.
She screamed and swung with everything she had, both hands on the hilt, green flames exploding off the blade in a burst that expanded outward in every direction, the kind of attack that would have taken most people off their feet and left very little behind.
Ren did not move.
He took it.
The flames hit him across the chest and the force drove him back, his boots carving lines in the earth, and when the light died, there was a clean slash across his chest, blood welling up through it, dark and real.
She froze.
The sword stayed raised, but nothing came after it. She stared at the wound, at the blood, at the fact that he had stood there and let it happen, and the fight went out of her all at once, her arms dropping, her chest heaving.
Ren crossed the distance between them.
He did not say anything. He simply wrapped both arms around her and held on.
For one second, she was rigid against him, her whole body resisting.
Then she broke.
The sound that came out of her was not words. It was everything the words could not carry, all of it at once, her hands gripping the back of his coat as she fell into it completely, her body shaking with the weight of what her father had just taken with him when he left.
Ren held her and said nothing.