Lucrezia froze when her gaze fell on the brutally severed head and the rest of the body crumpled at one corner still trembling from the remnants of motion as blood spurted from its neck in a sickening yet frantic rhythm.
She couldn't breathe. Her chest tightened, her lungs refused to fill, and for a moment, she didn't even remember how to move.
Time stretched in impossible slow motion as she remained rooted in place, staring at the broken form, her mind refusing to accept the truth.
The void inside her chest expanded, cold and unyielding, spreading with every heartbeat she couldn't feel. Lucrezia couldn't process it, couldn't think. All she could do was stare, and the longer she did, the more the reality pressed down on her, crushing her from the inside. The courtyard was silent, oppressively so, except for the sickening drip of blood.
She was gone.
Lucrezia's mouth opened in a silent gasp, as if the act of breathing might somehow make it stop, and watched, utterly paralyzed, as the dark liquid pooled in the cracks between the stones, spreading slowly and irrevocably.
Her skin had drained of all color when finally, her hands flew to her mouth, trembling violently, trying to stop the scream that rose from deep within her chest.
But the sound broke free, ragged and raw, echoing sharply off the stone walls. She pressed harder, desperate to trap it, to erase the sound, but it was too late.
She couldn't believe it… she refused to believe it, but her eyes were far crueler than those thoughts.
It felt like her world was suddenly shrouded by this void hole, spreading all the way across her chest until her knees buckled and this time, Lucrezia didn't stop it, falling to the ground.
"M-Mad…" She whispered, not paying attention to her skirt which pooled in blood.
The head lay where it had fallen, its eyes half-open and mouth parted as if she'd tried to say something before it happened. One could tell she'd died not able to process her death as the cruel hands of it took her life. There was no sound now, no breath, no heartbeat… just the awful stillness that filled the space between them.
Lucrezia reached out with shaking hands, stopped, then forced herself closer. Her fingers brushed through the wolf's sticky and cold fur. "Maddie…" she whispered.
Her skirt was already darkened by blood as she moved closer, but she was too carried away by her emotions than a mere skirt.
The courtyard remained still, only broken by the soft words of the werewolf Princess. One could tell their shock at the princess's actions towards the dead mongrel.
Everyone knew who the Second Princess of Veximoor was. A cold and brutal werewolf Princess who adored casualty than pity. She could be pretending, but this one… this reaction was surprising.
It seemed like that thought didn't only cross the mind of the guardsmen but also the creature staring from his distance.
Lucrezia could feel the stare burn her skin, but nothing matched the cruel wound within her chest where at that moment, she forgot her role and succumbed to the pain of loss.
Gods this cannot be happening, she thought, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Maddie, please," she called again though she could barely breathe. "Stay with me, Maddie," she begged with a shaky voice as her fingers slipped, slick and useless. "You're okay, you're gonna be okay, I promise, just… just..."
Just what? But it didn't move and the wolf's eyes didn't blink. What else could be done? She was… she was… causing reality to sink deep into her brain. "Maddie?" she whispered in desperation but there was no answer. "Maddie, look at me!" she sobbed louder this time. "Don't go. Not you. Please… not you,"
Finally, the creature that had been still the entire time seemed to move, and it felt like that darkness that surrounded him only seemed to increase. "If you're done relishing the view, do the honor of burning the body," he said almost out of boredom, utterly cold, turning to leave.
Lucrezia could barely feel the rate of her heartbeat when his words managed to cut through her haze of disbelief and her face drained of color.
"Y-You're a monster!" she hissed, glaring at his back through the blur of tears in her eyes. Gods, how much she despised him, and that whatever it was named burned brighter than anything in her chest.
Any soft attraction she'd felt towards him in the beginning burned to ashes, replaced with something darker than hatred. The memory, the feels, the tension… it was all blanketed by this burning feeling spreading through her chest like a toxin.
That was expected from a creature born out of darkness, but it was devastating to her when she believed, had the faintest hope he might harbor the tiniest string of feelings.
Lucrezia couldn't deny that she saw this coming, but now that it did, it happened in the most cruelest ways she'd ever witnessed in her entire life.
Back when she was still confined in the tower, Lucrezia had glimpsed several types of deaths. By hanging, burning, execution, poisoning… all these were done even with the slightest honor.
Never did she imagine a day like this would come and the brutality of this death was something that would haunt her even while awake.
She wanted to save her… even if it meant the last thing she does after her mother. Lucrezia sincerely wanted to, but fate had always been against her.
Madelyn was closest to blood, and now that it was taken from her, Lucrezia didn't know what she would become. What she would live on to, knowing fully well it had been her fault.
As if that wasn't enough, the monster in the form of a Sin was going to burn her. That thought sent a cold shiver down her spine, and she clutched the head tighter than she'd imagined, letting tears spill across her cheeks.
She would never let that happen. Not when she was alive.
He stopped in his tracks when he heard her say.
Lucrezia felt him turn, slow and deliberate, like he was calculating the quickest yet agonizing way to destroy her, and she couldn't hide the look of contempt when those eyes found hers.
Then he took a step, and another, until he was just a few distance away.
Her pulse thrummed heavily as she watched him close the distance by half.
"It's unfortunate it took you just an entertainment to realize, little wolf. I admit, I expected better,"
If hatred was the most, Lucrezia could vow how much animosity wrapped her chest tight for this monster.
The worst of it all, was the fact that she had no idea how to respond. All she could do was glare in fear and anger at those soulless eyes and the smile that tugged his mask.
Lucrezia hated that he evoked emotions she had never felt. Hatred, anger, fear, void… it was all negative, and that alone seemed to shatter her without her knowledge.
"Spies do not starve in Dreadwyn," his voice dropped dead in seriousness as he stepped forward. "It is far too merciful. No spies remain. They break as their flesh rots, their mind breaks, and what's left becomes ashes, and that's what she has and will become," His words were warning, indirectly reminding her what could happen to spies.
The determination earlier shattered into shreds, revealing a terrified and broken soul. "No…" The word trembled from her throat, broken and childlike.
"Take her to her chambers," Lord Vaerons's cold words ruined the faintest remnants of hope for her, when he laid his last command: "And burn it,"
Truly this time, he turned and walked away, as if he had merely ended a clear conversation.
"N-No!" Lucrezia struggled, twisting the grip of the guardsmen who held her arms. "Let me go!" Her voice broke as they dragged her back, letting her voice scatter to the wind.
Terror still clung to her, pale and cold, refusing to leave her face. "NO! N-NO, PLEASE, NO…"
Lucrezia watched them take the severed parts of the wolf's body to the heated pyre that crackled. Her pulse throbbed, echoing loudly in her eardrums in a wild and unsteady thump. The world around her blurred: the sharp sound of boots, the smell of smoke and blood. All Lucrezia could see was the lifeless body, once warm and alive, now limp and broken, and dead.
As the first tongues of fire touched her fur, the pyre flared bright, throwing long shadows across the gathered crowd. The heat seared her skin, but Lucrezia didn't look away.
She couldn't.
Tears fell freely on its own accord, spilling on her skin like molten lava. It felt like the world held its breath as the fire licked on and on and on, until what she could see as her body was dragged away, was a brutal demise.
It was at that moment something inside her broke quietly, like a thread snapping in the dark.
And whatever it was, it changed her. For the first time in a decade.