The Goddesses Throne

by A. Kingsley

  Theo’s mouth was wide, he turned around, ready to run, to sprint and tell someone what he had seen, but a hand grabbed him and pulled him back. “Poor boy, I’m so sorry that you had to see this. A secret like this is best kept and dead people are the best at keeping secrets.” Erebus drove his sword into the boys back and then pushed him off of the sword. “Oh, what a blood bath.” He wiped the blood off of his hands and onto the boys clothes. “This won’t look too good, so I suppose I’ll have to take you to the infirmary.”

  He picked the poor boy up into his arms and carried him down the stairs, pretending to rush his steps. The king stopped when he heard the front door slam shut and a familiar voice call out in anger.

  “How foolish are you? I know mum didn’t give you permission and I know that you’ve brainwashed these guards into believing your cruel antics.” Then the sound of a sword and screams.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  Four.

  King Erebus set Theo down in a hidden corner at the top of the stairs and slowly walked down the staircase, his cloak dragging behind him. His hands were soaked in half dried, half wet blood. His son was standing over four dead guards, his clothes covered in blood, his face splattered with it. “So you have taken to killing,” Erebus mused as he stared at his son’s heaving shoulders. “We finally have something in common. Don’t be mad, you know that I had to kill Antoine for the greater good of Excidium. I had to start a war.”

  “A war that I will not side with you on,” Cassius cried out, his eyes stared at the bodies in horror.

  “Foolish boy, you have to side with me. You are destined to take over this kingdom one day, you can not run away from it.”

  “I’ll abandon Excidium until you're dead, you sick, cruel, bastard. And if the people hate me, I don't give a damn. I’ll treat them better upon my return than you ever have.”

  “And what makes you so much better than me? You’re standing there with blood on your face and your clothes aren’t you?”

  “I am. I guess I’m not sure what makes us different. I'm a monster when I’m angry and it seems you are too. Do you care to explain why you're also covered in blood?”

  “Oh, well I suppose you should know. I know you don't want to hear this my son, but your mother is gone.”

  Cassius went still. Beneath the blood that covered him, his skin dulled. His teeth gritted together, he shook his head and held out his hand in front of him. “No, no. She wouldn’t abandon her kingdom, so where did she go then? Did she go to the Pax family to clean up your mess?” He lowered his hand and moved through the puddles of blood, so he was standing closer to his father.

  “No,” the king said solemnly, pretending to be terribly upset by the words that came out of his mouth. “She killed herself.” Though his words were quick, in Cassius’s mind they were slow and drawn out, falling off of his tongue at the same speed as an item moved along a conveyor belt. Cassius stumbled back. “What? No.” He shook his head and clipped his blood drenched sword back onto to his belt, not thinking to wipe it off. “You’re lying. She was fine the last time that I saw her, she was smiling, she might have not told you, but she damn well would have told me if she was upset! Even when I wrote to her, she assured me that she was fine, so stop lying to me you bastard!” As he continued speaking, he started to become louder, his tone aggressive.

  “Well if you don’t believe me, then you’ll just have to see for yourself.” His act of sadness had quickly faded. His son didn’t believe a bit of it and there was no convincing him otherwise, there was no trust between the two.

  Cassius flicked his hand to get some of the liquid off and forcefully brushed past his father who was pointing up the stairs. He walked too quickly to see Theo in the small corner. When he reached the balcony that his mother and father often hung out at, he opened the door and gasped. His mother was lying in a puddle of her own blood and it was no suicide, the stupid man had forgotten to shut her wide and desperate eyes. He rushed to her side and sat down in the pool of her blood, uncaring of how filthy and disastrous his clothes now were. He lifted her weight onto his lap. He was too shocked to cry, too numb to feel. He was a killer, he had succumbed to killing just like his father and he had lost Antoine only a few moments before. The boy with those kind doe eyes and his little nervous ticks. The boy who made him smile was gone and his mother was dead on the floor.

  It took his brain a moment to process that she was truly gone. He would never ask Clare to fix her, they had learned that performing a revival spell would turn one's magic dark. Antoine … oh Antoine, he had spilled the news about Julius’s little secret when they were sleeping by the campfire that night. He had murmured it in his sleep. Cassius wouldn’t wish that on his mother, forgetting her life, clumsy, confused, living her life again with his father. His mind began to go back to when he was little. After his father hit him, punched him, he could hear his mum screaming at his father for an hour in their bedroom. Cassius would curl up in his room and wait for the storm to pass with Cisily by his side. She would attempt to clean his wounds and after a little while, his mother would come. Cisily would leave and Adria would sit by his side. She would ask if she could hug her son and when he agreed, she would pull him in close, cover him in blankets and read to him until he was asleep. She never stopped, even when he got older, she had done it the day that they got back from the Pax’s after Sage’s birthday, when his father had hit him for not behaving up to his standards. They shared happier memories as well. On Sunday’s they would have tea in the library, discuss fictional characters and gossip about Cassius’s love life. The tears began to fall when he realized that he would never be able to share another moment like that with his mother.

  Cassius spent a few moments looking down at her body. She wouldn’t be at his wedding, she wouldn’t get to be a good grandmother to his children, she wouldn’t be there to finally come around and tell Clare that she loved her. He knew that she did. She had told him that in her most recent letter. ‘I do like her a lot, Cassius. In fact I love her. I just can’t show it around your father. I’m afraid of what he would do to me. ‘What had she possibly done to deserve this?’ In his heart, Cassius knew nothing she did could deserve this, but his father and him did not think alike, they were not alike, he knew this now. He wiped his fingers on the last clean part of his skin. He grabbed a handkerchief from the inside of his black vest. Surprisingly, it was clean. He wiped what blood that he could off of Adria's arms and face and then messily tucked the handkerchief away. He shut her eyes with shaking fingers. He turned his attention to his father, who stood at the doorway. He held protectively onto his mother. The emotion had hit him, his sobs turned violent. “YOU LIAR!” Cassius screamed out into the air. “She didn’t deserve this. You do, but she didn’t,” he yelled between sobs.

  Erebus curled his lips into a pout. His beard had grown out from the last time that Cassius had seen him, it did no justice to his sharp features. Cassius was glad that the only resemblance between them was their skin, a shade golden like honey. Erebus stepped out of the shadows. “Well it is too bad that no one is going to believe the word of a delusional prince over a king who is now in charge of an entire kingdom. I hope you’ll make it to my coronation day. You’ll be a good addition by my side. A push over like your mother, easy to control.”

  Cassius gently lowered Adria back onto the floor. His tears were quieting, but he was still hiccuping through his words. “I won’t argue with you anymore, especially not in front of her. You’re an awful man, but at least take care of her body. If you ever loved her in any way, then could you at least do her a service and call the nurses?”

  Erebus cleared his throat. There was hardly any heart left inside his body, but he worshiped Mallory and therefore he had to respect the dead. “Fine. I’ll call them. Walk with me down stairs, I’m sure we can sort this out.” He stared at his son who was unwilling to move. “If you don’t move, I’ll throw her off the side of the castle.” Cassi
us stood, his pink eyes appalled. The blood he had been sitting in dripped off of him like water as he walked. The remaining liquid was beginning to stain the pavement. He didn’t take his eyes off of his mother until she was out of his sight. “I promise we won’t sort this out,” he said.

  Erebus shrugged. “What are you going to do then?”

  Cassius gritted his teeth, his eyes peering past his father, “I’m going to live with the Pax's. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  “Well good luck with that. I don’t plan on going anywhere, but if the throne ever falls into your hands, the people will hate you for abandoning them. Don’t even bother trying to let the people know what I did, you would be dead before you could finish your sentence.”

  Cassius turned away from his father, his hand clutched the sword attached to his belt. “Then let them hate me. I’ll treat them better than you did these past few years. I’ll be back for the funeral, but if I have to see your face after that day, I will not hesitate to slit your throat.”

  Erebus chuckled, his throat dry, his tone hollow, “What are you going to do? Murder some more people? I wouldn’t bother putting me on that list. You wouldn’t succeed.”

  Cassius felt his lip quiver, he was ready to cry, to break down again. He could get angry instead, dig up his emotions and go on another killing spree, but he didn’t want to resemble the man standing beside him. “No I’m going home.” He marched down the stairs and went into his old room. He washed off his arms in the bath and then grabbed a gray bag. He shoved a few photo albums and a pair of fresh clothes inside. He couldn’t believe that he was doing this, but he’d have to head to the Demetrias’s first. Clare needed to grieve alone and so did he. He also had to tell both Maximus and Julius that he was sorry, he had to explain to them that his mother never had any ill will towards their parents and that it had only been his father. A strong rush surged through his stomach. As the smell of iron seeped through his pores, he bolted to the tub and vomited. It didn’t stop until there was nothing left in his stomach. Disgusted with himself, Cassius wiped his mouth and let his sobs fill the room.

  Once he had collected himself, cleaned his mess and found some mint gum to chew on, he went downstairs and hiccuped as he called for a carriage.

  The guards were hesitant, ready to refuse him, but the king just nodded his head. He was eager to see his son off. He truly didn’t need him by his side. He was better alone, where he could plot in peace.

  The guard didn’t converse with him. Normally when he rode, the designated coachman would chat with him before he got inside and stop occasionally to see if he needed anything, but that was not the case this time. There was no guard willing to sit with him on the inside of the now ruined carriage interior and the coachman was quiet. The time alone gave him the opportunity to process all of his grief. But it didn’t feel real, any of it. There was a tiny piece of him that truly believed that if he shut his eyes tight and opened them again in a few hours, the storm would be reversed. Antoine would still be alive, Clare wouldn't have exposed herself and his mother would still be here. ‘How were so many people dying? Who was next?’ He hadn’t even seen Theo and now that he thought about it, he was supposed to check on the boy for Cisily. He’d ask the coachman on his way out of the carriage and hope for an answer. He didn’t allow himself anymore tears, not at this moment. He felt hollow and numb, his head was filled with guilt. In his anger he had killed four guards. Maybe they weren’t innocent, they had killed people for the king, but they didn’t deserve to die. He had never seen himself become so monstrous. He knew he could be cruel and stone cold, but he hadn’t ever felt the urge to kill, not until his world came crashing down and swallowed him whole.

  He had always been scared to become that monster, someone who resembled his father, but he had become that person in an instant. All those years of pushing down his anger and his pain, had resulted in death. There was only so much pain a human could take, but others handled their pain better than he did. Sage was angry, she was always so angry, ‘but had she ever killed?’ In Cassius’s mind, Clare was incomparable to any human, she was kind by nature, she was not a part of the despicable human race, she was a flower in a beautiful garden. What she had done today was an accident, a mistake and Cassius was sure that she had felt so horrible for hurting others, even though she had been deeply wounded herself. In his mind, he didn’t deserve her. ‘And what about Julius? Surely there was no way that he had ever taken a life, but it was probable that Maximus had. Would Maximus be able to help him through his pain or empathize with him?’ Balancing his immense amount of grief and guilt made him nauseous and the sickening smell of iron did not help his cause. As for the blood, he was still covered in it, but it was mostly all dried. He looked as if he had taken a bath in red paint and it had stained his skin.

  Cassius did what he did best, he quieted his brain and pushed all of his emotions down until he could swallow them. He wouldn’t think about his day anymore until he got to the Demetrias’s and had to explain everything. Cassius let himself become numb. He was reluctant to the idea of turning on his own people before, but now that his mother was gone, Cassius was ready to go to war and he would not fight for Excidium.

  The Demetrias’s hadn’t been expecting Cassius’s arrival, so there was no one outside to greet him. As he stepped out of the carriage, he approached the coachman, who was eager to drive off. “Did you happen to see Theodore?”

  The guard was in no obligation to respond to him, but when he saw that far off look in his eyes and the blood on his pants, he began to panic. “I mean I did … I did, but he … he didn’t look good.”

  “What do you mean he didn’t look good?” Cassius raised his eyebrows, his stern voice pressed for more information. The coachman panicked and reached for the reigns. Cassius placed a firm hand on them. “Tell me, what happened to him?” Sure Cassius had never been as close to Theo as he had Cisily, but they were family and he loved him dearly.

  “He’s dead.” The coachman pushed Cassius’s hand away and hurriedly rode off as quickly as possible so that way the prince wouldn’t be able to take off after him.

  Cassius stood there stunned. ‘Dead? Surely he was lying.’ He hadn’t seen Theo anywhere when he arrived, but maybe that was the point. He thought about Cisily and how distraught she would be. No, no, Theo wasn’t dead. He refused to believe that man’s lies. He crossed the bridge lining the moat, his heart hammering in his chest. It was too late to turn around.

  The guards at the door dipped their heads. “Prince Cassius, now is not a good time,” the one on the right said. The one on the left stepped back, trying to get away from the smell of blood. The guard on the right looked him up and down.

  “I have nowhere else to go,” Cassius murmured. The guard considered this and then stepped aside pulling open the door. “This does seem like an emergency.”

  Cassius wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but what he saw wasn’t it. Maximus was throwing a glass vase against the wall when he walked in. The glass shattered into a million pieces and the king was shouting in a language that Cassius couldn’t understand. There were a few staff members attempting to calm him down, even his boyfriend was by his side, but the king wasn’t listening. Maybe Cassius could help. Well probably not, considering how much Maximus seemed to dislike him. He cleared his throat and Maximus turned his head. His curled fists released and he tilted his head in confusion. “Cassius, get out of my home,” he said, but then he looked him up and down. “I’m just joking, you look hideous. Please stay inside of my home.”

  Cassius took a few steps in and awkwardly surveyed the shattered glass. “Looks expensive,” he commented. The staff fled at the sight of him. Stellan, was the only one who stuck around.

  “It was expensive. Now why are you here?”

  “I'm here because,” he gulped, “I’m here for a lot of reasons actually.”

  Maximus stepped away from the broken glass. He kissed his boyfriend on the cheek, whispered s
omething in his ear and then Stellan walked away.

  Cassius shuffled his feet.

  “Sit,” the ginger commanded as he pointed to the floor. Cassius wrinkled his nose when he was told to sit on the floor, only to seat himself without complaint when he remembered the state of his body. ‘How had he forgotten?’

  Maximus sat down as well, his legs crossed.

  “Where is Julius?” Cassius pondered. He wanted to apologize to him as well.

  “Upset and crying. I’m sure he will come down later, we just got the news about an hour ago.” Maximus seemed bothered when he spoke, not by Cassius, but upset about his brother. In fact, Cassius’s presence didn’t even seem to upset him anymore. Maybe he needed a distraction.

  “Well, you can go ahead and start by explaining why you’re covered in dried blood, then once I know, feel free to take a bath and change. Do you have a bag?”

  He thought he had forgotten his bag inside of the carriage, that was until a guard came in, set it on the floor and then abruptly left. He hadn’t left it in the carriage, he had set it on the floor when he went to talk to the coachman.

  The two of them moved on from the question because it had been silently answered. Instead, Cassius was faced with re explaining his mother’s death. “As you know after the,” the word was stuck in his throat. It felt disrespectful to say it so soon after Antoine was gone, but Maximus understood and nodded for him to continue. “I went to go visit my parents. I was angry, mostly at my father because I know my mother would never sentence anyone to death … she’d never do that. I don’t know what overtook me, a monster perhaps, but I killed. I killed four of our guards quickly, I don’t even remember the details. I’m in a bit of shock. I just know that I did it quickly and brutally.” He looked away from Maximus’s eyes. “Then, my father came down the stairs. He said some things and then told me,” he felt his breath lock in his throat, it took everything in him not to let the numbness fade and instead break down again, “that my mother had killed herself.”