Free Web NovelChapter 40: Chapter 40
Taryn noticed it the moment Circe did, her brows furrowing as a worried frown settled on her face.
Circe couldn’t quite place what had shifted but the atmosphere in the hall had turned unsettling. She had a sinking feeling that if things continued as they were, something dreadful was bound to happen and with Ragnar involved, she would inevitably be dragged right into the heart of it all. If Circe was going to leave Lamora, she was going to have to do it quietly and fast. Incurring more of the queen’s attention wouldn’t do her any good.
She reached down with her hand in a way that would go unnoticed and began pressing her fingers against the side of Ragnar’s leg in quick, frantic taps, an urgent attempt to pull him out of whatever dark trance had seized his mind. She increased the force of her taps when the first round did nothing to help the situation.
He snatched her hand without warning, squeezing it hard enough to hurt. She stifled a pained yelp as his grip tightened. She brought her free hand further and pinched his wrist hard in retaliation.
The tension in the hall lessened with every minute that passed until the rest of the nobles felt comfortable enough to resume their conversation with one another. They still tossed glances at Ragnar and Circe but it was nothing compared to the stares they received upon entering the hall. free𝑤ebnovel.com
Ragnar scowled at her but Circe could see that his eyes were slowly returning back to normal. He looked down at where his fingers were wrapped tightly around her hand and quickly pulled away.
Circe gave him another sharp pinch for good measure and he stared at her in disbelief, as if she were the irrational one in all this.
Lady Taryn let out a silent sigh of relief when she caught sight of Ragnar’s eyes, now completely back to normal.
The queen didn’t notice the exchange. But what she did notice was the slight crease of confusion on Circe’s face, her questions splayed open wide for everyone to see.
" Why do you look so confused?" The queen asked. " Surely Ragnar told you all about his wife Luria and how he was imprisoned for her murder—"
The legs of Ragnar’s chair screech against the floor as he pushed his seat back and stood. His chest heaved with each breath. His eyes had gone unfocused and his hands trembled slightly.
He forced a smile, but the tension at the corners of his eyes betrayed just how much effort it cost him. " Forgive me, your majesty but I have to excuse myself. There are matters that require my urgent attention."
The queen’s lips twitched. " Is it more important than dining with the queen?" She gave him a flippant wave when he didn’t respond. " You may leave."
Circe refused to turn as he walked away, she refused to watch him leave the hall. Her heart was frozen in her chest, she wasn’t even sure that she was still breathing.
Murder. Ragnar murdered his wife.
Of all the things she had learned about him in the past few weeks, this fact stunned her the most. The thought shook her down to the bone. He was dangerous, that much had always been clear, but this was something else entirely. She was frightened now. More than she wanted to admit. And yet, despite everything, a part of her still searched for an explanation, something to make sense of it.
More questions rushed to the forefront of her thoughts. How did it happen? When? freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Her gaze fell on Lady Taryn but the woman looked away almost immediately, refusing to meet Circe’s eyes.
***
His shadows were a restless mass of coiling darkness. They writhed and struggled inside him, pushing against the tight cage he kept them locked in. He had to leave. He had to get out of there before he lost control, before he did something he would surely regret.
Ragnar quickened his pace, each stride carrying him farther away from the dining hall, from the queen. From Circe. Pain shot through his injured leg the moment he broke into a sprint, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. Each step sent a painful jolt up his thigh, and his lungs screamed for air. The walls around him felt like they were shrinking, pressing in from all sides, making it harder to breathe with every passing second.
The corridors seem to twist and close in, trapping him in their stifling grip. His heart pounded in his ears, drowning out every other sound. He needed to get out. He needed fresh air in his lungs before the weight of the building crushed him entirely.
Outside. He needed to go outside.
The dam inside him finally ruptured just before he reached the main entrance. Shadows exploded from his body in a violent rush, cascading outward like a storm. Within seconds, every torch along the walls and each flickering sconce was snuffed out, plunging the corridor into sudden, suffocating darkness.
He burst through the doorway into the open night, but he wasn’t alone. The shadows surged after him, writhing like angry snakes. They spread fast and wild, racing across the courtyard, crawling up stone pillars, swallowing rooftops. Within moments, the sky was veiled in an unnatural blackness. The moon disappeared behind the suffocating haze and the stars winked out one by one.
The night groaned under the weight of that darkness. It was no longer mere shadow, it was something alive, sentient. Hungry. It engulfed him whole. It consumed everything in its path. He felt less like a person and more like the monster they all believed him to be.
Ragnar heard startled yelps and screams but they sounded distant and muffled.
His hands were still shaking. When he looked down at them, instead of pure darkness, he saw red. The red of Luria’s blood. It stained his hands, shirt, spilling onto his bedroom floor. He saw it as clearly as the day it happened. Luria laid gasping for air on his bedroom floor, the handle of one of his hunting knives sticking out of her chest. He saw when her eyes closed for the final time, when her chest heaved with her final breath, when her body went completely still. Lifeless.
