Chapter 250: If you love her...
Her words struck harder than anything.
Hector held her gaze, conflicted. He didn’t answer immediately. There was no need. Her question planted something inside him, a fracture in the narrative he had clung to.
She’s a hybrid... yet she’s nothing like them. And he is a hybrid too. He knew how it felt to be different.
And truth be told, he hated the vampires he had once aligned with. They were wild and reckless. Their lords never controlled their hunger. What began as a movement became madness, amusement, turning anyone they could, even children. It was chaos in the name of vengeance.
"Fine," he said, at last, his voice rough. "I’ll summon them. I’ll bring them all to the North. But you’ll keep your word, no harm to the half-blood children. Swear it."
"They will," Lora spoke before Ren could. Her voice trembled, but not with fear, with conviction.
"She saved me," she added. "From that mad princess who shattered my bones. She treated me like her sister, even when we were nothing but strangers. She is my Queen."
Lora’s voice cracked at the end, but her eyes glowed with fierce loyalty. She had lived in Ren’s shadow long enough to know the truth, Reneira did not harm the innocent. She fought to protect them.
And for once, Hector believed it too.
"We will see," Hector murmured with a crooked smirk, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He turned his gaze to the King, cold, unreadable. "And what will you do with your courtiers?"
"They lack the courage to defy me," the King replied, calm but heavy with bitterness. Then, narrowing his eyes, he asked, "Tell me something, have you ever worked with Karon Kalia?"