Chapter 34: Ruin and Relief
The mood in the garden hall had shifted.
The drunken laughter echoed across the floor, layered with the sound of skin against skin, of moans behind masks, and the scent of wine and sweat clinging to the night air filled with sin. Under the silver light of the full moon, nothing was sacred.
“Bring in the next one,” someone called.
The doors parted, and several guards dragged a figure into the hall.
Gasps and scattered laughter rippled through the crowd.
Xavier Brightpaw.
His hair hung in greasy strands, his body littered with scars and bruises, the collar around his neck dragging a chain behind him. He stumbled as they forced him to kneel at the center of the hall, arms limp, eyes glazed.
The Luna Queen’s laughter was the first to cut through the silence. Free, like nothing in the world bothered. Like she owned the world.
“Oh... this is the infamous Brightpaw heir?” she drawled, rising from her seat with a slow, feline grace. She walked toward him, dragging her fingertips across his shoulders. “He looks like a stray mongrel.”
One of the guards whispered something in her ear.
She threw her head back and laughed again. “Really? They cut off his balls? Fed them to pigs?”
The King chuckled awkwardly, swirling wine in his goblet. “Disgusting business.”