Chapter 18

- Elly -

Nathaniel kept the pouch with the money below his bed, Elly had seen it while cleaning the other day.

Annabelle had her weapons laying all over the place. She would probably not even notice one missing. There was the carriage going in and out of the castle and the capital once a day to the nearby farms.

Elly could be gone before anyone knew it. She could take the money and a weapon with her to work in the morning, but instead of heading to the kitchen she could head to the stables and hide herself in the empty barrels from the day before.

Upon arriving at the house Elly stopped with a sigh.

She had thought the exact same thing every day since arriving at the capital and every day the exact same thing had stopped her from running.

Maybe Jake and his group were insane for aspiring to overthrow the King. Bug what if things really could be different? What if things could be better? What if other innocent girls could be spared from the grim fate Elly had suffered?

She found Nathaniel and Annabelle awaiting her in the kitchen, also like every day, but the looks with which they welcomed her, were something she had not seen before.

They were tensed, unnerved, and upon noticing her presence they stopped whatever conversation they must have had.

"What is it?" Elly asked. Fear spread through her body.

"The boss is back," Annabelle said.

Elly's heart skipped a beat. That was something to be happy about, wasn't it? What were those faces of worry for then? Why were they so upset? She remained staring, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the continuation of the explanation, but that did not come.

"Upstairs." Nathaniel said eventually and pointed his finger up towards the ceiling.

"O-Okay."

Uncertain what exactly to expect Elly climbed the stairs. The wood floor creaking below her weight must have announced her, but everything remained silent.

Carefully Elly looked into the few rooms, as if her nightmares would jump her.

And then she found him.

Jake sat on the bed. No, he crouched, his shoulders hung slumped and his head low. He held his face hidden in his hands, that he leaned upon.

Elly had worried for days how to react upon meeting again after their inappropriate parting, but all of that was gone in an instant.

Something was very wrong.

She sat down on a chair in front of Jake and waited for his reaction to it, but none came. "Are you ... quite alright?" she asked. "Jake?"

Slowly he rose his head to glance at her. He looked sickly tired, worn out beyond what should have been possible to endure. Pale skin, dark shadows below haunted eyes. An expression of pure agony.

"It's over," he mumbled. "Nathaniel was right. With everything." He let his head hang again and ran his fingers through his hair like he was about to pull them out.

Elly tried to remember some conversations she had overheard to make some sense of the words. But no one had ever told her anything important and the rest was a little beyond her as well.

"What happened?" she asked. Because something had, hadn't worked out as planned, it was painfully obvious.

Jake shook his head.

Elly grabbed for his hands to hold them in hers, but he brushed her off.

"Talk to me," Elly said. But he remained silent, as always. "I don't know much, but I know ... I can see that you are breaking. Please, talk to me."

"It wasn't there," Jake said. His voice was quiet. "It wasn't there and I don't have time to look for it anymore and now Rutger ... " He trailed off and shook his head like the words alone were repelling. "He should have been here already."

Only then occurred it to Elly that the man was indeed not present, even though Jake and him had left together. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know!" Jake suddenly yelled.

Elly flinched back.

Jake groaned and brushed a hand over his face. "Sorry," he mumbled then.

"D-Don't worry, he will be back soon." Elly meant to comfort Jake.

He shook his head again. "He'll never be back. And I'll never even know why," he whispered. Slumpedeven more in on himself, like just existing was too much effort.

Elly bit her lip. Considering, reconsidering and reconsidering again. Thenshe moved to sit in the bed next to him, rubbed a hand over his back in comfort. "Let's play chess, shall we?" she said in an attempt to bring him off his grim thoughts.

"I hate that game," Jake grumbled. "My father taught it to me."

Strange then, that Jake played it so much, Elly thought, but didn't say. What other things were there to say to ease his burdens? What other things to make him feel better?

If he had just opened up once to her about his troubles.

But no.

Elly sighed. She took Jake's hand into hers, this time he let her. "You are not alone, you know," she said. "Even if I cannot understand what bothers you, I can listen. Sometimes that helps too."

Jake grimaced.

"And I am not that fragile. Lean on me a little when it becomes too much."

"Yeah," Jake breathed. He shifted his weight and laid his head on Elly's shoulder.

"That's not what I meant."

"The last person who knew things about me lost his tongue to protect my secrets. I'd rather spare you that fate, if you don't mind," Jake mumbled. He shifted his weight again, rose his head enough to place his arms around Elly. They fell backwards into bed, Elly pinned beneath Jake.

"That's not what I meant!" Elly repeated in gasps and pushed against his chest. Heat rushed to her cheeks and through her body.

"I know," he said with a broken smile.

Elly froze, staring at it, staring at him. There was so much darkness in his eyes Elly couldn't even imagine to bear it.

He shut them and leaned closer. To place his lips on hers for one soft kiss.

It tasted like winter.

It had her whole body burning with fire. Hot shivers raced over her skin.

She should have stopped him then. He might have waited for her to stop him. She didn't want him to stop. Ever since he had left, she had been longing for this. For him. She knewit now and she wasn't afraid anymore to admit it to herself. She wanted him.

Jake kissed her again, hungrier this time. His arms around her tightened. He pressed against her with urgency, like whatever space between themwas too much.

"One more regret to take to my grave," he mumbled against her lips.

***

- Jake -

Jake awoke to a knock at the door. He tried to ignore it. Tried to fall back asleep and snuggled closer to the soft warmth wrapped around his body.

He had not felt that comfortable maybe ever.

The knock sounded again, harsher this time and his source of comfort moved so suddenly Jake snapped wide awake as well. "Not like they don't know already," he grumbled.

"Know what?" Elly snapped.

He glanced up at her. Her bright red face, her tensed lips. Her eyes that jumped everywhere in the room but him.

"Nothing, never mind," he said, sat up straight in the bed and brushed a hand through his hair. "What is it?" he directed at whoever was at the door.

"The Earl is here to see you," Annabelle said from outside.

Jake let his head sink with a sigh, then shook it, and rose to go downstairs to meet his doom. Surely the Earl would not be pleased to hear his efforts to support a lost cause were in vain.

Elly followed after Jake, brushing her short hair and her dress straight. He wished he had dared to take it off. She would have probably kicked him if he had tried.

"You look like hell," Nathaniel welcomed Jake to a kitchen with a tensed atmosphere. He didn't even spare the demon a glance. No, he couldn't bear to look at him, since all he was, was a grim reminder how Jake had failed.

The Earl sat at the table with crossed arms. His golden curls were tousled up from the storm outside and a sword dangled at his hips. "I hear we ran into trouble," the man said.

Jake opened his mouth to ask how the Earl even knew, how he had known where to find Jake or how he was here in the first place, but resorted to shrug instead. What did it even matter.

Nathaniel's message hadn't reached Rutger, and if the demon's magic failed to find a person, it usually was a dead give-away for, well, death. No matter how many times Jake had forced Nathaniel to repeat the spell, no matter how much he had yelled at him to stop fooling around, nothing.

Nothing.

Rutger was not part of this world anymore.

Jake's vision threatened to blur.

"W-Would you like some tea?" Elly directed at the Earl. She looked almost offended that none of the present people had thought of a little hospitality yet. She moved past Jake towards the stove, where Annabelle leaned cleaning one of her favourite daggers without much attention for anything else.

Jake brushed a hand over his face. "What do you want?" he said and sat down with the Earl, when the man didn't give an immediate answer.

"I want you to deliver what you promised."

"I didn't promise anything," Jake tried.

"You – "

Jake cut the man off with a gesture. "I am sorry, but removing the King from power only makes sense, when you have a replacement."

"What are you talking about?"

"He is being an idiot," Nathaniel snarked. "You didn't really think that Rutger was going to be King, did you?"

Jake took a deep breath. "Let it go." They had argued plenty about that topic. And there hardly was use arguing anymore since Rutger was ... was not ...

"You didn't really think that a man who couldn't even speak an order could reign a country?" Nathaniel said.

"Speech or not, he – "

"Would have been a great King?" Nathaniel caught Jake off. "Like hell," the demon snapped. "No one followed you thinking even for a single second that it was going to be anyone but you. Even Rutger himself thought so."

"Well, you know it can't be me. As you said yourself, I have little more than a year left. It makes no sense."

"It's true then. You really sold your soul to a demon for the throne," the Earl said. His eyes jumped between Jake and Nathaniel. Cautious, yet curious. As if he was considering a deal for himself.

"You did what?!" Elly blurted. The pot of tea almost slipped out of her hands.

"Not exactly," Jake said. "I made a deal with Nathaniel, my soul for his service over a limited period of time. The throne just happens to be the purpose of it."

"A limited period of time?" the Earl asked.

"Ten years," Jake said.

"And you couldn't bother to stop for even a second to explain that to me?!" Elly yelled. She stared at Jake with trembling lips slightly parted.

"I literally introduced him to you as a demon!" Jake said.

"That – "

"Can we please focus again?!" the Earl cut Elly off. "I am sure we got other things to worry about." The man glanced at Jake. "As you said, looks like you don't have a lot of time."

"It is over," Jake said. "I tried, believe me, I tried." He reached for the seals in his pocket, that had been supposed to give him his freedom, and put them on the table. "But I will die and Rutger ... is dead. Without an heir, there is no plan."

Nathaniel bend over to take a glance at the seals. Six seals, the Lord Lauren Cornell had crafted to trap a demon. They did not look like much, even Jake had to admit. Little white pearls with strange symbols engraved, that he had collected on a red string. But no matter what they looked like, they had been his last hope. With the seventh missing, ... well... it was over.

Nathaniel wrinkled his nose at the sight, as if even just looking at them made him uncomfortable, but at the same time the smirk on his face grew wider and wider.

"Well, aren't you an idiot," he finally said. "If you'd told me what you were scheming, I could have told you from the start that this was useless. Seals don't break a deal."

The Earl rose an eyebrow, obviously not quite following, before he shook it off. "Look I don't care about your fate," he directed at Jake. "I got the men waiting at the gates. I paid for their weapons. We are ready to fight, with or without you."

"And who is going to be king? You?" Nathaniel said.

The Earl shrugged. "Why not?"

"No!" Jake snapped.

"Why not?" the Earl repeated, more certain of himself this time. His whole posture changed. Straighter, broader chest. "If I recall correctly, both the royal sons were bastards, that gives you about as little right to the throne as any of us."

Jake snapped. He reached across the table, grabbed the Earl at the collar and swung for a punch in his face. The Earl was quick to react, he blocked and lunged at Jake instead. The men crashed to the ground for an even fist fight.

"Oh my God, stop it!" Elly yelled.

"No," Annabelle said and held Elly back. "He needs that."

A fist landed in Jake's gut and knocked the air out of his lungs. His mind snapped back to focus. He grabbed for the Earl again, turned them over, and snatched one of Annabelle's daggers to bring it to the Earl's throat.

"Enough!" Nathaniel yelled. An echo and a sense of threat followed his voice.

The room froze. Willing or not.

Jake clenched his teeth and closed his eyes shut for a few deep breaths. When he was certain he was calm enough, he stood up and stepped back.

"Insult me all you want, I don't care," Jake finally managed. "But not a word about my brother."

The Earl pushed to his feet as well, brushed his hair out of his face and straightened his shoulders.

"Brother, huh?" he snorted. "Whatever."

Jake bristled. He would have wanted to punch the man again.

"We are doing this, even without you. Or your brother," the Earl said. He ran a hand through his curls and straightened his clothes. Then he nodded a good-bye and marched out the door.

Jake groaned. He picked up the chair from the floor and slumped down on it again.

Elly cleared her throat and finally poured a cup of tea, from the pot she clung on to like a shield of protection. "I-I never knew you and Rutger were brothers," she said, carefully, as if expecting Jake would lunge at her next.

"They are not," Nathaniel said, and despite Jake's murderous glance continued. "Not really in any case. The late King and the Queen hated each other too much to be in the same room for more than five seconds."

"Shut it," Jake snapped.

"Then you are really – "

"It doesn't matter!" Jake cut Elly off. Too harsh. She flinched back, spilling some of the tea out of the pot she still clung on to.

"Well, I'll better get going too," Annabelle broke the silence in the room after a while. She picked up her daggers and sheltered them.

"W-Where to?" Elly asked.

"You heard," Annabelle said over her shoulder on the way out. "It is only three days till New Year's, and we are doing this, with or without him."

Meaning Jake, he knew.

"I'll send the message when everything is in place," Annabellesaid. Meaning, when she had gotten herself locked up inthe dungeons below the castle, Jake knew that too.

"We'll be ready," Nathaniel answered. He cast Jake a meaningful glance, then Elly, then also left the kitchen.

Elly shifted her weight from one leg to the other, uncertain, then sat down on the table. She finally managed to let go of the pot and folded her hands in her lap.

"Jake," she said after a while. With a tone of voice that promised nothing good.

He looked at her, unsure what to expect. "Yeah?"

"You ruined me."

He grimaced with the stab of the familiar guilt.

"You ruined me without as much as lifting a finger for it."

"I have no excuses for that."

He had thought it would have been better for her to keep her away from all of this. He still thought that, and yet somehow he had betrayed himself and pulled her into the mess anyway.

"I know," she said quietly. "But that is not my point. You have more influence on other people's lives with your every action than you can ever imagine. Even if you mean well, it does not always turn out like that."

"If that is your attempt at comforting me, it is a bad one." He felt horrible enough already, he didn't need even more reminders ofall the things he had failed at.

"It's a warning," Elly said. She wrung her hands in her lap. "But yes, maybe also that. You know, at least you mean well. I don't know all too much about the Earl, but I don't think he does."

Jake laughed, bitter and almost hysteric. A man who slaughtered his father for power and riches? No, he most certainly did not mean well.

"I doesn't matter," he said. "I only have a year left. That is hardly enough to establish proper control. Don't even think about actually changing anything for the better."

"M-Maybe you don't need to think that far ahead. A lot can be different in one year. Just look how this one turned out."

"Nothing will be different," Jake snapped, then forced himself to some calm again. "My fate is sealed. I can't get out of the deal." And once he was gone, there would only be a country in chaos and anempty throne, just like Nathaniel had said.

"W-What about this?" Elly said and picked up the seals, that had fallen off the table during the fight earlier. She turned them in her fingers.

"You can keep them. They are useless."

"Well, maybe there is another way?"

"Right. Of course, maybe if I just begged Nathaniel to postpone my death a little, everything will turn out fine," Jake snorted.

"Have you tried?" Elly said. "He is actually not as horrible as you think, you know."

"He is a demon!"

"Fine!" Elly snapped. She clutched the pearls tightly in her hands. "Then I guess we are doing this without you." She stood from the chair about to leave.

"We?" Jake repeated. "Wait. You are not part in any of this."

"I am, actually. Nathaniel said me and David are responsible for making sure no one innocent gets caught up."

"Are you mad?" Jake stood as well. "No wait, you called me mad, multiple times, for attempting this!"

Elly's face darkened for a moment, then she gave a weak smile. "I might not know what exactly I want to do with my own life, but I know with all my heart that something has to change. And I want to make sure that it does."

"How did you – how – I'm gonna kill that bastard!" Jake cursed and stormed past Elly out of the kitchen, looking for Nathaniel.

He didn't know how the demon had talked Elly into this, but he was going to pay for it. She would not take part in the coup. Not ever.

"Where are you?! You bloody demon!" Jake yelled through the house.

He found Nathaniel in a room upstairs, standing to look out a window facing the castle.

"Finally found your spirits again?" the demon teased.

"Elly will not take part in this!" Jake bristled.

"We all will take part in this," the demon said calmly, without even turning to face Jake. "Whether you like it or not."

"No, th – "

"You gathered those people." Nathaniel said. "You gave them ideas about change and told them that things could be better. They believe that things can be better. Now grow a pair of balls and lead them!"

Jake's hands balled to fists. "Will you still drag my soul to hell?"

"Who knows," Nathaniel said and finally turned around towards Jake. For once there was no malice in the demon's eyes. "But if you give up now, you'll never know if you could have changed anything. Your fate, their fate. Even your little maid's fate. Don't you think she deserves better?"

"She does." She didn't deserve any of the terrible things that happened to her. Jakewould have given her the world if he could have.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Nathaniel said. "Deep down you know that Rutger would have never been King. He always had other interests than you. You just never wanted to admit it to yourself."

"Rutger – "

"Admit it."

"He is the rightful – "

"He is gone. You can stop feeling guilty now."

Jake stepped back with a gasp for air.

The demon's words cut deep. They unsettled Jake's very soul. The guilt and the need to make up for the mistakes he had made had driven him for so many years. With Rutger gone Jake had lost his chance to.

And yet.

Long before the guilt had been the ambition. The want for everything the man that wasn't quite his brother had always had. Jake had studied about politics and economics while Rutger had been enjoying hunts out in the forest. Jake had always worked twice as hard, while Rutger had been the blessed child.

He had hated him.

He hated him still.

He was finally out of the way.

"Alright."

***