Saving My Evil Winter King

Chapter 13

Lily’s POV

The sudden weightless status was horrifying. I panicked at the moment and grabbed Louis’s coat desperately. Luckily, the well wasn’t that deep. It took us about two seconds to land at the bottom.

I heard him whispering “We’re here” in my ear, then opened my eyes.

He gave me an assuring smile which made me feel relieved right away.

“Than..Thank you.” I stuttered and then loosened my grip on his coat.

The well or the dungeon under the well was confined and narrow. The only outlet which allows air and light in was the mouth of the well above our heads.

The walls and the floor are all steel. I saw no bed, no desk, no chair, only a wooden bucket in the corner which I assumed might be used as the toilet.

It’s hard to imagine how a person could live in a narrow place like this for eight years. I mean, he didn’t even have a bed!

And I desperately wanted to know why they did this to Aries. Knowing what he did as the brutal Winter King, it would be fine to hold him in a place like this. But right now, he hasn’t become the Winter King yet, which meant he hadn’t started to harm anyone. He was like ten or eleven 8 eight years ago. Why did they lock him up in this horrible place while he’s still a kid?

I looked at Louis with astonishment in my face. Louis sighed before he spoke, “You really didn’t remember anything about him, right?”

“No.” I whispered, “Did I used to know Aries was locked here?”

Louis nodded his head, “Yeah, you saw him several times when you came to the garden with Anna. When you asked about him for the first time, my father told you he was a cursed bastard of the South. The South King asked us to lock him up to prevent him from damaging his own country. But the truth is…”

“The truth is what?” I asked.

Louis continued, “The truth is that the South King asked the King of the North, who is your father, to demolish him from the earth forever.”

My lips parted in surprise, “What do you mean by demolishing?”

Louis answered with his brow furrowed, “Demolish as wipe out, obliterate and kill. In a word, the South King wanted his own son dead.”

I would want him dead too if I knew he would turn out to be an evil king who intended on destroying the world. But there’s no way the South King knew about that, right? I’m the only one here from the future, so I asked him, “Why?”

Louis shook his head, “I don’t know. The agreement between the South King and your father is confidential. My father may know about it too, but he never told me. All I know is that, during the last 8 years, my father and your father tried all kinds of methods to kill him. But none of them worked.”

That explains why Lucy told us to purify his blood is the only way to stop him. Cora whispered in my head.

But there are other things which concern me so much. I knew I shouldn’t let it, but I just couldn’t help.

“What do you mean they tried all kinds of methods to kill him? You’re not saying that they, umm, they…” I was too shocked to find the right word to describe it!

Louis understood what I was going to ask. He answered me with a calm voice, “Yes, they killed him many times. They used to chop off his head, rip off his heart, cut off his limbs. When he was 11, I remembered they starved him for a whole year. He ate nothing except the rain falling down from the sky for 12 months. But nothing could truly kill him. He always came back to life after a day or two. Sometimes even within hours.”

That’s horrifying. Cora groaned in my head. But I wasn’t sure whether she was talking about the come-back to life thing or the killing thing.

And I had no idea of how to respond to the truth I had just heard. I knew Aries is a really really bad person or could be called evil. But killing him repeatedly and tortured him like that. It just didn’t feel right. I assumed he hadn’t done anything right? He was weak and strengthless like a human.

“I know it is cruel to do that to a kid, but there’re reasons why our fathers and even his own father wanted him dead.” As if seeing through my mind, Louis added up.

I pressed my lips and asked him, “What reason?” The information I just got was too much to take in such a short time.

Louis held my hand and led me to the corner of the dungeon. The dungeon was really dark so I missed something lying at that corner when I just got in.

As I got closer, my views became clearer. I noticed there lying a white skeleton which used to belong to a strong wolf. I had been in wars and had killed many enemies by myself before I came to Lucy’s time. No dead person or skeleton could ever frighten me.

But I knew the skeleton’s owner died in misery as all his ribs were cracked. Both his arms were broken into pieces by external force and both his legs suffered from comminuted fracture. He definitely suffered a lot before he died.

“That was one of our best warriors, Jack.” Louis explained to me, “When Aries first got here. Jack was the one responsible for his food and drink. One day, Jack’s companion found that he didn’t come back to their flat the whole night. He reported it to my father. My father then tracked Jack’s traces here.” Louis stopped for a few seconds, then continued.

“I had turned 18 by then, so I followed my father down to the well. Then I saw the most horrible thing in my life.”

I bit my bottom lip nervously, “Do you mean you saw Aries kill him?”

Louis shook his head, “Aries didn’t kill him. He ate him.”

The blood in my body froze at the moment. “What do you mean he ate him?”

Louis continued, “I saw Aries sitting beside Jack’s body, with his heart in his hands. And he’s eating it like he was eating an apple. That’s why my father starved him for the next whole year.”

I was shocked by this information, “That’s impossible. I mean, that’s 7 years ago, right? Seven years ago, Aries was just 11. How could he be able to kill a strong warrior like Jack? And look at Jack’s skeleton, he was totally beaten up before he died.”

“Yeah. Aries did that to him.” Louis sighed, “We never find out how Aries defeated Jack. He refused to tell us anything about Jack’s death. That’s why my father left Jack’s body here. To remind us never to forget that Aries is actually a cursed devil. No one should ever underestimate him just because he pretended to be pathetic and weak.”

My head started to buzz at this horrible news. If they knew Aries was such a horrible person, why on earth did Lucy marry him? Didn’t she know Aries might eat her up while she’s sleeping? They share the same bedroom for the Moon Goddess’s sake!

My face turned pale and I asked Louis with my voice trembling, “Did I know about this before I married him?”

Louis shook his head, “I am not sure. I tried to warn you before your wedding but you won’t see me. Since your father agreed your marriage with him, I assumed he’d already talked with you about this.”

I literally didn’t know what to say. There were so many mysteries about Lucy. In order to fulfill my mission of purifying Aries. I might have to figure out what Lucy’s been hiding.

Louis put his hands on my shoulders to comfort me, “It’s okay, Lucy. Don’t be afraid. Nothing is too late. If you regret the marriage, just tell me. I’ll always be here for you.”

He sounded like my late brother so much. I couldn’t help but tiptoe myself to kiss him on his cheek, “Thank you, Louis. It means so much to me.”

He wrapped his arms around my back, then lowered his head and pecked his perfectly shaped lips on my trembling ones.

“I love you, Lucy. And I’ll always be waiting for you to love me back.”