Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 250

Chapter 250: Chapter 250

Kaelen’s POV

He clawed at my wrist. Pathetic. His nails scraped against my skin without leaving a mark. His face turned red, then purple. His eyes bulged. Veins stood out on his temples like cords of rope.

Seraphine screamed behind me. A high, shrill sound that bounced off the rotting walls. "Please! Please, you’ll kill him!"

Good.

I squeezed harder. Gareth’s mouth opened and closed. No sound came out. Just the wet, desperate rasp of a man whose airway was collapsing under my palm. His legs kicked. His body convulsed.

I leaned in close. Close enough to smell the cheap liquor on his breath. Close enough to see every broken capillary in those bloodshot eyes.

"Brother," I said softly. "We need to talk."

I released him.

He crumpled to the floor. Gasping. Retching. Both hands around his own throat as if he could massage the air back into his lungs.

"Cassian."

My knight stepped through the doorway behind me. Armored. Silent. Two guards in black followed, swords drawn.

Seraphine pressed herself into the corner. Her face had gone the color of ash. She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered. "Cassian, please—I’m your cousin, please—"

Cassian didn’t look at her.

"Both of them," I said. "Deep cells."

Cassian nodded once. He jerked his chin at the two guards. They moved forward in unison. One hauled Gareth to his feet by his collar. The other reached for Seraphine.

"No!" She twisted away. "You can’t do this! I’m carrying a child—I’m pregnant—"

"Move," Cassian said. His voice was flat. Dead. Not a shred of family warmth in it. "Now."

She opened her mouth to protest again. Cassian stepped toward her. Something in his expression must have registered, because she flinched and went silent. The guard took her arm and pulled her toward the door.

Gareth was still coughing. The guard holding him had to half-drag him down the narrow staircase. His boots scraped against every step.

I followed them out into the rain.

---

The carriage ride back to the palace was silent.

I sat alone in the enclosed compartment. Rain hammered the roof. The wheels groaned over cobblestones. A messenger intercepted us at the palace gate—a young page breathless from running—and thrust a sealed letter through the window.

I recognized Claire’s handwriting. The palace steward.

Your Majesty, the Privy Council has convened an emergency session and is requesting your immediate presence regarding the status of Lady Seraphine and—

I folded the letter and dropped it on the seat beside me. The Privy Council could wait. They could rot in their council chamber with their tea and their gossip for all I cared. I had more pressing business below ground.

---

The deep cells existed beneath the palace’s main dungeon. Deep underground. Past the common holding pens, past the interrogation rooms used for ordinary criminals, down a spiraling stone staircase that narrowed with each turn until the walls pressed close on both sides.

No windows. No natural light. The air smelled of damp stone and old iron. The only illumination came from enchanted torches that burned cold and blue, casting everything in corpse-light.

Three cells lined the corridor at the bottom. Heavy iron doors with viewing slots. Rune-etched locks that responded only to royal blood.

Cassian stood at the junction, logging entries in a leather-bound ledger.

"Cell one—Seraphine," he said without looking up. "Cell two—Gareth. Cell three remains empty."

"Good." I stopped beside him. "I need recording crystals in cell two. Full array. Multiple angles. Sound and image. The kind that hold up before a tribunal."

Cassian closed his ledger. "Professional-grade enchantments. I’ll handle it personally."

"You have ten minutes."

He disappeared down the corridor.

I waited in the blue-lit silence. Water dripped somewhere. A rhythmic, hollow sound. From cell one, I could hear Seraphine crying. Muffled sobs that echoed strangely in the stone passage.

From cell two, nothing. Gareth had gone quiet.

I flexed my hand. The knuckles ached slightly from where I’d gripped his throat. I thought about Elara. Her face the morning she left. The hollowness in her eyes. The letter she’d written.

Every word of that letter was carved into my memory like scripture into stone.

I trusted you. I believed you. And you destroyed that.

She’d believed what they wanted her to believe. Because Gareth and Seraphine had made the lie airtight. The staged scene. The drug. The false bite mark. The fabricated pregnancy.

They’d stolen my wife from me.

Cassian returned. "Crystals are set. Multiple points. Every angle covered."

"Stay outside cell two. Record everything."

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