CHAPTER 172: WHY?

Aelin

As I was being, dragged away, I shot my head back at him

"Who else knows this about you?"

"From the family? No one,"

"But why!?" I looked at him, "Why would you do this?!" He gestured to the figures to stop and they did and I looked back at him, "Why would you hurt innocent people?"

"I don’t care about the people. I only want power." He said

"Why?" I asked, "You already have so much power, you’re the crown prince!"

"Not enough," He said, "I need to completely destroy the demons."

!!!

I took a step back, heart hammering in my chest. "You—" My voice broke. "You brought the demons in this game of yours to avoid suspicion?"

"I needed someone to blame," he said simply. "The Demon Kingdom made a perfect scapegoat. I thought they’d be slower to notice, but Draegon..." He sighed, clicking his tongue. "He’s proving to be an irritatingly sharp obstacle."

I could barely breathe. "Reagan... why?"

He turned his gaze to me—cold, sharp. "Because I will rule over everything. Human, demon, whatever’s left when the abyss spreads. I will rule. And you..." He pointed a finger at me. "You are the one enemy I must offer to the abyss. Your light threatens everything."

He took a step closer.

"And I will make sure you are extinguished."

Reagan’s smirk deepened as he stepped closer, the golden sunlight streaming through the wooden slats casting long, angular shadows across his face.

"You don’t even realize, do you?" he said, voice almost amused. "You’re not just a threat to the abyss—you’re the thing it fears."

He tilted his head. "That’s why offering you to it... will change everything."

My blood ran cold.

He turned, gesturing lazily toward the open space behind him. "The others were experiments. Offerings to test the waters. But you—you’re the key to the real gate. The one the abyss has kept locked tight."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"You’ll destroy the world."

He looked over his shoulder, smiling cruelly. "I will rewrite it."

I took a step back, fury and fear twisting inside me. "You’re mad."

He ignored that.

"What’s the point of opening a gate so big when it will kill your people too!" I asked

"The human kingdom will remain safe under my command," He said, "I just need the demons gone."

"What did the demons do to you!?" I got angry

He glared at me, "What did they do?" He scoffed, "As if you don’t know," There was a look of disgust in his eyes, "They killed our mother."

!!!

I knew I shouldn’t defend that demon. He did kill Mom, "That demon was out of his mind because the humans were torturing him."

"You-" He narrowed his eyes at me, "You’ve changed a lot." He looked displeased, "How can you talk to me with that much confidence and look me straight in the eye."

I stood my ground and kept staring at him, "Your people will get hurt too. Not just the demons. They’re already a lot of humans who have become mindless."

"I don’t care," He said

"What?"

So what? Wasn’t he doing it because he hated the demons...

No...

This is something else... He doesn’t care now... The abyss has corrupted his mind to an extent too. At this point all he cares about is power

More and more of it

"Reagen-"

"Our conversation is over." He snapped his fingers.

The sound cracked through the room like a whip. The guards began to drag me again.

Panic flared in my chest, "Reagan, you don’t understand what you’re playing with."

He gave one final, cold smile. "Oh, I do. That’s why I’m winning."

***

The wind was cold when it touched my skin, but the two masked guards gripping my arms felt colder.

They dragged me across uneven wooden walkways, then down a steep stone path that coiled around the side of the mountain like a noose. I didn’t resist.

My body was too tired, too dazed. But my mind... it was blazing. I couldn’t stop thinking about Reagan. About the darkness that had taken root inside him. About what he’d become—and what he planned to do with me.

I didn’t know what I expected when the trees finally opened up.

But it wasn’t this.

A clearing.

Huge

Wide and circular.

The grass had been ripped away and the dirt soaked red. Ritual markings had been carved deep into the earth—ancient runes, twisted shapes, dark symbols.

And people—so many people—were there. Hundreds.

They sat slumped within the drawn circles of blood, every one of them a broken shell. Some were chained, others propped up with wooden frames, heads hanging low, bodies trembling. The stench of blood and rot clung to the air like a fog. I felt it fill my lungs. I nearly choked.

They were alive... barely. Tortured so badly they couldn’t even scream anymore. Their mouths were open, silent. Their eyes were wide, vacant.

My heart twisted in agony.

And in the center of it all, the main ritual circle waited—empty, waiting. At the head of it stood a black stone slab with blood smeared across its jagged edges. And there—etched into the face of the rock—was the symbol I was all too familiar with now

The eye of the abyss.

My knees nearly buckled.

I tried to speak, to ask why, but I also knew that question abyss worshippers would lead me nowhere.

These people were crazy!

The two abyss-touched guards pulled me forward and threw me into the center of the circle like I was nothing more than another offering. I hit the ground hard. The blood in the soil clung to my skin. My stomach churned at the warmth of it.

The guards stepped closer.

They pulled out weapons—long hooked blades that shimmered with a dark, blackened aura. I knew what they meant to do.

Break me. Make me suffer like the others, drain me of everything until I was weak enough to be fed to the abyss. Just like all the other people here.

It was a requirement to open the gate.

They raised their blades to attack