As the words left his mouth, the room went into complete and utter silence; even the constant buzz of the light bulb above seemed to silence itself with the weight of his words.

  But before that moment could last even a millisecond, the woman sped forward from the corner of the room in an instant, diving for Riven, tackling him to the ground, and slamming his head against the white tiled ground with a loud crack.

  "YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!" she yelled as she pulled back her fist and landed a powerful blow directed at his face, though as her fist neared his face, she immediately pulled it back when she saw the chilling sight.

  Looking at her, his eyes still dull and lifeless as if what just happened never occurred, he simply said. "I wouldn't do that, Miss Lance; you'll only hurt yourself," he stated as the area of his face where the punch should've landed was a foggy smoke that showed through his face, and the cracked tiled ground was painted in blood.

  Eyes widening in horror at the sight, she reached for her gun, only for her partner to grab her by the hair and arm, wrench her off of him, and slam her against the wall, and before she could even react to the pain, her surroundings suddenly warped, and she was facing the one-way glass that looked in on the interrogation.

  "What in the hell is wrong with you, Gabby? He's a royal; are you fucking insane?!" he yelled.

  Regaining her bearings, she shouted back through tears that she didn't bother hiding. "He killed Katy and..." she started, only to get cut off by the volume of his voice that eclipsed hers.

  "I told you not to get too close to her, you fucking idiot. They're royals; they live in an entirely different world than us. Or did you forget this whole interrogation is a formality? Even if we caught him doing it, it means nothing; they don't get charged by our laws. Or did you forget that hanging out with them all this time, you idiot?!" he explained to her, his voice a sharp mix of anger, frustration, worry, and hatred that wasn't aimed at her.

  “We got lucky because the court was forced to side with us because he broke a royal law, but after this.”

  "But—" she tried to voice, only for the man to cut her off.

  "Did you think?" He asked her while pressing her hard against the glass with such force that it could break. "Did you even think of Julius before you attacked a fucking royal?" he asked her.

  "He already bullied your son for how he looked and dressed. What do you think he's going to do now that you tried to kill him? Bruises and scars are going to be the least of your worries this time. He's going to kill you, do you hear me? He's going to kill you and your son, and now that Mrs. Cross is—but then he paused as if he couldn't say the last words because that would mean he would actually have to accept it's true.

  "Mr. & Mrs. Cross are dead," he said, his voice carrying a finality that made it sink in for Gabbie, a finality that hadn't sunk in even though she'd seen the corpses laid in body bags so fresh they still looked alive.

  "Katy is dead," he said while staring directly in her eyes to make sure she understood.

  Upon hearing those words, her face turned from the anger that had been fueling her for the last few hours, keeping her from confronting the emotion that lay deeper.

  Eyes widening, her tears finally began to drop, grief-filled tears, and her body broke, going limp, and then the man let her go in response to no longer feeling a struggle.

  But then it hit her that her friends were dead, and so were their children, all except the cruelest among them, and she had just tried to kill him. Katy & Steven could no longer protect her and her son from him and his grandfather.

  Falling to the ground, she started bawling her eyes out, with snot running from her nose and tears pouring out of her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably.

  Eyes softening, he bent down to her level, anger and frustration being replaced by an understanding that escaped him in his anger. "She just lost her best friend," he thought.

  But before he could find the words, her voice cut him.

  "Wha-what...do I do?" she asked as her mind broke apart at the seams. "He's going to kill Julius; he's going to kill him because of me," she cried as she pulled at her hair and face.

  "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she repeated as her voice broke.

  The man's jaw clenched at the words before his teeth began grinding against them as he wrestled with the bitterness he was about to put into words. Pressing his hands hard against her trembling shoulder, steady but unbearably heavy.

  "You need to go in there..." he started, his voice gravelly, as he dragged the words out of his throat. "...and you beg. You beg him for mercy, Gabby. You apologize. You do whatever the hell you have to so he spares Julius."

  The words struck her like a spinning blade twisting in her gut. Her breath hitched, her chest collapsing inward as if the very air betrayed her. Apologize... to the monster who killed her best friend. To the bastard who tormented her son so mercilessly that he tried to kill himself.

  The thought sickened her to her very core, to the point she felt bile crawling up her throat.

  Every nerve in her body screamed to reject it, to spit in the man's face and scream that she would never, never kneel to that thing in the other room that was so far from human it was practically another species.

  But then Julius's face flashed in her mind—his wide eyes, his fragile smile, his small hands clutching hers for safety.

  He did so much for her; he knew she loved her friend, so he hid his injuries and tolerated so much abuse for her sake...

  Her sobs turned into sharp, strangled gasps as her body rebelled against her heart.

  But in the end, she nodded. She didn't say yes—she just nodded, because words would shatter her resolve completely.

  Slowly, like someone walking to their own execution.

  Pushing herself up off the floor. Her legs were weak, but some primal instinct forced them to move.

  The door loomed ahead, and she dragged herself through it, shoulders shaking, head bowed.

  The man stayed behind, silent, watching her disappear out of the observation room. But as the door shut behind her, his chest tightened, that familiar, suffocating weight crushing him again—the one that came every time a case involved a royal. It was the knowledge that no matter how hard he fought, no matter how much he had on them, or how much he wanted to stand up for what's right, there was nothing he could do. Not against them.

  He turned his gaze toward the one-way glass. His translucent reflection glared back at him with a hollow-eyed, tired, and bitter stare. Staring at the sight, he started gritting his teeth once again before curling his fist and pulling back his trembling arm.

  And—

  BOOOMMMM!

  His knuckles slammed into the glass with the force of a gunshot, but at the same time, a spike of pain shot up his arm, making him reel and clench his teeth harder. The pane didn't shatter—it was too tough—but it served its purpose, making him feel the least bit better about the situation because at least he did something. Something—even if it was still just a futile protest against the untouchable power that sat calmly on the other side of that wall.

  "Fucking Royals," he murmured through gritted teeth as tears welled up in his tired eyes.