by Dahlia Lu
As he passed through the garden to return to the King’s residence, his attention was distracted by a couple standing arm in arm and sharing a kiss by the bridge. The distinctive platinum hair gave away their identities.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sayan strayed off of the path and strode toward the bridge.
A million of different excuses race through his head, beckoning him to find rationality. His eyes could be deceiving him or it was some kind of misunderstanding. He couldn’t comprehend how those things could be possible, but he just had to give her benefit of the doubt. His sensibility was battling out with the lethal rage running through his body.
There had to be an explanation. There better be an explanation.
The first thing he wanted to do was rip her away from the revolting embrace, but the two separated on their own. They stood still, staring at each other and ignoring him completely. In this situation, they should be panicking when they saw him coming. Sayan reached Nala’s shoulder and swung her around. Her face was covered in her own tears. Her pale green eyes were so extremely vulnerable that he almost wanted to comfort her. For what? Betraying him?
He wielded his blade against Trent. “What do you think you were doing?” He interrogated. He tried hard to sound civil, but what came out was a shout.
“Stay out of this, human,” Nala warned him. “This had nothing to do with you.”
There wasn’t a hint of guilt or remorse on her face.
“If I stay out of this as you suggest, I am not a man!” He pulled her toward him. “Our wedding is in two days. You promised to be the mother of my child! The hell it has nothing to do with me!” He presses the blade closer to Trent’s neck. “If you cannot provide an explanation in five seconds, I will have your head!”
Trent did not respond to the threat. His face was as expressionless as always. “There isn’t one.”
He swung his blade, but the only thing he cut was an after image. Trent reappeared several meters away and held out a hand to Nala.
“Let’s go home,” Trent said.
“Nala!” He shouted out her name when her eyes wavered to the suggestion. He couldn’t let her think about it, even for a second. Her attention returned to him. He dropped the blade to the ground and then framed her face with his hands. “I am your home, Nala.”
“I will remind you one more time, human. The woman you know doesn’t exist.”
“She’s standing in front of me!” he argued. “Do you even know what you are doing? He’s your brother!”
“He’s not my brother!” She retorted.
“What?”
She lowered her eyes for a short second and then looked up again. “He’s my husband.”
He slowly released her and staggered a few steps backward. His thoughts had caught up with him and deserted him in a state of shock. She came to his bed a virgin. He has the sheets to prove it. “It’s a lie. It has to be!”
“She’s telling you the truth. I am her husband,” Trent admitted.
He didn’t know what to think. “Nala…Did he force you? Did he deceive you into marrying him?”
“On the contrary, I was the one who deceived him into marrying me.”
“Why?”
“Because I love him.”
He felt sick. She loves him. She married him, because she loves him.
“Now do you still believe that the woman you know exists?” Nala asked.
There were a number of things he could have done to stop her from saying another word, but he did the one thing that he never thought he would ever do. Her small body lost its balance and she reached for the railing to keep herself from falling to the ground. His handprint lay accusingly on her face.
He had just become the kind of man he hated the most… the kind that hits women.
Tears of shock rained from her pale green eyes.
His instinct immediately detected danger. The sound of arrows cutting sharply through the air triggered his reflex to get out of the spot he was standing. Some of the arrows hit the railing of the bridge, while others lunged into the water. When he realized what was happening, Nala had caught an arrow with her hand before it had reached his heart. Two arrows had found their way through her chest.
“Nala!” His voice and Trent’s became one,
He detected a group of assassins disguised as patrol guards on the other side of the pond. Trent stared at them; his blue eyes glowed brightly in the dark of the night. The assassins took their own swords against their necks and slashed their own throats. Another wave of arrows came at him from another direction. Sayan rolled onto the ground to retrieve his weapon and successfully broke the arrows flying at him. He felt two sharp objects stabbing against his back. Trent spotted his enemies, and they too took their own lives.
Silence was restored to the night again.
Nala’s head leaned against his back. Sayan turned around to catch her before she fell. The two arrows in front of her chest had penetrated through and there were four arrows stuck into her back and neck.
She had shielded him from the arrows coming from behind too.
Trent shoved him out of the way took her small body into his arms. He swiftly pulled out the arrows one by one. She let out a painful scream with each arrow being yanked from her flesh. Her blood dripped heavily onto the ground.
Once they were all out, Trent snuggled her against his body. Her wounds were visibly healing. Trent’s blue eyes were focused on hers. His eyes began glowing brightly as they did a few minutes ago. Sayan gritted his teeth when his arm moved by itself and brought the blade to his own neck. Trent was using the same method he used to kill those assassins on him… mind control.
Sayan stared back at Trent with a challenging look in his eyes. His weapon was fidgeting back and forth as he struggled to regain control of his own body. If it is the battle of sheer will, then there is a chance that he may not lose.
“Stop it!” Nala covered Trent’s eyes with her hand. She hurled up blood onto Trent’s shirt and then leaned her head back against Trent’s arm. “If he dies, I can’t fulfill my promise.”
Trent shot a glare at Sayan before disappearing into the night, taking Nala with him.
Trent had to admit, that young king’s willpower was formidable.
He had yet to meet a human who could fend off his mind control until that day. If Nala hadn’t interfered, he wondered what the outcome would have been. He was angry because she interfered. That human was important enough for her to use her body as a shield. She probably did it without realizing and that is what infuriated him the most.
How deep was their emotional attachment?
“I saw the whole thing,” Noctiam said, almost teasingly. He was standing by the door Trent had just entered. “You lectured me for placing a curse on the human, but you tried to kill him. Who is naughtier?”
“I am in a foul mood, so if you want to sleep underground for the next three thousand years, then come at me.” Trent sank down on the sofa.
Noctiam handed Trent a glass of brandy and then sat next to him. Trent accepted the offering and chugged it all down in one gulp.
“Are her wounds healing properly?”
“The flesh wounds healed quickly, but her organs need a little more time to expel the poison.”
“I have potions that could help with that.”
“They’re only minor injuries and the poison is not lethal to us. We don’t want her to become immune to the potion when she really needs it.”
“Yes,” Noctiam agreed. “I was afraid of that. I’ll save them for more dire situations.”
“There were clones among the assassins. Fai made dinner out of them as soon as they were detected. It doesn’t take a genius to know who had sent them.”
“That beast is quite territorial. It’s still unsettling to have him around. His teeth are sharp enough to break a demon’s core and you don’t know when he’s going to turn against you.”
“He is called the Condemned Divine Beast fo
r a reason.” Trent put the glass down onto the coffee table. “That aside, we have a little business to take care of.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I didn’t want it to come to this since Chevalier wants to let them live, but that woman is starting to piss me off.”
“You are surprisingly predictable.”
“How so?”
“Forget I even mentioned it.” Noctiam chuckled. “It’s much more amusing when you are unaware. Why don’t you just settle being an overprotective brother? It’s a better role for you.”
“I appreciate your concern, but things rarely ever go the way I plan. I would have been content with the role, if I actually had a younger sibling.”
“Shall we go now? Procrastination can become a terrible habit.”
“Agreed,” Trent said.
“Should I summon the others?”
“I can handle it alone.”
“Being an only child brings out your egotistical side. You would deny your subjects special entertainments, my prince?”
“I hardly consider it entertainment.”
“I beg to differ.”
“You always do what you want anyway. Before we go, I need to check up on Nala first.”
Being bedridden was humiliating. It put her on the same level as those weak humans who could even die from catching a cold. The poison was not strong enough to make her lose consciousness, but it didn’t give her an easy time either. The nauseous feeling sickened her the most.
There were a million different things she could have done differently last night. The first thing she could have done was step away from the bridge or at least have summoned up a protection circle if she was going to use her body as shield. The arrow would have not been able to penetrate her. She didn’t know what she was thinking, and probably because she wasn’t.
What was even more humiliating was that she cried in front of him and it was all over a little slap. She had been stabbed, impaled, burned, sliced and diced by a number of weapons, but none of those had ever managed to bring her to tears. For pity’s sake, it didn’t even hurt that much and she cried like a little baby! She would never be able to live it down.
She could have just let that human die. After all, he would have to die eventually, so what would be the point? Another forty or fifty years adding to his lifespan wouldn’t make that much of a difference. A piercing sensation went through her chest when she thought about the pile of bones he would become in a hundred years. A feeling of sadness followed and lingered when she realized there would be nothing left of him.
She couldn’t bring herself to tell him what would happen to a human in the life after death. He had always been interested in the topic, but he would be thoroughly disappointed if he knew the truth. His soul would reside in the realm of the dead, destined to relive the memories of his life over and over again. For Sayan, there cannot be a worse fate.
She was far too attached to that boy and it was starting to become a nuisance. She should have just fulfilled her promise to him and then rid herself of him. Another tempting thought came to her. She could offer him immortality and make him into her companion. She did enjoy his company and his passionate lovemaking left her in a daze long after it was over. The only problem with that was she would be bound to the human world forever. That was if she wanted him to continue to live.
Most demons wouldn’t even consider it and some even call it taboo. To agree to such a contract would mean abandoning their home. There were demons that found themselves in love with the short-lived humans and decided to carry out the contract. However, as time went on, their deep yearning to come home would forsake those humans. They would be cursed and left to wander the earth aimlessly for the rest of eternity.
She too yearned to be home.
Even if she had never stepped foot into Hell before, her genetic memories could map out her world perfectly. Like baby turtles left on the sandy beach by their mother, she was guided by her instinct to come home. That and she also missed her mother terribly.
Would she be able to give it all up for a mere human? She thought not.
“Are you feeling better?” Trent asked as soon as he entered the door.
She didn’t want to think about him, but that was impossible now that he was standing in front of her. “If you think that a kiss and a few sweet words could resolve anything, then you are sadly mistaken.”
“No, I didn’t think so.”
“But you admitted it,” she said softly.
“Admit what?”
“That you are my husband.”
“I never denied it in the first place.” He reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out a ring stringed by a silver chain around his neck. “A vow is a vow, regardless.”
She turned to the other side of the bed and pulled the cover over her ear. “I want a cup of coffee.”
“Alright,” he said. She didn’t even hear him leave the room, but she knew he had already left.
She thought she would feel happier to hear him say that he loved her. All she felt was an empty victory that left much to be desired. What could have been as sweet as honey had passed its expiration date and became something bitter and repulsive to the taste. If only he had said it sooner. Something else had died with her on that one rainy day.
She turned around when she smelled the rich aroma of the coffee. It had been so long since she had a sip. She sat up and carefully took over the hot cup of coffee handed to her. If she had been human she would need to wait until it cooled. She took the first sip and it tasted as divine as she remembered. Unlike this sweet bitterness, the one inside her heart felt like acid that dripped slowly on the walls of her flesh.
“Are you breeding?”
“What?” She narrowed her brows until she remembered the conversation at dinner. It puzzled her why he would ask such a question knowing the impossibility of the event. “What are you going to do about it if I am? Are you going to yell at me? Are you going to hit me?”
“Perhaps more time is required to clear up the misunderstandings between us.”
“Do you know what I hate about you, Trent?” She looked up at him. “I would rather you yell at me and hit me when I do something wrong against you, but you won’t do that. You never do that. You’ve never set lines. You’ve never drawn boundaries. You just let me do whatever I want, like a spoiled child. The one time I bring myself to apologize for my actions, you were angry with me. Do you know why you were angry, Trent? You were angry because…”
“I was angry, because it felt like you were letting me go.”
“So you knew.”
“I have always known.”
“That’s what makes you so detestable. It was your way of binding me to you.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “You have every right to hate me.”
“I wonder which one of us is more despicable.” She took another sip of the coffee and then placed it down on the side table. “Is it the person relentlessly chasing after love or the person desperately holding it captive? We wrapped each other in vines of thorns so that we could watch each other’s heart bleed to the last drop, only there can be no end for creatures of eternal darkness. How much longer must you watch me bleed?”
His warm hands caressed her neck and he filled in the gap between them with a kiss. He guided her head to the pillow and deepened the kiss. He smelled delectable, fresh and bright notes with a hint of sandalwood. Sayan always has a faint scent of blood underneath his own body scent. His right hand was rough with callus, but she liked how it felt against her skin.
Trent jerked his head back. His brilliant blue eyes look wounded.
That was when she realized she had called out Sayan’s name. A faint smile appeared on her face. How is that for revenge, Trent? She had fulfilled the promise she’d made to him that day when he left her on that wretched cliff. She was true to her word.
The next time you see me, I will not be the Nala who loves only you anymore.
“
I will always love you, my other half, but I don’t love only you anymore. You left that day, because you didn’t believe that I could love anyone else, but I proved you wrong.”
Outside the window, dark clouds pulled over the sky. Darkness gloomed over the once clear day. Lightning struck overhead followed by rolls of angry thunder. The same ferocious storm rampaged in his beautiful blue eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sayan ate until he threw up, but no amount of food could sate his hunger.
The scene replayed repeatedly in his head without giving his mind a moment of peace. He stared at his right hand and resented it. He had hit her with this hand and made her cry. The heavy teardrops that escaped from her eyes nearly tore him apart. No matter how he wished he could take it back, what was done is done.
He was so angry at her betrayal that he had lost control. He could accept any betrayal, but not hers. Anyone could walk away from him, but he could not allow her to turn her back on him. Not even once. His heart could not take such a tragedy. She was the only thing left in this murky world that bound him to his sanity. If the only pillar in his life disappeared, then his world would crumble, and it had.
He took another bite of his steak and forced it down his throat. His body rejected it immediately and triggered his stomach to hurl whatever was left in it.
“I am waiting for your punishment, Your Majesty!” The guard captain bowed his head even lower to the ground. “My negligence allowed the assassins to breach into the palace’s ground. My crime against you deserves death! Please stop ignoring your loyal servant and give your final verdict, Your Majesty!”
“Please stop this, Your Majesty!” The servants finally intervened. “You need a physician! We’ll summon a physician right away!”
He shoved the woman coming to help him. “Can’t you see that I’m starving? If I don’t eat, I will die! If I don’t eat …”
“Please, Your Majesty, let us help you get back to your bedchamber. You need rest.”
