Noelle stared at the woman sitting few meters away from him. She is a ravishing beauty. One that turn heads, claim sanity and make the monster in him growl. He watched her as she pushed her lips and made a face.
She must have regained herself.
He nodded and stood up from where he sat and made to leave the room when she stopped him, standing up from where she had been sitting.
"A gentleman does not walk out on a lady and a real one apologizes when he is in the wrong."
Noelle smiled and walked to her, he stopped only when he was close enough, close enough for her to witness the flash of his red orbs.
Yvonne stepped back and instinctively directed a wave of water at him. He easily dodged the blow and caught a hold of her hand.
She tried again with the other hand, this time making the wave stronger but he caught the hand midway making the wave change direction.
It hit one of the cushions and sent it flying to the wall.
As she pushed against him, he held her in place and whispered.
"Do not make me attack you or you may have to find out I am not a man but a monster the hard way."
She stilled upon hearing this words and when he made sure she was too scared to do anything, he released her and made her turn to him.
"Your father was a pawn till his death and you are upholding his legacy. Do yourself a favour Queen Yvonne and stay away from me. I have murdered enough whores."
She did not dare breathe till she made sure he had left the hall then she exhaled deeply and simply collapsed on the floor.
She allowed herself reminisce his words and a wave of nostalgia hit her.
Whore
Pawn
Stupid
Moron
Banal.
Those words rang in her ears with different voices, different tones and different spite accompanying them and for the first time, she allowed herself to remember he who she had betrayed to prove herself worthy.
She had thought by dining with the masters she was part of them but why could they pick her out like she gave out a different stench?
Like she was a rotten fruit placed among exotic ones?
********
"Your highness." Eric greeted as Aveedah emerged from her tent.
It was almost dawn and some guards were preparing to go hunting. None of them expected their queen up so early and they showed it in the surprise etched on their faces and in their stammered greetings.
"You can take rest. I will hunt." She informed them.
She was without the cape she normally wore above her journey attire. In her hand was a quiver filled with arrows and hung around the other arm was a bow.
"Your highness..." They tried to argue but one look from her and they thought better of it. However, Eric was not fazed as he stood his ground.
"Your highness, you can not go alone." He stated.
"Eric, I can protect myself and a whole lot of people on my own, you know that." She replied, exasperated by the stoic man.
"I know that much about you your highness but you are my queen and it is negligence of duty on my part to let you hunt on your own." He argued.
"Listen to your queen Eric." She ordered.
"Your highness.." He tried to argue when Velaine cut him short.
"I will accompany her."
Eric felt like bashing his head on the wall at that statement.
He managed to suppress his irritation before he replied politely.
"Your highness, I beg your pardon but that will only worsen the situation. You are both rulers of a country, allowing you out of our sight is almost treachery."
The guards seemed to agree with him as they nodded, standing alert.
Velaine simply shrugged and said.
"Disobeying us is Treachery, pick the crime you want to be guilty of."
Aveedah watched as Ridah's knights slowly resigned.
His words are the rules.
He had that much control over his kingdom so how could she think Irina would have done it on her own accord?
The woman was head over heels for him, she would not do anything he did not approve of.
When she realized she had been fooled all along, she had thought of so many ways to torture her but after allowing herself to think it through, she decided it was unfair to punish she who was just following orders.
He must have seen her as a fool, someone he could seduce sense out of.
And to think she would have kissed him last night if had not withdrawn...
'No! I would not have.' She consoled herself as they walked away from the helpless crowd.
It was good Irina was not awake yet, seeing her will only make it harder for her to keep calm.
"What is hunting to you?" She heard him ask but chose to ignore him.
"Does it help you arrange your thoughts or divert your thoughts?" He asked, oblivious to the fact that he was being ignored.
She glanced at him once, spite in her eyes before she replied.
"You should have stayed back. I appreciate the silence while hunting."
Velaine was taken aback by the look in her eyes. He had only seen her anger once but could recognize it glaring in her eyes.
Why?
He tried to recall events of the previous day and none was worth her anger so what.....
Could she be annoyed about their incomplete kiss?
Should she not be grateful he had withdrawn?
He spared himself the trouble and asked.
"Why?" She did not even look his way as she trotted further into the forest.
He briskly walked up to her, barely refraining himself of pulling her by the arm before he asked again.
"Aveedah why are you vexed? I will not apologize if you do not tell me and I am sure you know we do not have time to enjoy petty fights." His tone was condescending and Aveedah could feel the string of manners she was barely holding on to slipping away.
She did not dare utter a word because she was not confident she had control over what she would say.
As she tried to move, he grabbed her arm making her release the quiver she was holding and tried to spin her to face him instead, she pulled him towards her but before she could do more damage with the elbow she had targeted at him, he dodged the blow and used his other hand to grab her free hand and her waist simultaneously then pulled her closer to him.
"I thought we were making progress." He hissed, his angry breath on her face.
"Move away." She said, trying to free herself without using her gift.
"Is it because of the kiss?" He asked, despite almost being sure it was not.
She was more than that.
She widened her eyes and stomped on his foot but he did not even flinch.
That just annoyed her more as she tried harder to wiggle out of this hold.
"I do not want to hurt you, king Velaine. Let me go." She said looking into his eyes so he knew how serious she was.
"Why ?" He asked again ignoring her warning.
Aveedah looked at him, wondering if he was actually innocent or he thought she was too gullible to find out their lies.
Whichever it is, she did not want to care.
She raised her knee to attack in between his legs when he brought both legs together and immediately he was sure she had lost her target, kicked back her leg with his almost making them fall.
"I am disappointed." He whispered releasing her and walking away. The look in his eyes had it all written on his face.
How dare he say those word, look at her like that when he is the liar, the cheat and the betrayer.
"How dare you?"
"You are the liar, you do not have the right to be disappointed." She yelled.
Velaine stopped in his tracks and turned to her.
"What did I lie about?" He asked, walking back to her with narrowed eyes.
"Why? Are there so many that you can not pick out the one I found out?" She mocked walking to him.
He had opened his mouth to reply when he saw her throw a ball of fire in his direction but before he could react, he watched the ball go above his head and he turned to see what it was..
Shadow hunters. The bane of every traveller's journey.
Typical Kebarah
He rushed to her, took her hand and sprinted with her.
"What are you doing?" She asked, trying to free herself of his tight hold.
He only held tighter and replied.
"Fighting shadow hunters is futile Aveedah. It is wiser to run away from them." He said, pulling her with him.
"I could burn them." She said in between breaths.
He stopped to take a breath and a chuckle.
"You have never come across one, have you?" She raised an eyebrow at his question making him chuckle again.
Yes, she has only read about them but he did not need to know that.
"I will tell you when I am sure we are safe, for now, let us save our lives first." He made to take her hand when he noticed a hunter growing beneath her feet, vines slowly wrapping around her legs. Swiftly, he pulled her away and stomped on it but as he turned, she was stomping against another yet immediately her feet made contact with the floor, another grew beneath it.
'They were created with her essence.'
He pulled her and began running.
"Why are they only growing on my side?" She asked, annoyed at the amount of blows she had to dodge.
Velaine laughed.
She sounded frustrated, annoyed and envious of him.
He threw an arrow over her head at one she had not noticed.
This will not do.
"Everything I do is essential for your safety." He Informed and immediately shot three arrows making her duck.
He shot another close to her feet and quickly handed her the quiver and his bow then lifted her up from the floor making sure to step on where she had previously been.
"What is this?" She asked wiggling in his arms.
He turned her around before he said.
"Save us first." He said, glancing at the five they had ran away from approaching them.
They must have sensed them as they angled their heads in their direction.
"Any contact with their vines is life threatening." He warned as they approached them.
Sensing the urgency, she put aside her skepticism and aimed the arrows she had laced with fire.
She needed that to maximize the damage as she is unable to use a bow.
When they were sure they had disintegrated all of them, he said to her.
"That was risky. Wild fire is difficult to tame."
"Put me down." She ordered, wiggling again.
He stared at her for a while before he said.
"What is it about you?" He asked, his voice barely a whisper.
The tone she had used to order him, the look in her eyes, her repeated questioning all irritated him so much that his first instinct was to drop her back so she could decipher the answer herself but one look at her and he held on tighter.
What is it about her that had him going against his instinct?