Marcus

In my throne room with black marble floors and towering obsidian pillars; I am sitting on my throne (studded with gems) wearing a majestic robe of deepest black velvet, trimmed with gold and encrusted with jewels that glimmer in the light. Beneath the robe, garments of deepest black, tailored and adorned with intricate gold patterns that speak of my status as ruler. My gold crown gleams atop my head, a symbol of my sovereignty and dominion over the whole Aetheria.

My fixed gaze over the man who's on his knees in front of me, tied with heavy metal chains, is piercing that man's soul. He knows what's about to come and it's delighting me that the terror of my presence is showing in his eyes, haunting him.

Lucas Irons, the prime minister of the Aetheria and the most faithful person to me, takes a step forward to the man as he says, “Your Highness, this man was spotted stealing food from the royal kitchen. What should we do with this man?”

As I stand up, I take a grip on my sword and start walking toward that man, staring at him without blinking for a second. The sound of my walk echoing in my ears. That man starts weeping, falling at his feet and starts apologizing constantly for stealing.

“Please forgive me, your Highness! There was no food for me to eat. Your ministers don't give us anything. I was hungry. I'll not steal food ever again. Please,” the man cries his eyes out.

I stroke my finger on my sword as I start circling around him. “Do you know for whom that food was?” I say. The culprit man glances up at me and shakes his head, shivering from my soul piercing gaze.

I hawk, standing in front of him as I grit my teeth. “It was for me. I was dead hungry and you stole that food.”

The culprit man widens his eyes as tears start shedding from his eyes. Fear of death consumes his body. He struggles to breathe as he manages to utter words from his mouth, “Please forgive me, your Highness!” he begs for his life.

“I don't forgive anyone.”

Fury consumes me; I shut my eyes close and open with a yank. The culprit widens his eyes in astonishment as he witnesses the most macabre moment in his whole life—my demon form. I raise my sword and in one stroke separates his head from his body. The man's torso and head separate, and his head falls down on the floor making blood splatters over my face.

I, Marcus Darkwood, Emperor of Aetheria, am a cruel person who possesses the powers of a demon and kills whoever I want, even without reason. Day by day my cruelty and anger is increasing. It doesn't matter to me if someone is there for me or not. I have only one mentality that whoever will trouble me, I will end that trouble—either by hook or by crook.

“Marcus, if you keep killing every other person, no one will be left in this world in the future,” my mother, the Empress Mother, screams at me. “This world will end soon if your anger doesn't subside soon. Change your demeanor. You are an emperor, not a monster. You can't control everything and everyone around you.” Her voice trembles with desperation, but I don’t even glance back.

“I can, empress mother, I can…” With a cold, indifferent expression, I turn and stride away, the echo of her cries fading as I march toward my royal chamber.

I close my eyes to calm my anger. The court lady wipes the blood from my face as I begin to change my clothes after reaching inside my royal chamber. Lucas comes after me and bows in obeisance as he asks, “Your Highness, if you don't mind. May I ask you where are you going?”

I adopt the clothes and appearance of a common man. “To inspect the outside world of this palace,” I utter as I perceive my reflection in the mirror.

“Your Highness, there's no need for you to go,” Lucas says. I turn to him, giving a death glare to him. Intimidated by my gaze, Lucas glances down at his feet.

“You don't need to tell me what I should or shouldn't do,” I retort.

“Forgive me,” Lucas murmurs, looking at his feet, petrified of me, as he's already aware of my outrage and demeanor. I glance at my reflection for one last time before passing over him and marches out of my royal chamber. I settle on my steed and ride out of the palace.

There are two steeds rushing in the forest. First one is mine and the second one is Lucas’s steed. He's chasing me and he thinks by hiding his face with a mask, he can fool me. I hawk my steed and pull my sword out from the sheath.

As I point my sword to Lucas in anger, I growl, "Why are you chasing me?"

Amazed by my power to recognize, Lucas hawks his steed and asks, "How did you recognize that it's me?”

"I can even recognize you in darkness."

"Forgive me, my lord, but I didn't want to let you come alone. It's risky," Lucas says.

My lips curl into a smile as I let out a soft chuckle from my mouth. "You truly care about me. But I am an emperor."

"You are an emperor, that's why I am worried about you."

I gasp, surrendering to his persistence, and jump from my steed. "Okay, then tie our steeds here. We will go to the streets by walking."

Lucas nods. He ties both of our steeds to a tree in the forest.

As I reach the cliff of the hill, I envision the glimpse of Aetheria's beautiful capital Aetheron, where I live. My palace is atop of Aetheron’s highest hill. To reach there—there is a narrow path through the deep moats. The huge Aetheron palace is surrounded by black mist and clouds. I was sixteen when I was crowned as a king of Aetheron, after my father's death; and It took me five years to become the emperor of Aetheria. I've won thousands of realms till date. No one dared to utter a single word in front of me, because of my terror and no one will dare to. At the age of twenty one, I have people for everything, for my service, and I enjoy ruling and controlling everything and everyone around me. I just don't like anyone disobeying me.

As I move forward in the forest; my eyes catch a glimpse of a girl, looking like she's in her early twenties, and might be younger than me. She is gently trying to pluck ‘Calestia Bloom' flower, wearing a white silk gown, her face covered with a sheen white veil.

The Celestia Bloom flowers are rare and exquisite, and only found in the forests of Aetheron. It has magical healing powers, it never dies even after plucking, and it shines in the darkness. No one is allowed to pluck it without my permission. In a few seconds, my soldiers will come and kill her.

“Princess...” the lady who’s with her screams aloud as all of a sudden, a group of my soldiers invades her. She pulls out her sword from the sheath and defends herself immediately, and in a few minutes she kills everyone of them by attacking on them one by one.

“Amazing!”

Startled by the scenario, Lucas murmurs, "Who is she? Looking like a princess."

I, struck by her beauty, don't seem to care about my surroundings as my all focus has gathered over her.

While invading a soldier, her one earring molts down in the grass. I'm unable to move my gaze away from her. Her aura is mesmerizing. With a wide grin on my face, I embark toward her.

A sudden urge to embrace her rush through my veins. As she takes a step forward to go after killing all the soldiers, I grasp her waist from behind and pull her with a jerk toward me.

"Ahh..." she yowls.

I pull her closer to me, holding her waist, and she collides into my chest. She glances up into my eyes and our gazes match. Both of us are lost in each other's eyes.

Her chest is moving up and down in a cadence, making my desires grow more for her. She is a culprit; she plucked the flower without permission and even killed the soldiers but instead of killing her, I'm lost in her eyes.

I move a strand of her blonde hair away from her face and tucks it behind her ear, breathing heavily. Mesmerized by her beautiful deep blue eyes, I grin as my heart beat increases. If she's looking this much beautiful in a veil then I want to know how beautiful she looks without it.

She pushes me hard; my blood boils in fury as she shouts at me, "How dare you touch me?” My smile fades away, witnessing her demeanor. No one ever dared to shout at me. How dare she?

To control my wrath, I make fists, gritting my teeth as I tilt my head back, shutting my eyes close. I exhale a long breath to calm my anger. Lest the demon inside me will take over me.

"I asked you something,” she yells as she aims her sword at my chest. I open my eyes, glaring at her.

Lucas takes steps toward us. "Do you know who he is?" he shouts.

She turns her face to him. I raise my hand to stop him; my eyes are shifted over her—only her. Lucas stops and lowers his head as he nods and agrees to my order.

She again stares at me as she asks, "Who are you, mister?"

I don't reply to anything. My silence works as a fuel in her anger. She clenches her jaw as she demands, “Tell me, who are you?”

She removes the mask from my face with a yank and pierces her sword in my chest, hoping that I'll get scared of her and will reply to her, but instead of answering her questions or getting scared from her, my lips curl into a smirk.

“The sword has hit the mark perfectly…right in my heart,” I say, taking slow steps toward her. She doesn't know which storm she has invited in her life just by stabbing me.

Her sword pierces my chest even more and blood starts oozing out from my chest but I'm smiling just by imagining how I'm going to make her cry for her demeanor in future.

Her breath hitches, and her hands start to tremble, not from the act of stabbing but from the sudden realization that she may have awakened something far more dangerous in me.

Spontaneously, her grip on the sword loosens; she starts huffing, her breathing increases. As I take more steps toward her, the sword slips from her hands. Her body starts trembling because of my soul piercing gaze. I smirk as I witness terror into her eyes. I like it.

To scare her more of me, I pull her closer toward me, by slipping my hand around her waist. Her breasts press on my hard masculine chest. Stunned by my action, she widens her eyes. My breathing is fanning over her lips, making her shiver.

As I move closer to her, she shuts her eyes close tightly. "If I tell you who I really am, then you will surely be dead,” I whisper in her ear.

She pushes me away from her and screams, "If I tell you who you have just touched a moment ago, then you will surely be dead."

I step back and let out a chuckle from my mouth as I retort, "Look, there is a snake. That's why I touched you and pulled you toward me." I aim my eyes in that direction where the snake is. “You might not know, but Aetheron’s forest is surrounded by the world's most dangerous and venomous snakes. No one could save you if you were bitten by any of them.”

She turns to see the snake and stares into my eyes again then, turning back to me slowly. I give a devilish smile to her; I'm waiting to hear her apologizing to me now for her demeanor. She lifts her head even higher in pride, giving a death glare to me.

"Let's go, Julie. We should go now," she says and walks away with her court lady.

Despite the situation, she still refuses to acknowledge her mistake or take responsibility for stabbing my chest. It’s pure arrogance!

I smirk and turn to my shoulder to take a glimpse of her once again. She turns her head slightly and gawks at me for a second, and she vanishes from my sight then.

I'm still looking in that direction even when she's gone now. I turn and catch a sight of an earring on the grass.

Lucas stands beside me as he says, "Such a mannerless girl. Just give me the order, my lord, and I will take her head for you."

I shake my head and start rubbing my neck, shutting my eyes close. My smile widens as I recall the glimpse of her furious eyes.

"I want to know everything about her. I want every detail about her."

I never let anyone go easily, whoever has troubled me, but today—I let her go—easily. A girl who wounded my chest. A girl who showed me arrogance. I don’t know what will happen next. I just know one thing that now I want to ruin her vanity. By hook or by crook.