There was an uncontrollable, overwhelming urge to rip Cain’s flesh when Mr. Rafael’s spies confirmed that Lianne was taken to the Soulisse Mansion. Ruen was sitting on a couch beside a rectangular viewing window of the private plane, holding the phone tightly until a small break of the touch screen’s side appeared — a poor substitute to accept his arising anger.
The plane had been en route to Since for nearly twenty minutes since lift-off from the Fortville City Airport. Another twenty of it later, it would reach its destination.
“Yes, I need them to be ready in an hour. I’ll be there soon, ” Ruen commanded in a firm tone. He was talking to the leader of the special protection team of Mr. Rafael, Holt Montgomery, who was at the receiver’s end. He was thirty-six years old, eight years older than Ruen, but the man had great respect for him.
It had been years since Ruen had se
My feet automatically stepped in to investigate the room further.It was mainly dark. The only light fixture I could see in the ceiling was unlit. It was a decent-looking room with an acceptable size. I first thought it was a recording room, but it was actually a monitoring room, with all the weird-looking gadgets, sound and equalizer systems, and a handful of tiny buttons laid in a slanting table a couple of feet away from where I stood, dumbstruck.The room was a spectacle to behold, especially with the 12-inch flat monitor screens stacked way up into the ceiling. I deduced they were video surveillance monitors.One... two... three... four... wow... there were actually sixteen monitors all in all. Each one showing different areas of the mansion. One showing the pool area. Another showing the front portico. The others showing the dining and the kitchen areas, the outside garden, hallways, and more hallways including the
POV: LianneIf anything. If anything at all. I wanted for that wish to be granted.That was the last thing I remembered before I snapped back into reality. Cain was still staring at me and my guess was, he doesn’t even know that I just came from a trance.I didn’t feel the pain in my left lower torso anymore. Only the pain in my heart. It lingered onto me like a bee ready to pollinate a rose. I am no rose though, but I had thorns. And right now, my thorns were all directed to Cain.Sudden anger flooded through me. Now that I remembered that vital information about my death, I didn’t have any reservations about my feelings towards Cain anymore. Screw that brotherly love for him. He needed to feel my wrath.I shifted my eyes to look at the monitor screen of the dungeon. Ruen looked fatigued. I’m sure if I were in
POV: RuenThis was exactly the best time to kill this man. My fingers had been itching to do it since I was on the plane.He produced a lopsided grin and pulled Lianne even closer to his side.“A gun too huh? No sword?” he jibed. “Put it down now.”I clenched my teeth, my body trembling not of fear but with the need to pummel this man’s face to death.“I will not until you let her go.”“Oh, so you’re making bargains now?” he replied with his nose cringing. “As if you have the upperhand. Do you really think I would give up on this game of fate? It has already been decided. I will win this and you...will DIE!”As expected of a dirty cheater like him, Cain fired a shot.My quick reflexes kicked in an
POV: LianneOne week admission in the hospital was considered a short stay for a man who sustained a gunshot wound in the left upper chest. The cardiologist doctor of Since Hospital said that it was a miracle for Ruen to have a near-miss...only just a couple of millimeters away from his heart. It was a miracle truly. One that I was thankful for.I was leaning against the railing in the open balcony of Ruen’s rest house. The evening was cold, but I took it upon myself to gaze at the beautiful sea of stars in the blanket of darkness. I really missed this place, and I am happy to be back here again.I was wearing a peach-pink evening gown with crystal beads on the strap shoulder, neck, and waistline formed into a bouquet of flowers. He bought the gown for me from a well-known designer. The fabric used was a soft chiffon and it had a one-meter trail, enough for me to manage in the Since Mans
“Kill them! All of them!”That was the last judgment declared by King Garlow, the ruthless king of the Kingdom of Regaleria. He was on his mount, a strong muscular black horse, holding its golden reigns with a posture of a calculating, self-assured, proud man. His eyes were a deep blue; cold and icy; piercing through the destroyed walls of the Vhillana Kingdom. The smell of gunpowder, burnt wood, and rotten flesh reached through his nostrils even though he was just waiting at a hill miles away from the attack.The fortification of the main city of Vhillana was now breached and all the dwellers of the city, panic-stricken, were trying their best to save one’s own lives. Flames everywhere - from the rooftops of the houses to the marketplace - and even the Vhillana Palace was not spared. It was in total chaos. Men were slain. Women and children screaming desperately in anguish.The smell of metallic blood
Regaleria Mansion (Present)“Your Highness...”Lady Faye lowered her head in acknowledgment of Prince Ruen’s arrival in the main kitchen. Seeing the crown prince in such a place wasn’t new to her and she knew exactly the reasons why even without him saying a word.He stopped right beside the Head Servant who was sitting at the center table carefully placing white roses in a porcelain vase.His cold, domineering eyes scanned the whole place. The room immediately fell silent. Maidservants, errand boys, and the chief cook, without a second thought, skittered out of the room to provide the two some privacy.“Faye, where is she?” he curtly asked the moment they were alone.She smiled slightly in response. Although he specifically didn’t mention a name, she knew exactly who he wa
In one of Lianne’s wanderings around the mansion, she discovered the royal library at the north wing of the second floor. It immediately became her personal favorite place of solace among all of the areas being that she loved to read books. Never was a day that she wasn’t holding a book in her hand. However, with such an enormous collection of these inside the library, it was no wonder that her time would be spent with it.Prince Ruen was sitting at an intricately carved bergère near the library’s fireplace when he heard the twisting sound of the doorknob. He didn’t mind it though thinking that it was Lord Jared, the majordomo of the mansion, informing him of his rest.Even though it was a quarter before one at midnight, sleep was the last thing on his mind as he was engrossed in finalizing a plan for a large vessel to be built upon his father’s approval. Blueprints and crumpled papers spread throughout t
Lianne never gave a word about last night, even with Lady Faye’s questioning. When she was informed that King Garlow had summoned her to his study room, she didn’t think twice of going there, instead, she decided to lock herself in her room feigning that she was feeling ill.Lady Faye wasn’t surprised by her behavior though. Of all the people living in Garlow’s kingdom, she’d be the first to openly display her hatred of him, and Garlow knew it fully well to his apparent amusement.It was morning the next day when she came out of her room. It seems as though the maidservants weren’t troubling her with annoying questions anymore, much to her relief.“Nahhh, you’re kidding! Are you sure of it?” one maidservant named Erza squealed in disbelief while dusting off the window panes of the kitchen room.Loretta, the second maidservant cleaning the dishes i