Raphael made sure not to look at Valerie's body. He wanted to help her, not humiliate her more. So he averted his gaze from her and opened the vial in his hands. Black smoke began to seep out of the vial. Immediately he placed the vial closer to Valerie so that it is touching her skin. He moved a step away from her. The black smoke began to crawl up her body until it engulfed her. Now only smoke is seen in her place. Valerie on the other hand is now scared for an entirely different reason. Even though the smoke is not heavy, she can still feel it crawling and meddling with her body. There is a kind of strange feeling, which is making her feel strange. "P..p..prince Raven" she cried with panic.Raphael is startled when he heard her distressed cry. He turned to see black smoke in her place. He already noticed that this smoke works differently than the other potions when he saw it healing his mother. So he is not shocked now."Valerie, relax. This is a medicine. I bought it from the he
"I want to leave" Valerie waited for him to respond to her words. But all she received is silence from his end. She frowned before lifting her gaze from his bare feet to his face. She quickly averted her eyes when she realized that he is looking at her. "Please, I don't want to become a reason behind the disagreements between your royal highness and his highness" she elaborated further.Even though she knows that everyone in the palace hates her, she realized that this is going to cause tension between the king and the prince, which she doesn't want to happen.Raphael snorted sarcastically."The entire Raven clan knows that I hate Cadmus. Your presence will not make it any worse. If you are only worried about that, then you can relax. If something else is bothering you, then feel free to share" he offered.Valerie is flexing her fingers nervously. She never spoke more than a sentence in his presence. Their relationship is strange. She used to be afraid of him when he made her his sl
When the dragon guards rushed towards Valerie, she belatedly realized her mistake. She begins to panic. In the meanwhile, Irina looks at Cadmus with displeasure. "Cadmus.." she opens her mouth to reprimand him but is forced to stop when guards are almost upon Valerie. When one of them tried to touch Valerie, a loud angry growl echoed around the huge dining hall, which made everyone scared. Raphael came and stood in front of Valerie and shielded her from everyone. "Try to touch her again, and I will rip your limbs off your body" he threatened angrily. All the guards moved back in fear. "Y..y..your royal highness, we are just following the orders given by our king" one of the voices out. None of them wanted to anger Raphael. His wrath is something that they all know is dangerous. Raphael glared at them. "I already told you that Valerie is under my protection. Try to Touch something that belongs to me again, and you will not like what I would do to you" he growled. Now the situ
Raphael is mad. Valerie is too scared to ask him to slow the car down. Because she is feeling like they are flying in the air rather than driving on the road. His sleek black sports car is designed to drive faster, and now it's the owner is using it to his full advantage. Finally, when she is beginning to think that he is not going to stop, he did. He parked his car on the edge of a cliff, narrowly missing the fall. Only an inch separates the car from the steep fall. He got out of his car and shifted into his dragon form and took off into the sky. She looked at his dragon in awe. She never got a chance to admire any dragon from this close. His wings are slashing the wind, showing his bad mood. She unfolded herself from the car and sat on the cliff with her gaze trained on the huge black dragon with orange stripes on it's surface. He looks huge and majestic. She heard that dragons will be huge, but never thought that they can be this huge. She couldn't move her gaze from his mesme
That night after Raphael and Valerie came back to the Raven palace, she noticed a change in everyone's attitude toward her. She is surprised by the change, but grateful. No one is openly glaring at her or muttering curses either. What's more, a few of them even smiled at her. 'I feel like Alice in wonderland. This much change in a single day is refreshing. I think her highness queen Irina must have done something to change their opinion of me. Prince Raphael stood by my side and made this possible ' she thought feeling grateful. "Lady Valerie, her highness wanted you to have dinner with her," one of the maids said politely. Valerie is happy with the change in the attitude of everyone. And she is thrilled to be invited to have dinner with a queen. "It's a pleasure. Can you please tell her highness that i will be there in a few minutes" she replied softly. She just came back with Raphael. She cannot go without freshening up a little bit. "Sure. Please come out when you are rea
Valerie ran after Raphael, who walked toward a section of the palace that she never got a chance to visit. After a few minutes, she lost him in the maze of unfamiliar corridors."Prince Raphael?" she called for him when she realized that she lost her way along with him.But she didn't get a reply from him. She didn't find anyone around either. This part of the palace seems like it is rarely used and the guards and maids are absent. "Is anyone there?" she asked loudly, hoping that someone might tell her where Raphael went. But she only heard her own voice which echoed back to her. She understood that she might not find him. She looked around and tried to find the way she came from. But to her horror, all the corridors looked the same and she got confused. She roamed around aimlessly for a few minutes, but she came back to the same place again and again."What is this? This feels like a maze" she thought to herself."Prince Raphael?" she tried to call the prince following whom she ca
Raphael landed near the section of the forest where everything began. This is where he saw Valerie for the first time, and this is where someone stabbed his mother. The place which changed the course of three lives."Stay close to me" he instructed her, as there is a possibility that she can get lost."Ok" she replied obediently.Raphael began to search the surrounding area for something that might help him to find out the man who kidnapped Valerie. On the other hand, Valerie is looking around the familiar but at the same time not so familiar surroundings. Everything that happened that night flashed in her mind. How she ran away and how Irina found her, and how the queen tried to help her but got injured herself.Her palms shook when she remembered 'him '.She looked around and noticed something which she vaguely remembers seeing that night when she ran away. There is some kind of purple and white color flowers, which she remembers seeing that night. She followed the path of the flow
Raphael and Valerie are standing in a section of the forest that is darker than the rest of the area and it looked strange. It has taken them four hours to reach there, and Valerie is sure that the house is here somewhere."Are you sure this is the right direction?" he asked her. He is feeling a strange kind of pressure in his head. It began slowly when the forest began to turn darker. He is feeling like someone is trying to pry inside his mind and he is not allowing anyone to enter his mind. That is causing him a headache.Valerie looked around the forest, which is pitch black. If not for the torchlight she is holding, she wouldn't be able to see anything. "I am sure that house is here somewhere. But i don't remember coming across this kind of darkness. This section of the forest is strange and my skin is feeling weird and itchy" she said with a deep frown marring her features. When she mentioned that her skin is feeling itchy, he began to notice that her skin is turning red and sc
After one year....Raphael wanted to hide everything Irina did, because she was once a queen of the Raven clan. Her black deeds will forever become a black mark on the Raven clan. The hard earned reputation of his ancestors would be ruined, which he doesn't want to happen. So he hid her death when it happened. As everything happened in the middle of the night and as the Raven palace is sitting at a fair distance away from the town, no one knew what happened or suspected anything. By morning, only ashes were left behind. The dead army and even irina who brought them to life are all gone. Cadmus lied to everyone that irina went on a spiritual journey to find peace. Everyone believed that lie as Irina made sure to keep her reputation spotless when she was alive. Only peace was left behind after she passed away. "Raphael? What are you doing here?" Valerie asked from behind him. He is standing in the palace court yard while looking in the exact place where his mother died. Valerie noticed
Raphael and his men together surrounded the dead army from all four directions. They start to burn the dead army with their dragon fire. As Irina is momentarily disoriented, the dead army stands still like statues, while their bodies are burned down to ashes. When Irina realized what was happening, she gained back the control she has on the dead people again. "You dumb idiots, attack" she screeched loudly. At once the dead army started charging toward the Raven palace again. As their bodies already started burning, they are now walking fireballs charging towards the Palace gates. At once the palace gates shook with the force of the dead army. It creaked loudly, protesting from the force with which the dead army was pushing at it and trying to breach the palace walls."Guards, shift and stop them from entering the palace. The gate will not hold that much force for longer. Barricade the gates with sandbags. Quick" Raphael instructed his men while he resumed burning their decayed bodie
"Your Highness, dead bodies are walking," he said in a rush. The guard is pale and looked scared. Raphael and Angoori ran outside and were shocked to see an army of dead and decaying people walking towards the Raven palace. Their bodies are muddy as if they just came from inside a grave. Bones can be seen in their half-decayed bodies. Most of them are just walking skeletons, and the rest are in the process of decaying. Irina is leading them in the front. She looked happy at herself. Raphael thought he was prepared to deal with anything Irina threw at them this time. But no amount of mental pep talk would have prepared him for this. 'How does anyone fight with already dead people?' he thought while taking in the walking dead steadily approaching the palace. The Raven guards look scared out of their minds. But the guards are trying to look brave and do their part by locking the tall wrought iron palace gates and positioning themselves to shield the entrance with weapons. That dead ar
In the dark forest, Irina is pacing the uneven land with fury. She is furious with Raphael who destroyed her lab and then ruined the souls for the dark powers. Out of all her enemies, she never imagined that it would be her own son who would destroy everything. The years of planning, pretending and after a million cunning ideas, everything was burned down to ashes because of Raphael."No one, I mean not a single soul dared stand against me. But now, after twenty-five years of unhindered rein of only victories, my own flesh and blood is standing in my way" she screeched with anger and frustration.The dark forest shook with the intensity of her anger. "After everything I gave you, you decided to take up my enemy's side and betray me. Now, after I learned that you stole my dark powers, there is no going back for you from this betrayal. You have to join your dear Father in heaven. You never really saw my true nature, Raphael. I only ever pampered you and hid my true self from you. I onl
Cadmus understood what Raphael meant by 'Our plan ' after half an hour. They are standing in the palace Courtyard and all the Raven guards are standing in front of them. Confusion is seen on their faces. It's almost midnight and a meeting with their king at this hour is not common. But Cadmus understood why Raphael is doing this now. Because they cannot afford to waste any time, especially when they don't know where Irina is and what she is planning. "You must be confused and thinking about why your new king wants to speak with you all at this hour. But I understood that this is the best time to speak about things that all of us want to hide from others" Raphael spoke.His words left everyone confused in the beginning, but then the men who are loyal to him understood where this was going. So they looked at each other and nodded their heads in understanding. Stealthily they changed their positions in such a way that they are now surrounding Irina's loyal men whom they are sure would g
After her failed attempt to threaten her enemies, Irina left the Coronation party in a fit of murderous rage. "No, if they think that they can intimidate me, then they are dead wrong. Raphael might not know about me, but Arthur, how did you think that I would let you go so easily? We grew up together. You know how stubborn I am. If I set my eyes on something, then that should either belong to me, or it should be destroyed. Just like you. I wanted you, but you rejected me and married anesthesia. I thought of killing you, but that would be an easy punishment for you. I want you to suffer. And your suffering would only end on the day you die. Now, your daughter made a huge mistake by taking over my position as the Raven Queen. You made my son go against me. That is a sin deemed to be punished by death. Now she will die, and so will you. None of you know what I did for two years after I left the Ernest palace. I practiced dark magic. All these years I was trying to amplify my dark powers
Irina has a malicious smile on her face. She is hiding how angry she is. She never thought that there would come a day when she might have to see her son laughing and chatting with the people she hates the most. What's worse is, he made her the worst enemy and made Arthur's daughter his Queen. "Hello Eugene" Irina greeted the Nester king. She intentionally skipped his title. This is the same way she used to address him when she used to stay in the Ernest clan. But after things turned bad between her and Arthur, she distanced herself from Eugene as well. Because she knows that he is loyal to Arthur.Eugene became stiff and so did the others. Raphael tightened his fists. Valerie's eyes flashed with anger. Anesthesia, Arthur, and Liliana have matching frowns of disgust. Hector and Cadmus look uncomfortable."Hello, Irina" he replied with a blank face. Irina turned her gaze towards Arthur. She wanted to disturb their happiness. "You look happy Arthur. I saw this kind of smile on you on
After the coronation of Raphael and Valerie as the new king and Queen of the Raven Kingdom, Cadmus is given the respectable position of the Royal advisor and the Royal godfather of the Raven clan. He is given the power that he can involve in every matter that concerns the Raven clan. His position is equal to Raphael and Valerie's. He is overwhelmed with joy and his happiness has no bounds. But the same cannot be said about Irina. She is not at all happy. Raphael gave her no position to hold in the Royal court. He decided that it was time for her to rest. He made it look like he is doing her a favor and all of this is for his good..'The previous queen of this clan has given her everything for the well-being of this clan. After my father's unfortunate demise, she took it upon herself to take this clan under her care. She worked restlessly toward her goal. I think it's time for her to leave these heavy responsibilities to us and rest. She deserves this more than anyone ' he announced.
The entire Agnes clan bowed their heads when Valerie approached them. They don't have a choice. Going against a gold dragon is like going against a mountain that is taller and stronger. It's useless to fight with a mountain when you clearly know that you cannot win that battle. A gold dragon's wrath can destroy an entire clan. Her blessing would help any clan flourish and grow. The land that she touches will be greener than any other land."I am not killing you merely because I don't want my mate's coronation to be remembered with a blood bath. Ravens are known for their hospitality. You came here as a guest. I don't want to hurt a guest. But be aware, Princess Tasha. I will not tolerate disrespect either. If you open your nasty mouth to pass cruel comments, then I would not hesitate to kill you in the future. Keep your judgments to yourself. Me, Valerie Ernest, daughter of King Arthur, princess of the Ernest clan, and the mate of the Raven King here by declare you, Princess Tasha as