Chapter 18HopeIt has been a rather boring week for me. No one came to summon me for dinners. No one visited me except the haughty maids who came to serve me food with evident distaste in their eyes, like I had wronged them in some way. The only thing that has been keeping me company was India's diary.I read a page in the morning, a page in the afternoon, a page in the evening. I was persistent in savoring it because I had no idea the next time that I would have access to such a thing. The next time might be when I got out of this lockdown and went ahead to secretly visit Amara once again.Yes, that was my plan. Just because Darius commanded me not to go there again didn't mean that I would blindly obey him. Without any friends or source of entertainment in this entire castle, I might lose my mind without a doubt. So, as soon as the ban of my movement was lifted, I would return to my place of comfort. But for now, I would continue to seek my comfort in the pages of someone who was
Chapter 19HopeI woke up in the arms of someone. When my eyes fluttered open because of the bright sun rays, I felt like I was being cocooned by something strong—someone strong. The person's arms were around me and we were both sitting on the floor. I stared at the sight in front of me and suddenly remembered everything.The assailant, Darius saving me, me crying on his chest. And I was still resting on his chest! His arms were strong around me, I couldn't get him to let go. I tried wiggling out of his hold, but I felt something. Something long and hard."Stop wiggling," a raspy voice breathed down my neck and I stiffened.My goodness, that was his… A strength I didn't know I had coursed through my veins as I ripped his arms away from me and stood up at full force, only for sharp pains in my heels to shoot up. I hissed closed mouth, then plopped down on my bed, facepalming myself internally.I forgot about the shards in my heels and I stood up too quickly. What is wrong with me? Now,
Chapter 20Hope"I don't want to." I said with a slightly shaky voice. After my sentence, it was as though the entire world had come to a standstill because Darius froze up. I gulped down on my saliva, regretting those words immediately."What?" Darius said, sounding flabbergasted that he even had to ask that in the first place.I cleared my throat. "I said I don't want to. I don't want to train for anything. I'm not even going to be here for long. Once you find Light, there'll be no need for any of this."I was going to die for saying such things. I was going to die a slow and painful death after this. The expression on my husband's face said as much. He burned with fury."I- I," I tried to take back my words but I couldn't. Unfortunately, I couldn't form any complete sentences under such a gaze of terror."The choice was not yours to make in the first place. I am ordering you to report for training by tomorrow. I am not suggesting it." Darius gritted out forcefully, like he was try
Chapter 21HopeKyle was no longer by my side. Instead, he was a few feet away, sparring with one of the men. I had taken a seat on a box and grabbed a rag to clean the armory. Thankfully, my heels hurt less since I wasn't standing on them. But all my muscles hurt and my stomach kept on growling at me due to the lack of content in it. I ignored the gnawing pain and did my task. Before this, I had never cleaned weapons but that didn't mean I didn't know how to. Back home, I used to be friends with a couple of guards and I would watch them wipe their weapons. I was just vexed about the fact that I was the one who was going to do such a task.The men around had transitioned from gawking at me brazenly to whispering about me secretly. I wondered what they were thinking. They were probably jeering at my situation. How the mighty Vitalis princess was the one cleaning their stuff. I tried not to let those kinds of negative things get to me, but it was hard not to.As I picked up the next ar
Chapter 22DariusStorming woman. We haven't even been married for long and she has given me more trouble than that useless twin of hers. I walked down to my study with an evident scowl on my face. The council meeting was what put me in a bad mood before I had a conversation with the human princess.All everyone had to say was how less than I was in comparison to the kings before me who had treated the tradition of being married to a human, solemn and sacred. But it wasn't entirely my fault. What else should I do to make the brat happy? Nothing I haven't given to her but she still isn't satisfied and prefers to go back to her family.I stepped into my office and made straight for my leather chair. Not even a second yet, the door flew open and marched in Orion and Talia. Both had the same pissed off expression on their faces as I did."Is she alright?" Orion asked, begrudgingly.I made a triangle with my fingers as I rested my elbows on my desk. "The doctor said that the wounds weren't
Chapter 23HopeI was going back to training today. I loathed it more than anything else in the world. I could still remember the mocking faces of the soldiers weeks ago and it haunted me. I was doing better now, my wounds were roughly healed and I've been eating well.Though there was an incident before I was cleared to come back to training. Darius had wanted to dismiss Kyle and behead him for not paying close attention to me and letting me faint in the middle of the hallway. I had to convince Darius that there was no need to do all that to Kyle and by convince, I mean, stand there and look at him with pleading eyes.It must've worked well because Darius had let go of Kyle and given him one last chance to prove his worth. Because of that sole deed, Kyle became a little less hostile towards me. For example, this morning, he asked if I was alright when I stepped out of my room and before then, instead of banging on my door and demanding that I come out for training, he had sent the thr
Chapter 24HopeBreathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. It'd be fine, Hope. Though I knew that wasn't the case. It has been over a week since I had resumed training with the Commander and horrible wasn't the right word to cover how I felt during and after the long mornings and sometimes late evenings.Yes, I've been on a very tight schedule. Early mornings were for exercises, to strengthen my muscles, while late afternoon and evenings were for actual training. Like dummy sparring and weapon play. I had no skill whatsoever in any of the aforementioned sections. I always felt like dying while running around the field or undergoing torturous exercises.I felt like crawling into a small space and hiding when it came to handling the rods. No one ever told me that a common long stick would be so heavy and hard to wield.I felt like crying when the soldiers around would brazenly sneer at me while the commander pushed me around like a little lost sheep. It was all so infuriating. M
Chapter 25HopeWhy was he mad at me? His onyx eyes were so dark and his nose was flared up. Veins popped on his forehead. "I'm sorry," I looked away from him, only for two fingers to connect with my chin and pull my face back to his view."Why are you apologizing to me?" he asked in an awfully serious tone."Annalise—""Ugh," he cut me off as he made a frustrated sound with his mouth. "Sometimes I don't know if you're pretending to be clueless or if you're just dense inside that round head of yours." He spoke through his teeth and I parted my lips.He just insulted me. I ground my teeth, swallowing down the violent thoughts that crept up my mind."I don't understand." I said.He let go of my chin and took a step back from me. "I don't even know why I try sometimes," he said to himself, then he looked back at me. "You were a princess before you got married to me, act like one, and not some maid." He spoke in an agitated tone with a mix of disinterest in it.What was that supposed to
Chapter 78Hope Kyle was quick. It didn't take up to two days and he had already set up a meeting with the witch for me. According to him, she wanted to keep her name and location a secret.So, instead of leaving the castle to meet her, she would be the one to come over. I had no problems with this, as all I wanted to do was get this phase of my life over and done with.She arrived at midnight. Earlier today, I had told Darius not to come to my room since I wanted to rest well and him being around would only disturb and irritate me.Though he had been against it because of his recent overprotective behavior, I still managed to wear him down at the end of the day.By the time the witch arrived, I was seated by the window in my room. She and Kyle entered so quietly that I didn't even notice them until they had gotten close to the window.The moon was incredible bright this night and my room was brightened with lamps and lit candles. The witch was dressed as a castle worker to avoid sus
Chapter 77 Hope When I regained consciousness, I saw that Darius was sitting on the side of my bed with a worried look on his face. I let out a soft sigh, and he jerked into action, noticing that I was finally awake. "How are you? How do you feel? Hope, are you alright?" he questioned. I rolled my eyes and stretched to take a sitting position on the bed. "I'm fine, just a little tired and thirsty." Darius quickly took the cue to stand up from the bed and pour in a glass of water from a jug and gave it to me. I emptied the glass and handed it back to him. "Hope, I was so worried. It's all my fault. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have kept you up working all night. I should've—" "It's not your fault, quit acting so pitiful," I chided him. "It was just a sunstroke. And I'm not the first person in the world to get dizzy under the sun. Stop worrying unnecessarily." "You say that so easily, but I wouldn't be able to bear it if something bad happened to you. You've been so moody these da
Chapter 76HopeA cold chill slapped my face after Darius said that word. It was foolish of me to have expected that something like war would be taken care of with no hitches along the way.And because of this reason, I softened up a little and used a small voice to say, "I want to see. Show me what you're doing." Darius stared at me for a little while before shaking his head negatively. "It's nothing. You don't need to bother yourself with things like this. Please, go and rest. I'll take care of everything."Darius must have thought that saying such things would put my mind at ease but all that it did was anger me as I raised the volume of my voice and said:"You'll take care of everything and I should go rest? Have you forgotten that I'm the queen of this kingdom? I should rest while you deal with the brunt of things and I remain a silly little oblivious queen. Is that what you want me to be? You want me to be stupid and ignorant for you?"Darius immediately stood up from his chair
Chapter 75HopeI turned around to look at who just spoke. To my surprise, it was Thomas—the grumpy son of the commander. There was a clear frown on his face as he came forward. But before he could step in front of me, Kyle stood between us."Her majesty was not speaking to you, back away." Kyle said with a firm tone.Thomas glared at him and said, "So what if she wasn't talking to me? Is it a bad thing for me to offer myself to my queen?"His last two words were coated with deep sarcasm that I couldn't even ignore. I patted Kyle on his shoulder, gesturing for him to step aside. He did so, but begrudgingly.I faced Thomas and asked, "You want to fight me?" He didn't even bother to hide the defiance in his tone as he said, "Yes, and so what?" I smiled, surprising the kid who was one or two years younger than me. "Okay then, let's spar." Kyle stepped forward, probably about to stop me but I held my hand up and gave him a look, causing him to step back. I spoke to him with my eyes, an
Chapter 74Hope Darius marched over to Kyle and I with a sudden possessive aura clouding his being."Her majesty was attacked by a spy posing as a human maid," Kyle explained solemnly.Upon hearing Kyle's explanation, Darius didn't ease up one bit as he told Kyle to get a physician and leave the two of us. Darius then replaced Kyle and led me to sit on the bed, his face painted with worry."I'm sorry," he said. "I should've gotten here faster. You wouldn't have gotten injured and I would've been able to catch the bastard who did this to you." Hearing him say such words, I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. It was stupid because I believed him. He had done it once before, back then when there was nothing but hatred between the two of us.It got me thinking that maybe the assassin who snuck into my room that night could've been another of Light's underlings who was sent to kidnap me and bring me to her.I sighed mentally at the thought."I have something to tell you," I whispered
Chapter 73Hope I've put up with this long enough now. It was early morning, a week after 'forgiving' Darius. I was preparing to have breakfast with him when Gwendolyn began speaking."His Majesty has been treating you very preciously these days." It was only ten words but they stirred me up so bad that I stood up from my dressing chair and faced her. "Gwendolyn, you can stop putting on an act now." My voice was firm and my frown was even firmer.It took only a few seconds for her innocent expression to change. Her usual doe eyes narrowed to an almond shape and a wry smile made its way on her lips.She backed up a few steps and placed her hands on her waist. "How long have you known now?" she asked.I glared at her. "You know, I wasn't sure of anything until you just asked that question."Shock flashed her features, but it was too fast for me to decipher her level of surprise.I had always found Gwendolyn annoying and suspicious. But after the entire thing she told me about the st
Chapter 72 Hope "What are you trying to say? Are you trying to mock me or make me feel pity for you?" I questioned. "No, that's not what I'm trying to do. I can assure you," Darius said. I didn't believe. In fact, I didn't even want to believe him. I didn't want to sit here and listen to him wail about his childhood, trying to concoct an excuse for why he acted like a big bully. I liked myself and hated him too much to give him a chance to thaw my heart with his story. "Anyway, I had a very normal childhood fitting for someone that was to be king in the future," Darius heaved a sigh as he spoke. I unconsciously raised a questioning brow. If you had such a normal childhood, why did you then kill your family and make yourself such an unapproachable tyrant? As though he heard my thoughts, Darius said, "But growing up in such a way only made me weak, thought my parents. I wouldn't blame them, I was far too kind in the past." I almost snorted. "There was a time when I
Chapter 71Hope"Someone's looking pretty," Darius said with a smile the second he saw me.It was midnight and I had already dressed up, anticipating his arrival. I wasn't wearing anything especially pretty. Just a dark blue tunic with a pair of black trousers. My hair was parted at the middle and I donning a few jewelries around my neck, wrists, and fingers."Hm," I said in response to Darius."Don't you have anything to say about me?" he teased.He was also dressed as casually as I was. What was there to compliment him about? I turned away from him and said, "Stop fishing for compliments."He made a psh sound before putting out a hand for me. Begrudgingly, I placed my hand in his and unexpectedly, Darius leaned down and placed a kiss on my hand.I flinched and almost retracted my hand, but his hold was firm. He quickly roped an arm around me and began leading me out from my room.To be honest, I was curious about this 'date' of ours. What was Darius hoping to achieve? Why was he so
Chapter 70HopeAnd to think for a second I believed that Darius had summoned me for something important. The moment I stepped into his office, he had engulfed me and in a tight embrace and quickly assaulted my lips with his own.It took me a second to push him away and catch my breath. With a frown, I said, "Stop doing that. I hate it." "What do you hate exactly? Kissing? Or kissing me?" Darius questioned languidly."Both!" I bit out.He chuckled at this, then wrapped his arms around me once again. "What can I do to make you like them both?" "Nothing. And stop holding me!" I tried pushing him away but he held onto me tightly, refusing to let go."To think by now you'd know that physical contact is my love language," Darius said carelessly.The side of my lips tugged up in irritation. He could take his love language and shove it up his ass. I didn't want it. But Darius had other thoughts as his hands begin creeping to my erogenous zones.I bit my bottom lip to mask the shameless sou