The Dark God's Bride (Book 3) by Dahlia Lu
“In love with me, you say?” He chuckled coldly. “What about the father of your child? Wasn’t he the man you were in love with?”
“He was a liar and a coward!” she cried. “I had no idea what my future husband was going to be like. I was frightened. Around that time, I met a nobleman who was besotted with me. He said he would ask my father to break the arrangement and marry me himself. I fell for his honeyed words, but when I became pregnant with his child, he and his family fled from the kingdom. I didn’t know what to do…”
“So you weren’t in love with him?”
Two lines of tears ran down her cheeks when she lowered her eyes. “…No. I was so afraid that I would marry an old man or a violent brute like my sisters had that I fell for the first man who offered to take me away. If I had known that I was to marry a kind and handsome husband at the prime of his youth, I would have never done what I did. He was a liar and a coward, and I hate him with all of my heart! I could never love a man like that!”
Kind. Noctis chuckled contemptuously at the word. He was capable of kindness, but he could be very selective of whom he showed it to.
“Are you alright?” Amara got up from her seat and came to Rion’s side and offered her a clean piece of napkin. “What’s the matter? Why are you crying?”
Rion shoved Amara and the napkin away. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
Amara turned to Noctis as though he was the culprit. “What did you say to make her so upset?”
“Are you done eating?” he asked.
“Yes, but…”
“Good.” He got up from his seat, took her by her hand, and led her out of the dining room.
“Are you just going to leave her crying in there?”
He hauled his bride out of the mansion to the garden in the back and closed the door behind him. He felt the urge to laugh so he did. His bride looked up at him with confusion in her eyes and that made him laugh even harder. He was laughing as if someone had successfully told him a witty joke.
“A-are you okay? What did you guys talk about? Why is one person laughing and the other person crying?”
His bride wouldn’t understand why he was laughing even if he had told her the entire story from the very beginning. It was the humor of realization that one had to experience for oneself.
All this time, he thought that Rion was in love with another man and she was forced to enter into their marriage. It turned out that the very trigger to all of the turmoil of his life was just a scared dull-witted young girl who didn’t know the first thing about duty or sacrifice. She had been willing to betray her kingdom, her birth parents, and the safety of her people for a ‘liar and a coward’. She had been willing to trample over her future husband’s honor and throw away the life they could have had together for a ‘liar and a coward’. If she had been in love with the father of her child, he would have reserved a sliver of respect for her, but now…
She was asking him about what could have been!
If somehow time was to be reversed and Rion hadn’t carried another man’s child on their wedding night, it would have ended similarly. Nothing could have been or would have been! Scenarios would have brought them nowhere because he knew it was only a matter of time before an easily beguiled woman with no sense of loyalty like her would betray him.
“Tell me, Amara. If you could redo your life since you met me once again, what would you have done differently? Would you still try to deceive me into thinking you were Lucifer’s Kali?”
Would she have done anything differently since she met him? Of course she would. She would have done a number of things differently, but the answer to his follow up question would still be a ‘yes’. It would always be a ‘yes’.
But why was he asking her this question all of a sudden? Was this some kind of trial to see if she was remorseful about what she had done? Should she tell him the truth and risk angering him?
She tested the water first by asking, “Are you going to be angry with me if I give you an answer you don’t like?”
He was smiling down at her. “I promise I won’t be angry. Tell me honestly, would you?”
She didn’t get the feeling that he was testing her so she gave him her honest answer. “I would.”
Amara knitted her brows together. Instead of being upset by her answer, Noctis seemed extremely pleased. “Even when you know you would go through so much hardship? Even when you are afraid of me?”
“…I’m not afraid of you anymore.” She was afraid of him in the beginning, but she wasn’t afraid of him anymore. “Why did you lead me out here and ask me this all of a sudden?”
He placed both of his hands behind his head and leaned back to enjoy the view of the newly planted garden. He took in a deep breath and said, “I have a bad headache and some fresh air would do me good.”
He claimed that he was having a bad headache, but it didn’t seem like it to her. She hadn’t seen his facial expression this relaxed since, well, ever. He looked like a very busy man who had just taken a huge burden off his shoulders and finally learned to enjoy the moment. It must have had something to do with that blonde woman. They were speaking the same language, a dead language, so they must have known each other. Amara felt left out during breakfast, but she didn’t mind until she saw this expression on his face. She had never been able to inspire such an expression in him before.
“Do you know that blonde woman?” Amara asked even when she knew he did.
He nodded.
“Aren’t you going to tell me who she is?”
“No,” he said plainly without looking at her.
“Why not?”
He didn’t say.
Amara realized she had been asking him the wrong questions, so she changed to a more direct approach. “Who is that woman?”
“Rion.”
“Is that her name?”
“Yes.”
“Did she come here to look for you?”
“Yes.”
He was beginning to frustrate her with his single word answers, so she skipped the rest of her questions and went in for the coup de grace. “Who is that woman in relation to you?”
He lowered his gaze to her. “Must you ask this question?”
The way he was deflecting that question made her feel uneasy. She nodded.
“If you must know,” he said solemnly, “Rion is the woman I wedded when I was still a mortal man.”
Chapter Fifteen
Amara stared blankly at the man standing in front of her. There was no change in her facial expression on the outside, but on the inside she felt a little faint. She was trying to put two and two together so that she could figure out exactly what he was telling her.
He mentioned that he was married once, but she figured that his wife had been dead for ages. Then why, for heaven’s sake, was the woman alive enough to ring the doorbell? Amara recalled the shameful moment when she answered the door completely naked under her silk robe. She had just gotten out of his bed and his warmth had yet to cool from the surface of her skin.
“Oh god…” She just wanted to crawl into some burrow and die.
“Amara,” When he reached out for her, she instinctually shoved him away. “Listen!”
But she didn’t want to listen. She was afraid to hear what he wanted to tell her. She sprinted for the door and ran inside the house. She ran down the hall to the other side and gasped when she saw that he was already standing in the lobby waiting for her. She attempted to run past him. Not used to being denied, Noctis shifted in front of her and blocked the way to the door.
“Let me pass!” She gestured him to move aside. When she saw that there was no sign of him moving, she turned around to run the other way. He caught her by her shoulders and pressed her back tightly against his hard chest. There was no room to struggle.
“Listen before you act, Amara,” he said into her ear. Their close proximity brought an angry blush to her face. She knew by now that struggling against him wouldn’t work. The more
“Please,” she pleaded softly. “You’re holding me too tight.”
His arms loosened around her, but he still didn’t let go.
“I don’t want to listen right now,” she told him her exact thought. His arms released her and returned to his sides. She didn’t think that would really work, but it had. She was free to move about. She turned around, gave him a quick glance, and then walked past him for the door. He didn’t stop her from leaving.
Had she really figured him out this time? All she needed to do was to tell him what was on her mind? All that she needed to do was ask?
If Amara didn’t just fall from the sky and land flat on the surface of the earth, she might have found some humor in it. She was stubborn with him since the beginning and he responded by proving he could be even more headstrong than she was. She fought against him and he responded by proving to her that she couldn’t win. A proud man like him would never walk away when challenged. She could have gotten her way all these times if she had simply asked. But what was the point in having that knowledge now?
She reached for the set of keys from the decorative bowl in the lobby on her way out of the door. Since Lizzie had gone home to her parents, there was only one other person she could turn to. She took the car from the garage and drove to Raya’s penthouse. She needed a few glasses of champagne and a friend to drink them with.
Amara parked her grey sedan on the side of the street and walked into the tower. The doorman recognized her and sent her on the elevator directly to the top floor. She rang the bells several times but no one answered. The doorman wouldn’t have sent her up if nobody was home. Amara attempted to turn the doorknob and discovered that it wasn’t locked. She pushed the door open.
“Raya?” She called for her friend as she walked into the seemingly empty eight thousand square foot penthouse. The living room was connected to an open patio with its own swimming pool. Beyond that was a lovely view of the city. “Raya?”
She went into the kitchen when she heard ice being dispensed from the refrigerator. She saw the back of a man leaving for the master bedroom. “Who are you?” He didn’t stop when she called and he didn’t turn back.
Fearing that Raya was in danger, she chased him into the master bedroom and then to the adjoining master bathroom. “Hey you!”
Her lungs constricted when she saw her friend lying unconscious in a bathtub of ice water. The man was pouring more ice into the tub. Looking at his profile, Amara recognized that he was Damian. Damian shoved her out of the way on his way out. Raya was the one lying in the bathtub of ice, but Amara was the one who felt frozen. Her brain was slow to react to what was happening. Amara snapped herself out of shock and rushed to pull her friend out of the bathtub.
Damian came back and deliberately pushed her away. At this point, she didn’t even know if Raya was dead or alive.
“Are you trying to kill her?” Amara screamed at the demon and attempted to get to Raya once more.
“Don’t move her!” Damian bellowed as he blocked her off. “I’m trying to save her!”
“She’s going to freeze to death!” Amara retorted.
“Shut your mouth or I will do so forcibly!”
Amara swallowed. She knew Damian would never throw an empty threat. Damian was a coldblooded killer, feared even among his own kind. So she stood aside and watched him carefully. If he meant her friend any harm, she would jump at him even if it meant her life.
But he was so very gentle with Raya; the kind of gentleness one would only show to a lover. His teal eyes were that of a man madly in love. They were worried and they were hurt, not at all like the killer that he was. But what the hell was he doing submerging Raya in a bathtub of ice?
“I need more ice…” Damian said to her.
“Do you expect me to help you when I don’t even know what you’re doing to Raya?!”
“Her body is decomposing. I need to keep her body cold until help arrives.”
“But w-why is she d-decomposing?” Amara stammered. “Is she dead?”
“You are not here to ask questions!” he shouted at her with dangerous ferocity. He raked his fingers through his scalp in frustration. The volume of his voice shocked Raya awake. She shivered violently as she wrapped her arms in front of her chest.
Raya was alive!
“Was it worth it, Nala?” Damian asked the woman lying in the bathtub with a sad and bitter tone. “Were those three years worth all of this pain?”
“W-why did you just called her Nala? She’s Raya… isn’t she?” She looked down at the woman lying in the bathtub. “Aren’t you?”
Raya’s answer was inaudible. Her complexion was so pale, it almost looked blue. It took Amara a moment to piece together the clues. Though she wasn’t informed of the details, she could have already guessed how angry her foster brother would be if he should ever find this out for himself. He would be more than just furious to know he was deceived. Their three years marriage would crash and burn with no chance of salvage. And Raya loved him so.
Nala, Amara reminded herself. But why should a name change who Raya was to me?
“I won’t tell anyone,” Amara told Raya. She was prepared to take the secret to the grave. “I’ll protect you. I’ll protect your marriage. I swear it!”
Nala smiled at her, but Damian had a different idea. Amara could tell by the lethal look in his eyes. Frightened, Amara retreated against the wall. “The dead tell no tales,” he said coldly.
“No… don’t…” Nala forced words out from her throat. There was no strength in her voice. “Don’t, Damian.”
“The girl knows too much. She must die.”
“I believe her…” Nala said weakly. “She won’t… she won’t tell a soul.”
Amara nodded in confirmation.
Damian shook his head in insubordination. “I won’t risk that chance, Nala.”
“Damian!” Nala shouted at him. It took so much out of her that she choked out blood, tinting the ice water in the bathtub a rose color. He dropped to his knees to tend to her. Nala grabbed onto his forearm. “Go,” she breathed, dewy green eyes gestured at the door. “Leave. Run home.”
The dead tell no tales.
Amara frantically rushed out of the bathroom, out of Nala’s penthouse, and out of the building like a fox hunted for game. Her grey sedan was parallel parked tight between two cars and it would take her at least ten minutes to get out safely. She decided leave the car behind and ran for it on foot.
Amara glanced back constantly to make sure Damian wasn’t behind her. She was speculating like a madwoman, wondering when and where he would appear. If and when he did, how could she fight off an immortal assassin? Must she forfeit her life because she happened to stumble upon a dark secret?
Damian killed for less – much less. Amara was running for her life and she knew it.
After a while, Amara realized Damian wasn’t chasing after her. She stopped running and decided to catch her breath on a park bench. Damian must have relented to Nala and spared her life – at least for now.
Amara had left home in a rush and didn’t bring a wallet. Her car was parked in front of the tower of Nala’s penthouse and she was too afraid to go back there to get it. So she sat at the park for half an hour and then another half an hour. She could call for a taxi to go home and pay driver when she got there, but that was the problem. She didn’t want to go home. If she went home, she would have to face Noctis and she would have to face the beautiful blonde who was his wife.
Amara hadn’t figured out exactly where she fit in. The most surprising part about it was how Noctis had acted so casually about all of this. He obviously knew Rion had showed up last night but he still made love to her like the other woman never existed. And this morning he was casually reading the newspaper like nothing was happening in their lives. He never even intended on saying who Rion was until she asked. He hadn’t shown an ounce of guilt or remorse
Didn’t he look like he was mourning when he told her that he witnessed the deaths of his wife and child? Why couldn’t she detect any joy from their reunion? Why didn’t he say anything to her? Shouldn’t he have said something to her even if she didn’t ask?
Amara was so very confused because she couldn’t identify who was the victim; was it her or was it that blonde woman? She didn’t know who to blame for what was happening or who to direct her bottled up anger at. She was stuck in a moral dilemma that she never thought she would be involved in. Was she the bad guy or was it him? Should she make an excuse for herself and say that she didn’t know his wife was still alive? And what excuse should she make for him?
Amara shook her head and decided that no it longer mattered. The real question was what should her next course of action be? Amara looked down at the red seal on her ankle and frowned. The answer couldn’t be more obvious. She must walk away from him.
Amara felt a sharp pain inside her chest when she thought about what she must do. She was too quick to give away her heart and now she must pay the price for foolishly believing that he would cherish it. She shouldn’t have fallen in love with him. She really shouldn’t have!
Amara zoned out until she saw a pair of polished leather shoes positioned next to her feet. She didn’t even realize how long she had been sitting at that bench until her gaze lifted from the ground up to a pair of fierce blue eyes. The sun was setting behind him.
“It’s growing late,” he said. “I’ve come to take you home.”
Home, she thought inwardly. She could no longer go home because she didn’t have a home. Not anymore. “What makes you think I would go home with you from now on?” she asked icily.
“Where else can you go?”
“I don’t have anywhere to go, but I still don’t want to go back to you. I have my own pride, too.”
“I would never rob you of your pride,” he said softly.