Chapter 71 : Too Quick

Chapter 71 : Too Quick
Chapter 71 : Too Quick

“What?”

“Our Joining Ceremony. I believe—“

“What does it mean?”

There was a twinkle in his eyes. It was rare to see him so… happy. It was strange. It didn’t feel right. Not after last night, not after what she had tried to do to him, not after everything.

“A Joining Ceremony for your people would be…” he hummed lightly, thinking for a moment. She wondered if the word was truly taking time to come to him or if it actually meant something terrible and he was taking his time to find the best way to tell it to her. “A wedding ceremony.”

“What?” Her stomach dropped. She shoved her hands against his chest to be free from him and this time, he let her go. She ignored the feelings that erupted in her veins, moving away from him swiftly before she began to pace around.

“Aniya?” He called out to get but his voice sounded too distant, and too low compared to the storm that was brewing in her mind.

“No, no, no, no, no,” she said over and over again to herself as she paced around the room. Her breath coming out in fast rhythm.

“Aniya?” He said, his voice sounded louder now, like he had moved closer.

“No!” She snapped, looking sharply at him. “No! I don’t want this. I don’t want any of this! I’m not going to be your wife.”

Something ticked in his jaw and he sucked in a deep breath.

“It is tradition—-“

“I don’t care about tradition. I want to go home!”

He said nothing about that, instead he turned his back to her and headed to the bed. Something about that made her terrified, as if he was closing up a space for her to communicate with him—- get answers from him. So she allowed her questions to flow quickly.

“When will the magic wall your father has around your realm be brought down? Would marrying me save me from death? If that was an option in the first place, why did you make me suffer such fear of death for so long? Why did you make me so afraid for my son?”

He did not answer, instead he laid Arlo, who had somehow found a way to fall asleep in the midst of this chaos, on the bed.

His silence only infuriated her further.

“I said was it ever an option to spare Arlo and I from death?” She took hurried steps towards him, but he turned to her and stopped immediately, a good distance still inbetween them.

“I think I suggested this too soon. It was a mistake.”

A mistake.

That word hit her wrong.

Everything seemed to be.

He sighed, pushing his hands through his hair and she watched every movement like a hawk, like every movement he made might just mean something else.

“You deserve time to come to your own conclusions.”

“I deserve answers.” Her tongue felt heavy before she could even complete that.

Deserve?

She had tried to kill him!

“I need answers,” she said almost immediately. “Was that ever an option?”

“A Joining Ceremony would do nothing to spare your life.”

Aniya clenched her fists. “And my son?”

“It changes nothing.”

She laughed. A humourless laughter. She could feel his eyes on her as she turned her back to him. Rage filled her so much, her tongue tasted bitter. He would be make to feel it. She didn’t feel like hiding anything after all. It didn’t matter. Nothing did.

“If this Joining Ceremony is of no significance then why have you suggested it?”

He folded his arms across his chest, his huge frame a source of distraction but her rage kept her grounded. This was a matter of life or death, not just for her but her son.

“It is a step further in our relationship.”

“Our relationship?” She laughed, her eyes filled with furious madness. “What relationship?!”

He frowned and took some steps closer to her, closing the distance between them.

She looked up at him as his gaze bored down at her. “You will claim to feel nothing for me, Kharesh-mi?”

Kharesh-mi?

What was that?

What— she gulped, because suddenly everything felt overwhelming and she remembered why she wanted to stay away from him in the first place. She tried to take a step back but everything happened quickly. His arm found her waist and he pulled her up. Her legs straddled him and her hands anchored around his neck instinctively.

She blinked, catching herself in the act. But she couldn’t free herself from him quickly because his hands already secured her to him. A growl rumbled from his chest and her gaze snapped to his face. His eyes held all her attention and the feelings she had been running from since she had first felt them rushed through her veins like a turbulent sea.

When he spoke next, his words hit her like liquor. The heat felt overwhelming

ming, everything felt overwhelming.

“I said do you feel nothing for me, Aniya?”