Chapter 22: +Chapter 22+

Mari was too caught up in her dreadful thoughts to notice the curious stares she drew from the people they went past, and even if she did notice them, she would have immediately guessed that they were at her strange choice of clothing.

Vi stopped in front of a door which she politely knocked on before proceeding to wander off after a bow to Mari, leaving her all alone. Mari just sighed and focused on the door, she didn’t like to be all alone with King Kade but she supposed it was better than tainting Vi’s image of her.

“Enter,” Kade’s voice made her flinch slightly.

Mari was immediately self-conscious of what she was wearing as she pushed open one of the dual doors to step in. She immediately dropped her gaze to the mahogany floors as soon as she stepped in, feeling extremely self-conscious.

She looked up when she got to the table to find herself being stared down by King Kade. Mari ignored the butterflies of dread in her stomach that that caused, choosing a seat a couple of chairs over from King Kade.

The dining room was big without being extravagant, with the dining table sitting a maximum of twelve. The warm-toned wooden floors were a pleasant surprise, it gave the dining room a cozy homey feel.

Kade flicked his eyes over to where the witch had chosen to sit wondering why it irked him. If he was also essentially in enemy territory, he wouldn’t straight up sit in the enemy’s lap, so why did he expect that from Marion?

There were very rigid lines between them, ones that shouldn’t be blurred, it was why he felt a little guilt at going so far as to order his prisoner to wear his clothes and nothing else. He was beginning to turn as strange as Lucien.

So he said nothing when she sat so far away, as a matter of fact, he didn’t say anything at all. Breakfast was tense, the atmosphere around the dining table chilly and inhospitable.

Mari’s thoughts went into overdrive as the meal progressed, she had guessed that she was repulsive to King Kade, and his actions during breakfast confirmed it. She didn’t know if that would work better to her advantage or not.

After the breakfast was over, she looked up expectantly at King Kade, wondering if he would explain anything to her. *Why had they left Moonbeam?* She had so many questions and no one to answer them.

King Kade went right into it though, she didn’t have to wait. “You must have heard this before but your life’s worth is directly proportional to how many Shadows you can defeat.”

Mari would have immediately said she didn’t know how to fight in any other situation but she couldn’t now. So she clamped her lips shut and listened further. She had no idea how to call up her witch fire on command but sure defeating Shadow should go great.

“We unfortunately don’t have a lot of time so I’ll have to take the burden of teaching you to fight myself,” Kade added.

This caught and held Mari’s attention, her hazel eyes going wide. King Kade was going to teach her personally? Now why would he do that? Literally, anyone else could have done it if King Kade had just made the arrangements. She swallowed back her protests and nodded, her expression beguiling.

“I’m glad you understand,” Kade rose to his feet, “Our first session is starting in a few minutes.”

Mari blinked up slowly at him, not expecting that they would be getting started right away. She started to nod and then stopped, shaking her head.

Kade frowned, noting that Marion hardly spoke to him, all she did was listen to him with a terrified expression on her face and nod mutely. Had he really shaken her up that much? Or did she think that she couldn’t speak?

“Use your words,” He half growled impatiently, placing his hands on the table. Eager to know what the witch’s dissensions were.

“I can’t fight in this,” She dryly replied, gesturing at the clothes she had on.

Kade glanced down at his clothes on the witch and winced, it had been really stupid of him to do that but why did it bring him so much satisfaction?

“Fine,” He said flippantly, waving a hand dismissively, “Return to your room for now, we’ll begin at noon instead.”

That was all the incentive Mari needed to shoot to her feet and hightail it out of there. She just wanted to return to her ‘room’ immediately take off the clothes she had on and wait on her bed until proper clothes that didn’t threaten to give her a heart attack whenever she breathed in deeply were brought.

-+-

Lucien drove to his penthouse at the heart of the capital, it wasn’t that he cared to hide his pastimes but that he didn’t want to bring them to his palace. It had nothing to do with honor or pride and everything to do with selfishness, he liked to remain private and distant.

He had enough flings for renting hotel rooms to become tiresome, not to mention restrictive so he decided to just go ahead to buy a penthouse apartment, he could afford it and it doubled as an escape if he just needed to be all alone. But mostly, he used it for sexual escapades like right now…

He was in a stormy mood the entire drive there, and although he usually needed the release when he was like this, it felt different this time. Because for the first time, he wasn’t looking forward to the submissive obediently waiting for him on his bed.

Lucien had left his hair in a top knot, it was best to keep it out of the way. He got out of his car in the parking lot, the security there already knowing him well and not just because he was their King.

Bows and murmurs of ‘Your Highness’ floated around him but Lucien ignored them. He didn’t have the patience to play nice, besides they knew better than to greet him but it seemed to be intuitive for them.