Chapter 91 Valerio comes

Chapter 91 Valerio comes

Evyths recoiled her steps, her fingers barely reaching for the door handle. She could feel the sour taste on her tongue, as if it witnessed the situation she had found herself.

Valerio. What was he doing her? She asked herself for the third time in two seconds.

Swallowing hard, she finally reached reached for the handle, twisting it.
Once it opened, her gaze stayed fixated on Valerio. Unshaken.
Upon seeing her, a thicker frown consumed his countenance, his piercing gaze plunging deeper than it could her soul.

“Val-Valer—”

He didn't need to speak, his eyes already did. Splitting them between Adler who was behind her, standing, and back to Evyths who stood still in the very cloak he gifted.

To Valerio, what in Dracula's make was Evyths doing in the personal space of the very kind that rebeled and broke their earlier treaty? Valerio, a vampire so certain of the possibilities of what would and wouldn't happen, couldn't wrap his head around the sight he was met with.

With that eying assessment, Valerio turned on his heal and left, his golden cloak swaying to the rhythm of his angry steps.

Evyths could feel her chest tightening, as if a needle pierced her veins. She looked at Adler blankly before leaving too.
Running after Valerio, they stopped in the available drawing room that Leon mostly received his visitors.

Evyths could have asked how he got in effortlessly given the estranged relationship between vampires and werewolves, yet it he stood there. Furious.

As she closed the door behind her, the quiet click of the door was the only sound that penetrated the unearthly silence.
Darting to the fireplace that Valerio stood before, she could sense the tension in the breathing fire, like it mirrored Valerio's emotions. Even as cold as they were.

“Valerio…” she quietly called, taking slow, skeptical steps towards him. Although her feet carried her forward, but her body slacked.

She had provoked the king even more, that was an inappropriate way of meeting her in the palace. Given that she had known Valerio for almost a year, jealousy was something he didn't know how to hide. In fact, he failed at it.

Finally standing next to him, Evyths' breath shook underneath. Valerio wouldn't even look in her way, not even sparing a mistaken glance at her.

With his hands behind him, he began silently. “Vampires have a common lore. The one to betray you is the one who shares your coffin. Your most sacred space…” his tone was unforgivably raspy.

His words? They struck a chord, one portrayed the gravity of what they shared.

“Valerio, it is not what you…” she muttered, fiddling with her fingers restlessly.

Valerio was slow to speak, as if he had rehearsed every line. Because if he were to unleash the anger he had been trying to contain, he would start a war, burning down Davendale.

He turned slowly to her, staring at her like he wished he didn't and that scared Evyths the most.

“You betrayed me. You broke out trust.” He stated firmly.

Evyths couldn't reply yet because she didn't know what say to calm the vampire king before her.

“And right after that, I see you in your prince’s chamber.” His eyes sized her up, picking every detail she didn't think he would pick right away. “Your cloak over your night dress. That says something, yes?”

Valerio wasn't yelling. His unusual calmness terrified her. She even wished that he yelled at the top of his voice or strangled because, at least, she assumed that she deserved it.
But he didn't.

Evyths shook her head, her tears forming hastily in her eyes. “I swear to you by the goddess, it is not what you assume—”

“What do you fucking think I assume? Huh?” He groaned, his eyes cold with danger.

Her tears instantly betrayed her, weak in the knees. Even the warm atmosphere in the room shifted, the fire in the fireplace froze like it hadn't been blazing angrily moments ago.

“Valerio, I promise you, there was nothing going on between going on between Adler and I—”

Valerio let out a cold, humorless laugh that immediately crippled her. “Was?” he said. “And now?”

Evyths sobbed, rubbing her palms pleadingly. The look of disgust in his eyes, she hated it. Everything that Valerio has suddenly become within minutes.

Evyths blinked, a cold sweat breaking across her forehead. “I was only talking to him about something… important,”

“It couldn't wait until dawn? When light touches everything?” He took a step closer to her. She wished she craved his presence at that moment but it carried something darker than a morgue.

Using his icy, pale index finger, he tilted her jaw to meet his menacing gaze. “Why do this to me, Evyths? You fooled me…” Suddenly his voice morphed into a chilling whisper that made her sink. “You fooled everything I stand for.”

Valerio pulled away, exactly two steps, scoffing underneath his breath.
Evyths' tears warned her cheeks, feeling the hurt in her chest.

How could have hurt the only person that loved her endlessly? The only one who wasn't ashamed to call her his? The one who made her realize her worth in royal courts? The father of her children?

Evyths sobbed uncontrollably. When her legs couldn't hold her body, she found herself seated on the ground.
Evyths hated herself all over again. If she had not tried to be selfish because of Moon authority’s call, all of this wouldn't have happened. And at the same time, perhaps Valerio wouldn't have allowed her to come to Davendale. Or, he could have allowed her. However, he didn't deserve the lies that she told him.

On the other hand, Valerio wished that he could tell her exactly the things he had wanted to say to her when he saw the shift in the flames at the upper room, maybe he would have felt relieved.

But no, Evyths was the only one who made him feel whole, worthy of expanding his legacy. The one who had his peace in her hands, yet she was the same person who stabbed it. Ruthlessly.

His cold, ancient heart ached lik it would break through his ribcage.
His jaws clenched, staring at anything but her face.
He didn't hate her, no, he could never, but he was too angry to speak with her.

And that alone, frustrated him. His silence was usually the deadliest of his actions, it couldn't birth anything good. And towards Evyths, it ruptured him.

Hence, he didn't want to go down that route with Evyths. No matter how hard he tried to stay angry, he couldn't. He wouldn't. And he shouldn't.

His gaze lowered softly. Not that he didn't trust or had suspected her, but anyone bearing the witness could spread the rumors rumors. Before it dishonored his position and what they shared, it would have tainted her image and all that she represented. Purity.

Finally Valerio turned to Evyths who was still silently sobbing on the floor, he took steps forward.

“What else are you hiding from me?” His voice echoed gently, yet the streaks of resentment in his tone.