Chapter Forty-One: Dirty Jewels

Sapphire Nightborne

Tears slid down my cheek onto my pillow as Mia massaged my leg... I felt utterly humiliated and disgusted. She had just scrubbed me down like a child, and was now making sure that my physical body was still in 'perfect' condition... at least that was Damien told her. He wanted me in perfect condition... a pristine trophy.

"We are almost done, Sapphire... it's okay."

Mia stroked my hair in an attempt to comfort me but I just turned my head away from her, craning my head to try and get a glimpse out of the window. I had been stuck in this bed since Damien's 'gift' in the arena, only taken from it to be bathed or dressed and even that was under his orders. He dressed me in all sorts of dresses, but threw them away as he claimed they were not 'right'.

"This is never going to end soon, Mia--"

My jaw clenched as the door swung open and his stench filled the room. Mia sighed and gathered her stuff, it was his orders... when he entered the room, there could be no one it in but us.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt a soft tug against my scalp... he always did that whenever he came, played with my hair... eyes distant as if he was contemplating something. I stared at him for a while before he caught my gaze and smiled, hand stroking my cheek

"I have a big day planned for today, Sapphire... I have received really good news for the both of us."

I closed my eyes once more at his statement, good news for him meant hell for me.

"But first, I have a small present for you."

He took out a glass bottle from his pocket, waving it in front of my eyes. I took deep breaths to try and identify the scent, but it was corked too tightly for me to get a read. He shook the contents of the bottle with a large grin on his face, before tugging a lock of my hair once more.

"I told you before that I wanted a clean start, and that means everything has to change... everything has to fall back into place."

His eyes grew distant once more as he twirled my hair around his fingers, and I watched in horror as he dropped it and uncorked the bottle. Lifting a lock of my hair, that framed my face, he placed it into the bottle and swirled it around.

Ten minutes passed and he continued to do so before he finally took the lock out, drying it with a small towel. My nose scrunched up at the sharp smell.

"It might not take effect immediately, and will need multiple tries, which I will order Mia to carry out but... everything will start to make sense again."

I just stared at him, how could he still believe that things will work out after almost a year of resisting... how has he still not learnt that you can never force someone to love you?

"You will never accept that things will never go back to the way things were hundreds of years ago, will you?"

He gave me a smile before leaning towards me to press his lips softly against the corner of my mouth, leaving kisses to the shell of my ear, I tried to turn my head away but he held my jaw in place.

"Don't you understand, Sapphire? I am working to make sure that things do not repeat themselves... I lost you to another man hundreds of years ago... I don't intend on letting you go this time... our story is going to end with us together... that reminds me of what I came here today."

A sigh slipped from my lips as he picked me up, like a child. I hated that I could not even walk, even to the bathroom... I had to shout from where I laid so the guards stationed outside my room could get Mia or the closest female member to take me. Even when I was chained in Black Blood, I could move my body around... I could not even flex my fingers in my own homeland.

I squeezed my eyes shut as he took me down the hallway, refusing to look at the pelts of my friends. Damien hummed as he continued walking, in a greater mood than I had ever seen him in Blackwater.

We continued walking for a while, down the many steps into the Blackwater dungeons... a place where I had spent a large portion of my childhood in. I could hear many voices overlapping each other, the tension in the air extremely obvious.

"Get me a chair now!"

There was a rush of footsteps as the guards tripped over themselves in order to fulfill Damien's request. He placed me gently onto the chair, and jaw dropped when I looked past him.

There was a huge hole in the wall in front of me, the entrance to a long passage way... something that had never been recorded in Blackwater's history, even in the documentations of its rise as a pack. Damien smirked at my reaction and curled my wet lock of hair around his finger.

"After countless months of searching and digging, we have finally found our home, Sapphire... our true home."

I looked up at him in confusion causing him to laugh. He motioned at the guards who walked into the tunnel, returning soon after with their hands full of chests and paintings.

My lower lip began to tremble as they displayed their findings before me.

Dresses of old thrust upon my lap, centuries old jewellery forced around my arms, fingers, neck and ears. One of the guards was about to place a ring on my fourth finger when Damien stopped him, taking the jewel away from him... his lips twisted into a sneer as he held it up to my face.

The ring was different from the other jewels that were drapped over my body... it was simple. The main stone, a red ruby, was not as vulgar as the rest, it settle simple around gold petals moulded to like that of a Rose, and were all set in a band of gold. It was one of the simplest pieces to be displayed to me.

"Do you remember this ring, Sapphire?"

"I can't say I do, Damien."

"This ring was the thing that bonded you to Xander all those years ago... you accepted this paltry offering and gave yourself to him."

"Well... it seems nothing has changed then, Damien. Xander still knows me as well as he did in the past--"

"No he does not!"

The guards shrank back at his outburst while I calmly looked up at him. I remained as I was as he grabbed my jaw roughly, forcing my head down to look at the ring.

"All the jewels you have on you now, all the dresses on your lap... they were gifts from me! I gave you the best gifts money could buy, and you still chose him when he gave you nothing... this ring is one of the few pathetic pieces he had gifted, and yet, you chose him!"

I sighed and shifted my eyes to stare at him.

"It appears that I have not changed, Damien. Expensive jewels and dresses have never been able to buy my affection or respect, they mean nothing to me--"

"Yet, you happily accept Xander's gift, but find mine repulsive."

"I accepted Xander's gifts because of the meaning they have behind them. I do not know of the ring, but as I have told you before, I accepted his pendant because he gave me a choice of whether to accept it or not... he did thrust it upon me and demand I wear it. He treated me as a being with a right of choice... you did not."

I closed my eyes as he crushed the ring in his hand, just like he had my pendant, its pieces clattering against the ground.

"Have I not treated you fairly, Sapphire? I gifted you with your own room, a healer at your beck and call---"

"And yet, I am still your prisoner. You might not have chained me down as you did in Blackwater, but the concoction you have forced into my body must as well have been those chains. Moreover, you keep me under your watch, with people reporting anything I say or do to you... how is that different from a prisoner?"

He raised his hand, and I looked straight into his eyes, daring him to slap me... but he just brought his hand down to play with that same lock of hair.

"You still fail to understand, Sapphire. You are only a prisoner here as long as you believe and act like one... embrace your destiny and you will be a prisoner no longer."

A small laugh slipped through my lips, slowly rising in volume till I was gasping for breath. The guards around me looked at each other in confusion, wondering if I had finally lost my sanity.

"I have repeated this sentence a hundred times, so I will do it once more for you. I am forging my own destiny, and I choose who will be a part of it, a story of old will not change the plans I have for my future, and Damien... neither will you."

The guards' eyes widened in fear as the last words left my mouth before flickering to Damien to gauge his reaction, backing away slowly from him as not to be recipients of his wrath.

He remained silent for a while before chuckling, gesturing at two of the guards to bring the last chest.

Even with our enhanced strength, it was clear that the chest was very heavy, and upon further inspection, it was very well made as well. The hundreds of years in storage had not tarnished it at all, the gold still gleamed against the light and the hundreds of jewels that decorated it still shone.

Damien broke the lock to it, and the guards pulled of the cover, its inside cushioned with black fabric. I strained my neck for a better look as Damien reached in, my head immediately turning away when I saw what he held.

Once again, he held my jaw and forced me to look at it.

It was a crown, a rather simple gold crown with intricate metalwork depicting leaves, flowers and animals, small diamonds decorated it as well. Bile rose to my mouth as I was forced to continue to look at it... I knew exactly who it had once belonged to.

"Hold her head."

I struggled against a guard as he held my face in his hands, keeping it in position for Damien to place it on my head. I winced at the forceful coronation as the pins dug into my scalp. My jaw clenched as he continued to move it around, leaving it only when he deemed its placement perfect.

Tears welled in my eyes as a mirror was produced for me to check my reflections... and I was horrified.

My cheekbones jutted sharply at my skin, my lips dull and dry, and my cheeks hollowed. My earlobes sagged from the heavy jeweled earrings that were forced upon it, and my collarbones were dangerously visible despite the many overlapping strings of jewels. Small droplets of blood trailed from hairline from where the pins had broken skin... all these luxurious items could not hide the pain and suffering that they struggled so hard to hide. I might look like a queen now with my body covered in them, but they weighed me down as shackles would... they were just prettier too look at. I closed my eyes as my chin was tilted upwards.

"What's wrong, Sapphire? You once wore this crown proudly, now you can barely eve gaze upon it."

I kept silent as he dabbed the blood trails with a rag. Damien stroke my cheek one more time before reaching into the chest, only to produce a more elaborate crown.

It was much larger and thicker than mine, large stones of onyx and cuts of diamond embedded its gold frame. Damien laughed as he fiddled with it, picking at the stones till the main onyx stone was pried out from its place. He laughter grew colder as he held the stone to his eyes.

"Its defeated owner is on his way, and he believes that I am dumb enough not to know what takes place in my lands."