Demon Prince's Forsaken Bride-Chapter 20: Possible consequences

The sound of urgent footsteps broke the ambience in the room as a guard announced, ’’Your Highness, His Majesty has summoned you.’’

The voice was shaking, there was trepidation and nervousness, fear and panic.

’’Alright,’’ Azrael did not even wait for the demon guard to leave before he turned around to face Lareina again. He cupped her face, leaned in towards her and kissed her forehead and utter the three words in that gentle tone that bound her in his spell for ears to come, ’’Wait for me.’’

’Wait for me’

Those were the last words he had uttered back then.

Soft whispers by Lareina’s ears brought her back to her present. As she opened her eyes, she realized she had fallen asleep at some point.

She moved slightly and felt a weight on her chest.

"You are awake,’’ the hand around her waist tightened, telling her that Azrael’s presence in her room was not a reverie.

When she looked up, Azrael gazed back at her indifferently.

He did not seem to act out of ordinary. She had explicitly told him that she wanted to end their marriage but he did not seem to be throwing a fit or...

Doubt consumed her heart. Had she even told him that? Or she was tired to the point that she had hallucinated about it?

’’Come, eat something first,’’ he pushed himself up before helping her up on the bed.

’’I have something to talk to you about,’’ Since Lareina was unsure whether she had told him about it or not, she decided to muster her courage and talk to him about it.

’’Coincidentally, I happen to have something to tell you as well,’’ the man turned and met her gaze, his eyes solemn.

Lareina instinctively clutched the sheets in her hand as questions rose in her heart.

Was he going to talk about ending the marriage as well? Did he want to marry Moira? Or...

’’It was not me,’’ He said, breaking the trail of her thoughts.

She looked at him in confusion.

’’That bunch was caught breaking out of the dungeon and they were dealt with according to the clan rules,’’ Azrael said calmly. With his other hand, he pulled a plate and grabbed the grapes from the fruit basket before he started peeling them.

His movements were extremely clumsy and the grapes were half reduced to uneven clumps by the time he was done with them. He frowned, looking frustrated but then he changed his tactics with the next grapes.

’’I understand that I am the cause of all wrongs in your eyes but this had nothing to do with me. They were at death’s door when I saw them.’’

’’I don’t trust you,’’ Lareina averted her gaze.

Azrael’s movements halted, ’’I would not hesitate to kill that general twice or even thrice if it was in my hands.’’

Lareina’s head snapped towards him, her eyes turning red. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

’’However, it would be for no other reason than your concerned gaze that always falls his way. I am a demon, princess. I own up to my savagery but if I deal with a man who has my wife’s attention, you would not even see a drop of his blood upon his death.’’

’’You...’’ The calmness with which he uttered such cruel words made her body turn cold.

"You still don’t trust me.’’ Azrael remarked, scoffing as he noticed her attitude towards him, ’’But again, I do not really care. You know what you are here for, as long as you play your part and stay here like a good wife, I do not care whether you hate me or despise me.’’

’’Our marriage...’’

’’Must go on as it is, princess?’’ he cut her off coldly, ’’You don’t want another raging war anytime soon, do you?"

Lareina curled her lips bitterly. He held her in such high regards that he thought the human realm would wage a war to get justice for her if this marriage was annulled. He probably did not consider the first war or did not consider the possibility her father was behind it.

That sneak attack from humans should be well calculated, and they should have known that if it went through, there would be a risk to her life. Lareina even knew such events could not transpire without her father’s authority.

So, let alone returning to her kingdom as a forsaken wife, even if she returned as a corpse, not a soul would demand justice for her unless it served their purpose.

But if she admitted it, she would be stripping herself of the last bit of dignity she retained. She would be making herself seem too weak in someone’s eyes, baring her heart in front of them and she refused to stoop lower in anyone’s eyes than she already had.

"It seems you are still wise enough to consider the consequences.’’

Lareina found the man to be too naive for considering her an important asset of the humans that they sent to the demons in a show of sincerity. He probably believed that they made bigger sacrifices by giving up on her so they could trick them later.

But even though he had misunderstood her position in the situation, she had no intention to clarify it as his words had doused cold water on all she had daydreamed about. The words she had said to the general when she refused to tag along with them had been her reality.

Even if her heart was no longer in this marriage, where was she supposed to go after this marriage ended?

Azrael seemed to grasp her point of weakness easily as he did not refuse to press a finger on it.

Lost in her thoughts, she did not realize when the man held a grape near her mouth. In contrast to a plate full of obliterated grapes, this one seemed to be in shape as it was properly filled.

She observed it for a moment but having no intention to eat it, she averted her gaze. However, a question formed in her mind and she did not hold back in voicing it out.