Chapter 84: I Will Torture You, Azure!
The tension in the private solar was hot and thick. Odesse and Valex stood close, the heat radiating between them as they melted into each other’s arms, their lips pressing together in a deep, heavy kiss. Valex tilted his head down, tracing his lips along Odesse’s neck and down toward her shoulder. Odesse ran her fingers through his hair, a soft smile tugging at her lips. Pushing his advantage, Valex pulled her closer, his hands sliding down her legs as the temperature in the room seemed to spike.
Odesse opened her eyes slightly, raising an eyebrow with a knowing smirk. She placed her hands firmly against his chest and pushed back slowly, breaking the kiss. Valex looked at her, dazed and confused, as she gently unwrapped his arms from around her waist.
Passing him with a slow, deliberate grace, she headed toward the exit.
"Why are you leaving?" Valex asked, turning around with his brow furrowed.
Odesse paused and turned back to face him, her voice a soft, teasing whisper. "My king, it is quite unethical to do this here, is it not?" She tilted her head, her smile widening into a confident smirk. "If you truly want to be close to me again... my bedchamber door is always open."
With that, she slipped through the door and closed it quietly behind her.
Valex stood frozen, staring at the heavy wood. He placed a hand on his forehead, his breathing still uneven. "What am I doing?" he thought, his eyes locked onto the threshold. "What is going on with me?"
Outside the solar, Odesse paused in the corridor. Her silver hair was slightly scattered from his touch. Smiling to herself, she began straightening the strands. "I had better arrange my hair before anyone sees me looking this way," she murmured.
Then, catching sight of a familiar figure walking down the hall, her smirk returned. "Well, anyone except her."
Dropping her hands, Odesse walked forward slowly, keeping her posture perfectly straight. She glided past Azure as if the woman were nothing more than a ghost.
Azure snapped her head around, her face twisting. "Hey. You."
Odesse kept walking.
"Odesse!" Azure barked, stepping forward.
Odesse paused, turning slowly with a serene, bright smile. "That is acceptable. But next time, say Your Highness. Have some respect, now won’t you?"
Azure narrowed her eyes, closing the distance between them. "How did you return?"
Odesse stepped back slightly, her expression dripping with casual disdain. "Have some personal space, Azure. I do not want you getting all in my space—especially now." She paused, deliberately touching her hair with a satisfied look. "Especially now that His Highness just made love to me."
Azure’s eyes widened in sheer horror.
"I still want to reminisce on it," Odesse continued, her voice turning momentarily cold, "but your face makes my blood boil. Then again, it’s okay. My heart is warm, and His Highness must be too, because we... we were all over each other. I thought I was going to explode."
She pulled back, turning to walk away, but Azure’s fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white. "What are you talking about?"
Odesse rolled her eyes slowly, turning around to face her prey. "What is it you do not understand, Azure? Are you a child, that you act oblivious to what I have said? His Highness and I made love." She touched her jaw thoughtfully. "Well, we did not mate because I stopped it, but it looked like he would have swallowed me whole if I hadn’t. You should understand, right? You have been with His Highness for a month, so you both must have mated. I am very sure you know how fierce he gets."
Azure looked down, her eyes moving rapidly as she scanned the floorboards, her face draining of color.
Odesse smiled, tapping a finger against her lips. "Oh, wait... have you both even mated?"
Receiving no answer, Odesse began walking in a slow circle around Azure, like a predator mocking its trapped prey. "Okay, let us not go too far. He must have at least kissed you. Hasn’t he touched you in a forceful, alpha way, Azure?" She paused directly behind her ear, whispering, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a shame."
Walking back into Azure’s line of sight, Odesse let out a soft laugh. "You had a month, Azure, and you couldn’t even accomplish that. I have been here for a single day, and His Highness is already kissing my feet. You may have wiped me from his memory, Azure, but trust me, you can never wipe me from his soul."
Odesse placed a firm hand on Azure’s left shoulder. Azure flinched, staring at the hand, then back up at the true queen.
"Do not fear, Azure," Odesse said softly. "Fear makes a person do things irrationally. I want you to have a calm mind when planning your next scheme, so that I can at least have a worthy opponent. Because when I kill you, I do not want to feel any pity toward you."
Pulling her hand away, Odesse offered a sweet, innocent smile. "His Highness is still in the solar. He may look a little bit uncoordinated—do not let it get to you."
She turned and took a few steps down the hall, then paused. When she spoke again, her head tilted slightly, her eyes going completely dead and her voice dropping into a flat, stoic register.
"Oh, and Azure? Do not think I am doing all this just for His Highness. If it were just to have him back, trust me, you would have been killed by him this instant. No. This is for Eryx, and for my unborn child, whose blood is on your hands."
A single tear slipped lazily down Odesse’s left cheek, but her gaze remained unyielding. "I promise you... I will torture you before death finds its way to you. Your life is in my hands now. So, Azure, make sure you fight hard. At least that way, you won’t regret giving up when you die."
Odesse walked away, her footsteps fading down the corridor.
Azure stood frozen in the hallway, her hands trembling violently as tears spilled from her eyes. The sheer shock left her paralyzed. "What is this?" her mind screamed. "Why is all this happening? It wasn’t meant to go like this. She is meant to be dead, and Valex... Valex is meant to be mine. So why is it going the opposite way? No. No."
She dug her fingernails into her hair, gripping her head in a frantic panic. Her eyes flared with a desperate, manic rage. "Odesse... I will not let you win."
Wiping her face quickly, Azure smoothed her hair, forced her breathing to steady, and knocked softly on the private solar door before stepping inside.
Valex was lying flat on the velvet couch, his face turned toward the ceiling. One arm rested heavily over his forehead, one leg was bent on the cushions, and the other anchored his massive frame to the floor. His eyes were tightly closed.
Azure walked toward him with quiet, tentative steps. Before she could even open her mouth, his deep voice cut through the silence.
"What is it you want, Azure?"
Azure flinched, stuttering over her first breath. Valex opened his eyes, sat up smoothly, and rose to his full height. He didn’t look at her, instead, he turned and marched toward the large arched window.
Azure followed him, her heart hammering. He stopped, staring out over the palace grounds. "What is it?"
"What did you and that woman speak about?" Azure asked, trying to keep her voice level. "You both were in here for so long, and when I saw her leave, she had this look of..."
"Where is your vow ring?" Valex interrupted, turning his piercing gaze directly onto her.
Azure froze, her mouth slightly open. "Why this question, Your Highness?"
"Do not answer my question with a question, Azure," Valex commanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous alpha register. "Answer me. Where is your vow ring?"
Azure looked down at her bare fingers, her mind racing as she began to stutter. "Well... Your Highness... my vow ring... a servant stole it."
Valex’s brow furrowed in deep skepticism. "A servant stole it?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Azure lied quickly, nodding her head to look convincing. "I had gone to shower and removed my vow ring because I was incredibly careful with it when we got newly married. A servant must have slipped into my bedchamber and stolen it."
"Really?" Valex asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Yes, Your Highness," Azure replied, a nervous smile stretching across her face.
"Then how come I never brought you a new one?"
Azure’s hands began to sweat. Panic erupted in her chest as her mind spun in endless circles. "Why is he asking this? What did Odesse tell him? What do I say?" Meeting his unyielding stare, she forced out another excuse. "The... the royal ring maker, he... he could not find a band that would fit my finger properly. He had to come back to re-measure it in order to forge a new one. That is why it has not gotten to me yet. He has not finished making it."
Valex stared at her, entirely unconvinced. As Azure lowered her gaze under the pressure, his next question dropped like a hammer.
"Where is your wedding dress?"
Azure’s eyes snapped open wide, a bead of sweat tracing down the side of her face. "What!" her inner voice screamed. "Odesse hid her wedding dress! Till now, I don’t even know where she kept it! What do I show him? What do I say?"
Her mouth quavered, but before she could construct another lie under Valex’s intense scrutiny, a sharp knock saved her.
Valex walked right past Azure to open the door. It was Kael.
The commander stepped into the solar, his eyes immediately noting Azure standing stiffly in the background. Valex wasted no time. "Any news?"
"Well, Your Highness," Kael reported, his posture flawless. "The foreign traders still refuse to clear their goods from our border gates. Their king is proving difficult to speak with because he is still asking for more grace time."
Valex gripped the windowsill. "How much time?"
"A year," Kael replied.
Valex let out a sharp, disgusted hiss. "What an ungrateful, fat twit. Sink the goods. Throw them into the sand and river for all I care. Feed them to the animals."
Kael hesitated slightly. "Your Highness, that means the alliance may be dissolved..."
"An alliance where I gain nothing but baggage from a pack with a useless king who cannot even stand up himself?" Valex countered angrily, marching past Kael toward the exit. He pulled the door open, his patience entirely spent. "Kael, I do not want to receive any further news on this issue. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Kael replied, bowing his head.
Valex walked out, slamming the door behind him. His irritated murmur echoed down the hallway. "That is why you do not make alliances with foregone animals. Suddenly everyone is fit to be an alpha because they can dictate a word or two. Fools."
Azure and Kael were left alone in the sudden silence of the solar.
Kael calmly walked over to the window, looking out at the sunlit courtyard. "It sure is a beautiful and bright day, is it not, Azure?" He turned back to her, a slow, incredibly sly smirk spreading across his face. "But I am assuming it is not very beautiful and bright for you."
He let out a quiet, mocking laugh as he walked past her toward the exit. Azure glared at his back, her eyes burning with enough raw hatred to pierce a hole straight through his armor. Kael stepped out and closed the door, leaving her completely isolated.
The moment the latch clicked shut, the last shred of Azure’s composure shattered. Shaking with absolute madness, she screamed at the top of her lungs into the empty room.
"I will certainly kill every single one of you!"
