Chapter 177

177 Chapter 177 : The wrong path

Aiden crouched to Renly’s level and held the man’s jaw tightly in his hand, with a quick jerking motion he craned Renly’s neck so he was looking directly into his icy blue eyes. “I won’t ask you again little bird,” Aiden hissed, the malice that lingered on every word the nosferatu prince uttered sent a wave of shivered down Renly’s aching spine. “Where is my Estel, where are you people keeping her?”

Renly gulped, he couldn’t betray the master by disclosing this kind of information, he had taken an oath, the fate of humanity lay in the balance here. “I already swore to not bring any harm to Melissa,” Renly tried to haggle, “and I swore to leave the sect, is that not enough?”

Aiden’s grim expression slowly morphed into a small twisted smile and further into a spine tingling grin. “Is that not enough he says..” Aiden repeated Renly’s words mockingly. The nosferatu prince rose to his feet while chuckling to himself, “Is that not enough?”

SMACK!

The sheer force of the back hand slap sent the dark haired man flying and crushing into a nearby tree. The impact made all the air in his lungs rush out and he plopped to the floor in agony. Renly felt like his jawline had been cracked by a mere slap, how in the world could one man be so powerful?

Aiden walked slowly towards the man how lay immobile on the ground and squatted a few inches from him, “still think your promises are enough Renly?” When the dark haired man did not respond aiden grabbed his hair and hoisted him off the ground with it.

“Aaaah!”

He pinned Renly against a tree and studied his face carefully, “I’ll ask you again out of curtesy,” Aiden muttered, “where is my Estel!”

Renly grabbed his hairline and winced in pain, he felt like every follicle in his head was lamenting in agony.

.....

Aiden moved his other hand to Renly’s throat and squeezed it. When the man opened his mouth to gasp, the nosferatu prince quickly grabbed his tongue, “you have no need for this if you don’t want to talk.” Aiden begun pulling Renly’s tongue outward.

The dark haired man screamed in anguish, the pain was becoming unbearable, his eyes were watering, his throat was burning and his head felt like it was about to explode.

“Your grace stop you’ll kill him,” Theodora advised while shaking Aiden’s shoulder, but the man continued pulling Renly’s tongue. The nosferatu woman almost gagged when she saw blood now trickling down Renly’s mouth. “Your grace if he dies from shock we’ll never be able to know where Estel and your son is!”

Aiden ceased his movement and glared at the man who was crying in pain, he released his tongue and let Renly plummet to the ground. “Tie him up and tend to any fatal wounds he has,” the redheaded prince instructed, “keep him in the old inn out on the countryside, you know the one don’t you?”

“I do.”

“Keep him there until he’s ready to talk.”

*

Melissa opened her eyes slowly from her sleepy state and yawned. It had been a rather chilly night but she had slept relatively well, the woman tried to move but noticed there was a heavy object on her. When her eyes trailed down to her stomach area she realized that the weight wasn’t an object at all, it was Elric asleep with his head leaned against her belly and his arms wrapped protectively around her waist. Why in the world was he sleeping like that?

The redhead felt a little nervous, Elric was acting like he knew there was life growing inside of her. The way he was was protectively holding her, it was almost as though he was guarding her baby.

Melissa wiggled a little in an attempt to wake the silver haired prince up but his hold on her only tightened. A few wrinkles formed on his forehead and he mumbled a few words that Melissa couldn’t quite hear, and burried his face in her stomach.

The woman sighed and lay her head back on her pillow, why was she even surprised? Elric had always been extremely clingy, she had no choice but to wait for a while until he woke up on his own.

As the silver haired king slept, he was having a very strange dream. In the dream he was standing in a meadow covered in flowers, it was surrounded by a few fir trees and had a little brooke that flowed through it.

Elric began walking towards the brook and it was then he realized he was barefoot, in fact, his entire outfit looked very out of character for him. His clothes were very casual and relatively cheap looking, and his hair, which now flowed down to his lower back was untied and whipping with the wind.

On the banks of the little Brooke was a woman in a simple dress. Her back was turned towards him, but from her warm skin and long ginger hair adorned with flowers, Elric knew exactly who this beauty was.

‘Lissa..’

The woman turned slightly and smiled upon hearing Elric’s voice. When Elric noticed her pointed ears he halted and squint his eyes, was that really his Melissa? If so why did her ears look like that of an elf?

‘Melissa is that you?”

The woman turned away again and gave her back to Elric without uttering a word. The king moved towards her but suddenly hit into something that blocked his path. He placed his hands in front of him and noticed there was some kind of invisible wall stopping him from going any further.

“What is this?.. Melissa! Melissa come to me!”

The woman did not move, she simply stood there staring at the water. Why wasn’t she listening? Why couldn’t he get to her? Elric banged his fist on the wall and called to her again but she didn’t responded.

Suddenly he heard a voice echoing in his ears, ‘you cannot get to her because of the wrong path you’ve taken. The further you go down the wrong path, the further you will push her away.’

Elric whipped his head back to see where the voice was coming from but he saw no one. It’s like the voice had been carried by the howling wind to his ears, what wrong path had he taken? And what did the voice mean when it said he could not get to her? Melissa was already his wife.

After a while the meadow he was standing in went silent and darkness slowly covered it, as the silver haired king felt himself falling back to reality, the voice echoed in his head a second time, ‘you’ve chosen the wrong path.’ And with with a jolt, Elric woke up.

“Are you okay?”

He turned to the person speaking to him and saw Melissa reaching out. Of course, it was just a dream, Melissa was already his and all of that was a bunch of balderdash. He reached for Melissa’s arm and pulled her onto him as he collapsed back on the soft bed.

“I am now,” he mumbled and gently stroked her cheek.

*

“Hello..”

Julia yelped and jumped to the side in response to the unexpected greeting. She turned to Vivian who had popped up out of nowhere while Julia was making her way down the hall to the gardens.

“You seem a little jumpy this morning,” Vivian mention as she studied the small woman. Vivian didn’t entirely trust Julia yet, so she was still a bit wary of her. “What have you been up to?”

“What do you mean?” The green eyed woman responded in a jittery tone, “I haven’t been up to anything.”

Vivian inched her face closer to Julia and narrowed her eyes suspiciously, “then why do you look so guilty? You must be up to something.”

“I... I just...”

“Step aside...” a voice came from behind Vivian.

The woman turned around and saw prince Clovis glaring daggers at her. “I need to speak with Julia privately,” he added on as he calmly but firmly grabbed Vivian’s shoulder and pushed her to the side.

Vivian grabbed Clovis’ wrist and threw his hand off her, “you can get your message across without having to touch me... your grace.”

Clovis frowned and inched closer to the stubborn nosferatu woman, “you’re merely a guest here, so I suggest you watch your tone of voice.”

“Last I checked so are you,” Vivian responded with an overwhelming amount of sass in her tone, “I suggest you watch your woman.” Vivian turned around with a hair flip and walked down the hallway towards the royal chambers.

Clovis was about to march towards Vivian when Julia grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Julia?”

“Vivian is like that,” Julia explained, “just let her be.”

“But she disrespected you...”

“It’s alright, she’s like that with everyone she doesn’t know too well.”

Clovis falled back and turned to face the beautiful woman in front of him. The previous night he had been unable to sleep well because of her, every time he closed his eyes the image of a naked Julia would creep up on him and make sleeping a little uncomfortable.

“How was your night?” Clovis asked with a kind smile, he took her hand in his and pulled her a little closer.

“Okay..” the woman mumbled. She couldn’t get the thought that this man had seen her naked out of her head. It was incredibly embarrassing, that was the reason she was so jumpy this morning. She looked up at him and noticed he had bags under his eyes, she had never seen Clovis look like that. “Did you sleep at all?”

Clovis pulled Julia closer until her chest was squished against his stomach. “Not a wink.”

“What? That’s terrible, what happened?”

“I had sensual thoughts haunting me all night,” Clovis responded.

Julia burned red at his statement, sensual thoughts? Oh gods.

“Do you have an answer for me now?” Clovis asked the woman who was blushing and wiggling around in his arm, “I asked you to be mine Julia..” he tilted her chin up and gazed into her eyes longingly, “say yes... please.”