Tyrant's Obsession With The Heiress-Chapter 53: Do Not Forget That He Is The Enemy

Orpheus wasn't prepared for the fear that hit him right where it hurt when he imagined such scenarios.

It was enough to make him lose his breath.

And unable to bear it any longer, he gradually found an inkling of what Lady Karina was trying to make him understand.

He stood up abruptly, avoiding her gaze at all costs for he did not have the courage to face her.

His stomach churned from those thoughts; thus, he went straight to the door and opened it without a second thought.

"Be prepared to depart at dawn," he said so quietly that she barely heard him.

And with that being said, he shut the door behind him as hard as he did when he first entered.

Lady Karina sat there on her bed, alone with her thoughts and ambivalent emotions.

The tears came as quickly as they did earlier and she wondered if her words were in vain.

To what lengths did she have to go to make the man understand her perspective?

For a moment, when she asked him to think about what it would have been like if she and their son had been in such a violent state, she swore she could have seen a hint of fear in his eyes.

Usually, the man's eyes were stern and unwavering, but she could see a myriad of things passing across the dual-shades when he went silent.

But they quickly faded afterwards.

The lady decided she was quite done with making assumptions or excuses for his behaviour.

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She needed to start formulating a plan to discover what Orpheus' exact goals were.

What exactly did he intend to do with the white phoenix beast when he found it and why was he searching for it in the first place?

Why did the man have two magical markings instead of one?

Why did his magic seem as if it hurt whenever he used it?

And most of all, what exactly was that crimson anomaly beneath his eyes?

"I have been foolish." Lady Karina muttered to herself as she sobbed. "I allowed myself to be swayed by his kisses... to be lured by his touches and have forgotten that he is the enemy...the enemy who has motives."

She laid back on her bed with her arm resting across her torso, glancing up at the half-lit chandelier on the ceiling.

Her cheeks were streaked with dry tears and her eyes tired from the sorrows.

"I wanted to understand you, Orpheus... but I have lost sight of what I should be doing." She outstretched her hand as if to reach for the light radiated by the candles above. "I allowed this... this temporary attraction to consume me."

Lady Karina clenched her fingers into a fist, watching as the pure magic mark of a white and gold lotus flower appeared on the back of her hand.

It glowed, appearing on her skin so prettily.

"With Rose locked in the vault, the original plan won't follow through." She sighed heavily, sitting upright again. "If that is the case, then I must see through this myself. Tonight."

With her resolve strengthened, she knew that the task of sending Moonveil's beasts to a safer location had to be done by her hand.

"It is a risk... Orpheus' knights will be roaming the castle grounds and hallways on patrol no doubt, but I must find a way."

And with that being said, Lady Karina swung her legs off to the side of the bed and made straight for her wardrobe to pick out a nightwear that would be discreet enough.

There was one crucial thing she was forgetting.

Orpheus Van Merikh was the enemy.

She did not forget the horror he brought along with his invasion, nor the lives he had taken.

Whether they were casualties of war or not, the man was a killer, and until she had clear and precise answers to her questions, she would not feed into his advances.

Orpheus may have had sweet kisses and warm embraces, but that didn't suddenly mean that all was well and forgotten.

Being swayed by the enemy was her greatest mistake and her father certainly wouldn't be proud.

Along the way, she struggled between her duties and her attraction to him, but now?

It needed to stop.

"I will put an end to this, Orpheus," Lady Karina pledged, banging her fist against the door of her wardrobe. "I will take back all that you took from me and if it means I will die trying, then so be it."

Perhaps Lady Drosera had been right all along.

As bitter and aggrieved as the lady was, she was the only one thinking of taking their castle and possessions out of the hands of the demons that crawled out of hell.

"You do not have any right to barge into my home, make demands, throw out your orders and bend everyone to your will," Lady Karina said, her tone bordering on hatred. "I have tried... tried to at every turn to make things work but you have proven to be a demon."

And that was true.

Lady Karina had done everything in her power to make him understand, to show him right from wrong, whether his actions were because of his upbringing or something else entirely; it didn't excuse what he did.

She vowed she would make attempts to understand him but would not forgive him for his crimes.

And if it meant using the advantage of his affection for her, then so be it.

The lady was not cunning by nature, but she had learnt a thing or two from her captor in the time that they spent together.

Her tears rose up again and a tightness formed in her chest for she knew it would not be easy to retaliate against him.

Not when she knew she was attracted to him just as much as he was to her.

"I was a fool to believe I could... that I could change him." She hung her head low and wept until the tightness in her chest lightened.

Orpheus, on the other hand, had quite a restless night.

Sleep did not come easy for him and when it did, it was filled with nightmares of his past.

Nightmares of his childhood.

As usual, he slept on the window pane of the solar chambers with the lancet window half open and his back against the window's side interior.

His head rested back against the stone interior and his eyes closed, but his brows furrowed now and then whenever a memory flashed into his dream.

Orpheus recalled one in particular.

In the far north of Engaria where only mountainous regions lay, the Dirnaan tribes lived between the Frosthowl Peaks.

Frosthowl had earned its name from the many great and fierce white wolves that made it their homeland alongside the Dirnaan tribesmen.

It was from there that Orpheus Van Merikh hailed, the eldest son of the chief of the seven Dirnaan tribes.