“Don’t let go, we have to escape from here,” the lady in a hooded green cloak yelled as she held a man’s hand so clinch. Her hair was dripping water. Her royal-like crimson red dress and the jewels on her neck topped up her aristocratic status.
“But there is no other way out, Adira,” replied a man in simple commoner clothes. Bearing the oceanic-blue orbs and chiseled jaw. He’s all covered with mud and splash of paints and blood.
“The Senate will kill you if we still stay here! And I am not letting that happen, I will not let you die.” Her stares and gape were so serious and austere darting towards him. She continued running and dragging the man behind her inside the dark muddy tunnel.
Outside was rain pouring hard and seems to have no plans on pausing for a moment.
“That’s the exit… we made it out… We’ve made it outside the territory, Gavin!”
Her smile, her lips beamed like roses as she turned and faced back the man behind her who kept the same gentle look and posed a simple smile seeing the look on the woman’s face. But it suddenly fell down in a dash when a creature under the black cloak appeared afore them.
Freezing zephyr blew past, revealing who the hooded man is. From his flaxen hair that swayed with the wind, those deep auburn eyes, and his pursed lineal lips that reflect no emotions as his finger pulled the trigger.
“Larina!” he shouted but it was too late to dodge a dashing arrow that pierced through the lady’s chest from behind in a blink of an eye.
Her eyes widened in shock, gradually drooping down her torso. There, a glowing wooden arrow poked. Blood gushes out uncontrollably, her whole body started to tremble and so the immense heat emerged and took over her all system.
“I-I’m l-losing—Diego,” Larina mumbled, shaking and drawing back her sight to the guy in front of her.
His eyes were wide open, frozen, and speechless. Diego abode, staring at the blood spurting off with the arrow suddenly pulled out of Larina’s body. And a voice emerged from the same hooded man, now behind her.
“She is mine from the very beginning,” Vander uttered and a blade from his hand appeared. “But if I can’t have her back, so do you, Diego Alfarro.” The dagger’s blade moved and slit the remaining life left out of Larina.
Vander released her neck, letting her lifeless body stumble down the muddy ground. Still, Diego couldn’t speak a word. Plainly staring and standing afore the woman’s dead body. Until a series of stallions’ striding became audible with an authoritative voice emerging out of nowhere.
“You stepped out of our agreement, Contejo.”
The queen in her emerald green dress appeared, mounted on a horse. The sword on her side was slowly driven out. “Should you know the price for terminating my agreements?” Louisan pointed the tip of her blade and darted a deadly gape onto the prince. “That I only accept life as payment.”
Sprinting in a minute, she managed to quickly pin Vander with her sword. But the prince only grinned and opened his mouth.
“This is the Senate’s judgment, queen Louisan,” he casually blurted. “One of them shall die, and if you’re planning to take mine too… then the entire Daghum will disappear.”
Her jaw clenched as she annoyedly withdrew the sword.
“For what I know, Larina is not your daughter. She’s the king’s bastard outside the palace. Yet you are here trying hard to show you care.”
“My family is not for you to meddle with, Contejo. Get out of my sight, get out of my kingdom before I tear your soul apart!” the Queen yelled angrily which Vander only nodded and pulled back his black hood. But before he could even tread a step, the same emerald sword lashed across the Prince’s back.
“Killing is not a hard thing to do. But sadly, it could not be my pleasure to end your life.”
Along with Vander’s fall was a bottle containing the cursed waters of Amunabon, its glass shattered and the liquid flowed spreading on Daghum’s territory. And as it glimmered, the cursed shadows emerged, entering each and everyone’s body.
Amidst the sudden, Louisan quickly leaped away and carried Larina’s dead body towards Diego. “Take my daughter away. Far from this lands’ doomed territory. Find the polaris’ edge. Let her rest there, I beg you. And if you have to choose, give yourself a chance.”
*****
A lady in a silken sparkling garment appeared below the glowing blue moon. Her face was adorned with specks of dust of shimmering stars. A crown of glittering pieces of the celestial sky was entangled surrounding her deep black hair. Her eyes are so beryl like jade and her skin glows like the moon.
“I-I beg you,” beats a cracked voice of sorrow and plea. It was a man full geared up in a battle suit, all bloody and soiled. His body gradually slopes down that his knees had landed on the muddy terrain. Rain was falling hard like stones scattered across the land.
“Shouldn’t you learn the lesson, by now?” speaks a lady in a black cloak. She stands afore with a lantern of blue flame in her hands, her hair was long and burgundy. Whilst her face was unclear of the hood and limited light surrounding her. “This fate will not disappear. Weren’t you tired of seeing her being killed and dying repeatedly? Yet, you still want to revive her.”
“Tell me, if you are in my place.” His voice was trembling and so was his body, “Wouldn’t you do the same?”
“I won’t, I better live alone and miserably rather than letting my mate suffer.”
“I am not like you. I still don’t want her to die this way. So please… bring her back. Even if it cost her to forget everything we had, I want her to live and start a new life, and learn to be able to fight on her own. That way, I can now let her go if this tragedy repeats the same situation.”
*****
“Do you know who she is?” asked a girl with a long hair striped blue.
The guy just shook his head in reply and brushed past his dark curled hair back. No matter how much he wants to erase the horrifying history in his head, he still couldn’t deny how strong the attraction he feels towards the same lady he long wanted to forget.
If it weren’t for the blowing wind, he could’ve not noticed the dauntless undercut on her hair. Her chiseled nose and rosy cheeks were alluring him to step forward and move closer to the cliff she’s standing before. On her hands was a bow and arrow, aiming and shooting at the long-range target across the next mountain.
Even if it was only two years that had passed, he still couldn’t forget her every angle. Even if she changed too much. Too different from the old her, the exact opposite of who she was before. Perhaps, she’s still his mate he couldn’t get off his mind.
“Oh really? Come one, Diego. You’ve been staring at her for hours.”
“Stop annoying me, Soleil,” he cracked and resumed walking.
“Still denying it, eh?” she added with her head shaking sideways. “Only I and Cedric knew something that the entire Laxon had seemingly forgotten. She is now the general’s daughter of Sinandaya kingdom, under the name Adira Vallejo. Do you have any plans to say a single hello to her?”
Diego’s eyes crawled back to the edge of the cliff, “None.”
“Why?”
“Because she’ll die if I dare step close to her again.”