Her Heart, His obsession

142. Darker Days Begin (Part 1)

Dante was sitting on his throne and enjoying the sight in front of him. He had summoned some of his captives on death row from his dungeons to his throne room and was hanging them upside down and tormenting them. They were mainly witches and warlocks involved in capturing him and tormenting him for three months with the spell that had killed his ancestor. Now the tables had turned. He was in charge of their lives.

He turned to his brother who was strapped to a chair with golden strings next to his on his throne and spoke "How are you holding up Demetrious? Is the poison from my snake eye spheres in your system making you desperate enough to beg for death yet? Answer me brother."

Demetrious turned to his brother next to him. His mind was telling him to say yes but his heart was telling him not to give in. Demetrious must have been in that throne room for so long now whitering in pain. As though the excruciating pain he was experiencing was not enough, Dante had made him watch the torment of his captives in front of him.

His torment had started when he had returned from the border after sending Aretha, Athena and their parents away. Dante had put him immidiately on a trial in front of his commanders to make an example out of him and to send a message that indiscipline was not tolerated from anyone. Not even his brother. Dante had condemned him to experiencing hours of pain at his hands by Ronas speciallty spells. Being ambushed with about a hundred painful snake eyes spheres was only the starter. He wasnt sure how many more spells Dante was going to cast on him. But still Demetrious knew he could be much worse off. His parents had defended him really well in his trial and put all the blame on his loyalty to his blood match and his inability to fight the urge to protect her. So now his main crime was refusing to reveal Athena's location based on his knowledge from his blood bond with Athena and Aretha. Dante knew full well he had made a blood bond with Athena and he had demanded him to reveal all. His refusal had resulted in his painful sentence but Demetrious welcomed the pain. He had no intention of letting dante get his hands on his blood match and her family at all costs.

Dante's cruelty disturbed Demetrious so much. There wasnt much he could do except not giving him the satisfaction of admitting defeat. So he made up his mind and shook his head in response to Dante's question.

Dante raised an eyebrow "So you basically want more pain. Is that it? I am a man of my word. I told you I would make you beg for death if you help Athena and I am keeping my word. So beg me for death and it would all end. Here is your chance. Tell me you are in so much pain you would welcome death and I would release you from your painful state. After all, I am not one to hang on to the past. I wish to capture Athena and make her give into me. That would be a matter of time. You just delayed the inevitable. But still your betrayal has really ignited my rage. I want to make you suffer to a point to break you to punish you. It would satisfy me to watch you in pain. Come on brother admit to me that you are in immense pain and beg for death and I would be satisfied."

Demetrious looked at Dante defiantly and shook his head again. With the little strength he had left he whispered "There are worse things in life than death Dante. Your intentions to hurt my blood match seemed like death to me. I saw my death as I looked into your murderous eyes when you were intending to attack Aretha for throwing a force sphere at you which by the way hardly did anything to hurt you. So death means watching my blood match suffer. Hurt me all you want. I have no regrets. I would save my beloved again and again if I have to with no remorse. Why should I beg for death when dying truely has a whole different meaning to me than it does to you."

Dante narrowed his eyes and stood up in front of his brothers chair toweing over him. He grabbed his chin and made him look up "Very well. So you want to go down this route. You want to take us back to the beginning of this conversation. I thought we made some progress here. Let me tell you how bitterly I am disappointed in you. How could you betray me? Your blood match attacked me and I was going to punish her for it. Thats for sure. But it does not justify your actions. You could have saved her only if that was all that mattered. Why did you help my beloved escape? Why? You took her away from me and you knew exactly what you were doing. Did you really think you could get away with this? Of course mother and father defended you in your trial and putting all the blame on your instinct to save Aretha as your blood match. We both know that is a lame excuse. You knew what you were doing. But since I put you on trial to teach my commanders a lesson, I would honour the outcome. The crime you need to pay for is refusal to reveal the location of my loved one. I cant locate her with the jewel of illusion. She is protected in a special place and you are refusing to tell me where she is. Don't you dare deny it. You have a connection with Athena through your blood. I am going to ask you again. Are you going to disclose her location?"

Demetrious shook his head "Why would I do that? So you could capture her and lock her up in one of your towers in your castle again? Why dont you get it? You cant force someone to love you. You must make them love you. You must have taken care of her. You must have given her choices. Separating her from her family and her coven was the wrong way to go about showing her that you love her. You isolated her. I hate to say this but ..... if you want to blame anyone for Athena's escape, I am the wrong person to point at. Its you who did this. You drove her away from you. You made her leave. I didnt take her away."

Dante laughed bitterly " Dont ever try to give me relationship advice brother. I dont tell you how to treat your woman, so I dont want to hear you lecturing me on how to treat mine. You are unbelievable. My own brother is trying to separate me from my blood match. This is outrageous. Maybe you need to get more doses of pain to make you think straight. I am going to be creative in my next spell I would unleash on you. I might ask the audience... Oh. I just realised. We have no audience. I didnt let anyone be present while I carried out your sentence after your trial. Of course you cant count those unconscious worthless prisoners hung from the ceiling as people so how about I summon our parents? They have been trying to gain entrance for the past hour believe or not. They surely want to get you off the hook. Maybe its time they come in. It amuses me when i see their concerned expressions. You don't see them looking like they care about anything very often. Dont you agree."

Dante then threw two burgendy coloured stone to the floor and summoned his parents. Within seconds his parents appeared in his throne room and ran to Demetrious's chair to check his condition. Dante rolled his eyes "He is a Ronas. He doesnt break that easily. But I find your reaction to seeing his state entertaining" He then sat back down on his throne and conjured a bottle of whiskey and started drinking.

Leona spoke as she was embracing Demetrious "I am taking him back to the palace this instant Dante. You have left him in pain for long enough. You have gone too far."

Eros nodded "Your mother is right. Demetrious has had enough. I agree that he deserved this punishment but you must let us take him to the palace and heal him so he is ready to attend your commemorations by your side alive and well as your prosecuter knight."

Dante chuckled as he finished his drink and made the bottle disappear " Father. Demetrious has had enough when I say he has had enough. As for standing by my side at my commemorations, well, he would have to attend the ceremonies in whatever state he is in. This is the whole point. This is called punishment for a reason. I didnt summon you here to negotiate the end of his punishment. I wanted to ask you to choose the next tormenting spell to cast on him. I thought you might want to have an input by making it less painful for him. If I pick, it would be much worse than whatever spell you choose."

Leona walked to Dante and spoke with fury " Dante. I demand that you let me take Demetrious back to the palace right now. Your father and I refuse to choose any further tormenting spell."

Dante spoke in an amused tone "Mother. How about this? I would let you take him if you give me a spell. You could try healing him but I warn you that my spells would only be fully healed after they take their full course."

Leona spoke " Cast the illusion spell. The one that makes a man's fears in his imagination feel like reality in his brain."

Dante's smile dropped: " Of course mother. His added pain would be only mental. Not physical. You know how to ruin my fun. "

Dante waved his hands and Demetrious's expression changed from painful to horrified and in agony.

Dante laughed again" Mother you are really the master at this. I wanted to hear him beg for death with my spells and surely I wont be dissapointed with your spell. Surely it would make him beg for death since I know all he would be seeing in front of his eyes would be images of Aretha getting tormented. He should recover before the commemorations. You see mother. I was planning to torment him for days but because of you and father I reduced it to hours. Don't forget to tell Demetrious when he is himself again that he won't be this lucky if I catch him another time breaking my rules."

As Leona and Eros opened Demetrious's restraints and teleported him away, Dante threw burgendy coloured stones to the floor and summoned his commanders.