ADK IV: The Atlantean Queen (✔️)

Chapter 9

        “You love her.”

        It was not a question rather a statement that Ayden simply said. Edmund knew that there was something in his voice that made him think that he should be straightforward as much as possible. There was no turning back and he had no reason at all to hide it anyway, so Edmund gave him a nod.

        Love was not about a man confessing his all to a woman; it was about knowing she was adored secretly and loved her dearly without expecting something in return.

        Shocked. Speechless. He had no idea why Ayden just stared at him with full of anxiety. Minerva was his dear sister, and she was Edmund love as well.  Did it matter? In that dark cell where Ayden was, his silver eyes were gleaming, looking straightly through his eyes, passed right through his heart. He instantly felt the tension between them.  His mouth became dry as he lost his words to say. But even so, this man was the only man whom Minerva had. He was her family as much as he was to him. Ayden was one of his trusted friend. And since the day that their fate brought together, he knew that this man wouldn't leave his side no matter what the future might be.

        That loneliness in Minerva’s part, he felt it too. It was like an invisible poison in his own soul, slowly eating his senses. Like her, he lived his life alone and unwanted. Maybe that was one of the reasons why Edmund understood her side like no one ever did.

        Because he was like her in every way possible.

        So unlikely yet similar. He looked at Ayden with the same intense gaze. He had to speak out and to make everything clear.

        But damn. No one told him that this type of conversation was so damn hard. He had sensed Ayden's impatience right through the darkness. It wasn't sure what it was. But one thing was for sure, a demigod like him should not kept on waiting.

        “I know what you’re thinking,” Edmund uttered with a sigh, “I know that I can’t have her for me. It’s just that, I’ve never been in love like this way before. I know that she’s not the kind of ideal woman with a wifey attitude but still--" He paused for a moment, absorbing what he just confessed, "But I love her.”

        So much for his not so very romantic confession, he felt like a stupid child talking to her big brother.  So awkwardly fine. Yeah right. He never confessed his feeling to anyone. Just now.  He had a strong feeling that he should tell Ayden the truth. That this man who listened to him could understand him too. One slight of hope. Just once.

        Nevertheless, all he really needed was someone whom he could talk to. Someone who had the same situation as he. That someone who would never laughed his serious situation. And who would be the best fit for it aside from Ayden who fought both world, proving that love existed somewhere in an impossibility.

        Ayden gave him a hard stare. “You don’t have to say anything, you idiot! I know already. When I saw you here… I know.”

        “So why you let me confessed? Tsk!”

        “Because I want to see myself almost three years ago, when I first saw Fate and told myself that I was actually falling in love with a snake monster the feared of”

        Edmund’s face hardened at Ayden’s words. Yeah, he was a bit like him in an oddly situation. He fell so deeply in love with his wife who happened to be a gorgon heiress.  Her powers were priceless. She could make any living creature into a cold stone if she wanted to literally.

        Only those gorgons who were direct descendants of Medusa could possess that kind of daunting yet great power.  Unfortunately, Fate was the newly successor of that curse. It was quite startling how they ended up in the same house, living normally, along with their newly born son.

        And then, after this, how will Fate and his child would feel if they knew that Ayden was here with him in Atlantis? Captive. Weak. And helpless. He had his own family now, unlike him. No one would ever remember him nor cared for him the same way like Ayden’s family did.

        Pity or heaven’s gift, whatever it was, Edmund couldn’t feel this complete contentment for Claire. He only had her because she had no one to lean on to. He’d even wish for one moment that she would say something childish like she was staying because he was a family to her and not only because he was someone whom she needed to survive.

        “Damn Ayden! Is this a joke to you? Because if you are really just making fond of me, I will get out of this place and kicked your ass off there just so you know that I hate it.” Time to changed their moods.

        Ayden smiled wickedly and he began composing himself. “We need to get out of here. Minerva is in danger.”

        He raked his free hand through his hair as more horrifying scenes of Minerva and that general surged and tore through him. No. Not in a million years. No one would owned her. No one.

“You don’t have to tell me. I know. Do you have a plan in mind aside from salt water?”

*****

                This cold wind of the cheerless night embraced her frigid body, but Minerva didn’t mind how cold her body had became. She was slowly walking through the mid shadows of Atlanteans' golden walls and bricks with various colorful gems plastered like some sort of normal public display. Aware of her aching barefoot, aware that this was just a trap, aware that any possible moment Adolfo would grabbed her wrist and dragged her to the wedding ceremony.  That selfish bastard! If he really thought about getting away with this, well he should better think again. She was still the queen of this city.

        He would never have her nor used her for his rotten sake.

        Whatever her weary thoughts took her, nothing could stop her now. Even Adolfo.

        "Edmund?" Finally, she saw him in their underground dungeon. And when those eyes looked into hers with surprised, she wanted to cry. It was so obvious that that she tried to hide her feelings but seeing him like that, tore her hear apart.

        "Minerva," it was her brother said breathlessly. "Why are you here?"

        She couldn't move as she narrowed her gaze into the darkest cell.  Her heart shattered more than a million times, looking back and forth between them.

        Her breathing ragged, she approached Edmund first, and touched the locked. She wanted to say something more but her emotions gathered in her throat, bitterly choking her. With all the powers she had left, Minerva used everything to break it. The neckless was getting on her neck, she growled in pain before she landed on the ground.

        "Minerva!" Both of them shouted her name until she heard the unlocking of the cell and someone held her.

        "Minerva!" A brush of his fingers touched her heart and stopped the beating of it. "Come on!  Please! You silly woman! Wake up!"

        Her neck was really hurtful, "I'm still breathing..."

        She opened her eyes and saw his worried ones. She even saw how he deeply sighed out of relief before he embraced her. She wasn’t sure why she was sweeping on his broad shoulders. To see them both alive, to hold him like this, Minerva’s façade shattered into pieces.

        Her necklace was choking her, but she didn’t care.

        Until…

        A man was standing so near, with his ferocious and resentful eyes. His sharp sword with a golden handle carved with Atlantean general seal was on his left hand. His abhorrence was all over his atmosphere, and he was ready not for a battle but for a hunt. His white cloth matched with his golden embroidered design wedding denims faded its intension of purity of his wedding. His smile faded instantly, replaced by agony.

        He was the predator and there were the prey.

        “If I can’t have you,” he said between clenched teeth, “Then no one will...”