Half a heart, half a crown

T H I R T Y N I N E

His intriguing silver eyes were filled with inexplicable emotions that inevitably made me feel guilty all of a sudden, but I won't back down, I won't let him see my vulnerable side, I don't want him to know that I had felt such remorseful for what I had said to him, directly without any hesitant. So, I covered my face with fierce and as equally, no less—even more, dominant.

After such extensive duration—although it was not hours, it felt as if it was—he had finally found the words to expressed to me without having me standing there in this odd position.

"Are you claiming that the woman who had actually raised me from birth until now, is the woman who I should not call mother but instead hate her?"

His words hit me like daggers, they were never failed to struck me alive and kept me stilled in my place. I was caught off guard by his clever question.

"You are right, King Devilon." I explained, "if she raised you good, then she is worthy of being called a mother, your mother. But if she raised you just for her own advantages, then she doesn't deserve to be called as the one who birth you."

Again, my words brought rage into him, increasing his already high temper, he was angry.

"What did she actually do to make you think that all of this—" he motioned his hand all over him furiously, "—all of this, is for her own good. I became the king, she did not become the king. If she really wanted the throne, then she would never, ever going to keep me."

"That was where you went wrong." I was feeling rage within myself too, "she kept you because she required a son to make her a queen. She took your biological mother away from you, just so she can have you to fulfill her needs. She could have easily throw you away after getting what she wants, but let me remind you, if she was to throw you away now, then her position in the palace, would not be able to retain because without a son, the mother is nothing."

The last reason that I had said, I wanted him to know that its intention wasn't only towards Queen Alizarin, it also referring to his biological mother. I wanted him to know that a mother is nothing without her children, she was nothing without him let alone having him treating her like nothing was even worse.

Quite immediately, he talked back without sparing any silence in between. "Without her, I'll be nothing."

"No. You meant, without her, you will not be a king." I took a step forward, "and just because you will not be a king, it doesn't mean that you are nothing. A commoner is everything other than nothing."

A challenge glimpse filled his silver eyes, "of course, I'd rather be a commoner than someone without a title due to the sexual acts of the biological mother.

That's it. That was when I slapped him, hard. My palm was stung, ringing filled my ears. It took very ounce of me to hurt him this hard, physically. There was a giant red mark on his right cheek, I could feel heat coming off of it. The mark was distinctive, so obvious and probably will last for at least five days. It was worth it. He deserve it throughly, and if I had a chance to go back, I'll slap him even harder to knock the senses back into him.

There were no other sounds other than my heart beats. Obviously, I was terrified after slapping the cruelest king on earth. But I am sure the loudness of the beating of my heart was surely due to the shock of my own actions.

Right at the moment, he was staring at other places except mine. Right then and there, he looked so lost, so hopeless. I knew for a fact that he was guilty, that he had felt what a normal-hearted human being had felt, that he had felt sympathy, towards his biological mother, and him, himself. And right there and then, I wanted to give him a warm long hug, ensure him that it was okay to feel like this at times, but I stayed still, I could not move, I was still in shock. So, I waited for him, to at least say something genuine and honest this time. Only then had I realized he had not been staring out into space nor avoiding my gaze, he had been staring at the turquoise heart pendant that was now laying flat on the cold hard floor, he was admiring it—more like he was longing to be with the owner of it. From that moment on, I knew, he had believed me, he had believed every single of my words.

Without disturbing his thoughts any further, I took a step back, not so quietly, but enough for him to know that I was leaving.

My way out of the secret entrance, was the longest path I had ever took. I walked out with crazy emotions just as the same as I walked in but this time, I had felt a satisfaction within me. I felt such relief to finally able to see the hallways. I know I am going to take a long slumber and enjoyed it this time.

Just as I was walking towards the door, I heard footsteps behind me, it was so low that I thought I had mistaken, but I knew for a fact that I was not. Instead of turning around like I usually do, I kept on walking in a normal pace. The footsteps still filled my ears, but I had walked with awareness. As much as I wanted to run as fast as I could possible can, I still could not let the person behind me knew that I was not oblivious to the footsteps. The wooden door of mine visible in front of me, I had reached my room. As I came to a halt, the footsteps were gone too.

And so I turned around.

Nothing.

There was nothing.

I probably had thought too much lately. It was probably just my unusual instinct but my mind thought otherwise. Shaking the thoughts of me, I went into my room and shut it securely. There, I laid down on the soft bed. I had left the turquoise heart pendant back at the secret place in hope that he might keep it with him.

After a long train of thoughts, I fell asleep into the deepest nap I had ever taken, and probably the longest.

"Antonio... please tell me that you did not let go of Rosemary..." Angelica asked softly.

"Not now, but I will soon." He spoke rather cold towards Angelica.

"What do you mean?" Angelica big blue eyes slowly widened, "this evening, I decided to take a visit, but I did not see her there, she was nowhere to be found inside the dungeon. What do you mean you did not yet let go of her."

Confusion written in his pair of blue eyes, but soon replaced with frustration, "stop Angelica. Don't talk anymore bullshit. I am tired of you and you don't have any business to visit her. You and her are no relatives."

"No...no....she was not there...she was gone. I think somebody took her away." She clung onto his arm tight, "it might be Magnificent... she probably take Rosemary away..."

Suddenly, I opened my eyes to the sound of a loud knock on my door. Surrounding me was darkness, it was past midnight, probably 1 or 2 am. Another knock invaded my ears, awaken me further. I rubbed my eyes, hoping it would lessen the tiredness within me. The third knock came on, making me groan in frustration.

Who would knock on my door at the middle of the night?

Who could it be?

I got up reluctantly—ignoring the weird dream I had earlier— I put on my night slippers and rope, I walked over towards the door. Suddenly, nervous filled within me. My heart that was beating normally, was now quicken in pace.

Who could it be?

I took a deep breath in hope that it would calm me down as much as it can. Slowly and carefully, I squeaked the door open.

There was nothing.

The same nothing I had witnessed before my long deep nap.

The same quietness.

The same unusual incident.

A part of my mind thought that the person who knocked was probably waited too long, so decided to leave, but the other part—oh god—I don't even want to think about it.

"Is anyone there?" I poked my head out of the door that was opened ajar.

The only thing that met my eyes was a long red carpet laid out throughout the hallways. I looked around from left to right, no shadows, no nothing. Gladly, I shut the door. As the door clicked shut and as I was about to turned around, a knock—that same knock—came up again.

I was startled and partly scared. Who could it be?

The rhythm of my heart beat inevitably fast. Slowly standing in front of the door—by this time, I was fully awake—I stared at the gold door handles. Shakily, I extend my arm and grabbed onto the familiar cold handle, I swooshed it opened a little too fast to be met with a pair of angry and bloody eyes.

A cold hand grasped around my neck painful tight, making me lost all of my controls.

"Ro-se-ma-r-y."