Chapter 92: Chapter 92: HIS WIFE

VALORIA WILDEROSE

“I don’t know, did it?”

I sigh, rubbing my temples, too tired to bother with his games this morning.

“Never mind, I don’t even want to know.”

“I see you’ve found my little gift.” His eyes now point towards the trunk in a corner, wide open.

I remember discovering it in my room after waking up for water.

“So it was you. How did you find it?”

“Eros was going through an old attic searching for documents and he stumbled across the chest that stood out among the rubbish stored there. I decided something in it might be important to you.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiles smugly, raising his shoulders an inch higher.

I’m tempted to laugh at how he makes wanting praise so obvious.

For someone so powerful and terrifying, he has the ego of a child desperate for a gold star.

“I suspect there’s more to you coming here than gloating over something you did for me?”

He slowly sits up, setting his feet on the floor again.

“There is actually.”

And then his face turns serious. The playful glint in his eyes fades, leaving behind something stiff and frightening that quickly terrifies me.

I find myself settling on the chair by the vanity slowly, sensing that I’ll need to sit for this.

Azrael takes a deep breath before speaking.

“The Queen is returning tomorrow morning.”

I raise a brow.

“The Queen?”

“Elowen Winestrong, my official wife.”

My heart feels as though it’s been gouged out by a two-pronged fork, leaving something painful and uncomfortable in its place.

I shift in my chair, swallowing.

“I didn’t know you had an official wife.”

Although the news shouldn’t be shocking.

He has what, over twenty women in his court waiting on him? An official wife should be hardly news, and I’m not bothered by it in the slightest—just surprised.

That’s all there is to it.

I ignore the strange tightness in my chest that says otherwise.

Azrael on the other hand looks displeased talking about her.

“She doesn’t like the spotlight actually. That part is left to me while she goes on expeditions conquering lands and expanding our influence across continents until the world is under one ruling power.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I cut him off before he can keep ranting about this powerful and influential “Elowen” that he plans to rule the world with.

“Because that woman is returning tomorrow from an expedition and… she is dangerous and cruel.”

“More than you are?”

“Not more than I am, but she’s indiscriminate with who faces the brunt of her cruelty, and you’re a walking target.”

The words sting more than they should. I’ve always been a target—to my family, to fate, to everyone who’s ever looked at me and seen something easy to break.

I try not to be offended by the statement but fail terribly.

“You need to be careful. Don’t draw attention to yourself and don’t annoy her.”

“If you say so.” I fold my hands below my chest.

“I’m serious, Valoria. For your own safety, do not stick out around her; be a fucking wallflower if you have to.” He adds more sternly.

He’s been too cryptic not to take seriously, so I nod my head silently, wondering what kind of person she is to have him come here personally and warn me ahead of time.

If Azrael—the devil himself—is warning me to stay small, then this woman must be a nightmare made flesh.

“Good.”

He gets up from the bed, moving towards the door now that his business here is done.

“Azrael.” I call out to him before he leaves.

He pauses with his hand on the door knob, looking back at me expectantly.

I look back at him, hesitating and anxious, rubbing my sweaty palms against my pants and swallowing another ball of saliva.

“By chance… if your curse was taken away by some miracle and you were finally free—if you didn’t need chaos to keep it at bay anymore—would you want something else for yourself? Something aside from ruling a kingdom or… seeking godhood?” I ask with all the courage I can muster.

I need to know for myself if the goddess was true, if truly what Azrael wants is destruction more than freedom or revenge.

Or if deep down he’s just like me, searching for meaning, for freedom away from the narratives that have confined him for millennia.

I hold my breath, silently praying that his answer will prove the goddess wrong. That there’s more to him than destruction.

He doesn’t respond outright. The long stretching silence adds to my nervousness.

“No.”

But when he does, it’s curt and plain. Straight to the point.

“There will never be anything else for me other than taking my rightful place right next to those bastards up in the sky. I mean it, even if there was never a curse.”

My heart sinks almost instantly as my worst fear is confirmed right in front of me.

“S-So it’s more than just revenge, more than wanting to be free? You just want power, is that it? Even if it means that everything has to be overrun by chaos?”

Please say no. Please…

“It is my design, Valoria. This is what I was made to be.”

I bite my lips and hold back the tears and disappointment, picking up the pieces of my shattered expectations.

I was wrong. The goddess was right.

I wanted to see good in him, so I clung to the little pieces he showed me underneath his darkness.

But he’s still the same man he was a thousand years ago.

“You don’t have to be evil. You’re choosing to be,” I spit bitterly.

He watches me with a blank expression before looking away one last time.

“I’ll leave you to rest. Don’t forget what I said about tomorrow.”

The door clicks shut behind him, and I’m left alone with the wreckage of everything I wanted to believe.

I was a fool to hope.

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