“Milady, you should get some rest, it’s been four days straight that you haven’t had enough sleep. You aren’t even eating that much. I’m worried for you.”
Anklet, feeling thoroughly concerned, watched as Solene attempted to cast a spell for the seven-hundred tenth time. Notes scribbled in haste lay haphazardly on the mattress around her. On the bedside table, two glass pitchers were emptied out hinting she was drinking water, but the half-eaten to even fully contained bowls and plates of food on the tray told a different story. She also looked tired and disheveled with her dress two days old.
Solene groaned as another failure hit her. The Spell of Creation came out weak. The pot of sunflower seeds in front of her never grew or even show one bit of reaction.
This spell would have been easy for her like its predecessors she had successfully cast. There was just a catch though. It needed to feed on a balanced emotion. Unfortunately, like Lady Ursula said, her emotion of hatred proved to be a hindrance to her.
Big time.
Solene tried her best to reconcile with her hatred for the dark blue-haired man; thought she already did by pep-talking herself repetitively and even casting a hypnosis spell on herself just to erase the hatred in her heart, but it was to no avail.
Still though, Solene was undeterred. This challenged her more thus the lack of sleep and eating, but to Anklet, she only saw frustration in her Mistress’s eyes.
“No, I’m fine, Anklet. Don’t worry about me,” Solene expressed as the bluish light around the pot retracted and disappeared.
“But Master Henri…” Anklet trailed off, “he… he’ll be angry if he finds out you’re in this state, Milady.”
Solene winced at the mention of his name. Since Lady Ursula’s visit, something inside her changed, but she didn’t want to recognize this change. Not for now at least.
“He won’t know unless you tell him,” she answered, trying her best to keep her tight voice in check.
“I’m bound to report everything that’s happening to you, Milady,” Anklet replied, “but I chose not to tell the Master about what you’re going through right now. It is under Lady Ursula’s orders since as per her words, this is a crucial moment of your training.”
She moved to the glass pitchers and picked them up.
“Still though, you mustn’t do this.”
Solene released a long sigh and clenched her jaw.
“I know. I understand, Anklet. Two days more, or maybe one day more, just give me that. I promise I’ll stop and rest thereafter.”
This was better than nothing, Anklet thought. She also picked up the tray of leftover lunch and afternoon snack from the desk and turned to face her mistress again before leaving.
“Do you need anything else, Milady?”
“Solitude, Anklet,” Solene clasped her hands together. “Give me that. Leave this place for now and return tomorrow.”
Anklet examined the papers all over the mattress, Solene’s tired face and the empty pot before nodding.
“As you wish, Milady.”
She could only hope that by tomorrow, everything would be resolved.
Once alone, Solene stood up and decided to take a bath. Maybe by soaking her unrested body in the tub, she’d get answers, but answers to what?
Answers to the sudden change she experienced, that’s it.
Answers to the disturbance in her heart that she oh so tried hard to ignore for four grueling days. She was certain this was the reason for her failure to cast the spell. This actually linked to her emotion of hatred after all.
Once she entered the modest-sized bathroom, she stripped her clothes and entered the tub. Warm water flooded at a fast rate after she turned the faucet on. She also reached for the nearby oils and liquid soap and then poured them generously into the water.
When everything was set-up, she blew a cleansing breath, closed her eyes, dipped underwater and relaxed—or at least she tried to, for not a second later memories of the past days haunted her.
‘This dark-blue haired man is also known as the King of the Underworld, the Master Grim Reaper, the Demon of Death.’
Solene recollected Lady Ursula’s words. She said they were clues, but to her, they were more than that. They actually pin-pointed her directly to the answer when tying it with the other clues she got so far during her stay in the Rantzen Estate.
Master Grim Reaper… The Demon of Death…
These two titles were once used by Lady Ursula to refer to her betrothed—namely Henri himself, and remembering her first intimate experience with him, he did admit he owned the ankh and black wings tattoo—two specific emblems that symbolized the King of the Underworld.
Remembering further back, Solene winced underwater as Henri’s words flooded in her mind:
‘Little One,’ he called her that one time when she spent her first night in the Rantzen Estate. This was the very name that dark-blue haired grim reaper called her on the day her father died.
‘I have two birthdays,’ he once answered when referring to his natal day.
‘What I can assure you is that her soul will live on in a place free of hardship and suffering,’ he also said when pertaining to Mrs. Ingrid’s death.
‘Oh Solene, you don’t know what you are talking about,’ she also remembered him say it when she talked about not marrying an ‘old man.’
Was he actually referring to him being thousands of years old? That’s what supernatural beings have right? An eternity for a life?
Solene also recollected the demon attack on the east estate and how Henri seemingly had a dark-blue hair when he appeared to save her.
There had always been minute clues from everywhere around her since she entered the mansion. She was just blissfully innocent with all of them.
‘You really are the Queen of the Underworld,’ were Lady Ursula’s words almost three weeks ago and that caused Solene to resurface from the water with a loud gasp.
“Damn it,” she gritted her teeth at the thought of it.
They were the deal-breaker. The smoking gun. Lady Ursula’s words that time finally confirmed the identity of her husband.
And this… this placed her heart in disarray.
Was it possible to love and hate a person at the same time? Was it allowed by the Universe to actually want a person dead but then crave for the existence of that same person all at once?
Ambivalence—that was the right word to name her emotion. Fucking ambivalence. And with this, her heart fell into a fucked-up state.
Solene’s tears fell from her eyes nonstop. She was hurt by his deception. She was hurt by his secretiveness.
But a thought also crossed her mind. Was he really deliberately deceiving her? Was he really intentionally holding back information from her? He once did, yes, before they were wed, but he also promised to give her answers IF she asked.
She never did. Damn it.
For the many times they were together, she actually didn’t ask. Was it possible to blame her innocence then?
Solene clenched her hands, stood up and left the tub. She went to the shower and washed the essence of the oils and soap from her body just as a determined thought crossed her mind.
She was going to find out the answer by summoning the very man himself.
*
*
*
Wearing a bathrobe, she knelt down on the mattress and flipped the pages of her grimoire in haste. She remembered one of Lady Ursula’s lessons about summoning an entity: an elemental, a fae, a vampire, a witch from the other realms, and even, a demon.
If the King of the Underworld—the dark-blue haired man—was indeed the Demon of Death, she’d be able to summon him.
Of course, she could have called Henri’s presence and just interrogate him directly but that was IF only she had access to the outside world, but she had none. Somehow, she now regretted kicking Anklet out.
“Gynsum, arus, kani, oros, arunta, alima, xhchia!” Solene started with the ancient words to open up the portal. Her damp hair magically dried and it consequently floated in the air just as a bright light enveloped her bed.
“I summon thee the ruler of the spiritual realm. You, who is the deliverer of souls, the plague of demons, the tears of the Universe. Emerge from the darkness of your throne and hear me. Oh Ruler of Sattus—” Collective whispers from the grimoire then informed Solene of his true name. Her eyes widened at the irony of it. Heck, she never would have known that the name he wrote in the library that day was actually his real name. “—King Hein Artus, show yourself to me!”
An explosion of light followed and in its wake, thick, grayish clouds emerged. Solene gasped when from the other side of the bed stood the very person she hated all her life—the dark-blue haired man.
Dressed in an obsidian-colored hooded robe, he stared at Solene with his bright red eyes. The intensity of which he looked at her made her suddenly feel conscious. The fact that his rippling torso and the clear V dip towards his nether region caught her eyes didn’t help too, but she kept her composure intact.
Goddamnit, it was with difficulty.
She gulped hard, feeling her throat dry. Despite the many things she wanted to ask earlier, she suddenly didn’t know what to say now.
King Hein though knew already why he was summoned. He could feel her emotions and confusion all over the place and it was his responsibility to fix it.
“My wife, hello,” his fluid, deep voice filled Solene’s ears. It was the same as her husband’s, but hell, of course, it would since he was technically her husband.
“It is finally good to meet you in this form.”
“So you really are Henri,” Solene ever so slightly furrowed her brows. Coupled with a clench of her jaw, she glared at him, sending him an order to answer.
“Hm?” But he just cocked his head to the side and answered, “yes and no.”
“Huh?” Solene’s sense of reasoning almost tipped to insanity. The fuck was he talking about?
“I’m what you see, Solene, a supernatural being with a solid body. Yes, I’m Henri, but at the same time, I’m not.”
Then, from the open door of her room, another man emerged and it wasn’t who Solene expected at all.
Dressed in a black suit and black gloves like always, Henri clashed gazes with her.
“Because I am him and he is me. We are one, but at the same time, separate.”
Solene’s brows, this time, knotted hard. From kneeling, she left the mattress and stood up. She cared less when her bathrobe somehow opened up to reveal a good amount of her cleavage. She was too caught up with this revelation to even care for her modesty.
“Explain. Clearly. Now.” She lashed at the two. “If you don’t want me to erase both of your existence for good.”
Her eyes of icy blue and pale purple glowed. She hadn’t reached her birthday yet but felt like her powers had already unlocked.
***
Author’s Note: Confusion aside, I hope you find this revelation exciting. XD I’m excited for the three of them too—a good threesome would definitely douse Solene’s anger. Hahahaha
Oh the possibilities…