Predatory Marriage

Leah struggled for breath.

She knew she should run away, but after she had been thrown aside by the black smoke, her legs wouldn’t seem to work properly. Backed up against the wall, she reached with difficulty to pick up a sharp stone that had broken on the floor. Cerdina smiled and vomited up more dark blood.

“I’m going to kill you, too…” she muttered.

The distance between them was shrinking and shrinking. Leah’s grip on the stone was slippery with sweat, an insignificant weapon in the face of Cerdina’s might. But Leah held onto it with all her strength.

“Doesn’t it seem fair?” Leah asked.

Cerdina frowned.

“You killed my family. You stole everything from me…”

Leah had lost both her parents. She had lost her right to the throne.

“So I paid you back the same way.”

Cerdina smiled at the bold words.

“Shut up,” she said, extending a bloody hand toward Leah. Her face was empty and expressionless. “I have no interest in your final words.”

But Leah’s eyes shifted away from Cerdina, past her to the person that she had anxiously been awaiting. He had arrived.

She had known he would come just in time. Even though they hadn’t planned this beforehand, she knew it, because Ishakan would always save her when she was in trouble.

His golden eyes glittered. His dark red sword stabbed into Cerdina from behind, before that bloody hand could touch Leah. Oddly, the blade of the sword did not punch out through her other side. It disappeared as if it had melted as soon as it came in contact with her body.

“……!”

Cerdina looked down at her stomach. There was no visible wound. Her bare skin, visible through the slice in the cloth, showed no trace of blood. Her lips moved as she touched her stomach, but no words escaped.

There was only the sound of her rasping breaths.

To Cerdina, the pain was as if fire had been stabbed into her stomach.

Her eyes narrowed and she blew out more black smoke, but as it headed for Leah a large body immediately blocked it, and Ishakan grabbed Cerdina by the neck and flung her back across the room.

Cerdina gave a piercing scream. Her power swelled and flared again, but this time the smoke was sluggish and slow to spread, shifting colors. And gradually, it faded away.

Her blood drenched him.

At his feet, Cerdina’s eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted from the agony.

Slowly, Ishakan turned to look back at Leah, his gaze meeting hers.

“Ishakan,” she whispered softly.

Ishakan moved slowly back toward her and sat down beside her. Above them, through the window in the ceiling, the sky cleared, and the light grew strong and bright and enveloped them both.

Leah looked at the man before her, his golden eyes filled with rage, his pupils like a wild beast’s. But she didn’t look away. That anger was not for her.

Wordlessly, Ishakan hugged her trembling body, and all she wanted was to hug him back as hard as she could. With the immediate danger past, the pain she had only dimly felt surged forth, and Leah stifled a moan.

“I’m…I’m fine…” She tried to speak normally, but her voice cracked. She had to fight to keep her eyes from closing as she examined Ishakan’s body, drenched with other people’s blood. Relief filled her when she was sure that there were no serious wounds.

“I’m glad…you weren’t hurt…” she whispered. Her eyes closed and the chunk of rock she was holding fell from her hand. As she lost consciousness, there was a faint smile on her face.