Chapter 10
2108 Words
Dremon pulls his fingers through his hair and takes a deep breath. What he is about to tell her is something he promised she would never find out, but it seems this is the only way he is going to get her to trust him.
“Each person has their own demons, right?”
She frowns and he sighs.
“For you, it’s what happened when you were young, and you called your mother back to life. That is your demon, do you agree.”
She slowly nods.
“Okay,” he turns away from her, stepping out onto the balcony before going back in.
“Would you say that your demon has grown bigger over time? Did you ever work through what happened and why it happened or did your father just tell you not to speak about it ever again?”
She looks confused again and hesitantly looks around the room for somewhere to sit down. The only thing in the room is a huge bay window, and she sits down feeling nausea.
“Yes,” she whispers. “I was never to speak of it again. He did everything in his power to cover it up, and I wasn’t allowed to do ANY kind of magic after that. I was only allowed to go to school and learn about it.”
Dremon shakes his head in anger. How could her father not have explained this to her?
“Imagine your demon is a small animal that is part of you. Over time, it grew because you never took care to kill it.”
“I’m confused.” Tears start to form in her eyes.
“Okay, if we don’t kill our demons when they are small, we can’t kill them once they are grown. They become too big for us to deal with. Your father was supposed to help you through what happened. He was supposed to have shown you how to control your talent while you were hurting, while you were calling out for your mother!”
He feels his anger growing at the thought that she went through all of this alone.
***
What does Dremon want from her? Talking about demons and killing them, and her father not helping her…
“What the hell are you talking about?” Her tears spill over.
“Your father was supposed to have helped you deal with the pain of losing your mother, instead he left you to try and deal with it on your own as a young girl who didn’t understand. That pain is your demon. Because you never dealt with it, it grew into a monster…”
She holds up her hand to silence him.
“Okay, I get it, but why would you want to marry someone like me then? If I have this so-called thing inside me?”
“Because your father needs support in the council and my parents want me to become more responsible. They arranged our marriage for their own gains.” He half barks, not looking at her.
“So, you don’t want to marry me. You don’t really want me! Thank the goddess!” She sighs a breath of relief.
“That’s not what I said!” He turns and glares at her, and she feels the power radiated off him.
She feels even more confused than she did before.
“You just called me a demon, and you said that your parents and my father arranged the marriage. Why would you want to marry me then?”
“Because you intrigue me dammit! You are the only girl at school who's never paid any attention to me. The only girl who…” He sighs and kneels before her.
“The only girl who has ever made me feel anything.”
She looks at him as if he’s gone insane. Going into a rant about how he could have any girl he wants and that he just made all this up to get her to agree to this ridiculous marriage. Jumping up from the seat to get away from him, she storms out of the empty room and the passage stretches out in front of her on both sides.
“Arora, can you please just stand still for one freaking moment, so we can talk?!” He barks from inside the room, and she ignores him taking off in the direction she came from originally.
“There is nothing to talk about! How the hell do I get out of this maze?” She turns at the first left she can find trying to get away from him, but he catches up to her and she half expects him to grab her and stop her in some way.
***
She is so infuriating that he feels like grabbing her and kissing her right then and there, but that would just make him who she probably thinks he is. Dremon stuffs his hands in his pockets then realizes that according to his mother, gentlemen don’t do that, and he pulls them out, putting them behind his back.
“If we get married, you will be able to move out of your father’s house.” He looks at the carpet and wonders what color she would pick and if she would even pick a carpet.
“I would still be living in a prison.” He notices her arms crossing from the corner of his eye.
“You would have a full-time bodyguard, which is something you should have had since the day you were born, but your father allowed you to get away without having one. If that is what you are talking about.”
“I wouldn’t be free to live the way I want to. I wouldn’t be free to live where I want to! Go to the races when I want to, or go out with friends!”
He frowns, looks at her, and stops for a moment, before walking on again, pondering what she just said. What does she think marriage is?
“Which way do you want to live? If you want a red brick house with a white picket fence, I can buy you one. If you want an apartment in the city, I will get you one.” He starts to think of excuses, but she stops this time holding up her hand and closing her eyes.
“My entire life, all I’ve dreamed of is getting out of my father’s house and living according to my own rules. Going to a normal job, having normal friends, and just living for once in my miserable life!”
“And why do you think you wouldn’t be able to do that with me?”
“Because we will be married.”
“You say that as if it’s a prison sentence!” He almost feels offended.
***
Oh, he can’t be serious! He won’t let her live on her own, in her own apartment when they are married! Or let her go out with her friends!
“Would you even let me have a normal job?!” Her last thought slipped through her lips before she can stop it.
“I would give you the world.” She looks at him, studying him carefully before she starts to walk again.
“The staircase is this way… Just thought you would like to know. We can put up direction boards if you like.” He grins at her, and she’s ready to smack that smile right off his face.
“Why would we need such a big house?”
“For kids.”
“WHAT?”
That stops her right in her tracks and her arms pull even tighter across her chest. So, he does want the entire package! He won’t let her live on her own.
***
“Let me ask you this. What do you think our marriage should be like? If you had a choice in the matter. How would you see us living?”
“I wouldn’t marry you, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have your kids!” Her volatile personality shows its fiery head, and he fights the urge to kiss her again.
Taming her would be the best achievement of his life, but why would anyone want to tame such a beauty?
“Okay, but say you wanted to marry me.”
She seems to ponder the idea as they reach the staircase, then stops before ascending.
“I don’t know.”
That was not the answer he was expecting. All the girls he ever dated had their entire weddings planned out by the time they were ten! He is at a loss for words. She throws his question right back at him and when he has to be honest about it, he has no idea either!
He always thought that he would just fall in line with whatever his future wife wanted.
“I know what I want now.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that, a quick roll through the hay, and then it’s over? Well, you can’t have it. According to that stupid agreement, you have to put a damn ring on it.” Her words are filled with venom, and he grabs her this time, crushing his lips down on hers.
Her body goes stiff in his arms and her small fists smash into his chest and when he pulls her closer, against his shoulders. Unlike before, she doesn’t kiss him back, and he lets her go.
***
“HOW DARE YOU!”
“What? Kiss my fiancé? It was the only way to shut you up. It seems no matter how hard I’m willing to try, you won’t even explore the possibility that this could work! So, here is how it’s going to be.”
He rambles off a bunch of rules that pops in his head and only after realizes what he just did. He reacted exactly the way she suspected he would. He just gave her exactly what she thought she would hear.
Life in prison is what she called it…
He does not need to force himself on anyone! He is also not going to force himself on her! If it means that they live in separate parts of the house, he doesn’t care. They are going through with this marriage one way or another.
“I was going to suggest that we go shopping, so you can decide how you want to decorate the house, but I think I will just take you home. I will get the interior decorator in tomorrow, and the wedding planner will come to see you the day after. I want this wedding over and done with as soon as possible.”
Damn! He just can’t seem to help himself! This is not who he wants to be.
She storms out of the house, waiting beside the car, and he doesn’t notice that she doesn’t open the door herself!
***
She was right! He was just doing this for selfish reasons. He wasn’t “intrigued” by her. He just… She doesn’t even know what he wants! What she does know is that it’s not her, and she will prove it!
Just like she showed her dad that she would not be the perfect, silent porcelain doll he wanted. She will show Dremon Daemonne, that she will NOT be the perfect little wife!
He doesn’t say a word on the drive, and she is thankful for the silence. When they reach her house, she jumps out of the car and almost runs into the house, up the stairs, and locks her door behind her.
Looking out the window, she can see that he doesn’t even come inside, as if he knows that she won’t speak to him.
The moment his car is out of sight, she grabs the keys to her new car and sneaks out the window. She is out of the garage and the gates before her father or brother even realize she was home, and she slams on the gas after changing the gears.
Pulling up to the races, she pulls right into the first spot and taps her fingers on the steering wheel. It doesn’t take long for someone to pull up beside her. In her anger, she doesn’t look to see who it is and just punches the gas as soon as the flag drops.
This is the only time she feels free. Truly free. The only time she can just be Arora. Not Arora the weird girl who killed her mother twice, or Arora the councillor’s strange daughter.
Just Arora… The best racer in town!
- Writer
