The Alpha's Temptation

When Nerio spat blood from his mouth, dread prickled in him. He had gone lighter, his skin had more wrinkles and he had shrunk in size. He felt as if there was something inside of him that... abandoned him. Rather, it was pulled out of him. With the soul stone gone, he was just his normal self. The soul stone gave him so much energy that it kept him stronger than he should have been at his age.

The blood of the faes along with the soul stone made him incredibly stronger. Without it, he was a normal merman who should have died by now. He felt like a husk with no seed inside. His chest felt... empty. He still knew the dark spells, but why was it that when he spoke them, they came out like ordinary words.

The little blood that came out of his body made his chest heave in pain. He crawled towards the pitcher and drank dirty water hungrily. As he was drinking it, the golden eyes that did it all flashed across his mind. He sputtered the water and started coughing.

"You look... older," a low voice from the adjacent prison came. She curled her fingers around the iron bars and showed her face. Pale and like that of a witch. "What happened to you, Menkar?"

"Sirrah!" Menkar rasped. He tried to get up, but he couldn't. So he crawled to her and sat on the ground with his legs curled at the back. "I-- I saw golden eyes. Those eyes blazed like fire. Th-- that man--"

"Golden eyes?" Sirrah repeated. "Where?"

"Th--they took me upstairs to the meeting room." Nerio swallowed thickly as a shudder passed through his body. He didn't remember what happened after the man with golden eyes chanted the unlocking spell. He didn't know how he knew about it. It was strange. "In the meeting room, he tried to--"

"That was Prince Ileus, the Dark Prince of Draoidh," Sirrah said in a shaky voice. "Did you meet him?"

"The Dark Prince of..." Nerio's words drawled off. A violent shudder passed through him. He was in the presence of the darkest wizard of the world and he didn't even know about it. How did Eltanin know him? What was his connection with Lusitania?

Sirrah chuckled. She sat on the damp ground and said, "He has this uncanny skill of entering your mind. He can swipe your cell and you won't even come to know."

"Wh--what?" Nerio couldn't believe his ears. Now he knew why saw those golden eyes in his dreams and why Prince Ileus was staring at him while Eltanin was interrogating him or rather talking to him uselessly. Eltanin was hardly trying to make a deal. Instead he was threatening him that he would make his death quicker if he unraveled his locking spell. Otherwise his death was going to be slow and painful. Suddenly, the king's words made sense.

Now Nerio didn't have his dark magic and he wondered if Prince Ileus had a hand in it. The soul stone was shattered. The stone that gave him strength and power. He was a merman and he would need water in a few days after the effect of the potion died. Would Eltanin deprive him of water? Sweat broke out of him and his tattered clothes got drenched in his sweat in a minute. He pressed his hand to his mouth when reality came crashing down.

Heavy footsteps clicked down the hall and closed towards them. Nerio crawled to the iron bars, panting, hoping that it was Gordon, but what he saw was... golden eyes.

"Prince Ileus!" he rasped, shaking visibly.

Ileus's lips lifted in a half smile as he looked at Nerio. He crossed his arms across his chest and said, "You did well for a wanted man."

"I--"

Ileus cut him off. "Not only you hoodwinked King Izo for thousands of years, you managed to stay hidden in the Cetus Monastery as their High Priest. I wished that Biham had some sense in his life, then things would have been different." He looked at Sirrah who was watching him through the iron bars. "You two were like two pods in a pea. Together you created havoc in people's lives because of your selfish reasons. But you know what?" He snapped his fingers.

A loud shriek emanated from Sirrah's prison when her body flipped vertically. She was upside down and her legs touched the ceiling. Her hair fell down and so did her hands. "Nooooo!" she shouted.

Ileus glared at her, his eyes going a fiery orange again. "Since you acted like a dark witch, you will stay like this. Forever. No one can break my spell!"

"No. No." She said, pleading.

Ileus didn't hear her pleas. He turned his attention to Nerio. "Do you know why you can't use those dark spells any longer?"

Nerio gulped. He dared not look at Sirrah again.

"When I swept your cell, I destroyed everything you knew about spells. They would never make sense when they will come out of that shit mouth of yours. And if you try to speak dark words, your mouth will get cut on the inside. Always."

Nerio stared at the dark prince. He was such a strong force. But after he had cast his spells on Kinshra, he had made sure that all the portals from other realms closed down. He knew that the faes would get angry and this would happen. After the portals closed, he became one of the most powerful men of Araniea. All the Shamans were scared of him. He still couldn't believe that he would end up in the dungeons of Draka when all he wanted was to rule Araniea and the Jade Sea. When all he wanted was to take his revenge.

Ileus continued, "And now I also know what you did to Taiyi. Only she should give you your final punishment." With that Ileus walked away, his boots clicking on the cold floor as Nerio watched him leave with wide eyes and a numb mind.