The Tyrant's Pet

Aries snapped her eyes ever so tenderly. Her gaze fell on the hand that Fabian was holding as he led her to the farthest wing of the queen's quarters. She lifted her eyes to look at his back.

"They're done." Her smile faded, making him stop in his tracks. "You can let me go now."

Fabian released her hand and turned around to face her. His lips were still curled up into a smile that reached his squinting eyes.

"Why are you taking me here?" she asked, folding her arms under her chest. "I don't like that look on your face, Fabian."

"I always have this look."

Aries shrugged, giving him the hint she totally didn't like that wicked smile cemented on his face. Although he was always smiling with his eyes, she could tell that his smile this time spoke something else.

"You will not know if you don't follow me." Fabian cocked his head to the side. The sweetness they displayed moments ago was nowhere in sight as if it was just one's figment of imagination.

"I think I already know, Fabian." Her expression turned even colder. "Where is she?"

His smile stretched, tipping his head to the hallway ahead. A deep breath escaped her nostrils, shaking her head, before taking a step forward. This time, Aries walked past Fabian, making the latter smirk as he glanced over his shoulder.

Aries sauntered through the hallway leading to the far west wing of the queen's palace. This had been her dwelling for the past two years. Therefore, she knew all the corners of the place she had been living. There was only one particular room she could think of where Fabian was taking her previously.

Soon, Aries stood in front of the large wall about ten feet wide in between two doors. She glanced to her right, only to see Fabian standing a few steps from her. She didn't say anything as she faced the wall once again, planting her palm on it.

An invisible barrier slowly surrounded her proximity while the wall slowly revealed a thick metal door. When the door came to full sight, Aries peeled her palm from it and reached for the lock, barely grazing it, yet it automatically opened for her.

Aries didn't idle as she pushed the door open, making the door creak heavily. But the sound didn't penetrate the barrier surrounding the area.

"Hah…" Just as the door opened wide, her eyes fell on the person inside this dungeon-like prison.

There, just right across the door, was a large cage where a person caged and chained was held. The latter raised her head and chuckled the moment her eyes held Aries's.

"Ram, you're here?" Marsella called in relief, watching Aries cross the threshold and stop a few feet in front of the cage. Her eyes glanced at the other person behind Aries, but she didn't pay attention to Fabian as she set her eyes back on the queen.

"Ram, it's me! I'm back!" The chains around Marsella's wrist clang as she patted her chest. "Let me go now, hmm? Marsella is gone. I will correct everything that damn woman had done to you and to Abel."

Aries assessed Marsella silently. Despite that Marsella's hair was disheveled and her clothes looked dirty with some blood on them, she couldn't deny how pretty her sister-in-law was. Marsella's light platinum hair turned lighter, almost looking like white.

"Are you sure?" asked Aries, tilting her head to the side.

"Yes!" Marsella nodded profusely, crawling forward, only to stop because of the chains around her wrists and ankles. "It's really me, Ram."

Aries slowly squatted down to look at her at eye level. "Who are you, again?"

"Your Master!" Marsella's answer was quick, wide-eyed. Seeing Aries blink as if waiting for something else, Marsella cleared her throat. "It's — it's — goddamn you!"

Aries closed one of her eyes at the piercing shriek Marsella suddenly unleashed with the chains clanging aggressively. Marsella tried to reach the bars of the cage, but her fingertips could barely graze it.

"Maleficent — Aries!!" Marsella's voice shook, grinding her teeth and fangs furiously. "I will kill you — you and you Fabian! That Maximus as well! I swear in my name and blood I will suck the life out of you people — LET ME OUT!"

Marsella went on and on, screaming her lungs out, almost losing her mind. One thing that this woman loathed the most was being restrained. The reason she was so determined to kick the witch in this same body was that Vera — the other soul inside Marsella's body — could restrain Marsella in her own body.

"Marsella, if only you can lie better." Aries shook her head, watching Marsella tire herself out by screaming and pulling the chains aggressively. "All you need to do is lie, and maybe I will reconsider."

The thing with Marsella was that she might be powerful and crazy and dangerous to everyone, but she had an unbreakable pride. Everything Marsella does, she took pride in it no matter how vile it was. There was no way Marsella would call herself by another name.

It was the same for Abel.

Abel had always kept his name. Although he added names as the emperor of the Haimirich Empire and even changed his surname, people still know him as Abel. Even when Abel was in a disguise, he would simply scramble his name to make a new one like when they were back in the Maganti Empire and he went by the name Baron Albe.

"Marsella, the reason I was in here is because of you. While I am chained… no, even if I can get these chains off of me, I will never let you out." A thick layer of frost coated Aries's eyes with deep fury burning within them. "You… and Maximus… the plans you concocted many years ago… I will destroy the root before ending your vile existence."

Her voice shook slightly with a tinge of anger, keeping her gaze on Marsella. As Aries spoke her sentiments through her gritted teeth, a large and thick metal band appeared from Aries's wrists. The chains that were attached to it were connected to the metals around her ankles with a huge metal ball, which then extended to Fabian's ankles.

No one could see the chains that connected the two aside from them. However, both Aries and Fabian always carried this weight since two years ago, and every day, the weight of these chains grew heavier and more crippling.