Chapter 41. Aaron’s Prisoner
“Zer, what are you doing? Shoot him now!”
Delia shouted desperately. But no one answered. Her voice echoed back hollowly, unanswered.
In that moment of silence, Aaron took one step, then another, toward her.
“He probably won’t be coming.”
Aaron looked at Delia, who held her sword at the ready.
Just one more step, and he could reach her…
“What did you do to Zer?”
“There’s someone in my ranks who holds a grudge against him. I handed him over.”
“You bastard.”
So he’d already dealt with Zer too. Delia gripped her sword tightly.
“I hold a grudge against you. So you should hand yourself over to me.”
Delia thrust her sword toward Aaron’s heart.
The attack was as fast and precise as before.
But Aaron easily sidestepped it, causing the tip of her sword to miss its mark.
Before she could swing again, Aaron seized her wrist in a flash.
Caught, Delia was dragged toward him.
“So I came to hand myself over. To you.”
“I don’t want that. You—out of all people—I’m going to kill.”
“If you really wanted me dead…”
His voice was soft, misty, like a fog settling over water.
“…you would’ve given me that flower back then. You should’ve let me eat it.”
Delia froze as she tried to break free. Aaron’s damp voice seemed to fill her mind.
A haze clouded her thoughts, blinding her.
Why didn’t I give him the flower that time?
Why did I feel relieved when he refused?
Questions she had never dared to ask suddenly pressed down on her heart.
Aaron didn’t miss that fleeting moment.
“Your Highness, that’s enough now. Drop the sword.”
He gripped her wrist harder, and the sword clattered to the floor.
“You’ll hurt yourself playing with things like this.”
Clang.
As the sword hit the ground, Aaron bent down and lifted Delia onto his shoulder.
The pressure on her stomach snapped her out of it.
Realizing what was happening, she fought back hard.
“What are you doing? You’re the most dangerous one here!”
She pounded on his back with her fists, but Aaron didn’t budge.
He held her tightly and walked toward the grand banquet hall’s door.
Each wide stride stirred up a gust of wind.
As he stepped out, he gave a command.
“Colin. Dyke. Pull back.”
With those words, Aaron carried Delia out of the hall.
Her flailing made her hair wave like ripples.
“Let me go, you lunatic!”
Her furious shout faded as they left the hall.
A fierce wind swept through, and the space left behind was like a ruin—empty and silent.
It was Dyke, still seated on the throne, who snapped the onlookers out of their stupor.
Once he confirmed the commander had left, he barked an order to the soldiers.
“Seal off every part of Iorenti Castle. From this moment, anyone who moves without permission will be executed.”
With that, the imperial soldiers dispersed like a retreating tide.
From the second-floor balcony, Colin looked down at the scene and murmured,
“Well then, shall we clean up too?”
He glanced down at his feet—Zer lay beneath his boots, breathing heavily through clenched teeth.
“You’re only still alive…”
Zer’s troops had ambushed while Colin’s men surrounded the castle.
Colin should’ve killed him for the blood-soaked mess he caused.
If it weren’t for the commander’s orders to forget the defeat, he would’ve done it already.
Tsk. Colin clicked his tongue and continued,
“…because of your ‘prisoner.’ Remember that.”
“Prisoner? You still—”
Zer’s protest was quickly cut off.
“But if you move without permission again, I’ll kill you next time.”
Colin drove his heel into Zer with pent-up rage.
“Ugh…”
Zer groaned, and Colin raised his hand in a signal.
At the command, the imperial troops on the second floor moved out.
They left the collapsed royal guards behind like they were meaningless.
Thud.
The last soldier exited, and the doors closed with finality.
The royal guards on the second floor, who had attempted an ambush but failed, were now trapped.
Those who hadn’t escaped through the secret passage.
Meredith, the queen’s terrified maid.
Only the people of Iorenti remained in the banquet hall.
“What’s going to happen to our princess now…?”
Meredith’s tear-choked voice went unanswered.
The castle, once filled with screams of death, fell eerily silent.
Only a heavy stillness remained.
Like a fairy tale castle deep in the woods, where a princess lay in eternal sleep—
Iorenti Castle was now cloaked in a silence just as deep.
Aaron carried Delia out of the hall on his shoulder.
His long strides were firm and unhesitating.
“Let me go.”
She struggled violently, but Aaron didn’t flinch.
He gripped her thighs even tighter to hold her still.
He walked briskly, then shoved open a large door in front of him.
She didn’t have time to realize where they were or what room it was.
It didn’t matter.
All of Iorenti now belonged to Aaron.
He stepped into the empty space, shut the door, and set Delia down.
“You insane commander.”
Delia staggered, dizzy, barely managing to stay on her feet.
She winced, expecting to slam into the door, but Aaron’s large hand gently cradled her head.
His touch—firm yet delicate—made her despair.
She was trapped again. By his hand. By his body.
“I’ll kill you.”
Even as she spat those words, Aaron didn’t respond.
She pushed his broad chest with all her might, but it was like trying to shove a wall.
The harder she pushed, the more she was pushed back.
“You think I’ll submit to you like this? That I’ll be tamed?”
Her scream-like voice didn’t shake him.
No matter how much she pounded or shouted, Aaron was like an iron cage, holding her in.
He grabbed her struggling form and slipped off her robe.
“What the hell are you doing?”
His large hands loosened her cords and slipped into her collar.
The cold touch on her bare skin made her scowl in rage.
“Stop it. Right now.”
But his hands didn’t stop. They searched purposefully—along her collarbone, shoulder, arm.
Only when he found what he was looking for did he stop.
“There.”
A mark.
His mark.
The one he had left on her.
Still vividly on her body.
His prisoner—undeniably.
Aaron brought his forehead to the mark.
“My prisoner… You really are alive.”
Whenever he was alone at night, he returned to that moment—
The last time his prisoner had gasped in pain.
He would wake up breathless, like he was suffocating too.
That moment, he couldn’t even bear to scratch his hand with a stone.
But the pain vanished when he touched her scar.
He could breathe. The burning thirst was quenched.
Finally, a faint smile spread across his face.
“You’re insane. You’re completely out of your mind.”
Delia’s voice trembled as she spoke.
Aaron’s hot breath flowed along her slender arm.
Just his touch made her entire body tingle.
His warmth seeped through the scar, spreading through her.
“You’re alive… Thank goodness.”
His low voice stirred buried memories.
All the effort she had made to erase him suddenly felt meaningless.
The moment she writhed in pain from the lily-of-the-valley.
The way he gripped her hand tightly when she had nowhere to go.
Everything she’d tried to forget surged back.
She shut her eyes tightly, the ground beneath her feet feeling like it would collapse.
“It’s your fault. I almost died because of you.”
She spoke coldly, trying to shake him off.
Even so, Aaron simply pressed his forehead against her scar, breathing heavily.
He traced the scar as if trying to drink in her air.
“If only you hadn’t tried to drag me to the Empire…”
A warm sensation touched the scar, making Delia gasp.
“…I wouldn’t have eaten that.”
Aaron’s lips were on the scar.
Licking it.
As if trying to melt the frozen parts of her.
As if he would drink her down once she melted.
Her body shuddered.
“Stop…”
His lips moved from her arm, to her pale shoulder, then to her slender neck.
Wherever his warm, wet lips passed, her skin was drawn to him.
Each place he touched was marked anew.
“You know what will happen if you take me like this, as a prisoner.”
His overwhelming energy terrified her.
She couldn’t let herself be swept away by him again.
Barely steadying her breath, Delia said,
“Next time… it won’t end with just a flower.”
Only then did Aaron lift his head from her neck.
His eyes, once closed to feel her, now opened slowly.
They were like stones sinking into a blue lake.
Delia—his maddened prisoner—knew all too well.
What Aaron feared most.
What he dreaded most.
“My prisoner.”
Golden hair shimmered like a dream before his grey eyes.
He leaned in, lips brushing her ear.
“No, Princess.”
His low, repressed voice stirred her hair.
“I’m sorry, but Iorenti belongs to me now.”
He brought his nose to her hair.
Her scent lingered at the tip—like lily-of-the-valley.
So beautiful, and because of that, so terrifying.
“Everything in Iorenti is mine.”
He slowly pulled away.
He cupped her cheek as she shook her head furiously.
“No matter how much you struggle, Princess, that fact won’t change.
So…”
A prisoner who could never be tamed.
A sky he could never bring to his feet.
Delia wasn’t someone he could control.
“So take me.
If you take me… then everything that’s mine will naturally become yours.”
He’s so broken