[Promise me, Adam. Promise me you will protect our Isla with your life.]
GASP!
The morning light shone and stung his eyes like divine punishment. The moment he jolted awake, the first thing he was looking for was...
"Princess Ava!"
He saw a familiar sky. It was the capital of Cassiopeia. That meant they had been brought back, just like Ava had predicted.
The man scrambled down the bed, ignoring his wounds and letting them tear open once more. He ran down the stairs to look for that woman, and in that corridor near the stairs, he saw them.
That woman was forced to follow the black-haired man as he dragged her arm. They climbed the stairs, and that woman looked calmer than he thought she would be.
On the contrary, the black-haired man looked upset.
That was when Adam realized that there was a commotion outside. He walked toward it, seeing the courtyard full of angry people. It was their people, the Cassian.
And in front of them was a black coffin... filled with black roses.
Adam Rocinante felt like the sky had collapsed. He knew it was the plan. He knew the real Princess Ava Cassia needed to succumb to an early death for the plan to work.
[...Trust me. There's no other way.]
'Cannot we just resist? All of us had agreed to offer our lives for you to war...'
[And then what? Witnessing all of you falling, as I am seized and subjected to his brutality, forced to bear his offspring?]
'Then let's die now, together.'
[Is that the fate you truly desire to embrace?]
Adam saw the people enraged, crying and wailing. It felt like the state of his mind right now. They were ready to die for Ava, and so was he.
[Don't ever be a villain, Adam. For I love you as the Hero you are.]
It was said a hero would not hesitate to sacrifice his most beloved for the greater good, while a villain would sacrifice the world for the one they love.
But she did not want him to become a villain for her. She wished to depart this world while he became the Hero who saved all, even at the cost of her life.
"How selfish of you, Ava..." Adam fell to his knees. The pain in his chest wasn't the pain from his wounds. It was from something else... deeper inside of his existence. "How cruel of you..."
"My love..."
***
SLAM!
Inside that luxurious room, Sebastian threw Isla into the bed.
"You know that I could kill them all right then and there, aren't you?"
Seeing the anger in the man's eyes, Isla sneered. "But did you?" she asked, "Pray, if I may ask, why didn't you?"
"Were you afraid of me finding the opportunity to hurt myself in the middle of the chaos?" Isla stared deep into his eyes. "Or because you weren't prepared for this kind of outcome?"
"Guess those months of genocide across the continent were as draining as it should be," she taunted.
"I promised your sister that her blood was enough."
Sebastian stared at the woman in front of him, noticing the wavering in her eyes. "Was it really necessary to rile your people against your husband, Princess?"
"What husband killed his wife's sister?!" Isla screamed.
GRASP!
“Ugh—” Isla felt the tightness of his grasp on her jaw.
"If you were to sit and calmly accept my proposal, would I kill your dear sister, Princess?" he asked.
"You still have the audacity to blame me for her death?" Isla asked. "And even though it was MY fault, the world knows her blood was on your hands."
Sebastian scoffed. His smile widened into a terrifying sneer. "I see that you are not as innocent as they depict you to be."
"Certainly not!" she violently freed herself from his grasp. "Promise? Look at you. I don't even know what kind of whim of yours would cause another tragedy tomorrow. Did you think I would believe such empty words?"
Silence enveloped them, their bating breath and bloodshot stare amplifying the freezing temperature inside that room.
"Swear on my sister's name, Sebastian Leodegrance," Isla stared right into the man's eyes. "That you will never... ever touch or hurt my people again."
Sebastian knew well what Isla wanted to achieve. As long as she still had what he wanted, he would never be able to win.
She had assessed how badly he wanted her to bear his child. She had seen the length he was willing to partake to make her his. She wouldn't want him to be able to control everything about her.
As long as she had what he wanted, she could still be able to protect what she had to protect.
"I swear under your sister's name, Isla Cassia..." Sebastian closed his eyes, relenting in front of her.
Her heart was broken once more when he called her name with the surname Cassia after it.
His face became stoic and calm, but when he opened his eyes back, his cold eyes burned hers with a sense of contempt. "...that I will never, ever touch your people."
Isla raised her chin. She saw him looking down on her as he saw her matching his hostile energy.
***
As the commotion outside finally contained, Isla, who looked from the window, turned to the man who was sitting leisurely on the room's bed behind her.
In front of that window, she pulled her dress off. Her face was expressionless, and her eyes unwavering.
Sebastian watched without blinking; his eyes shone in a cold light as she almost finished undressing. With her back to the window, the light cast her salacious silhouette.
[One day, my dear Isla, I want to see you walk through the aisle...]
Isla walked forward to him, almost naked, with only her black underwear and her blue diamond necklace.
[One day, on your wedding day... I want to hand you to the perfect man you love who also loves you to his death.]
'I'm sorry, Sister. Just like you said, this is the only way.'
She touched his bare chest, where no available clothes fit his body. She traced her fingernails through the center of his being.
"One day, Sebastian Leodegrance... if I were to find a way to kill you, I would."
"I doubt that," Sebastian whispered. "My fair lady, you made me promise you that my men and I would leave your people alone."
The man knew what Isla implied.
She asked him to order his men to get out of her kingdom and leave her rule in peace like how it should be. She demanded special autonomy under her kingdom and for him not to include her and Cassiopeia in his march.
He continued, “Being widowed from me won't ever be able to help you."
"You underestimated Cassiopeia," Isla whispered back as she leaned in for a kiss. When she touched his lips with hers, she could feel a subtle shock in his body.
Maybe he had never expected her to do this kind of thing.
Or...
GRASP!
Isla was suddenly dizzy with the sudden and sharp movement. When she opened her eyes, she was already lying on that bed with his dark shadow looming over her being.
"Ava Cassia..." he called the Princess' name. "I wouldn't mind you as the Empress of my Great Leonis."