"You want to return to your land?" Eryx chuckled at her request, his voice a velvet blade. "What business could you possibly have there? From the news presently spreading around your town, you're a gambler who has gone missing overnight after your sudden arrest, and your so-called family wants absolutely nothing to do with you. Enlighten me if I'm wrong."
He stood up from his bed with a feline grace, advancing towards the woman whose eyes stayed mindful of his movement. His tail swished lazily behind him, and when he flicked his wrist, a poster with her image on it materialized in his grasp.
"Valda Griggs, is this your first time being wanted?" He looked at the woman whose face paled when she saw the poster in his hand. It was obvious the image on it was hers, and to her greatest bewilderment, they even had a money prize for anyone who can find her and bring her to the royal Palace.
This fools! How can they blindly say she orchestrated her escape?!
Valda's fist clenched at her side, and she averted her gaze from the demeaning poster. She wondered how he knew so much personal information about her complicated life, but for some reason, she could not bring herself to ask him how he got it all—or maybe she's just scared to know how.
Eryx sinful lips curved into a dangerous smile, revealing sharp canines. It looked like he was mocking her, every sentence he effortlessly spat was deliberate, he wasn't hiding it, but what can she do when every one of those sentences was the plain truth?
What was her purpose in the kingdom except gambling her life away and trying to feed those ungrateful rats she thought were her family. If only she could turn back the hands of time then she would have–
"If you want, I can give you a hint on where to start." Eryx circled her petite frame after studying her countenance, his footsteps soundless on the marble floor.
"You've done so much for those ungrateful mortals of yours, you knew what they were doing, but chose to turn a blind eye to their schemes. How foolish of you, but you were a naive girl desperate for love, and I understand what it feels like, to be painted wrongly when all you tried to do was… protect the ones you hold dear, so how about a deal."
Valda's eyes narrowed, that word rang an alarm bell in her head, but all of her thoughts seized when he gently grabbed her chin and tilted it up so she could meet his eyes. Those twin pools of violet boring straight into her soul, hypnotizing her—that was what it felt like.
"Seek vengeance." Eryx eyes formed a cruel, mesmerizing slit. "Avenge yourself, Valda. If you hesitate to strike while the irons are still hot, the ones you stupidly think are coveted by you will continue to hand you over like a lamb to slaughter, and we… certainly don't want that to happen, do we?''
We?? Valda blinked at his choice of pronoun.
She could not avert her gaze, even when her mind told her to. It felt like he had the ability to twist her fate like a silken thread if he so wished, but even then, there's nothing that could have prepared her for the reality of standing before the demon fox who… dared to defy the gods and go against the celestial law of the realms.
Can she really trust someone who didn't even fear the keepers of heaven?
Her uncle and aunt—the very people she sacrificed everything for—had turned her over to the palace guards without thinking twice. Her crime? Winning too much at the gambling tables, and for what reasons? To ensure the house her father struggled to build for the both of them does not crumble in the dirty hands of these loan sharks.
She was very young when her father died, her father could not put the name of his home under her just yet, so he had to put his older brother's name because he trusted he could keep his home, and his daughter under his watch. Unfortunately, her father died while hunting, he was killed by a wild boar in the winter season, and her malicious uncle with his two faced wife and daughter, didn't hesitate for a second before moving in.
She thought she could trust them—her father trusted them, but she was unaware of the nightmare she brought upon herself by agreeing to live with them. She endured so much just to avoid drama and unnecessary issues, she tried to live peacefully with them, despite the fact they had stolen her childhood happiness away from her, but now, she was done with their mistreatment.
"What is this I see?" The amusement in Eryx's voice snapped Valda's attention to her present situation. "A heart that yearns for vengeance is like a furnace of fury, beautifully painful, isn't it?"
His gentle touch on her chin gave way to the cool breeze as he let her go, "I had no intention of letting you leave, I was merely testing you to see if you are worth that momentary freedom, but I believe I can make an exception."
"Why should I trust you?" Valda's voice trembled. "You sent your assassins after me. You made me wear this dress and you claim to know me but to me—in my eyes, you're no different from a stranger I've just met."
"Then let's not be strangers when we meet again." He tilted his head, sounding so sure that their paths would cross if she eventually gets out of here by his decree.
"We will meet again, you'll wish for my presence, and my presence will be solely on you, Valda." He promised, leaning close behind her till his breath caressed her skin. "When that happens, there's no going back on your words."
"What do you mean I'll wish for your presence?" Valda swallowed nervously, her finger brushing the hilt of the knife hidden in the belt around her thigh, "what are you saying to me?"
"I'm saying you will have no choice but to serve me when the time is right." his lips suddenly brushed her ears, a feather-light touch that ignited her nerves. "your loyalty, your heart—both will be mine."
His eyes momentarily darkened.
Valda recoiled from his proximity, turning around to look at him. Her fingers instinctively reached in to take out the knife she skillfully hid, but when she felt the belt area, it was no longer there.
"Are you looking for this?" Eryx twirled the knife in his grasp, "you have so much to learn, my dearest Valda." And the knife was no longer in his hold.
The only thing Valda had noticed was her back hitting the wall, and her petrified eyes looked up to see the knife a few inches away from stabbing her in the forehead, or even tearing open her skull. It had come in contact with the wall above her head, but when did he throw it without her even noticing??
"Don't start what you can't finish." He advised, ears twitching irritably.
Valda had gambled with her dignity once, but now, she was the victim in this game, because he was making her gamble her soul for what he called momentary freedom.
"Why?" She asked, "why make this deal with me? Pick someone else!"
Eryx's smile turned feral at her desperation. "I can't."
"You can't? Or you won't?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because, my dear Valda, your vendetta promises a feast I cannot ignore." he strode towards his armchair and took a seat, "but all will be fine, you can carry on with your life without me or my assassin's meddling in. It only changes the minute you seek my help, and when you do, you'll have no choice but to live here, and call me master."