Ileus: The Dark Prince

"Ian!" Etaya said aloud. "Ian!" she shouted. "Ian, Ian!" She screamed his name. "Please come fast. Please!" She tried to jerk the spirit away from her leg, but it wouldn't budge. "Ian, please help me remove it!" she shouted, desperate as hell. 

She heard heavy footfalls on the outside. The doors of the prison opened and King Ian Lachlan Aramaer entered. 

"Ian! My brother," Etaya shouted, "This demented spirit is here. Please save me! You have to. Either remove it from here, or kill me! I can't bear the pain. I can't bear it. Please relieve me of my agony. I beg of you!" She pulled herself against the chains with as much strength as she was left with. Blood had caked all around her wrists and ankles. 

Ian jerked his head back. He hadn't come for a week. He was getting least and least interested in coming to Etaya and torturing her. It wasn't because he didn't want to. The woman had done irreparable damage to his family and kingdom, but mostly because he was still building his kingdom, which she had sent flying back to the dark ages. "Brother?" He repeated and wound a whip around his hand that was lying on a small table in the corner of the prison. If he was shocked to find Seraph's spirit there on her leg, he didn't show it. Instead, he said, "How are you Seraph?" Magic dripped out of his hands in the form of white beams that curled around the leather whip. He ambled back to her and faced her. The whip in his hand uncurled and dropped to the floor, magic sizzling around it. 

Seraph slithered from her leg, climbed her torso and curled around it. Dense fog covered her. Ice like sensation scraped along her skin. He peeped from behind her shoulder and hissed, "I am doing very fine, Ian. How about you?" He gazed at the whip in his hand. "Are you planning on carving her skin with it today? If yes, then I have a pattern in mind." An evil smile spread on his lips. 

"I was thinking to do exactly that, but now that you are here, you can do the honors," said Ian as he rounded her and faced her rear, the whip dragging with him. 

Seraph twisted his face to look at Ian. However, by the time he could have slipped from there, the whip came on Etaya's back and she screamed with pain as the whip cracked against her and came off peeling a layer of skin, leaving a bloody trail behind. "No, Ian!" she panted breathlessly. Another whip cracked across her back and she arched with pain. 

Walking in front of her, Ian tilted her head and asked Seraph, "Did you like the pattern?" He had formed a cross on her skin. 

"I did!" Seraph laughed. "I did!" He slithered over a chain and rested. "This is going to be interesting." 

With eyes half open, Etaya said, "You are my brother. You are related to me by blood. If mother and father were here, they would have admonished you for what you are doing to me. Have you no shame that you are torturing your own sister? I am weak and fragile. Are you not man enough that you are punishing a woman?" 

"Man enough?" Ian scoffed. "Where did this declaration of 'punishing a woman' go when you came after Áine? When you tricked her into believing that you meant no harm when you wanted to come back to Vilinski? Where did your morals go when you used your husband to the extent that he gave his life for you? And where did your morals go when you tormented my daughter, my only heir, the heir to the throne of Vilinski? You poisoned her, you asked your son to slash her wings, you shackled her wings and you forced her to marry your son? Have morals got a new definition?" 

Etaya couldn't speak in her defense. She only stared at him as her breath became weaker, as darkness consumed her. Over the last few months, she had become very weak. Suddenly a whip cracked in the front across her stomach and she screamed again. "Noooo!" Tears mixed with blood dropped from her eyes. "Kill me Ian, kill me. If you can't stand me, then kill me!" Her head bent forward and dropped. "Kill me, please…" she cried. 

Ian shook his head, as the whip dropped close to his boots. "You don't deserve to die, Etaya. Not for the next eight years. I will take my revenge from you for every day you tortured my Anastasia, for every moment you stole from her. What was her crime? That she was born into the royal family of the faes?" 

"Yes, that was her biggest crime," said Etaya. She spat on the floor, she looked at Ian with her chin dipped low. "I should have been the queen, but the bitch beat me to it. And all because of Ileus. He saved Áine in the war against demons when she was pregnant with Anastasia. The bastard traveled in time to do that." 

Ian's eyes were wide with surprise. "And I thank the ancestors for that. Every day I thank them that they chose Ileus as my daughter's mate." Saying that, he sauntered off to the table to keep the whip back. When he came to her again, he looked at Seraph and said, "I will never ever free her. She is going to spend the rest of her life in this cell. And you are most welcome to stick to her. She's yours." A sinister smile spread on his lips when he saw Etaya's aghast expression. "I will not come again till you are here. And I will know the day you will leave the palace, because I knew when you had entered Vilinski. Did you like the welcome?" he asked, referring to how Ráild turned to ash. 

Seraph chuckled and nodded. 

"Then you should know that we tracked you all the way here."

"I know." 

Ian gave one last look to Etaya and then walked out of the cell never to return. Because now she already had someone to torture her every minute of the day. 

"Iannnnn!" her voice boomed in the prison as the cell clicked close.