Ileus: The Dark Prince

Seraph laughed and laughed while sitting over the chain that shackled Etaya's right hand. "He will never come back, or at least until he decides to. So, Etaya, you and I are going to stay in this place forever. Live lovers. Like haters. Like husband and wife that we couldn't be." He slipped closer to her and bent down to face her. "You and I are going to deal with an existence that neither of us wanted." 

"Get away from here, you asshole!" Etaya shouted. "You were a good for nothing person, when I married you and you remained good for nothing after that too!" She spat at him. "I had told you to get a piece of land from Kar'den to rule in the kingdom of Zor'gan, but you couldn't even give that to me." 

"You would have stopped if I had got a place for you to rule?" asked Seraph, as the spat went right through him and dropped on the floor. 

"Then maybe—just maybe I would have thought of living with you. I would have pardoned you."

"Pardoned me? Really?" he asked with amusement in his deranged eyes. 

"Pardoned you for that fucking harem you had. Do you think I don't know that you went and fucked and even had orgies when I wasn't around?" she spat.

Seraph tipped his head back and burst into laughter. "Of course, I had them, Etaya. But if I remember correctly, most of the time you were just not in Zor'gan with me. Because you were with Edyrm at Galahar—plotting your way in Vilinski. And who knows even warming his bed?" He slithered his hand over her breasts and then down to the navel. "How many people did you bed with, Etaya? Hmm? How was Edyrm compared to me?" 

She pulled against her chain as she felt the icy chill against her skin. "He was a thousand times better than you, bastard! Yes, I plotted with him, and in return he demanded my body. So what? These are the games of kingdoms, of thrones. You wouldn't know, you fool!" She glared at him with hatred. "And guess what—I even slept with your elder brother." A smile crept on her lips despite all the pain she was experiencing. It was a smile that revelled in the misery of her husband. She loved his miserable looks. 

Anger surged through him and Seraph burst into fog that travelled behind her. He suspected that she had sex with his brother, but he didn't know that she actually had it. Her words stabbed him like a knife. She had used him thoroughly. But now no more. 

He caressed her cheek, her neck and then down till her buttocks. His caress was like a thousand shards of ice sliding on her skin, pricking her flesh. "Then I have to make up for that, Etaya, don't I?" he said.

Fear skittered down her spine. She arched her body and then jerked it back as if to hit him, but she passed through the fog. "You bastard!" she screamed. "You can't do anything to me. If you have even a modicum of shame left, you are going to kill me!" 

Seraph's icy fingers went further down in between her thighs. "Then you don't know what I can do, wife. I will have my pleasures in this form. You think that in my spirit form, I can't, then how about this?" Saying that he inserted his icy fingers inside her. 

Etaya shouted in pain. "Noooooo!" she didn't know that Seraph could do this. It was just a sensation but it was excruciating. It was like someone had filled her with ice which had thorns. 

"Ah! I see you are not wet for me," Seraph hissed. "How should I make you come, wife?" 

"Fuck you!" she screamed. "You will never succeed in your desires. You will always keep lusting for me, and you will never get me! Because even when I was alive, I was never there for you!" 

"Lusting for you?" he hissed. "Why would I lust for you when I had a harem for myself? Yes, I won't deny that I was attracted to you when I thought that I had fallen in love with you. But that feeling—it was flitting. And do you know why?" 

She whipped her head with surprise. "Why?" Did he like someone else? 

"Yes, my dear. I stopped loving you and the only reason was that I had seen this very beautiful demoness who was Og'drath's maid. She was so beautiful that I wanted to possess her, make her part of my harem, spend my nights with her." He removed his finger from inside her and then glided to the side. "But she was with Og'drath for very little time. And the queen was very protective of her. By the time, I went to her to stake my claim, the demoness had traveled in time with a man who had golden eyes." 

Etaya's skin was lined with goosebumps. She too had seen the demoness. That girl had worked for her too, but very briefly. And she suspected that Seraph liked her. This was just after they had married. 

His fog dispersed a little as more of his features became prominent and the horns started showing. "I always wonder who that demoness was who disappeared with the man with golden eyes." He turned to look at his wife. "And then I saw Anastasia. She bore uncanny resemblance to the demoness. I also saw the tattoos that Og'drath had got inked on her, and I had all my doubts that it was Anastasia." 

Etaya gasped. Did Anastasia travel in time? Was the demoness her? "You are lying," she said. If that was the case then Anastasia traveled back so much in time when she wasn't even born. Her breath became ragged. 

"Why would I lie to you about her, Etaya? She was one demoness who stirred my heart and guess what?" he said. "She stirred my heart more than anyone in this world—more than you could imagine. Can you imagine my shock when I saw her again? But when I saw her, she was younger than my daughter. And all my thoughts vanished. I focused on you. I focused on loving you and doing whatever you wanted me to. I allowed myself to become a tool at your hands because you promised a better future for my children. And in that process, I tortured an innocent girl, Iona. I became a party to torturing another innocent girl—Anastasia." His shoulder slumped. "What redemption was I left with? When I think of it, I think that you destroyed my body and you did good. Because that was the punishment I deserved." 

"Oh!" Etaya laughed. "A demon with moral ethics? Aren't you dramatic?" 

Seraph laughed. "I think I am a shade better than you. My crimes are great, but your crimes—they are greater. You deserve your punishment. And who would be better than me in giving you the punishment? Hmm?" He slid towards her and stood merely an inch away, the dense fog around him covering her partially. "That's why I think Ian left you with me. And trust me Etaya—I have thought of a lot of ways to punish you." 

Etaya's eyes became wide with shock and fear. A lifetime to spend with this deranged spirit? "You must be mad!" she said. She shook her head. "You must be seriously mad!" 

"I am, dear wife," Seraph said smoothly. "But you are madder, and I am here to combine our madness and take it to a new level." He hooked his arms in hers and said, "Let's be mad together. Let's fall in madness together, because we… we haven't fallen in love ever." 

"No, no, no, no," he pulled against her chains. "Iannnnn!" she shouted. "Áineeeee! Please come back!" 

Seraph laughed. "No one will come, my dear. You can shout as much as you want." Saying that he twisted his neck to face her and pressed his icy lips on hers and filled her mouth with a thousand icy shards. 

--- 

Ian had gone up to his bedchamber where he found Áine was sitting on the couch, looking in the far distance at the mountains that were covered in snow. She sensed her husband behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "I won't go to her again. Áine. Seraph is there with her now."

She caressed his arms and said, "I don't want you to go and waste your time with her, darling. You have a lot to do. We have a lot to see and do." 

"Áine…" he whispered and kissed her temple. After a moment's pause, he said, "How about we make another baby? A brother or sister for Anastasia?" 

"What?" Áine giggled. 

Ian scooped her in his arms and carried her to the bed. He set her over there and crawled over here. "Why not? I want another baby from my love, so that I may pamper him or her the way I thought I would, the way we missed Anastasia." 

"Oh, Ian.." Áine cupped his cheeks.