SPELLBOUND

"Can you let go of me for a moment, please?" she asked again, her voice, Kione thought that it sounds very sweet, a soft lovely music to one's ears. 

Seeing how possessively Gideon was holding onto her, not to mention his current foul mood, Kione thought that Gideon would definitely not listen to the girl. He would be willing to bet that Gideon would just use his magic to suspend her in the air again as he did before and drag her out or he would just as probably disappear along with her. 

But to his shocked surprise, he actually let Vera's hand go. 'What?! Now, now… aren't you supposed to be extremely possessive of her right now? Good grief, this is giving me headache…' Kione's monolog trailed off at the sight of Vera suddenly walking back as soon as Gideon let go of her wrist. 'Now where is she running off to? Wait… Why she's coming back?'

Blinking in curiosity, Kione could only watch her walk in haste, slowly approaching him. 'Whoa!! Hold up… Wait… she's coming over to me? Why? Don't tell me she's going to slap me for lying –'

His internal ramblings were cut off and his eyes circled so wide when she suddenly threw herself onto him and hugged him tight. 

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her soft voice tickling him. After that she then pulled away and looked up at him. "Thank you," she added simply, before she tiptoed and landed a chaste kiss on his cheek. She then abruptly turned and ran away, leaving Kione completely immobile and frozen in shock as he tried to register what had just happened within his very confused mind. 

And as soon as Vera reached Gideon, the man whose expression had darkened again like a lightning storm that was about to erupt, and he immediately grabbed her by the waist and they both disappeared from the scene. 

A long silence reigned in the area after, even after Gideon and Vera were long gone until Evie broke it. She clapped her hands sharply a couple of times, smiling, as she approached Kione. 

"I didn't know you were a lord of acting too, Lord Kione." Evie commented slyly, her expression looking very pleased. "I honestly didn't expect you to go that far. I was actually a bit worried for your well-being for a moment there. And to think that you still looked very confident even after saying all those things like you were prepared to die or you don't care even if he kills you." Evie could not help but chuckle as she shook her head at the still somewhat frozen Kione. "You really need to thank god that Lord Azrael unknowingly stepped in just at the right time and saved your lucky ass by accident." Evie snickered as she commented.

"What? Who save who, My Queen?" Azrael, who was still not aware of matters that had happened, butted in, unable to contain his curiosity anymore. 

Evie faced the big man and she could not help but smile at the confusion that was flashing across his face. "Kione had provoked Gideon to the core. And Gideon came just about an inch from killing him right off. The two of them weren't actually having fun as you have thought though. Kione here just volunteered himself to be the prince's punching bag." Evie good naturedly explained it in easy-to-understand terms to the blurry friend so that he could catch up on what was happening.

Azrael blinked a few times before jumping up agitatedly on the spot. "What?!" the big man shouted out and looked at his friend in disbelief. "You provoked him? Now that's funny. Weren't you always the one trying to stop everything and everyone that could provoke him to go into that frenzied state?" He questioned his friend, eyebrows raised. 

"Well, for now, that's enough." Evie spoke when Kione remained strangely quiet. "I am quite satisfied at what I've seen already. But maybe we might need to push a little further the next time we try it again in the near future. For now, let's give him some time to think and stew about all the things you had said…" Evie trailed off, raising one of her brows at Kione. 

"Lord Kione..." she called out, raising her hand and waving it across his still blank face, "are you even listening?"

He did not respond. Evie and Azrael looked at each other. Their eyes both held the question, 'now what had happened to him?'

"Lord Kione?" Evie called again and he finally snapped out of his daze, blinking at them now. 

"Yes? Queen?" he looked a bit flustered as if something had shocked him awake. 

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" Evie asked, a little worried at why he had just drifted off that way. "Could it be that Gideon used magic on you?"

"No!" he suddenly exclaimed before bursting out in laughter. "Of course not. I am totally fine. Give me a moment, queen. I just need to heal myself." He said in haste and entered the door behind him like he wanted to escape. And Evie and Azrael looked at each other again before they both stared at the closed door. 

The moment Kione entered the hall, he let his back fall back and slam against the door as his hands clutched over his chest. 'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! What the hell was that?!' he cursed out over and over, his eyes wide with disbelief as he began to pace by the door. 'F*ck! What the hell is going on?'

His heart was drumming up a crazy beat in his ears. When Vera hugged him earlier, he found himself suddenly not able to breathe. And when she kissed him, those petal soft lips had seemed to jolt his heart and now it could not calm itself down. No one… no one had ever been able to make his heart flutter this hard. He could not believe someone could actually make him fall in a daze and look like an idiot until that moment. And that someone was that particular human woman of all people! 'Don't tell me I am… shit, f*ck, no! God save me! Damn it! This can't be! All she did was hug you and what's that? That's not even a freaking kiss. That's just a peck filled with gratitude and nothing more and you… shit!' 

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