A Jon Snow sequel: Beyond the North (GAME OF THRONES)

XIV. The Wilted Flower

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS: COARSE LANGUAGE, MENTION OF ABUSE/ASSAULT

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Lilith had spent the night in a cell, skin and clothes covered in dirt. Shackles around each wrist, ankle, and one around her neck. Her hair clung to hear sweaty face, eyes swollen after crying all night. She heard keys jingling, her eyes lifted to watch armored men open the cell door. She let her head fall back down to stare at her feet.

Cold steel touched her chin, gently pressing against her neck. The dagger was pulled upwards lifting her head along with it.  Those stormy eyes met icy blue ones.  If Jon Snow was winter, this man was the arctic: skin pale as ice, hair white as snow, eyes the coldest shade of blue.  His lips curled into an eerie smile following a chuckle.

"My dear princess, you look terrible, let's get you out of these chains and clean you up," Daemon's voice was low, his head hung to look down at her.

"You, you fucking snake I'll kill you! I'll skin you alive, I'll cut you limb from limb! I will rip off your balls and shove them down your throat!" She spat viciously, as if a rabid animal took a bite out of her.

The man knelt down and laughed excitedly, "My beautiful bride... I'm so happy you're home."

Lilith spit in his face, "You KILLER. You MONSTER. I'll never marry you, I'll starve myself. I'll dive from the balcony. You'll never get away with it, I'll tell the court. I will confess it all."

Daemon slapped her, breaking skin on her lip. He grabbed her chin, "Is that any way to talk to your husband?" He let her go, stood, and faced his men, "My bride is filthy from living with those wild boars.. Get her cleaned and fitted."

He waved goodbye to her, disappearing around the corner as Lilith wept softly. Her weak body trembled with anger, and a feeling of defeat rained down on her. The men freed her from her restraints, sending her in to be bathed. Thus, the endless night of abuse began.

She was clothed in a royal blue corseted dress with her long hair perfectly braided into a bun. Her exposed shoulders felt a chill beneath the walls of the stone castle and her sleeves so long they glided against the floor. Her heels dug into her toes and ankles with every clank across the black granite polished so sharply it casted a perfect reflection.  Lilith gazed around the room from the empty seating to the lit candles.  The stone table before her hosted twelve chairs, six on each side, yet only two plates of food. 

"Please, take a seat,"  the familiar voice spoke from a dark corner where no candles sat.  Lilith swallowed standing still and refusing to follow his request.

"SIT," His voice boomed now, rage nearly blowing out the candles.

"Fuck you," Lilith's cleaned nails gripped the chair.  Once seated, his full figure appeared from out of the shadows.  The man Lilith was promised to, the evil man who murdered her first love and her family.

"You look lovely," Daemon eyed the corset that practically crushed her ribs.  Lilith grabbed the hem of the top and tried pulling it up in a failed attempt to hide her bust.  Her long sleeves rudely getting in her way.

Daemon continued, "I expected you to be rather quiet... You'll warm up to me in no time.  We just haven't had the opportunity to chat."  He took a knife from the table and sliced through the steak on his plate.  Blood poured from the rare meat, filling his dish and his vegetables in a sea of red.  Lilith swallowed and picked at the potatoes on her plate, not feeling very hungry.

She had finally spoken up following a few moments of silence, "What can you expect when you've kidnapped me, burned down my home, and killed my entire family." 

Daemon took a bite of the steak with a smile.  The juices from the dead cattle filled his cheeks as he pictured his men butchering the poor animal.  "What you can expect when you break promises.  Instead, you run away with a group of wild boars to live out some sort of fantasy." 

Lilith slammed her fork on the table, "I never promised you anything.  You can not keep me prisoner, I demand you release me."

The prince laughed as if the funniest joke in the world had been spilled from her lips.  He set his knife and fork down before patting his lips dry on the cloth napkin that rested on his thin lap.  "You may not have made a promise, but your honorable father did.  'She shall wed your son upon his eighteenth name day, this I swear on my life and the lives of my children. By the old gods and the new.' Well, on his honor, when you weren't there I made sure he kept his word."  Lilith fought back her tears.

The princess yelled, "I will tell your father everything you've done! He'll have your head for taking all of those lives-"

Daemon chuckled, "My father is dead. I slipped him some milk of the poppy after he refused to let me hunt you down," he stabbed the piece of steak with his fork, "Later that night, I took one of his heavy feather pillows and suffocated him."

Lilith couldn't speak, she just let him continue on, "The maester believed he died from a heart issue, and now I control The Blacklands and soon Ram Valley following our marriage ceremony."

Lilith stood from the table so violently, the chair flew back across the floor. She reached over for Daemon's plate and threw it on the ground. The prince watched, a stone expression on his face, "I am not marrying you. I don't care, you can take the throne of both kingdoms.  You can tell everyone I died in that fire, you don't need me."

"It's not that I can't have the land without you, it's that I always get what I want."  He stood and walked over to Lilith's still figure.  His thin lips brushed against her ear, his long fingers squeezed her shoulders.  "I'm going to wed you, take your innocence, and pump you full of babies until your womb is destroyed from within.  Until you can no longer take a shit without feeling as though you're in labor.  I will destroy your beautiful body and I will be the only one you'll ever have.  Whether you like it or not, I do not give a damn.  I will be a constant reminder of the death of your family.. And that brings me such joy."

Tears fell silently from Lilith's eyes like a sorrow fall rain.  The flower was wilting under the darkness in this castle, not like the valleys she had slept in.  The violet lily was praying for snow to save her. 

Daemon walked away from her and downed his wine.  "Val, Lia, come!"  Two women, presumably at work for the kingdom, entered and bowed.  The prince pointed to his future wife, "Take her to get ready for the wedding!"  The two women bowed once more and each took one of Lilith's arms, dragging her out of the room.

The princess watched Daemon get further from her, grey eyes filled of lightning with the storm inside of her growing violent.