A KINGDOM OF DEAD HEARTS [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 30: WILL YOU BE MY MISTRESS?

Death penalty. I am going to die. Airin let out a loud cry and shook her head hard. "No! No!" that was all she could mutter. Her body trembled, her knees fought hard to support her. Xander could not help her now. Xander! Are you alright? Do you know what is going to happen to me? she screamed in her head.

"We will send you to the executioner soon, unless ..." Rovan smirked. His eyes shone in a sinister mischief.

Airin tried to stand up straight. "Unless what?" she half-whispered. Fear had clouded her mind completely, but the word unless gave her a glimmer of hope that she may be able to escape death.

Rovan stopped walking toward her, and leaned on one of the dining chairs. "Listen ... Lyanna loves you, Airin. For that reason alone, I am willing to spare your life ... forgive you from your grave mistake ..."

"I did nothing wrong!" Airin hissed in anger. Just the thought of being falsely accused of harming those innocent babies was enough to strengthen her even though just a tiny bit.

"That is not debatable, Airin. You are guilty. I am willing however to remove your death sentence if you ..."

"If I what ...?" she trembled.

Nydda now stood about two armlengths from her. She could have sworn there was a breeze of cold air, stale and heavy, that emanated from the body of the sorceress. She shuddered.

"If you become my mistress ... and you tell Xander that you love only me, King Rovan the Great," Rovan chuckled. "Xander is severely ill now. You can tell him that. I want that to be the last thing he hears before he dies!"

Airin was scared, really scared, but to hear that Xander was so ill he was going to die made her snap. "What have you done to Xander? Why are you so callous to your own brother? Why?!" she screamed. They must have done something to Xander. Rovan and Nydda. They were not as good as what Xander painted them to be when he was in her universe. Even Rovan was so dark and scary now for her, so different from the Rovan she met for the first time in the throne room.

"It is a long story, Airin. I do not wish to tell you, I do not have the patience for it. Now he is just ... sick. Deathly sick. So, what do you think? My mistress? We should go and see Xander to tell him the wonderful news!" Rovan walked closer to her.

"No! No way!" Airin still screamed. "Take me to Xander!" she tried to sound as assertive as possible, and it might have worked. Rovan stopped in his track, his eyes widened in clear surprise. Nydda was still quiet however.

Rovan's jaws clenched in an obvious effort to suppress rage, and he said to Airin in a much more demanding tone."Be my mistress. I am the king of Halgard. Not Xander. What do you ever see in him anyway? He is a loser, a killer, someone who had the right to the throne of Halgard but has forfeited it because he is too weak!"

The room seemed to spin now. Xander has forfeited the right to the throne of Halgard. Xander was supposed to be the king. Airin breathed in short, gasping breaths as fear engulfed her. Was that the secret that she had always felt Xander had kept from her?

"I need an answer!" roared Rovan.

Snippets of all that had happened to her ran in Airin's mind. The viciousness of Nydda who kidnapped her to Halgard, the callousness of the accusation that she had harmed those babies, and culminated with: Xander was deathly ill. All these destroyed the last fiber of fear in her.

She was just plain furious now. Her body shook. What have they done to Xander?

"No! I do not want to be your mistress! I want to see Xander!" she shouted her answer. She found her assertiveness. She wanted Xander. Only Xander.