Half a heart, half a crown

T W E N T Y S E V E N

My eyes adverted to everyone around me, they were all dressed in very prominent clothes and jewelry scintillating from their bodies.

And I am one of them, temporarily.

Scanning around the dinner table, everyone moved their forks and knives in sync as their mouths chewed the undeniably endless food. The tension felt tight and dense, maids and servants were all stood shakily, bowed down with their nervous pair of eyes glued down to the artistic floor.

And I, myself, couldn't move a bit nor did I even touch a plate of food in front of me. I was disgusted, confused, frustrated, devastated and lonely....

King Antonio? I am sure you will get me out of this mess.

I am incredibly sure.

"NO." I was snapped out of my thoughts when a very deep and demanding voice shouted.

"I am going to get her." King Devilon said through gritted teeth, "I will get her."

His determination and sureness really did consume over everyone and everything in the whole room, just as his voice stated one thing, one sure thing, we all know that he's going to get it his way, his way only.

My eyebrows fused together in confusion but soon faded away once I realized his words were toward his mother, the queen. The queen who wore a majestic golden crown a little too high on her head, the one with a little too dark eyes and dark soul, the one whose corner of her bold red lips always twisted upward a little too much, the one who enjoys torturing innocent souls a little too frequently.

"Son." The queen spoke with eyebrows fused together and pretended sincere pair of eyes, the word left her mouth sounds nothing more than a bitter lie, and that really makes me wonder.

"Angeli-" the queen stop speaking as soon as she acknowledged my presence.

Her eyebrow lifted upward in disgust and fear from earlier were soon replaced with killing stares. She stared. Her gaze pierced through my skin sending daggers to each and every part of me.

I stared back. No, I glared back, with much intensity as she did. Maids and servants seemed to fidget with their fingers non-stop knowing so well that the tension in the room felt tense. My glares were burning straight into those dangerous pair of eyes and I hope, it could burn her down into ashes.

"You." She pointed her long painted forefinger towards me, "Show some respect to the King ."

"From what I seemed to notice is that you did not greet the king since you are here and that is unacceptable." She said once again.

I did not give the king a spare glance. My silentness were enough to pissed the queen herself off and with one swift motion, she ordered the guards to take me down.

Anger built up inside me as the two guards harshly gripped my arms trying to push me down to the ground, unsuccessfully. I was fidgeting and moving in their grips and suddenly a hand gripped my brown hair tight pushing my head back forcefully painful. My eyes sending daggers toward the evil queen, "Peasant will always be peasant, I guessed no one had ever taught you manners and respect." She spits, "but today I am going to teach you this."

Just that her grip tightened and I was furious.

"Kill me if you must, but I shall not bow down to a King who wears a crown studded with jewels of every life he has ended." I stated.

Silence....

All I heard was my voices echoed repeatedly all over my head.

I was breathing hard. My face was red with suppressed anger. Anger was boiling inside of my but at the same time, I could feel satisfaction that I have spit out words that could either kill me, or save me.

My eyes had drawn to the pair of silver eyes that was staring at me with his eyebrows fused together and a frown tucked slightly at the corner of his lips, his eyes showed confusion and pain? But it quickly covered up with an unreadable emotion.

He stood up facing my direction, he walked forward towards me. My knees were still slightly bend while guards were still holding me down but the queen's grip were soon gone as she saw her son's appearance. King Devilon Arisen leaned down towards me with his straight emotionless pair of eyes, the next thing he said really did caught me completely off guard, "Do you really think I have killed more lives than King Antonio ever did?"

Beat. Thump. Beat. Thump. Beat. Thump.

King Antonio.

Just two words, it really does had an effect over me. But just those two words left King Devilon's mouth, mockery were heard clearly from his voice. Maybe King Devilon don't see Antonio as a King, a proper King.

But why am I not surprised?

I swallowed down an imaginary piece of lump down my throat painfully, I trembled under his gaze, and slowly, I nodded.

By this time, I have already knelt down on the ground. His eyes never left mine. "How do you know?"

How do I know?

How do I, Magnificent Dillionio, know that King Antonio, the king of Emercidin, kill lives less than King Devilon Arisen ever does?

"I was created to strip the lungs of their breath, to destroy what they called pretty little things and burn them down to the ground, to bring everyone to their knees and the world to its knees, and hear my name spoken only in fearful whispers." He expressed each word carefully viciously.

"I was made to be a monster."

Because King Devilon Arisen is a monster. He tortured innocent souls.

But King Antonio Davinsky?

He started war by himself, he had ended many of my people lives, his people killed my father, my biological blood-related father, he killed me, my heart and soul, had all been crushed into ashes.

"I don't like to repeat myself," King Devilon whispered, "How do you know that I have killed more lives than King Antonio ever did?"

"How do you know, Queen Magnificent Dillionio?"