It’s been a week and Thien refuses to consummate our union. He won’t come near me and I just want to get out of this room. The faster I get out of here, the quicker I can find my way back to Noah. My father and Thien had no right to decide my life for me. They had no right to take him away from me.
“Are you going to keep me trapped in here forever?” I ask.
“Are you going to keep being a bitch?” Thien retorts face-deep in his phone.
He’s texting someone at lightening speed. Curious, I snatch his phone from him and freeze everything around us, including him. He’s texting Desiree who’s practically begging him to come back to school. She wants another piece of him and judging from the explicit things he texted back I’d say the feeling is mutual.
As I read through their texts she makes mention of Noah. I scroll up and my heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as a picture of Noah lovingly kissing Qi pops up. The photo is of Desiree taking a selfie, but you can clearly see the two of them in the background. The time stamp is from yesterday.
Feeling sick to my stomach, I run to the bathroom and vomit in the toilet. I’m so distraught that I release time at some point and Thien comes to check on me. “Yeah…I’m definitely not making out with you now.” He teases.
It’s not until he sees the pained look on my face that he realizes I’m upset. He takes his phone from my hands and studies it to find out what upset me. When he realizes what the picture shows, he has no sympathy for me.
“What did you think was going to happen?” Thien scoffed. “Did you think he was going to magically wait for you and the two of you were going to skip off into the sunset? You were nothing more than a conquest to him and you made it easy.”
Thien’s words pierced my heart and I lunge at him. “This is your fault! You did this to me! You trapped me in this union and now he doesn’t want me anymore!” I pounded on him with my fists like a wild woman.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and froze at the sight of the girl staring back at me. She’s a far cry from the young girl I last saw in my reflection. “Thien.” I gasp. “What’s happening to me?”
“It’s called an Angelic death.” He replies. “It’s where the Angel in you dies and you become what Noah wants you to be…a demon.”
My eye sockets are sunken in, my skin is a grayish color, and my hair is thin, straggly, and losing its luster. “I’ve seen demons who look better than this.” I sulk.
“Yes, well…this is what happens when a high-ranking Angel goes all zero dark thirty.” He teases.
“It’s not funny. I’m turning into an old hag.” I start to panic. “How do I fix it?”
“In order to reverse what the darkness is doing to you, you have to break free from its grasp.” He puts it into layman’s terms. “See, your color is already starting to return to you.”
I look in the mirror and sigh with relief. It must have happened when I looked at the picture of Noah and Qi.
Looking at that photo made me realize that Noah already had a leading lady in his life and her name is Qi. Me…I don’t know what I was to him, but for him to move on so quickly after I...gave myself to him…he couldn’t possibly love me as much as he claims to. My father’s words regurgitate in my head…
“…Oh sweetheart…Noah Archer doesn’t know how to love. I’d be surprised if he could even spell the word without bursting into flames. Listen to me…He’s not good for you. He ruins everything he touches and you won’t be any different...”
“He used me.” I realized. “He used me to kill Desmond and he used me to get back at you and my father.”
Suddenly I feel dirty. I run to the shower as more bile threatens to rise in my throat, and let the water beat down on my head. I feel Thien’s strong arms around my waist and I fall apart in them. For hours he held me without saying a word and I cried the hardest I’ve ever cried in my life. I cried until every last image of Noah and I together is a bitter memory replaced by anger and bitterness.
I must have closed my eyes to mend because when I open them, I’m lying in Thien’s bed. “Take this.” He hands me a pill.
“What it is?”
“It’s called a glitch.” He answers. “I had it made just in case we reached an impasse with this whole forever thing.”
“What does it do?”
“It tricks the seal into thinking we consummated so we can get the hell out of here. The team is alone with that asshole Noah and we need to get back there before he runs our team into the ground.”
“I can’t face him right now.” I shake my head.
“This isn’t about you Aria, its about the team. Take the damn pill, suck it up, get ready to face your demon and move your ass.” He replies sternly.
“Spoken like a true consort.”
“We have to do it at the same time, so on the count of three okay?”
I nod and we both count to three then swallow our pills. It takes a few minutes for the seal to be lifted, but we’re finally free.
Thank you Alpha!
His bedroom door pops open and I should be happy, but I’m not. Thien didn’t want to touch me so badly that he took a precaution…that’s how much he didn’t want to sleep with me.
“How long have you had those pills?” I ask.
“Since your father asked me to pledge myself to you in order to keep you from Noah.”
“So we could’ve gotten out of here days ago.” I realize.
“Yes, but before you go all kill bill on me let me explain. Aria, you were turning dark. The beautiful girl I fell in love with was turning into something off the In-Between channel and I…”
“You wanted to rescue me from myself.” I finished his sentence.
“Yes. So you can hate me or chop me up into little pieces but I don’t regret it.”
How could I be so wrong about Noah and Thien? I chose the wrong guy...
I wrapped my arms around Thien and thanked him. It’s the least I could do after everything I put him through. “Yeah-yeah-yeah, we need to go.” He replies.
When we emerge from the house there’s a celebration in our honor. While I’m being doted over as the future Queen of Blood Harbor, I can’t help but think about how I was willing to give this all up for a life on Kaalen.
How could I have been so wrong…so blind…?
Thien plays his part as the dutiful future King, kissing kids, making strong and compelling declarations to his kingdom, and lastly, pretending to be pleased with me. It all comes with the territory…us holding hands and his staring endearingly into my eyes to put on a show for his people.
I’d give anything for his affections to be real, but no…I played him for a fool and now the one person whose probably ever loved me and meant it, only gazes at me out of obligation…he only seeks my touch because he cant avoid me…and he only shares my bed to mend…
“Can you at least try to be happy to be my consort?” Thien asks.
“I am happy, I just…Thien I want more. I want this to be real.” I explain.
He turns to me and studies my eyes. “I can handle a lot of things Aria, but you sleeping with Noah…I don’t know if I can recover from that.”
“Can you try at least?”
Thien reels back in disbelief. “No…I CANT. You slept with the one person in this world I don’t know if I could ever forgive you for sleeping with. I told you…this is a business arrangement, nothing more.”
His grip loosens on my hand, but he doesn’t let go. He can’t. Not yet anyways…but something tells me he can’t wait to get away from me.
After the celebration I’m taken to the Royal army of Blood Harbor. There, a group of powerful Angel’s called ‘Powers’ work tirelessly to restore the virtue I allowed Noah to destroy at their future King’s request, while he looks on. It’s a second chance to do things right, and Thien has them take extra precautions. Instead of placing a force field around me to keep anyone from touching me, Thien has an alchemist create a mixture for me to swallow. Anyone that isn’t Thien, who tries to enter me, will be instantly castrated. I drink the mixture hoping to prove to Thien that I’m in this with him and I’m dedicated to making us work.
“Thank you for making an honest woman out of our daughter.” My father thanks Thien. “I know it couldn’t have been easy under the circumstances and your sacrifice won’t go unrewarded.”
His sacrifice…? When did being with me become a sacrifice…? Probably when you slept with Noah Aria…
Thien nodded and my mother gave him her hand, which he gladly kissed the back of. They then turned their attention to me. “Aria Youngblood…you were imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit and the Alpha saw fit to give you a second chance. You disgraced this family and yourself when you decided to lay with a demon, and STILL the Alpha saw fit to bless you with a second chance by bringing you someone as fine as your consort. Do not forsake his blessings or mistake the Alpha’s kindness for weakness. Do the honorable things you were meant to do.” My father addresses me.
I nod because I can’t speak. I feel like a fool.
“There’s still a mission to be completed. You both will resume your positions on the galaxy and you will keep peace between yourselves and the Elite. We are not out of danger yet and we’ve received word that Gavin has the second weapon. Go and make haste.” My father instructs.
We get immediate clearance from my father to head back to the human galaxy and in the blink of an eye I find myself back in hell. Thien and I are standing outside our human home and I can’t move.
“He’s in there. I can feel him.” I swallow hard.
“Aria, before we go in there, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Noah and Qi…he pledged his life to her hours after you pledged your life to me.”
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. “So they…they’re…she’s his consort.”
“Yeah.” He nods.
“I can’t go in there.” I turn to leave.
Thien laces his fingers with mine and pulls me back over to him. “You have no choice.” He tells me. “You wanted him and now you get to see what your prize would’ve been.”
Reluctantly, I followed Thien into the house, but I keep my head lowered and my eyes on the ground. Our team rose and knelt to us as we enter the living room. Noah’s team does the same, but I couldn’t look in their direction.
“Aria!” Willow runs over to hug me.
I welcome her embrace and exhale for the first time since walking through the front door. “I see you’ve returned to the light. You’re looking much better.” A voice that makes my knees feel weak calls out to me.
Time to put your big girl pants on Aria…be strong…
I finally make eye contact with Noah and his gaze threatens to rob me of my strength until I notice the marital seal on Qi’s ring finger. I swallow hard and force a smile to my face. “I hear congratulations are in order. Congratulations.”
“Likewise.” Noah nods, holding my gaze. “Congratulations.”
Images of our night together cycle through my head and I look away. I focused my gaze on Thien who judging by the look on his face has gotten a front row seat to my night with Noah, thanks to my uncontrollable thoughts.
“I’m only going to say this once, because I haven’t the strength or the patience to say it again.” Thien addresses Noah. “Stay away from Aria.”
“No problem.” Noah smirks. His eyes wash over me and I can only image the thoughts rolling around in his head.
Thien moves across the room at lightening speed and slams Noah into the wall, rattling the house. Noah’s team readies themselves to fight but Noah signals for them to back down.
“I can see your thoughts asshole.” Thien growls through gritted teeth.
“Havoc, don’t. He’s just trying to get a rise out of you.” Wake tries to talk Thien into backing down.
“Its okay Wake. I’m fine.” Noah assures him. “Besides, it’s the least I can do for taking his wife’s virtue. Being inside her was-”
Before anyone could reach him, Thien loses it and repeatedly punches Noah in the face until he’s on the ground. Still, Noah wouldn’t allow his team to interfere. “Being inside her must be what heaven feels like, because I swear to Chi, she made my fucking toes curl.” Noah continued to taunt him.
Thien summoned a spark and I ran over to stop him. “Thien don’t do this. Don’t let him get inside your head.” I plead with him.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Thien shouts at Noah. “Don’t make me kill you!”
“What’s wrong? You don’t like my instant replay.” Noah laughs, replaying that night in his mind and forcing Thien to watch.
Blow after blow is delivered to Noah’s face until he falls to the ground unconscious. His thoughts have stopped, and Thien’s fists are bloodied. I swing him around to face him and check his hands to see how badly his hands are damaged. “Don’t touch me. I don’t need your help.” He yanks away from me. “Besides, haven’t you’ve done enough.” He glares at me as he walks away.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“If you really want me to be okay, stay the fuck out of my face.” He snaps.
I nod and back away from him. Willow takes me up to the room I now share with Thien and I start to cry. “What have I done?” My cries form in the depths of my soul and force their way to my lips. “I’ve messed things up so badly Willow, and Thien…he hates me.”
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