Chapter 18

Cataleya saw herself back in the forest. In the den of bandits where she stood in front of the heap of dead bodies. She particularly recognized those who had chased and taken her forcibly. There they particularly wounded on their necks.

Everything in that place was burning and the only sound that could be heard there was her ragged breathing and the cracking of the wooden houses consumed in inferno . She wondered who caused such brutality. Even if she was mad over those people who had taken her, she didn't even wish them this kind of hell.

Her inquiry was answered when in the fire, there emerge a tall man, wielded by his blood-stained sword and walking towards her in a manner of a satiated predator. The man's eyes glinted deep red like the blood of all his kills seeped through his eyes.

With a shaking heart, she looked up to his height when he was an inch away from her. a slow and devious smile appeared on his lips before he gestured to the heap of dead bodies again.

"Haven't I promised that I will bring anyone who'd dare hurt you?" He said and Cataleya was scared with the deranged eyes that the duke wore in that very moment. It was enough to make her stiffen on the spot as she followed where he was pointing again.

The scene shouldn't be anyway a cause of such exhilaration but this duke particularly had the amuse expression on his face. It was sickening that Cataleya felt like she was about to vomit right there.

"Y-you're a m-monster," she mumbled in such a passion that it dampened his expression.

"If I am…then die with them." The duke swung his sword to her neck.

Cataleya bolt up the bed with a loud gasp. She then traced her neck with her hand, feeling that it had literally detached from her body. It took her a few breaths before her heart calmed down.

"That really blasted dream again." Cataleya muttered to herself. She died in the same manner but it had a little twist this time. There were dead people in her dream. People that she encountered before. She planted her head on her palms, wanting to erase those dreadful images on her mind.

She abruptly looked up at the sound of the door opening. Her eyes widened upon seeing her nightmare in the flesh. Although she might had been overreacting since there wasn't anything terrifying on the way the duke carried himself that moment.

They met eyes first before he stepped inside the room and closed the door. He had a tray on his hand with white cloth covering whatever was in it.

Cataleya noticed that his steps was quite, almost like a predator in waiting to attack. He placed the tray on the side table in graceful manner. His hands could be likened into a figurine, flawless and bony. One would thought that those delicate looking hands hadn't killed anyone before.

For someone so masterful in the art of sword, his hands appeared to have no experience of any calluses at all. But she knew better than meets the eyes. This duke was the most ruthless killer in the four kingdoms. Emperors even tremble at the thought of angering him.

Which was why her careful observation on his every movements was justified. He then stood at the foot of the bed, regarding her in expressionless manner. He didn't say anything and just ran his eyes on her overall.

In the custom in Lezia, such kind of stare that he subjected her should only be private among lovers. So, no one can blame her when she looked down and stare away from him.

"Did you save me, your grace?" Cataleya managed to ask without looking up to him again.

The duke didn't say anything for sometime and Cataleya wasn't liking the heavy atmosphere in the room. She looked up to him and regretted it when he didn't look away from her at all.

"S-staring is rude." Cataleya said as she looked away.

"I now understand why you have the wild reputation among the nobles, lady Briston." Finally, the duke had spoken in hoarse voice. He was quick to get into the side table again and poured a tea in a cup.

"I'm sorry?"

"You." The duke stopped pouring and looked up to the wall, as if wanting to direct the heat of his eyes in there instead of her. "A mad dog of Bristons."

Cataleya was really used to hear that from almost anyone and she usually brush it off. But having hear it directly from the duke himself, it was discomforting. She had no idea why he was saying that. People used to call her that to mock. In his voice and even in his expression, she couldn't tell what to make of his words.

"I'm sorry, I wasted your time. You shouldn't have come for me and continued your envoy business with the east kingdom's king." Cataleya said, unsure if he was angry for having her add up to her duty in coming to the east.

"Wasted my time?" He asked in sarcasm and let out a deriding laugh.

Cataleya suddenly felt nervous upon seeing that he seemed to have showing a sign of contempt against her words. She thought hardly what did she said wrong in the line? She just felt bad that they just met and the duke had already entangled on her antics.

When the duke faced her, Cataleya slightly jolted on the bed, having seen his eyes turning deep red. Like the one on her dreams where there were heaps of corpses burning in the fire.

"That's an unpleasant way of putting it, lady Briston. How about toning it down to having me sick worried?"

Cataleya's brain froze at that. All of the sudden, she couldn't think straight as she finally met his eyes without feeling the need to look away from him. She was in such disbelief to hear it from someone who had killed her hundred times on her dreams.

Is he for real? Cataleya asked herself.