The Tyrant's Pet

"I just know the appalling nature of humans, darling. Therefore, I can speak with certainty."

'There he goes again,' Aries whispered in her head upon hearing Abel's answer. She caressed his lean cheek with her thumb gently, throwing his answer at the back of her head. Perhaps he was saying he had seen different types of people as the emperor and how people change and what they could do if a child was in the picture.

Aries didn't even consider Abel was speaking from his own experience. She remembered he already had an heir, the crown prince who lived in that seemingly haunted mansion in the forbidden place within Haimirich's imperial palace grounds.

"You might find this inquiry ridiculous, but what does it feel Abel?" she asked after a minute of silence. "To become a parent is what I mean."

"I have no idea."

"Why don't you know?"

"Because I never had one." He smiled, but her frown deepened.

"I already know, Abel," she confessed and she surprisingly didn't feel fear about it. "About the crown prince. You don't have to hide or lie about it."

"I'm not lying nor I am hiding it," he returned while keeping his eyes on her. "My father is me, my grandfather is me, my ancestor is me, and my son is me. His sons… and the son of his son is also me, darling. It's a tiring life cycle."

"Right…" Aries laughed weakly. "You're not the person who lies, but definitely, someone who jest a lot." — although he doesn't sound like he was lying, Aries perceived his claims as a joke. Who wouldn't?

Abel narrowed his eyes slightly and smirk. "So? What do you plan on doing?" he inquired, changing the subject smoothly.

"Hmm… the plan is to burn down this room." Aries smiled bitterly as she set her eyes back to the window. "Plans are the easiest part. The execution isn't."

"And why is that?"

"Because this room is the only one who remembers him," she answered softly. "He was a secret. His mother can't even bear to remember him because she is selfish and cannot bear severing the thin thread of sanity she was holding on to. All she could wish was for this room to remember him… and remember that there was a time I once became a mother even though he has yet developed when she held his cold and little body the first time."

"I'm complicated, aren't I?" Aries laughed and set her eyes down where he was squatting down beside the rocking chair. "I want this room to cease to exist, but I cannot do it myself or order someone to do it just because of that… regardless of the shameful and painful days this room had witnessed at the same time."

"I'll remember him."

"Hmm?"

"Tell me about him and you," he clarified while he stood up until he was towering over her. Abel held her hand that still had a fresh wound across her palm, planting a kiss on it, eyes on her. "I'll remember you two… forever."

Her eyes softened as her heart melted, smiling subtly at him. Abel bent over and in one swift move, he was carrying her in his arms. Her brows rose, clutching his shoulder on instinct.

He gazed down with a playful smirk. "I don't like that chair." He tipped his head towards the armchair just three steps in front of the rocking chair. "This one is better."

Without a moment's notice, Abel plopped his butt down on the rocking chair while Aries was on his lap. He flashed her a bright smile as he started rocking the chair mildly, giving her a knowing look.

"My ears are open," he cued. "I'm interested to hear about this tale… although I cannot guarantee it will replace my favorite fable about the whiny boy and the potato."

Aries chuckled at his humor, smacking her lips before putting her weight on him. She rested the side of her head against his chest, stretching her legs over the armrest, rubbing her thumb and index on the button of his suit.

For a moment, the creaking sound while he rocked the chair filled the room before her soft voice came out. She didn't include all the bad times she had experienced in this room. Aries focused on those hauntingly beautiful days she cherished with the life growing in her womb.

It was as if that first year she was held captive, only that fleeting month truly mattered. And only her child's death deeply hurt her. Not that she wasn't hurt before, but that was the only time Joaquin truly devastated her emotionally after executing her family and land.

She felt like a total failure and foolish to even consider Joaquin would love her child. Joaquin was incapable of love. What that man loved was the idea of Aries; he was obsessed with her and mistook it for love. If he loved her, hurting her would hurt him twice because Aries's initial attitude to her unborn child still haunted her up to this day. But Joaquin never hesitated to raise his fist, violate her, and ruin her to submission.

"All those times I was in this place and sit on this chair…" Aries blinked weakly as her eyelids felt heavy. She was still injured and talking too much exhausted her. The stress wasn't helping as well.

"… he thinks it was because I couldn't move forward and wants to trigger his conscience. I wasn't," she continued in an even quiet voice. "I sit on this chair and rock it because the sound of it keeps me from falling apart. It keeps the whisperings of the walls… my demons over my shoulders at bay."

"It's not always about him." Aries snapped her weary eyes when Abel held up her injured hand. Only then did she notice she was gripping her hand so tight her wound reopened from the pressure.

"Don't waste your blood on an underdeveloped human being. I mean the crown prince." Her gaze followed her hand as he guided it to his lips, watching him lick the blood while keeping his menacing eyes on her.

"What?" he asked.

"That's blood…" she whispered, recalling the look in Inez's eyes when Aries asked her to drink her blood to prove her love.

"It is blood," he agreed. "But I told you… I want you in my veins. I would have sucked you dry if necessary, but that will kill you."

A faint chuckle slipped past her lips, watching him lick her palm without the vestige of disgust. If anything, he seemed to enjoy it which was quite odd because this should make her feel unsettled. It didn't. In fact, she was moved and could feel his sincerity in wanting her as a whole and not just a part of her.