CHAPTER 4 Part 3

Unable to process the sheer impossibility of the situation, Alena could only stare at his fingers encircling her wrist! How? How in the afterlife was this even possible?! What is going on?

She could feel him. The warmth of his palms against her skin too real.

Her free hand flew to her mouth as the reality, or rather the unreality, of the situation sank in.

And was that loud thuds she's hearing her heart?!

‘Oh, my lord…! I was a ghost just now… Why am I… how come I’m… What the hell is going on?! How am I now here, feeling, touching? Is this an illusion? Some dark sorcery? Right… this must be some kind of illusion!'

Alena swung her hand and a hard punch landed on the Duke’s chiseled face.

As the world seemed to screech into a full-on halt, silence reigned between them for a few heartbeats. Alena was again in utter shock because she felt the sting of her knuckles that had just made a hard contact against the duke's face. She had punched him because she thought what was happening was nothing but illusion! She was certain that she’d hit the air!

But it seemed... she really had just punched the duke, the almighty unrouteable hero of Claveria!

A scarlet drop formed on the duke's lip, and then, with a languid, deliberate motion, his tongue darted out. It caressed the wound on his lip and she didn't know why the very act looked and felt provocative and charged with an intensity Alena wasn't prepared for.

A growl of frustration escaped her. Then her free hand grabbed his robe. "W-what did... you do?" she hissed. "What did you do to me?”

But the duke’s face was the epitome of calm. His golden eyes betrayed no emotion at all as he opened his mouth and spoke.

“Shouldn’t we at least greet each other first? This is our first meeting as husband and wife, after all.”

Alena’s brow furrowed in deeper confusion. Husband? Wife? And he did address me as "my duchess" earlier. What game is this bloody man playing?

Just as she was about to retort, her body crashed against him.

He had pulled her! And now she’s atop him!

She choked the sharp words that were about to leave her lips as the feel of his steady heartbeat beneath her palm. Now she's hearing it loud again, her very own heartbeats—heartbeats she was no longer supposed to have.

But despite all the confusion and disbelief that was pulsating through her, the fiery sting of rage still reigned within her.

“What in the world are you saying?" Alena finally spat the words fiercely. "Husband and wife? When did we get married, huh? Your Grace? Are you drunk? You murdered me before I could even see your face, remember?”

But the duke’s expression remained unreadable. Those golden eyes slips of no emotion at all.

She was always told that her eyes were ethereal and the most beautiful. Many even described them as jewel-like due to the pale ruby color of her irises. Everyone had been telling her that her eyes were the most mesmerizing eyes they'd ever seen. But now, after seeing this man's eyes up close, Alena was certain that if they saw this man's eyes up close like this they would change their minds. Because these… these eyes were the true definition of ethereal. She'd never seen eyes so beautiful and powerful that it literally felt like she was being swallowed right into their depths, even making her feel like it was impossible to break free from them unless she was released.

Yet despite all that beauty, those orbs also felt like a dark void. It was as if there's an abyss within where emotions and responses were drawn in but never emerged.

“I’ve followed that assassin and saw him enter your castle,” Alena continued when the duke remained silent, “so don’t you dare deny you have nothing to do with my death!”