Devotion

Chapter 14

Aurora

I bit my lip a bit before answering. The only reason I began cooking was because Azra always loved sweets, but The King and Queen have always been so strict with him. I wanted to make him smile.

"For my brother... he loves sweets" I mumbled as I looked away. I guess, I always had a feeling that my "parents" never loved me, it wasn't clear before now. What kind of father would hurt their child in such cruel way? Caz smiled as he moved his next piece before calling checkmate. I looked at the board trying to understand where I went wrong.

"You cheated!" I screeched trying to retrace my steps. He began to howl with laughter at my confused flustered face. I have never lost in a game of chess.. NEVER. There's no way that this man has beat me to it. I began to pout while be kept laughing. He keep holding his stomach, gasping for air. No matter how I looked at it. Caz reminded me so much of Azra.

"You remind me of my brother" I blurted out causing him to stop mid laugh.

"How so?" He asked as he sat right back up.

"My brother was always a sweetheart towards me and he always manages to make me smile when I'm down" I said as I looked at him softly.  He pat my head as the door busted open and we see an annoyed Erix walking towards us and plopping down next to Caz. We both glanced at each other wondering if we should say something or not to the annoyed mafia lord. He turn suddenly turns towards me and glares at Caz for patting my head. 

"Princess, I think we need to talk" he said harshly while trying to sound sweetly, but failed miserably. The bright warm room that Caz and I were in peacefully playing chess became so gloomy with Erix presence.  

"Alright" was all I managed to say as I shifted my body towards him. After spending two months with them, Erix was the only one out of the two that I avoided since he was never really nice to me except for those certain situations. Erix locked his eyes with mine before taking a deep breath and looked at me once more. 

"You cannot marry Sylas" 

"Why? Who are you to dictate who I marry or not?"

"Who are your 'parents' to dictate who you marry or not" 

"Don't bring them into this" 

"Sylas isn't who you think he is" 

"Then who is he then? Because all I see is a gentleman who wants to marry me" 

"He doesn't want to marry you!"

"How do you know?" 

"I just do" 

"'I just do' isn't an answer" 

"He's going to kill you for fuck sakes! Your so called fucking parents sold you to his family to fucking kill you!" he yelled as my face went pale. 

No wait.. What if what he's saying isn't true? This would be a way to manipulate me, right? Sell me? Kill me? Why? That doesn't make sense, but it also doesn't make sense on how they treated me. I looked at Caz before he slowly nod to confirm what his lord was saying. 

"I need proof" I said quietly before looking away. I didn't think I could stomach the idea of being sold out to die. I know that they're fucking disgusting, but I didn't think they would be that inhumane. 

"My parents" Erix said. I turned to look at him again, confused. His parents? Did my 'parents' blackmail his family? 

"Did they blackmail your family?" I asked quietly. 

"no. they. killed. them." he said quietly. 

My heart dropped to my stomach when he said that. There's no way that his family died because of these people. Why? Why? Why would they even get involved with the mafia? For years we spent staying clear from them, so why now? Caz noticed how pale my face was getting and began to slowly rub my back. 

"why... how.." trying so hard to hold back tears. I'm not a monster.... I could never be thriving over killing someone, but how could they be okay with that. Erix placed his palm on my cheek as he wiped a tear that I didn't notice escaped from my eye. 

"Princess, don't cry.. I'll explain it to you one day, but I should probably show you actual evidence" 

"Actual?" 

"My parents grave and the video of the murder"