Morphed into Love, Book 2

8- The Devil's Name

RONAN

I had never assumed the position of being a good man. It wasn't something I'd ever pretended to be in polite company and the peasants didn't see me often enough to deduce the truth anyway. My friends, though few, had learned to accept me for what I was. A bad, bad man.

Ophelia, however, had clearly mastered the art of playing pretend. I thought it must've been exhausting, hiding your true nature from the world every minute of every day, but it was an effective choice she'd made in order to climb the noble ladder. A choice that I wasn't certain she even knew she'd made.

As I walked back over to my rowdy soldiers, I could feel the heat of her weighted stare searing into the back of my skull. She might have looked sweet and innocent, but I could sense the hidden animosity in the way her eyes glared at me. An animosity currently reserved only for me, but one so mighty it ought to be unleashed on the world for all the atrocities it had committed against her.

Ophelia thought she was a good and honourable Lady, and she could go on believing that for all I cared, but I would continue to tell her she was a bad girl, capable of much more than she'd set out to accomplish.

"A royal fuck? Are you fucking serious?!" I walked towards Freddie who was flogging Matteo for his conspicuously crude language, "What sort of idiot," Freddie yanked Matteo's ear, "says that to a Sovereign Queen!"

"Hey, I—ow!" Matteo jumped three feet in the air when I pinched his bottom, "Fuck, man. I was just playing around! Why do you care, you hate her?!"

I shrugged, "I don't care. I just enjoy battering you."

He mustered up all the hatred of a new-born puppy when he tried to glare at me. Matteo wasn't a very scary man when he didn't have a weapon on hand. Quick and decisive with a sword, but soft and foolish in character.

"I imagine Queen Ophelia has had more cordial welcomes from street dogs." Freddie muttered, he was a sucker for rules and highly respected people like Ophelia and I for our sacrifices. It made for some pretty knotty conversations at times, but he was the most loyal man I'd ever met.

"Don't get yourself worked up over nothing, Fred." I assured as I sat on a protruding rock, "I'm sure she's taking everything in good faith. She's thick-skinned."

"Oh really, Ronan?" Freddie raised an accusatory brow, "And I suppose you've roamed her skin yourself to arrive at this conclusion?"

I wafted a hand of dismissal at his stupid remark, but Matteo merely took it as a sign to continue. If there was an event held for the sole purpose of annoying me, Matteo would be first in line.

"Oh my God, did I touch what's already yours?" He stood on my rock and tried to mount my shoulders like an irritating child, crawling all over me in jest, "I know Uncle Ronan doesn't like to share, that's my mist—"

I grabbed Matteo's ankles and yanked his feet out from under his weight, sending him flying off the rock and landing face-first in the dirt, "Antagonise me further and I'll stick my sword up your hole, we'll have spit-roast-Matteo for dinner."

"I know you're a brute, but not even a big scary necromancer would resort to cannibalism as a form of revenge." Matteo grinned at me from what looked like a painful position. The guy had the pain tolerance of a God, I'd once seen him break his wrist and only realise when I pointed it out to him a minute later.

"Whatever." I grumbled, looking away.

"So have you touched Queen Ophelia?" Matteo cut to the chase, sitting up, "You didn't deny it."