"What do you mean, your heart?" She asked.
Heartless. He called himself once.
"I mean my physical heart, with my magic inside."
"How are you— what are y-"
"How am I alive? The heart remains beating in that chest. I am unable to access my magic without it. I might have many magic tools and objects, but without my heart, I can't perform actual magic myself." He confessed.
"Why would the king keep it? What we he need your magic for?"
"It's complicated."
"You're going to have to explain it to me if you expect me to retrieve it for you." She argued.
The warlock warily considered how to respond as the look of determination on her face was not going to be easy to dissuade.
"You're indebted to me, as we agreed, I needn't explain anything to you."
"And you deceived me, so like it or not, I will do everything in my power to work around your curse." She fought.
"I expect nothing less from you." The warlock muttered sarcastically.
"How did you even know where I was?"
"As I explained before what I used to bind us was something similar to the bond between soulmates. It's a tether that if either of us tug, both of us can feel." He described.
"So you were quite literally 'tugging on my heartstrings'? In a literal sense?" She asked.
"Exactly."
Aria prowled towards the warlock. He watched warily until they were only inches apart.
What was she doing?
She was way too close for comfort.
Once again that feeling returned, the one he began to feel whenever he was close to her. The one that would not let him sleep the night before as they lay on the mat right next to one another.
He had never realized how brightly her honey-colored eyes shined until the moonlight was directly reflected in them.
While he had no heartbeat, he was certain the mere inches that separated them would have made his heart drum rapidly.
Before he could ask her what she was doing, and why she was so close, his question was answered with a jab to his stomach.
Aria struck repetitively on his incredibly firm abdomen which she realized may have hurt her delicate hands more than it did him. Regardless she continued until he grabbed her wrists and pulled her even closer.
"What in the gods' names are you doing?" A bit winded from her repeated punches.
"You must know how much that hurt! I felt as though I was going to die! You stubborn, arrogant mule!" She yelled, trying to hit him again.
He couldn't help but laugh watching her try to squirm her wrists from his grip.
"You think this is funny?!" She began to kick him until he let go.
She managed to escape his grip but it only seemed to increase his laughter.
"Princess, no offense but your lack of knowledge in self-defense is very evident. You might want to give up before you hurt yourself." He smiled, still a little winded.
She let out an angry cry and charged toward him. The warlock didn't expect her to tackle him to the ground until they were already on the forest floor.
She was still angry but froze for a moment when she saw the shock on the warlock's face. She was completely on top of him, and it took no more than a few seconds for the warlock's stunned expression to change into a mischievous grin.
"Ugh! You toad!" She quickly pushed herself off and began walking.
Where to? She had no clue. She refused to follow the warlock's command and return to the palace, but it was not as if she had anywhere else.
"Where do you think you're going, Princess?" He questioned.
"Where's the boy?" She asked avoiding his question.
"What?"
"The magic boy you rescued. What happened to him?"
"What matter is it to you? Last I heard you were 'done with people like me'."
"It seems I will never be done with the likes of you until you get what you want. But I refuse to do so. So I-" she stopped suddenly as she recalled everything she had just learned from the Queen.
My mother. My sisters.
"So you what Princess? You will refuse to return to your own home? You will refuse your responsibilities because a small pest like me tricked you? Get me what I want, and you will be rid of me, I swear it! Once I have my heart, my magic, you will never see me again." The warlock exclaimed from behind her.
She couldn't understand why his words were so harsh. Why it mattered to her that he would disappear once he got what he came for.
The damned soulmate bond, she thought. It was clouding her judgment.
"And the soulmate bond. It will be broken?" She asked wanting to be rid of all of it.
"With the snap of my fingers, I won't ever govern your heart again." He assured her.
She couldn't tell if she imagined the hint of something solemn in his voice.
Aria turned around to see the warlock's mesmerizing green eyes staring back at her with a somber expression.
Did he always look at me like this? Ugh damn bond! Who cares?!
She shook away her thoughts and said,
"I am not doing this for you. This is for my mother and sisters. I am returning to the castle because I must marry Joceus, and will get you your damned heart so you may leave and never return." She turned, still wishing to be anywhere but here.
"Wait, " He interrupted her, catching her by her wrist and twisting her to look into his eyes. "You're marrying Prince Joceus?"
"I've been ordered by the King."
"Just like that? You don't bother fighting against the King's order even if it means you suffer the rest of your life as a pawn?" He asked through his teeth. She could have sworn he seemed angry by this.
"I don't have a choice." She argued, what was it to him who she married?
"It was the same for Nikolaus I presume?" He asked slightly accusatory.
The name of her recently late husband made her flinch.
"I didn't have children with Nikolaus, so it's required of me." She breathed.
"And this is what you want?" This question held so much mysterious weight, for both of them.
"When has it ever been, or ever will be what I want?!" She snapped back.
"This is why the King deserves what's coming to him." The warlock scoffed.
Aria chose not to answer him, nor to ask what he believed was in store for the King.
"I will give you a couple of charms and spells to help you get past any obstacles," he changed the subject.
"Now that Nikolaus is gone, there will be a funeral, this gives us the perfect opportunity. I will come disguised so that only you may recognize me. I will be expecting you to have the box in your possession. Do not disappoint me, Aria. This is in both of our best interests."
—
"Oh Aria my dear, I am sorry to overwhelm you with such news just as my son, your husband, has been taken from you. Please forgive me." The Queen embraced Aria as she entered the palace.
Aria took in the Queen's musky, floral scent with notes of leather.
The Queen's perfume was so strong she didn't like it. She smelled the scent in Nikolaus's room quite a bit, meaning the Queen must have been watching over Nikolaus while she had disappeared.
It seemed like the Queen was expecting her to return, despite her having run off in the middle of the night. It was as though she knew Aria would not run away when her mother and sisters were on the line.
"I'm alright Your Majesty, just needed time to process things. The funeral, have we started to prepare?"
"My dear, it has just happened, we first need to find a time to announce it."
Good. She thought. Time was what she needed most.