[Music Recommendation: Beneath the Black Veil by Stoic Music]
Lucrezia tensed when she entered the room.
A long table, longer than she'd seen before, filled most of the space. It was laden with food and wine, so much food, some of it wafting tendrils of steam, that her mouth watered. At least it was familiar, and not some strange Sins delicacy: chicken, bread, peas, fish, asparagus, lamb, venison ... it could have been a feast at any werewolf's manor.
Another surprise.
Lucrezia lingered by the threshold, gazing at the food, all that hot, glorious food, that she couldn't eat. That was the first rule taught as children, usually in songs or chants—one Madelyn always said—: If misfortune forced you to keep company with the Devil, you never drank their wine, never ate their food. Ever. Unless you wanted to wind up enslaved to them in mind and soul and unless you wanted to wind up dragged back to Hell. The second part had already happened, but she might stand a chance at avoiding the first.
As expected, someone sat on the oversized chair at the head of the table and she stifled a small cry when her knees buckled, pushing herself against the paneled wall beside the door, feeling for the molding of the threshold, trying to gauge the distance between her and escape.
She swallowed the lump down her throat, unable to control her heart beating so fast she thought she would vomit. Last night's incident surged her mind without warning, recalling the rate of her audacity and his closure.
S-She'd been close to Lucifer's half, utterly vulnerable, and dared to talk, to answer… and to ask questions in hope to secure his trust as part of her mission.
Lucrezia didn't realize what a powerless state of mind and position she was in at that time when she crossed too many boundaries. He was irritated by her questions, and if not for anything, she would have sworn to be dead by now.
The last thing she wanted was getting on his black book before five months.
The morning illumination stretched out his sculpture which surprised her when she walked in fully. His features, his body, his… human-like… still no horns, no long sharp canines spewing from the sides of his mouth, as he busied himself with the meal before him, completely ignorant of her presence.
But this person was not a man, not a Lord. He was one of them, the Seven Sins, one of their ruling nobility. Despite his mask, she caught a clearer vision of his lethal scars at broad daylight and was merciless in the manner of his tone, though he had yet to say something.
Now Lucrezia caught his features at broad daylight, she couldn't help but feel more weary of the creature. He was even scarier in the day than at night where shadows clung to his skin like a cloth.
And yet, there was something painfully familiar about him, a sense of deja vu that made the anvil in her gut even heavier.
Despite his gaze on the meal, Lucrezia could see the scariest-looking scars all over his face, not the type earned from wars and battle but the kind no living being could possess. It was faint, yet clear and precise.
A memory threatened to wash over her but his voice cut through the haze in a sharp unmerciful tone when she felt him cease, "They're far easier ways to die. You're simply advancing your death if you don't breathe."
Lucrezia jerked at the irritation in them and moved her stiff feet. Cold sweat trailed from her spine into the farthest distance behind as she approached an empty seat at the other end of the table.
But no matter how hard Lucrezia tried to convince herself of the distance, she couldn't help but shake the feeling that it was pointless.
Unlike the ugliness of his tone, he was dressed in a finely crafted dark grey tunic accented only with a leather baldric embossed with a house sigil across his chest, a cloak clasped with an ornate brooch shaped like a stag's head, blending elegance with warrior practicality. It was more for fighting than style even though he bore no weapon she could detect.
Lucrezia didn't want to consider what might require him to wear a warrior's attire and tried not to look too hard at the leather of the baldric gleaming in the sunlight streaming in through the bank of windows behind him.
She hadn't seen a cloudless sky like that in months. He filled a glass of wine from an exquisitely cut crystal decanter and drank deeply as if he needed it, and her eyes followed his movement carefully.
His hands were gloved in black, though she didn't need to glimpse what lay behind the veneer, as he emptied his golden goblet. Real gold, not paint nor foil. Her mismatched cutlery flashed through her mind, heating her face in embarrassment. Such wealth, such staggering wealth when she'd had nothing.
If she weren't a Lady, she would've planned to sneak out all of them. Take them to the village and negotiate the highest bidding for greedy customers in exchange. But she doubted she would make a generous amount in return.
Lucrezia didn't know where that thought came from, but she'd always known that her thoughts were more mature and fiercer than talking. Like in different various ways, fiercer in some kind, but not when she speaks.
Lucrezia quickly pulled away before he caught her staring.
Food remained on the table, the array of spices lingering in the air, beckoning. She was starving, her head unnervingly light, but the stubborn part of her longed for this to be over.
"Eat," he spoke again, and she almost jerked from her seat. Almost. If not the tiniest string of composure in her. "Unless you would rather faint."
And why would you care?
It took every willpower in her to prevent the words past her lips as she set them on a thin, defiant line.
She ran through the chants in her head, again and again. Not worth it… Easing her ravenous hunger was definitely not worth the risk of being enslaved to him in mind and soul, but she caught the faint tug behind the mask of the creature as if he read her thought.
And her heart skipped.
"I-I'm not hungry," She managed to say, not daring to look at him. And when she felt his piercing gaze rake over her skin, Lucrezia clenched her fists beneath the table to avoid the temptation of looking.
Of course, her stomach betrayed her when it groaned in negligence, so loud it echoed in the silent room of high-stoned walls and she bit her lips, heat blooming across her face in embarrassment.
He made no reaction, no emotions crossed that tenacious outline of his face but he did seem to pause, setting his goblet with a soft clink that made her flinch more than it should have.
Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind her excuse and went back to eating. Lucrezia peeked from her long lashes, noticing how he didn't so much glance her way, not in condensation but perhaps, nonchalance.
All she wanted was to go back to her room. Starve, if the situation got to that point, and rest with a rumbling belly. She could send for Edhira to make something, but the possibility that he might have issued a restraining order weighed heavily on her shoulders. After all, it was she who rejected the food.
The door opened, revealing a maid who walked in with cautious steps, her head lowered it almost touched the floor. It was obvious she seemed uneasy, but her actions were more practical than emotional.
Lucrezia's eyes followed her movement as she reached for the silver platter in silence. She selected a small slice of roast, carved cleanly, and with a gentle tendency, gestured the plate before her. Then came a piece of warm bread, a spoonful of spiced lentils, and a dollop of honeyed carrot mash.
As soon as it was done, she bowed, turning to leave, her soft footsteps quicker than the kind when she arrived, as though afraid her presence might irritate the mood of the morning.
"Stubbornness is an admirable trait in battles, less when you're fainting at my feet," It was intense and unkind, dragging her attention from the door to the creature at the far end of the table. He didn't look up at her, but that didn't mean he saw less. "The food is fine for your werewolf. I'm told your kind craves a bit too much for the other part of you. Unless you want something far nutritious or you're something else,"
Her pride hissed at the insult, but her heart never ceased beating. There was something dark in his tone, promising and sinuous at the same that, as she dared look at his unyielding countenance.
There was suspicion in his eyes and that didn't go well for her fragile heart. He was becoming suspicious… Lucrezia thought, trying to think through the haze of her mind.
What would Olenna say? What would she do in this situation? However, realizing she'd spent more time in the privy pit than in the castle itself, made her less knowledgeable about Second Princess.
The marriage all happened out of the blur. It was a quick pragmatic setting. But one thing Lucrezia had always known was the Princess's wickedness, and her cold trait towards the situation. B-But how was she to act that way?
A murderer never tells his skills unless caught, she thought, moving her face away, hoping and praying he would just return to his food and let the time fade away in silence.
She only wanted to leave. But mission, she thought. Mission.
Something told her he was testing her, and that alone did no good, and as bad as she hated to know, Lucrezia feared she might fail.
She knew the only way to truly survive this wasn't by growing weak and hungry.
But who knows what he might have added to the food? The ways of Sins are still unknown, which means, he could kill her without a single trace. After all, she was his bride; a punishment to her kind.
That thought tasted bitter on her tongue. A kind that harbored hate and condemnation rather than false love or pity. The witch of Veximoor.
"There are more interesting ways to kill you. Food poisoning is among the least," He said finally, and she stiffened. He leaned back against his chair, his words impossibly calm, impossibly cold when said, "Assume better for options like despair. Temptation,"
There was something in the way he pronounced the latter, dark and sinful, and a strange feeling eliciting heat coursed through her veins.
T-Temptation?
"Or something far more elegant," He added. "Something you wouldn't see coming until it's already in you,"