Emira returned to the present with a jolt, as though someone had shaken her awake rudely. She looked down at her hands, still held firmly within the Dark Lord’s grasp, and watched as tears slipped free and fell onto their joined hands.
Never would she have expected those memories to hurt her like this. She did not even know when she had started crying. It must have been only a few hours since she had walked into this place, yet it felt as though a lifetime had passed since then, as if time itself had stretched and folded in on her.
And maybe it had. Because right now, she was not just Emira but also Mira. The same Mira who had looked up at this man as if he was the entire world.
Her breathing was uneven as she slowly lifted her gaze. Her eyes searched his face, tracing the familiar lines of his features, and as she did, something strange stirred within her. Emotions that were not entirely her own began to surface. Why did the past turn out like this. The night that was supposed to be the happiest for them had instead turned into something else entirely.
It was the night of their wedding that she had breathed her last. And Aron had been sentenced to centuries in darkness. She had no doubt that she had once been Mira. Not for a moment did she feel that she had been tricked. Because she knew her own feelings. She had never really trusted everything that had been said about the Dark Lord.
Even though others spoke of it as facts, a part of her soul that was Mira, wjo knew that Aron would never be as ruthless as everyone believed. It was also probably why she had always felt a certainty when she had thought that she would become his disciple.
It was because he had truly been her master in another life. After all, she had never been able to learn formally back then. She had been killed long before she could fulfill her lifelong dream of learning and becoming a formal witch. There had been so much left unfinished, so many paths left untaken.
As the thought took hold, the world around her began to blur.
The forest slowly faded from view, the trees and shadows dissolving as though they had never existed. In their place stood another scene, clearer and brighter. The man before her was no longer dressed in white. He wore a deep red tunic instead, rich in color, with fine gold chains framing his face Her groom... He looked different, yet unmistakably the same.
He was smiling at her. The same indulgent smile that he had given her earlier but which had irritated her now made her feel warm...
Gently, he wiped pulled his hand away from hers and wiped the tears from her eyes." Now you know why I could not let you remain a slave? Now you know why I say that you were born to be my bride, Mira?"
That is when she jolted. Hurriedly, she stepped back from him and could literally feel her heart tearing. She was not Mira...She was Emira.
Mira loved and respected Aron. She looked up to him because of all he had done for her. But she... she was not Mira. She was Emira. Emira, who loved Lance, Zen and Kael.
She shook her head sharply. She didn’t know what she was feeling was denial or something else, but she knew that she needed to go from here.
"You had no right to act on your own."
She watched as the gentleness from his face vanished, replaced by ruthlessness, "I don’t need your permission to protect you, Mira. Do you not remember my promise to you?"
Emira shook her head," No. I am not Mira." She watched him open his mouth and quickly shook it,"I know your promise to Mira. But I am not Mira. I don’t need or want your protection. Do you understand?"
Aron gave a smile then even though it made him more ruthless somehow. "So, in this life, they had succeeded in seducing you, Mira?"
Emira shook her head as she wondered if she was still under some kind of hypnosis. Somehow, everytime he called her Mira, a part of her yearned to go to him. Let him hold her so that she could complain about the world to him.
She tried to think desperately, before slowly asking him," You... you said that you want revenge too. Who do you want to take revenge against. If it is the ’three lords’ then they too died centuries ago. Maybe Lance, Kael and Zen are their reincarnations but they have done nothing against you."
Aron scoffed then. "Mira! I have no interest in the lords. All those years ago, they had been turned into tools to be used against you and me by someone else. My enemy is that person. The one who used you and the others to entrap me for eternity. And for that, I need your help Mira."
Emira stilled then. "What do you mean?"
Aron smiled then. "The person who killed you. The person who trapped me for eternity is still alive today. Don’t you think that person deserves to be punished too? To reap their just rewards?"
Mira stilled then," Who? Who is that person?"
Aron smiled then," You will know soon enough. But before that, Mira you have to make the choice. Will you choose to stand by me or will you choose them and stand against me."
He paused and gave her a look. Emira looked away. If this had been just her, she would not have hesitated to stand by Lance, Zen and Kael. But now, with Mira’s emotions and feelings swirling within her...she could not directly stand against him...
"I..."
He patted her head then, in the same way he used to in the past and said slowly," Make your choice carefully Mira. And remember, I will always be on your side."