I walked to the main court, and towards my grand throne, but I needed to check something.

"Giltren, are the disemboweling knives dulled?" I asked my servant. He looked over to the slaves in charge of the table of the knives, who nodded.

"Yes, sire."

"Is the chair impossible to break, and do the manacles completely tighten?"

"Yes, sire."

"Is the flamethrower fueled?"

"Are the flaying knives white-hot?"

"Yes, sire."

"Are the whips replaced with the newest ones?"

"Yes, sire."

"Has the blood and... fluids been washed off of our tools?"

"Good, now bring our guest in."

The grand doors creaked open before me. I kept my hands behind my back, awaiting Quinn.

Instead of another guard besides Zarias, Grail himself pulled the golden chains alongside Zarias. They seemed to be in a struggle, as expected.

With one strong jerk, they threw the figure at the end of the chains onto the floor before me and hurried to tie both ends to the posts on either side of the large hall.

I took a long look at the pitiful creature writhing and struggling in the chains she was tangled into. For some reason, she was hiding her face in the ground from me with a ridiculous bow.

I stepped forward and crouched near her cautiously, as she was still twitching. With one hand I grabbed her forehead and gripped her chin between two fingers of the other hand. I tilted her head up, and my heart broke. She had stopped moving altogether, she was in shock.

Nobody could have those big dark brown eyes resembling a doe's except Theodora, and the birthmark running down from her forehead through the eye and to her cheek, like warpaint. She used to call it that.

Be rational, how many girls can have dark brown eyes and hair with a scar through one eye? I did not know what to believe but one thing was for certain. Defying all sense of logic and possibility as she always defied her peers, my Theodora was alive.

Suddenly, she burst out laughing.

"Oh lord! Your ways are just amazing!" She sputtered between fits of laughter.

I stood up and turned around to contemplate what to do now. I had always wished that she would come back but now that she did, I did not know what to do. She had broken my heart by leaving, yet killing her or sending her away from me promised unimaginable pain. But I couldn't send the wrong message to the people either. It was like history was repeating itself, and I would once again choose between Theodora and my kingdom.

"I guess all that shine is for me. Am I supposed to beg for mercy or something?" Theodora asked, completely unfazed by the gut wrenching tools on the corner of the room.

I didn't answer her, as I kept thinking. The fear of losing either of the two things dear to me made my heart thunder.

I didn't mean to do it, but my wretch of a father kept insulting my bride, and that knife would have looked so much better if it was buried into his chest and painted with his blood. In a flash, my desire came true, and I was so hypnotized by the beautiful sight of Theodora covered in my enemy's blood no matter how frightened she looked.

Never in my wildest dreams I would have imagined her to take the blame when the guards had rushed in to the sound of Dimitri screaming when I was cutting off his fingers one by one before finishing the job. She snatched the knife from me and walked in front of the guards.

I screamed for the guards to not take her away, but nobody listened. The next thing I hear is that she somehow slips away into Manhattan. I couldn't let her leave now, no matter what.

She sat before me cross legged, waiting for my decision of her fate.

This was my kingdom, I could show mercy to whoever I deemed fit and whoever I didn't.

"On your feet." I commanded. Was I to address her as Theodora or Quinn? Of course there was her nickname she came up with for herself once, which was Theo.

"For the record, your majesty, I did not come here expecting to be alive, you sealed my fate the moment you saw my face." She said and looked straight up at me.

It was my turn to laugh. She was prepared for anything that came her way, maybe that is what exile does to one. The cold harsh world freezes their hearts. In Theodora's case, it was frozen to the point that she refused to give me the affection of a wife. We had so many dreams, but it seemed she just wanted to give up.

"I'm not going to execute you, Theo."

"It's alright-

"YOU SHAN'T LEAVE ME AGAIN!" I suddenly bellowed and yanked her up to my height by the neck of her shirt so I could look right into her eyes. I had a short temper, and nobody was stranger to it.

I narrowed my gaze into her frightened one, and all sense left me. It had taken so long to get to her, and when she became my wife she still was snatched from me. From that day, I had vowed to bring woe to the very society that plagued our minds with such customs of hierarchy that lead to my Theodora being taken from me. I slowly let her down, moving my hands to her shoulders to keep her from moving, more to stop her from collapsing after trembling so much.

"You are bound to me, remember? I will not leave you to death, and not even to yourself seeing how you manage to maintain my trust." I seethed, making sure every word was clear with the savagery I felt with her. It astonished me how true my love was, that it was still fresh.

"... T-the marriage... annulled... rings..." She whimpered the feeble argument, saying it garbled as she was still trembling.

Was it that she did not love me anymore? Never. I was too far gone to let her go, I would do anything to win her heart again. I had a door to happiness and Theodora was the key.

To crush her last argument into nothing while glaring at her, I held up my left hand to show her the shiny obsidian ring I wore all this time. It had been there for so long, it was a part of me. It was there as a reminder of her whenever my eyes caught someone attractive in her absence.

"Vic- your majesty, the people won't condone this." She said, disbelief laced in her voice. She still refused to meet my eyes, as they were darting around nervously to avoid me. She had almost called me by the name she used to, which was Vicky.

I looked down to her hand and saw a grimy metal band around her ring finger, its gem was missing but I didn't care. The filthy ring looked beautiful as ever to me, it was proof that happiness itself was in my arms. I didn't know exactly how frightened she was of me, but I knew it would be a great tool.