A sumptuous banquet for the Amorite lords was held in the Golden Palace, and the new king of the Silla kingdom, King Ara, was to attend. When the old king died, his successor came to negotiate the terms of a truce with the Shadow King, which his father refused. Dead King Edric refused to cooperate with the Shadow King. At no cost. However, the Shadow King was not opposed, and so their kingdom was forced to suffer.

Amaya was preparing for a feast that Arawn had forced her to attend. Ever since she made a deal with him thirty years ago to save the life of the prince she loved, he had controlled her entire life. She had to follow his orders every second of every day. She was just a puppet in his hands. Her movements no longer belonged to her. Her words were no longer her words. She became a mindless instrument of his power.

Sometimes he was nice, treating her like the love of his life, and other times he was the monster everyone thought he was. For example, when he tried to destroy the bond between her and Ciaran, now actually King Ciaran, the ruler of Deira. When their deal forced her to return to him, she asked him to break the bond. At first, he seemed to succeed, but a few days later it reappeared. He tried again and again over the years, but he never managed to break the bond. He tried to erase Ciaran from her memories, but he still haunted her in her dreams. He was furious about it. It drove him insane, and he took that anger out on her. However, he could also be gentle. At least she told herself to endure the hell with him.

They were lying in bed. Arawn kissed her and she returned the kiss coldly. His kisses were far from tender. They were predatory. He claimed her entire being. He nibbled gracefully on her lower lip. She tasted her own blood on her tongue.

"I had your dress prepared for the evening," he told her.

"You want to show me off as your property again?" she asked him.

"But you are my property, Amaya. Don't forget that." Arawn said, a mischievous smile adorning his lips.

"How could I." Amaya rolled her eyes.

Arawn got off the bed and left her alone. "Go get ready," he told her before disappearing through the door of her chamber. "Wear the dress I got prepared for you."

Amaya threw her bathrobe over her and went to look at the dress he had sent her for the evening. They were the colors of the ocean. They were decorated with gold ornaments. They wound around the neck, around the hands. They were narrow, widening at the bottom like a siren's tail. A perfect cut in which she will not be able to move. He wanted her to be as vulnerable as possible.

And it wouldn't be her if she didn't show him her defiance.

⸸

The guests were waiting for the arrival of the queen. The Shadow King was getting impatient. He was about to go look her to her chambers when she finally showed herself. However, as soon as he saw her, he would have preferred if she had not shown herself at all. He would be less angry.

She appeared dressed in a red dress. Red as blood. Her skirt was open in the front so she could move freely. Her hair was held back with gold clips. Perhaps no one else saw it, but she was well aware of the fury burning in Arawn's eyes that could burn the entire world. She was almost intimately familiar with it.

Arawn swallowed his anger and his desire to remind her of who she belonged to and nonchalantly approached her. He took her hand in his. Like a true gentleman, he kissed her on the cheek.

"Darling," he glared at her.

"My king." She bowed softly to him.

They turned to the guests, who were impatiently waiting for the feast to begin. The lords bowed before them.

"Excuse my lateness, ladies and gentlemen. There were minor problems with the dress, but guess the ladies know and understand that." Amaya spoke.

King Ara of the Silla kingdom approached them. "The Shadow King." he bowed before them. "Queen Amaya." he nonchalantly kissed the back of her hand.

"It is my honor to welcome you to the Golden City, King Ara," Amaya said.

"If I may ask, I'm quite confused as to who actually rules this kingdom," King Ara said. "King or Queen?"

"Both together," Arawn replied. "We are both Amorite rulers and equal. This is not Silla, where only a man has the right to rule."

"There is a reason for it. Women are often frivolous and influenced by their emotions. It's only a logical decision that only male descendants rule," argued King Ara.

"You forget that you have come to the territory of the dark creatures, King Ara." the Shadow King gave him a malicious grin. "If I were you, I'm not insulting their queen."

King Ara swallowed hard. He must have just realized how stupid he had been when he decided to come to the Golden City.

"We are not here tonight to stir up conflict. We are here for peace."

Amaya felt like laughing at those words. They sounded unnatural from his mouth. There was no such thing as peace for the Shadow King. He will either conquer you or destroy you.

"Let's sit down to the feast," Arawn called upon King Ara.

They sat down. The room was gravely silent. The Lords did not allow themselves to speak and break the fragile patience of the Shadow King. And besides, it wasn't a feast for them. They were supposed to be mere spectators in his twisted game. And at the same time, it was meant to be a reminder of what would happen to anyone who stood up against the Shadow King.

"We are here for peace, so let's talk about peace," King Ara spoke. "The Kingdom of Silla requests that you stop sending your dark creatures to our territory."

"Our dark creatures?" laughed Arawn. "I don't know that any of them belong to me. They have minds of their own and make up their own decisions."

"Do not think that you are fooling me with these words, King Arawn." King Ara said indignantly. "You are attacking us because my father once insulted your pride and refused to cooperate with you."

"Truth. I don't like rejection." the Shadow King acknowledged.

"But Deira remains untouched," King Ara remarked. "I would put it down to the fact of a certain wedding my father witnessed." he turned his attention to Amaya. "That's probably why you wear the colors of Deira instead of your own kingdom."

She could see the anger in Arawn's eyes as he suppressed it. His muscles tensed with anger. Amaya only lightly laughed at King Ara's comment.

"Actually, I wear red for much more practical reasons. You don't see blood on it when I kill someone," she said. "The marriage to Prince Ciaran was forced. It was a punishment from his father, who hated him all his life, for kidnapping me."

She reached out to Arawn. He took her hand in his. She gave him a fake smile.

"But the Shadow King saved me from that hell on earth. Now I'm free and I'm extremely grateful to him for that."

Arawn kissed the back of her hand. He gave her the same fake smile she gave him.

"My father was very disappointed in you when it was revealed what you are. You are blessed by the gods and make pacts with dark creatures. No wonder the gods rejected you." King Ara said with venom on his tongue.

"I was born of Death, of course, so I am a dark creature. It's not my fault that people thought otherwise. I just took advantage of the opportunity their stupidity brought me." laughed Amaya.

"You are a hypocrite, Queen Amaya." King Ara said. "And a monster."

Amaya was still hot-headed, that hasn't changed with time. She quickly allowed herself to be provoked. The shadows enveloped glistening gold. The rays of light were swallowed up by darkness. Amaya released her shadows. Her eyes turned black. Black veins snaked across her skin. Even though the lords were used to her outbursts of anger, they still trembled in fear when she released the shadows.

One grabbed King Ara by the neck. It dug its sharp claws into his skin but did not cut it. It sniffed its victim. It wanted to tear him to pieces. But it didn't even move until its mistress gave the order.

"Funny as you people can bend the meaning of the word to suit you. Never according to the true essence, but always only according to whether the given monster," she uttered the word with all the resistance she could find in herself. "subject to your power or not. Monsters are only monsters if they are free and obedient dogs if they follow your orders. This is not Silla. This is Amorite, and we are ruled by no gods, and certainly not inferior men."

Arawn laughed sinisterly. He adored this part of her. He didn't understand why she defied it so often. It was more fun with her when she lusted for blood.

"You dare come to our home, King Ara, and insult us?" Arawn told him. "A very reckless and stupid decision. This is not the way to negotiate measures of peace."

"Anyway, you've made it clear that I won't get out of here alive. I will not die knowing that my last words were a lie." King Ara said fearlessly looking into the eyes of death.

"If you had a little humility, today's meeting could have ended very differently," he turned to his queen. "Amaya."

"You are not the queen by his side. You are only an executioner in his service." was the last thing he managed to say before the shadow ripped his throat out of his neck.

⸸

Arawn grabbed Amaya by the neck and pinned her against the wall. The force with which he did it almost took her breath away. She hit her head. However, she did not resist him. He could do whatever he wanted with her. She was already used to it.

"Are you having fun teasing me like that, Amaya?" he said with venom on his tongue.

"It's really the only fun I have left," Amaya replied.

"You know I like your defiance, but one day I might stop enjoying it, dear Amaya," he said. "Then I promise you no more mercy."

Amaya laughed. "You will not hurt me, Arawn. You think I'm so stupid and I haven't figured out why you wanted to keep me in your power so badly. You won't hurt me because you can't." she told him triumphantly.

His grip on her throat tightened. He denied her air. She couldn't breathe. She tried to push him away, but he was stronger. Much stronger. He continued to push her against the wall with his body. She couldn't move. She dug her nails into his wrist to get him to let her go. She dug them into his flesh, even into his blood. He didn't notice it at all.

"Arawn." came out of her mouth in a weak voice.

"Arawn."

His grip kept getting tighter and tighter. She thought he was going to break her ligament at any moment. A furious flame burned in his eyes.

"Arawn."

Out of the blue, he let her go. She fell to the ground. She was gasping for air. She was taking air into her lungs with full gulps. She rubbed her bruised throat.

"Don't you ever dare to contradict me again, Amaya," he told her angrily. He tried to control his anger, but it seeped unstoppably to the surface. "I leave you more freedom than necessary. You should be grateful for the freedom I give you."

"And I'm more devoted to you than you deserve," Amaya told him in a still weak voice.

Arawn knelt beside her. He pierced her with a look. He furiously grabbed her leg and pulled her to him.

"I hate that dress," he said. "I never want to see you wearing red again."

As if from nowhere he pulled out a dagger and started cutting the dress off her. He cut her skin in places, but the wounds healed immediately. It didn't happen by accident, he did it on purpose. With animal anger, he tore off her dress until they were nothing but pieces of fabric lying on the floor and she was completely naked in front of him. Her heart was pounding fast. She felt every beat in her whole body.

"Have you calmed down yet?" Amaya told him.

"Not at all," he replied.

"Then we should go hunting," suggested Amaya. "For sure it will distract you."

Arawn took off his doublet and wrapped Amaya in it. "You have to admit that you like being a dark creature. You would not bear to live a peaceful human life."

"Maybe that's why I never tried to run away," Amaya said.

"You belong here, so stop resisting," Arawn told her. "You belong to me."

He pressed her to his chest and kissed her. This time there was an unnatural tenderness in his kiss. As if he was stealing her soul with it.

"I know," she said, knowing it's truth.