Excerpt: Interwoven

The celebration of her adulthood and wedding had lasted for most of the night. It was no surprise, there had been little chance for such a joyous celebration. It was definitely not every day that the princess turned eighteen and wed the eldest son of the first house.

The people were very happy to see their future assured and Lillia couldn’t blame them one bit. They thought everything was perfect now because it was now only a short time before she would pass along the demon to her child as far as they knew.

Except that there would be no child, and she couldn’t tell any of these people that. Only she and her father and a few trusted others who were responsible for her health.

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t tried to come up with ideas, it was just that there were none. And then when the attempts on her life started happening, she became more and more scared.

It was hard knowing that her life meant the difference between the world continuing to exist or not. Why did such a large burden have to be hers?

She just couldn’t stand watching the people be so happy and express their wishes for a female child soon and keep on smiling while she was lying. She asked to retire early and her wish was granted.

Of course, that led to crude comments about how her husband already wanted her again. True, after today it wouldn’t be frowned upon if they spent the whole week, or even a month within their own chambers and having meals brought to them. That was how important a child was to the kingdom. Any other couple would enjoy a few days and maybe even take a short trip together, but for her safety she had to remain here.

She didn’t want that at all. She planned that after their discussion with her father that she would resume her normal life and merely let her husband use her as he wished before she went to bed.

The only problem was, she had found it quite enjoyable. As far as she had known, the act was merely another duty to her people, it wasn’t supposed to be pleasant. And while it had hurt at first, it hadn’t been so bad.

Actually it had been quite nice, and she felt that was wrong. The act was supposed to be for the sake of giving her husband a child and she could not do that. Duty was not supposed to be pleasurable. She might enjoy the results of duty, but it was still duty.

She’d run to the room she and Alex would share as quickly as she could once they had excused themselves. She just wanted to go to sleep without doing anything more with him. She wasn’t going to put herself through that act again until he knew that it was worthless.

Her husband would of course follow her, but she hoped that by surprising him she would have enough of a head start to reach the door and lock it behind her. She felt bad for the idea, but she had to do it.

She was relieved when she made it to the door and had it locked behind her. And just in time because she could hear her husband pounding on the door and asking what was going on. She ignored him. He could find another room to stay in for tonight.

The room was mostly dark, only a candle or two had been lit to ensure they could see enough to reach the bed. The day was warm, so no fire had been lit either.

Good, the darkness suited her. She continued to ignore her husband and merely changed from the dress she had worn for the celebration into her nightgown.

She had her dress off and it was on the floor beneath her when she realized she something wasn’t right. She could feel a strong breeze that shouldn’t be there. Had someone left the window open?

Not caring about her nude state since she was alone, she walked towards the window. It was open. “Strange, I didn’t order the window to be left open…” She shut it quickly, it was a cool night and she didn’t want to let all the warmth out.

“Oh no, that won’t do at all.”

She turned quickly towards where the voice came from. She wasn’t alone, who could be here with her? “Show yourself!”

“And ruin the view? Never. I can accomplish my goal from here. Just stand still and let me free you at last.”

Free her? Oh, no. Not again! Her heart was pounding, she was standing in here with another assassin and she had no protection, not even a bit of clothing.

And she had stupidly locked the door.