As Husband And Wife

"Has she always been this bold?" Amraphel whispered under his breath.

His fingers gently touched his lips, and even after a short while had passed, Amraphel still couldn't believe what just happened. It was simply odd for her to act like that, though, at the same time, it felt amazing.

"What could she be thinking about to do such a thing? You just made my heart skip a beat, my Empress..." He spoke to himself, only it was him there to talk to anyway.

As Hera left the balcony, a certain presence felt like it was following her. More so, to her, it felt as if it was stepping on the floors she trudged in also.

She paused from walking, "Show yourself..."

In that instant, Gavryll appeared behind her. There was a meter distance as he stood behind her, she veered around to him with a scornful grimace.

"What do you need, Emperor?"

Her accent was frigid, certainly, she wished not to talk to him. How could she? After all that he had done against her, Hera found the need to not speak with him.

"Hera, I plead, allow me to have a word with you..."

His eyes dangled to solemnity, and his voice begged her but what can he do? Hera wanted to not even get close to him, hear his voice, and even more, breathe the air he breathed. Hera wanted to be away from him, to ease her mind even just for once.

"I won't allow you to. Emperor, do your duties instead of wandering around the palace with the goal of your leisure." She tauted.

It was rigorous when she spoke, she felt her body temperature rise with the intensity of her hatred toward him.

"Just for a moment, I plead, Hera...Let me speak to you, I mean not to speak with you as an Emperor and Empress of one empire but as husband and wife bound with a wedding vow."

His face was replenished with a portrait of misery, his brows creased in sadness and his eyes fell solemn. Hera could only scoff at his enunciation.

"You have gotten delusional, Gavryll, have you?" She raised her brows whilst a grimace hung on her countenance.

She footed close to him, her hands drifted on his shoulders and her body overlapped his poise. She leaned forward, her cheeks intersected with his shoulders. "I marveled with your delusion..." she uttered in the silence.

"Have you forgotten how you treated your wife, Gavryll? What was it that you did to her? Now you wished to speak a word with her? Where has your shame gone? Oh, right, I recalled you were always a disgrace..." she implied.

Gavryll's eyes hinted with an aggravated expression. Though that was all he could do, Gavryll knew that if he provoked her, Hera might aim for his head. Since her return, everyone in the imperial palace seemed to value their lives. After all, Hera was a toxin one would not want to inhale.

"You need not remind me that..."

Hera scoffed, she poised up and her hands slid from his shoulders. She flared with disgust as she wiped her hand on her skirt behind, she groaned and tossed her eyes upward.

"Then I consent you to speak, I suppose a short while is sufficient for your nonsense..."

Gavryll sighed, "Hera, my wife..." He started.

"I have come to realize that all this while as I stood beside Odette that I loved you. That my declarations of love for her were precisely meant for you and were not for her. Perhaps, I treated you too badly that I started to find you in the glimpse of her."

She chuckled, but more rather it was because she found it ridiculous to believe this announcement he made. "My, what declaration of love, I was moved," she jested.

It never touched her soul one bit, none of the words he spoke did.

"Then, what are you intending to imply?"

"Hera, allow me to love you. Allow me to return the greatness of your love to you. Allow me to be better and we shall build a family of our own. Allow me to be yours again and you to be mine..."

That was ridiculous. It certainly was and Hera could only find the means to chortle.

Gavryll barely even loved Odette. As someone who grew up inside the brothel, Gavryll loved women and Hera knew about this. Gavryll never has gone behind Hera's back about Odette but he did with other women.

Even if Gavryll entertained Odette and gushed all his attention to her, Gavryll also slept with many women to suffice his lust and his need for women.

How could she believe him when he was always like this?

He was commonly born to be a cheater, she thought. There was no righteousness in him, no loyalty or devotion. All there was in him was infidelity, unfaithfulness, and unrighteousness. He was to not be trusted, Hera knew that.

She vied to not place her faith in him once again, because the last time she did, it led her to countless deaths of her inner soul.

She wanted that to not happen again to her.

To this extent, Hera strived to not be the victim of her prey, instead, she was the culprit and he was the victim. The scapegoat and fatality, that was what Gavryll was supposed to be.

Just as she vowed to herself, Odette and Gavryll will fall on her hands. Their blood will spill an endless river on her fingers and she will crush them whole. That was the sort of revenge she vied to execute.

"That was indeed a delightful travesty, Gavryll. You failed not to make me laugh, I guarantee," she gleamed though her eyes gleamed not.

"I spoke no farce nor travesty, I only spoke of the genuine feelings my heart held. I just announced my realization and what has happened. I meant, my love for you was never gone, it was always there..."

"Ridiculous, are you not? Your love was never gone indeed, for its presence was never there. You never once loved me, Gavryll. It was a waste that I did..."

Her hands patted his shoulders lightly. "I suppose that short while I gave you is up. I gleefully will leave after this husband and wife conversation," she emphasized her last three words with her goal to treat with contempt on what Gavryll had called it.

She placed both her hands before her, the other clasped over the other, and she was prepared to leave.

After two consecutive steps, Gavryll resolved to grab her hands, her eyes revolted to him with scorn and full of hatred.

"Hera..." he silently called.

Her eyes lit with fury whilst it laid to his hand which gripped her wrists.