Marriage of Interest

The cold wind was to his liking, blowing into his hair making his skin colder.

His gaze focused on the forest that was away from the castle's gate where two guards were guarding.

He had gotten married, married to a fire mage just for his own interest.

He had heard about the fire mage right from the day she was born and had shown no interest even knowing that she was the only fire mage in existence. He had always been amused when he heard that the fire dragons attacked the small kingdom, Credia and that the fire mage was the main protector.

The fire dragons were getting more and more enraged due to the eternal winter that was getting colder and colder and had decided to kill him using the fire mage even though they knew that there was more to him.

....

"N... Please don't hurt me!" The man whimpered fearfully as Cyrus pulled his hair, yanking it slowly as he read the letter wearing a blank expression.

"Fools," Cyrus growled, his ice blue eyes blazed with silver and he yanked the man's hair even harder.

"Ahhh!" He shouted in pain.

"Do your job properly, I have no problem if you tell Esteban that I read the letter." He said calmly, pulling the man's hair even harder earning a scream from the man.

"Y...yes!"

"Good," He released the man's hair and the man stood up with tears in his eyes and took off running.

"Pathetic," Cyrus growled and ran his fingers into his hair.

He walked into the heart of the forest, staring at the thick frozen lake. "How about I kill you here?" The side of his lips pulled up but his voice remained flat.

He outstretched his arm towards the ice and the ice cracked revealing the water beneath it. Without hesitation, Cyrus jumped into the water and the ice closed back into its formal clean form.

Few minutes passed and large cracks started forming on the ice and a large roar followed that alerted Katherine and Darren who were in the forest at that moment.

They ran back to the castle's dining room meeting Sage eating her lunch like it was going to disappear.

Darren smiled in amusement and crossed his arms on his chest. "That is not very ladylike."

"I haven't eaten all day," Sage groaned.

"There is something in the frozen lake!" Katherine panicked, ran towards Sage and pulled her by her arm out of the dining room.

They arrived at the frozen lake and stood on top of it, seeing the few cracks that were on it.

Cyrus, who was in the frozen lake looking like he belonged in the water, had his eyes closed and got Sage's energy. He opened his eyes which turned into their silver reptile like form, raised his hands and directed a strong force to pursue only Sage.

When he felt that her friends were trying to help, he got furious and separated the force into three and dragged all of them into the water not caring if they all died.

He appeared in front of the fire mage and seeing her, he was speechless. Her emerald shone brightly even as she was at the verge of drowning, he could actually see stars in her eyes. Her flaming red hair swayed in the water in the most enticing way and the way her clothes swayed on her petite body caught his attention. He didn't know why but he wanted to hold her at the same time, he wanted to stab her with a spear.

He watched as she struggled to breath, how she was outstretching her arms to him but he didn't want to care, he decided to just let her drown and vanished from her sight.

Sage fell unconscious and water flowed into her nose. She was going to die and was sinking to the bottom of the lake.

Cyrus appeared behind her, scooped her into his arms and swam out of the frozen lake. He left the lake and into the forest where he placed her on the snow blanketed ground. He wasn't wet at all, he didn't even look like he had gotten close to the lake at all.

He leaned his face close to hers, pushed her wet hair that was on her face to the back and placed his hand on her forehead feeling that she was as cold as a frozen corpse. He could hear her heart beat getting low at every second, her veins were frozen, there was no place for her blood to flow.

"Are you really a fire mage? You cannot survive the small cold of a frozen lake." Cyrus spoke with distaste and held her wrist flicking his finger on the place he could feel her pulse and a low flame of fire appeared on her palm.

Cyrus stared at the flame which reflected in his icy blue eyes.

"Pathetic," He growled and crashed his lips on hers intertwining his hand with hers that had the low flame.

He absorbed the cold in her body, pulled away from her lips and stared at her as she coughed out a little bit of water.

She was conscious, his cold expression remained the same and he leaned his lips to her ear whispering, "I will let you live but you will have to do something," then stood up and walked away disappearing in the forest.

When night came, he saw Sage's friends wake her up and heard their conversations. Appearing behind her to scare her, he then appeared back on the frozen lake.

Cyrus went to the opposite side of the forest meeting Arthur pacing around anxiously.

Noticing Cyrus's presence, he stopped at bowed his head, "I got worried sire,"

"And why is that?" Cyrus narrowed his eyes at the young man. "I need you to send a letter to Credia castle, without anyone seeing you." He added and Arthur lifted his head looking slightly shocked.

When everything had been done, Cyrus went to the Credia castle at night, he sat on the highest tower roof which was Sage's room and heard her conversation that she had with her friends. He was impressed when she noticed him in the garden.

The way she stared at him that night from the room, she looked no less than a parrot, a red parrot.

When she left hurriedly, he decided to leave as he was getting bored.

He didn't return to Antica but back to the forest where Arthur and the other guards were with two large tents.

"Why the tents?" He asked, his eyebrows rose.

"Your Majesty is getting married," Arthur replied, smiling brightly.

"Is River at the castle?"

Arthur blinked rapidly, his smile fell. "Yes, he sent word that he knows about the letter that Esteban sent." He informed me.

"I am only getting married to the girl to have her fire core, if I don't have it I will kill her." Cyrus said with no remorse and his expression remained cold as usual.

Arthur swallowed hard and laughed nervously. "Y..yes your majesty."

Cyrus walked into the tent and laid on the bed. He wanted to breathe fire and ice. Cyrus's frost powers weren't normal, they were eternal and could never be melted no matter what, collecting the fire core of Sage which was her life source and power source, he would be able to breathe fire.

The next day came really quickly, Cyrus made his way to the castle riding on Arthur. When they landed, he watched humans and mages run away in fear like flies.

Cyrus jumped off Arthur who transformed back to his human form and the black dragon also transformed into the dark skinned man who wore a solemn expression.

"Arthur and Victor come with me." Cyrus commanded and walked into the castle.

Not paying attention to the people watching and clearing the way for him, his eyes focused on his bride standing on the altar with horror written on her face. Looking away from her reaction, he noticed how beautiful, different and matured she looked. Her red glossy lips parted in shock, her eyes bigger than usual, her small pointed nose to her red hair that was combed straight and silk. He couldn't unsee the white furry gown that was adorned with silver diamonds. The way it fitted her petite body, her milky white skin that was seen from her neck to her collarbones and shoulders. Her bosom plump, not too big, not too small.

His bride was really prepared.

When he arrived in front of her, he noticed that she was flustered due to his features and the way she bit her lower lip made him feel strange. He had never felt that way before.

She lowered her head. "You..."

"Me?"

He didn't pay attention to the man who was joining them together, he kept his eyes on her until he realized that they had gotten married.