Chapter 9: Wedding Vows

'How can a man look so handsome? It's almost blinding,' she thought.

"Rise," the queen mother ordered. The King stood, like a gentleman he offered his hand to Azea to help her up.

Azea took his hand. Her mouth ran dry, her eyes trailed his lower and upper lip with desire. Wildest dreams formed in her head.

She found it interesting how her dreams took a new form in each moment all in one night. The King pulled her up with no effort at all.

"It's time for the vows," the queen announced. The King steadied Azea and moved a distance from her back to where he stood before.

Azea and the mysterious king were made to face each other. To say their vows to each other, Azea felt light on her feet. Looking at the king from that angle was intoxicating.

She gulped.

As a girl uninterested in getting married. Azea never fancied any man, and when she saw girls fawning over young men. She was most likely to buff or vomit.

It never occurred to her that one day she would meet a male as handsome as hell to sweep her off her feet with a mere glance.

The king received the royal ring from the imperial queen mother. Azea held out her left hand for him, it was every girl's dream. To marry a handsome prince and for Azea, it became her dream the moment she gazed upon the king.

"With this ring, I Adrian Amblecrown, the king of Astria, take you Aleena De Luza as my wife," the king uttered in a rich smokey voice.

Soft music started playing in the background. A love song tuned at the perfect moment to highlight the vows the groom was making to his bride.

Azea waited patiently for him to finish. Everything else had faded into the background leaving only the king in her sight. She was drawn into the magnetic attraction that pulled her towards him.

"I can't promise you that tomorrow will be perfect or that our lives will be without faults," he began to say. "But I can promise you that in all the chaos, my evaluating devotion, loyalty, and respect."

The King put the ring on her ring finger after taking his vows. It all went down in a matter of seconds yet to Azea the moment seemed longer.

She was blown away by Adrian's voice. It was deep and melodic, like a rhythm of sugar and spice. Promising a fairy tale life filled with untold uncertainties and chaos.

A life that was so tempting that Azea's plans of running away paled in comparison. No future she could give herself in the sunset would ever come close to life beside the king.

"Your turn, Aleena," the imperial queen noted.

King Adrian lifted his hand to her. Azea stared at his slender long fingers mesmerized by the king. It was only moments back that she got the chance to hold his hand. His warm comfortable hand.

Azea bit her lip, curious as to whether she will feel the electric tingles in her nerve endings. If she proceeded to take Adrian's hand in hers.

Her hesitation was felt by the king. "Is there a problem?"

Azea was brought back to the moment by the king's voice. "None at all your majesty," she replied. Slowly, she took his hand and gently held it in hers. Scared that increased pressure might bruise his soft skin.

His touch flickered emotions in Azea. Warm fuzzy feelings that were a stranger to the girl. Yet she didn't find it worrying, it was like floating in the clouds with the wind in her hair.

A feeling full of bliss that Azea had no words to explain it. "The ring dear," the imperial queen mother let out.

Azea took the ring, she had to take her vows. No one informed her that she would become a bride that very night. She wasn't prepared to promise herself to someone.

However there she was with no other option than to do just that. Azea inhaled deeply. All of her nerves were out of place. Her anxiety spiked up. Terrified to do it wrongly and provoke the anger of the king and his mother.

'There is no right or wrong way to take a vow,' she heard a voice beside her ear in a whisper and tensed. 'Look into my eyes,' the voice commanded. Azea raised her gaze at the king, the man's lips were unmoving yet she could hear his smokey voice whispering in her ear.

'What is happening!'

Azea started to panic. 'I'm running mad?'

A million thoughts ran through her head. The whole world was watching with anticipation to hear her vows. Her silence was creating suspense in the air that had them on their toes.

Pondering as to what was keeping her from taking her vows. Some worried that she might have changed her mind last minute and was rethinking her decision. Others worried that the king's devilish looks might have entranced her to such an extent that she was without words.

Others feared that Azea might have discovered some sort of truth in the rumors that spread regarding the king and were scared to marry him.

The queen however was worried that the girl's silence might offend her son. The sun would be up soon anf they needed to get the wedding over and done with before the first ray of the sun casts down on them.

'Speak from the heart. Profess your feelings to me, permit me to know how you feel.'

Azea continuously blinked her eyes. She found it weird, how she was able to hear the king when he wasn't talking.

Her body was compelled by the voice. Gazing deep into the king's eyes, Azea opened her mouth to speak, "With this ring, I Aleena De Luza. With everyone as my witness...."

Azea froze.

The imperial queeb grabbed her hand in haste. "T..he ring," she insisted. Her voice trembling with fear. Azea dared not refute, she inserted the ring into the king's ring finger quickly.

No sooner had she helped the king wear the king did the sun start rising in the sky.

"I now pronounce you man and wife," the queen mother announced to the world.