Bargain of the Damned

The realization of what had transpired then through her father's confession was gut wrenching for her and Libertha didn't know how to react nor contain her feelings.

So she just kept kneeling there, silent and quiet as if she hadn't heard his confessions to killing her daughter.

Any wrong move from her now would put the life of her son in jeopardy. Even if she were to move, her bones were crushing inside her. What would she be able to do.

Libertha noticed her nose bleeding but there was no way to clean off the blood due to her hands being chained.

The soldier by her side had laced his hand into his pocket and had brought out a handkerchief he had been on his way to hand to her if not that he had paused after realizing where he was at.

Was he wanting to get himself killed by the King and his people? If not,what had he been planning to do?

Libertha did not notice him as he was by her side and her attention was focused on the King, intermittently drifting to the wizard and at the people.

Were they going to stand by and watch this all happen?

"Father…" she called out again, but this time was the last time she wanted to refer him by those names.

She hadn't complained when he confessed to killing her daughter, which she was sure he was responsible for her husband's death a well.

Again there was no response from him to her and his silence was slowly killing her.

She raised her head and stared at him for the last time. Was he going to falter this desperate plea of hers?

"I will serve you for as long as you let me live. I will be under your custody,under your guidance and your control. But please,in exchange for my child's life, take me Instead"

The King turned away from her.

She was insanely strong and that made it possible for her offsprings to be like her as well.

This has warranted him killing her daughter first. She had been the first suspect he had of inheriting her demonic origins.

No double thoughts about her Kate husband because he had been a human he forced her to marry them, but it had been her offsprings that poised the hard task for him.

He turned his head and gazed at her for once more.

She did look very serious and especially with her pleas, on her knees and before him.

It reminded him of something. Decades ago when he was on his own knees pleading with her demon father to fulfill the promise he had made to him in exchange for a night with his wife.

Truly,he had fulfilled all. Kingdoms, lands,conquests and victories in battles. He had strongholds of the entire east under his palm and took for himself whatever woman he wanted.

But he was far from being fulfilled nor satisfied with all that he had achieved. The demon hadn't mentioned the terms of his promise to him.

Especially the fact that he would never have an heir after him because of the pact he had made.

He had in real sense tricked him into offering his queen to him. The queen herself had her sex damaged by the seed he had ejaculated inside her.

The King clenched his jaw as the distant memory burned in his eyes.

He had cursed himself daily for not realizing he dirty tricks the demon had under his sleeves the day he was desperate. He should have known. That sinister smile. That look of conquest that had been on his face the night he had led his wife to a room for him.

He did win the war. He did conquer kingdoms. His reign did extend but at what cost when he lost the most precious thing to him?

At what cost when he bled?

At what cost when his Queen did bleed too? Barren after that night. So were his seeds, condemned to never being able to fertilize an egg.

No heir ever survived beyond infancy regardless of the woman he tried to with, except Libertha. The child sired in secret, the child he had tried so desperately hard to erase.

He had underestimated her when he sent her to the Demon Executioners order to train. He had wanted her to be killed by the demons in one of their fights but he had been wrong.

But here she was, stronger than any general in his army and her swordsmanship having no rivals.

He had committed the biggest mistake when he put a sword in her hands to fight. Not just did she have insane strength, now she did have an undefeated sword skill in the entire Kingdom.

She was the curse he didn't bargain for, the curse that had grown wings he couldn't cut.

"You would give yourself… for your son?" he asked at last, his voice deep and tired but yet laced with a bitter edge.

He staggered before her, trying to fix his gaze on her.

Libertha raised her head higher, blood drying along her upper lip with her chains rattling as her knees trembled.

"Gladly." she muttered.

If offering herself to him like a puppet under his command would be all it would take her to save the life of her son, then she would gladly do so. As long as he would be allowed to live.

He circled her slowly and his boots echoed ominously against the marble floor.

"You'd give up your freedom, your vengdetta against me, your very soul?" he asked again. It didn't look like something she would say.

She was a rebellious one and took no orders from anyone. With the string sense of justice she always has and felt in the past. She has gone against all of his orders she had seen as unjust. All of them. This had earned him the nickname of being a tyrant among his people. But they always discussed it in hushed times as each feared for their lives if he were to find out.

She didn't blink. "For him, yes." Sh muttered while staring at him. She was ready to defy herself and beliefs for her son's life. The king was still her to believe such maternal affection to be coming from her who was a half demon.

The King smiled faintly, an expression that was void of joy or empathy. "And yet you are the very reason he is cursed."

Her breath hitched. "He is not cursed." she wanted to curse back at him but held herself from doing so. She was at his mercy. Her son's life was at his mercy.

The King stopped behind her. "You think I do not know what stirs in his blood? I see it. That boy will have your strength. Your fury. He will not kneel when told to. He will defy me. Just like you did. Just like your father did"

Libertha sighed. How easy it was for him to always curse at the man he had made a pact with. He always excused his involvement in the contract that happened decades ago as if he wasn't the one who accepted it because of his greed and pride.

But she said nothing. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming.

She hadn't even seen this father of hers he always cursed. Neither does she know whom he was. Her father. The demon. The architect of her birth and her curse. She had spent years denying him and suppressing his blood that pulsed with brimstone inside her. But regardless of how many times she tried to prove herself worthy of being human to the King,he never believed that she could be worthy of being called human.

"I will raise him," she said, trembling but firm. "I will teach him to control it. To never be like me" she replied after a few minutes, as the myriads of thoughts that swarm freely in her head reduced.

The King laughed, bitter and hollow. "No. You will not raise him."

Was he seemingly telling her that she wouldn't be the one to raise her son? Libertha thought innocently.

Was he going to give her son to Joxxx to raise as well fearing that she might not raise him to cower at his feet like she had promised?

She was still stainfist him and expectant of a response from the glint in her eyes.

However they disappeared immediately she saw him not staring at her like she did.

His eyes were fixated on the wizard.

"No" Libertha muttered to herself knowing what that meant.

She screamed as he Kind raised his hand in the air and felt a bit of strength gush through her veins, even though they ached from the droplets that were coursing inside her.

She broke loose her arms from the chains that bound her. And reached for the chains on her legs which she broke as well.

The people screamed in fear, with those who stood at the forefronts of the crowd taking steps back.

In a swift move,the King's arm came down from the air it had been raised to before.