The Tyrant King Is Obsessed With Me

Chapter 22: Chapter 22 - Wine

Lilith smiled instead of fearing the looming danger. "Fortunately for us, I don’t intend to take a lover. You are already overbearing. Splitting my attention with another man would be draining."

"I hope you can keep your word about not eyeing another woman. Mistresses can be too bold at times. I would hate to have to kill one," Lilith said, her smile matching Cassian’s. "To a healthy marriage," she said, raising her glass.

"To a healthy marriage," Cassian said, raising his own.

Lilith set her glass down without taking a sip of the wine. "Look at us. Deluding ourselves."

"You don’t think we could be happy?"

"We could be, at times. I don’t believe any marriage in the castle could be healthy. Watch and see what happens when the smoke settles," said Lilith.

It was always going to be too good to be true.

"I should have killed your father before he ruined you. Before he made it so hard for you to trust others," Cassian said, his words carrying the weight of regret. He wished he could have gone further back in time and spared Lilith more heartache.

"I wouldn’t give him all the credit. Many others made it hard for me to trust so easily. You could be a good man," Lilith said, giving Cassian the benefit of the doubt. "But trust is a luxury I can no longer afford."

"I will confess that I might have been a little too harsh on you. Besides using me as a shield, you haven’t harmed me in any way. I am guarded around you because you were at his side. You must understand that I will always feel there is a motive behind everything you do," Lilith said, laying her feelings out in the open.

"I am aware, Lilith. I assure you that not every man who stood at your father’s side did so willingly. We chose to follow orders for peace," said Cassian.

"Then you killed him. Why? And do not say it was for me," Lilith said, tired of the excuse. "Give me a proper answer."

Cassian swirled the wine slowly in his glass.

Lilith was the only reason he had attacked the castle.

"I intended to walk away from all of it, but that wouldn’t give me the ending I want. Why follow a man who doesn’t care about his subjects when I could be king? I already fought battles to protect this kingdom," Cassian answered. freёweɓnovel.com

"Now you, dear Princess. What pushed you to plot to kill your father? I know you were building a small army within the castle. Why fight instead of leaving?"

"My mother," came the simple answer. "I was never meant to exist or bear the Beaufort name. I would have willingly left the castle had my mother lived."

Lilith looked down at her lap. She wasn’t going to cry before a man she hardly knew.

"You know the tale," Lilith said, looking up with an empty smile. "The king defiled a maid against her wishes, and rather than hate her husband, the queen turned her fury on my mother."

Lilith stared at the flame flickering on the candle before her. "She was the one who gave the order for my mother to be hanged in the garden. Ripped from my arms, killed in her nightgown, and I was forced to watch."

Lilith touched her chin, her fingers pressing lightly against the scar she had earned from a soldier forcing her to witness her mother’s slow, painful death.

"For my mother, her tormentors were never going to walk free. The bastard princess was going to have her chance on the throne," Lilith said, her voice quiet and certain. "I’m close to fulfilling that dream."

"My father is dead, and all his favoured children will join him. When I capture the queen, I am going to take her to that very garden and let her son watch as the rope tightens around her neck," Lilith said, an emptiness settling behind her gaze.

"Is that what your mother would have wanted? For you to be trapped inside the castle?"

"No, she didn’t want that," Lilith confessed, her fingers absently tracing the rim of the wine glass. "She always wanted to leave, but unlike you, who has vast lands and relatives, I only had my mother. With her taken from me, there was never a life for me outside the castle."

"Had we become acquainted with each other sooner, I would have taken you to my lands," Cassian offered.

"How touching, but then my father wouldn’t be dead. This dream you are offering about living on your lands and being away from the castle would have been wonderful when I was younger."

Unfortunately, you’re a bit too late," Lilith said, the longing she once might have felt for such peace long since hardened into something else. "I want the throne."

"I hate this," Lilith muttered. The realisation that she had said too much dawned on her. "I haven’t taken a sip, yet you managed to get so much out of me. If you speak a word of this to anyone, I will deny it."

"Oh," Cassian mused, the low sound carrying quiet amusement. "You won’t threaten to kill me?"

"Before we started over, I would have, but there is some use for you. If I am to have only one man in my life, then you should not be useless both in the court and in our chamber. I don’t kill anyone I find to be useful," Lilith said, deliberate with her words.

Lilith tapped her finger idly against the wine glass.

"It is from my manor," Cassian said, eyeing the wine. "Brought here just for the two of us. I am drinking from the same bottle," Cassian said, raising his glass.

Lilith hesitated, her eyes moving briefly to the bottle before she reached for her own glass. "To new beginnings," she said, raising it.

"To new beginnings," Cassian echoed.

Lilith brought the glass to her lips and took a slow sip of the wine, letting the warmth of it settle on her tongue. She needed it to fully relax after the weight of recent events.

Lilith set the glass down after one sip, a faint note of surprise crossing her expression. "It is good," she said. "You have good taste."

"Both in wine and in women," Cassian replied.

Lilith shook her head and couldn’t hold back the smile. "You never miss the chance to have your moment," she said. Then her expression shifted. A faint grimace pulled at the corners of her mouth, and an unsettling feeling began to build deep in her stomach.

Lilith pressed her hand to her throat.

"I must take every-" Cassian abruptly rose to his feet, the chair scraping sharply against the stone floor. His eyes widened at the sight of blood spilling from Lilith’s lips. Her right hand flew to her mouth, trying to contain the blood and the coughing fit. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"Lilith!" Cassian’s cry tore through the dining chamber.

Lilith’s fingers clawed at her neck, the burning pain spreading fast. She met Cassian’s eyes as he ran to her, and for the first time, the fear in his gaze was not for the throne or the kingdom.

"The wine," Lilith managed to whisper, the word barely leaving her before the room tilted.