Prologue- Sell Soul And Salvation

"Sire, please!" She begged the devil who smirked at her misery. The devil who had seduced her. Her fiance. Desperate tears welled up in her ocean eyes. "Please, I don't want to die... Help me!"

"Laylin." He breathily called her name, thumping her heart. She saw his sculpted face through the smoke of his cigar. The huskiness in his voice flustered her. He beckoned her closer with his two fingers.

It was humiliating but she was a fool who swallowed her pride and took tentative steps closer whenever he beckoned her.

'I hate myself for loving you.' She shut her eyes in self-loathing but it was him.

He observed her with lazy golden eyes that had been bewitched at first sight. Then took another swig of his cigar with disinterest. Her heart clenched in pain.

'Why? Why must he look at me like that? Why couldn't he look at her like he looked at her?' The complaints were at the tip of her tongue but she held it in.

Clenching her fist, she stepped forward to stand beside the divan he was seated on.

"Closer." She was already too close than was appropriate for an unmarried woman!

He tilted his head, looking at her face burning in mortification. A sadistic glint entered his eyes. "Close enough so I can look down in your daring eyes." 

His forefinger bends to point at the floor. Ambrose smirked when her widened eyes met him. 

She swallowed the emotions stuck in her throat. She took a deep breath to calm her heart that was thundering in her chest.

"Ple-Please. I beg of you." She whispered and her voice cracked. Kneeling down in front of the cruel man who was the only person who could be her savior now, she begged. "Please... help me! I-I don't want to die. If the trial happens I... and Eloise-"

"You should have thought of it before you tried to assassinate Sayon." He indifferently mocked her and she clenched her teeth. "You are repulsively malicious for a weak human."

Her heart throbbed. She loved him, and the disgust in his eyes pierced her heart more than the mocking whispers or dirty looks others gave her.

She had shouted she didn't do it till her throat was dry but no one here would believe her. He would never believe her over 'her'. If she brought it up, he would throw her out without another word.

Her lower lip trembled. She was guilty of being framed. She was guilty of being gullible. Her innocence was her crime.

"I... I'm at fault. Please help me." She held his sleeve. "I'll devote my life to you!"

Soffing, he snatched his sleeve. "Devote your life to me? Your life is already over." He chuckled, his laugh filled with sick amusement. "You must think highly of yourself to assume that ogling you was more than enough to please a man."

Laylin's face lost color, she staggered in disbelief. "W-What?" 

"Oh, so you did." He feigned to be surprised.

She couldn’t bear to look at him any longer, swiftly turning her head downwards. Her pride was wounded and this but she still stayed rooted in place.

He was crude and his language was dirty but this cruel world had abandoned her. "Sire, I'll live the rest of my life quietly with virtue-"

"Oh?" He cut her off with a rise of his brow. "And what is in it for me if you live quietly?" 

Nothing. There was nothing that she could ever offer him.

Delighted at her crestfallen face, he grabbed her jaw to tilt her head up at him. her eyes met his when a shiver ran down her spine. His eyes had the lust she had seen often before.

A profane desire opposite of the romantic love she foolishly hoped he would give her. It made her skin crawl.

"Si... Sire..." She tried to pull away from him but his hold on her jaw only tightened. Her body shivered with cold fear.

His eyes ran over her body under the flimsy nightdress and humiliation washed over her. She grabbed his wrist but his magnetic glare kept her frozen on spot. Should she leave now, she would surrender her only hope of helping herself and her dear Eloise. There was no other option but to relent...

Lust gleamed in his eyes when he met her terrified eyes. He clicked his tongue, drinking in her ethereal form. "Sweetheart, Ehan, your beloved land, has abandoned you. Your family and allies have turned their backs on you." His other hand tapped on the open letter with her father's seal. "I'm your only salvation."

"No." Her eyes read the content in disbelief. She couldn't say she didn't see it coming but it pierced her heart like a nail was hammered on it.

Her father had given the King all the rights to punish her!

"No... Why?" She broke then. They have burnt all the bridges and left her to die.

She grabbed the letter, trying to free herself from his hold but he just pulled her in his arms.

"I am all you have." His hot breath fanned over her frozen-cold face. "Sell your soul to me, Laylin."

She looked up shocked at the devilishly handsome face through her tears. 

"Abdicate your title, leave your name, and be my concubine, I'll dissolve all charges against you." He ran his finger smoothly on her plump lips.

'Concubine? A concubine when she was set to be his legal wife? He wanted her to live like his mistress! Was it so he could make his lover his wife...?'

A renewed fury surged in her but all she could do was chew on her lower lip. Rebellious tears streaked down her face. After the assassination she was framed for, there was no way she was qualified to be his wife but to be a concubine?

"You love me, you will have me." He made promises he wouldn't honor with a deceitfully sweet smile. His smile throbbed her heart. It didn't help her case. "You will not need anything." 

His voice was enticing, his manipulation deceitful. He was indeed a fiend and he was asking her to sell her soul to him.

Alarms bell rang warning her of the hell she was jumping in but she was too far gone to be saved.

This demon was her only salvation. He was immoral and sinister but it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was her revenge.

Revenge on those who took her innocence, starting from his lover who was the last straw.

"...Yes." At her broken will, the King smirked. Both of them knew that her life would never be the same again.

'Soon.' She promised herself. 'I'll make you regret this day, my love.' She swore as her vision blurred with tears. 

At that moment, she recalled how the esteemed Princess of a Princess ended up in this demon's clutches.