Though he never hoped for things to ever come to that, if it ever did—which he had already planned out in his mind what he would do—he would have to leave her and return to Nightbrook sooner than later to take his revenge, and the golden seat that comes with the crown.
However, the problem was that it would take him long to get that, as he had just only discovered what came with having his heart back. Having his heart had seemed to weaken a few of the strengths he once had, which troubled him a great deal when he discovered that last night he tried to fight a witch’s spell and it almost un-lived him.
Not to mention, when he tried to use his wings and realized in great fury that his wings had not healed enough to make him fly again—the Gagger who he had fought that day had done a big deal of damage to the wings.
Whatever he did from here on had to be calculated gently, and whatever happens, his wife must not get entangled in it again, not even in his battle with the throne, which he wasn’t about to tell her. He would rather keep her safe here and take the battle alone.
"I don’t like this," Belle mused with crestfallen eyes and a displeased purse of her lips.
"What?" Rohan arched a brow. "You don’t like me touching your thigh?" he said with mirth.
Belle, who had not even noticed that he was touching her thigh, swatted his hand away from it and glared at him with tear-filled hazel eyes.
"Stop playing around, I am serious. I don’t like how you’re making it sound like our stay together here is only temporary. I shouldn’t have brought up the topic because now I know I will be in constant fear of what you said about things going wrong."
Rohan wanted to find amusement in her glare and how she was getting emotional, but he couldn’t find that amusement in it like he once would have. In the past, he would make light of everything and find amusement in the worst situations, but it seemed having a heart had tamed that part of him and made him feel, and try to be in her shoes, to know how whatever he was saying to prepare her for the worst wasn’t something he should have said now.
Not on this day, at least, where he wanted to keep her happy and worry-free.
Now he regretted saying all that he had, and he quickly tried to make amends by pulling her into his arms and hugging her.
"It’s not like that. Don’t take my words seriously. Nothing will go wrong. The king would never get suspicious enough to send for any investigation of the people who live in the manor. We haven’t done anything to raise suspicion, and Rav and I make sure to compel whoever we take blood from," he assured her, stroking his hand up and down her spine as he held her.
But he could still feel her worries, his words weren’t easing her, and he desperately tried to find a way to amend the mistake he had made.
"Look, we’ve arrived at our destination!" Rohan announced with great relief, unable to find any better way to lift her spirits and distract her than by having her walk the snow-covered city like she had said she wanted. If they strolled and toured the park, perhaps it would lift her mood before they reached their actual destination, Rohan mused determinedly as he helped her down the carriage steps.
Belle did not say a word even when they got down from the carriage, as she couldn’t take her mind off what Rohan had said and every other possibility of what could go wrong. She had thought this kingdom would be safe, but it turned out to also hold its own disadvantages that terrified her more than she would have wanted it to.
She was so paranoid that when they walked the snow-covered streets side by side, she did not pay attention to anything in her surroundings until a fat snowball was hurled at her from somewhere in the noisy place, it hit her hard on the chest and snapped her back to reality.
At first, she had thought it was Rohan who had hit her, until she noticed he was still beside her, holding her hand. It was when she looked up that she noticed they had walked into a place like a fair, with many kids playing in the snow and a few adults watching them from the park benches.
But they had all stopped their play and were looking with frightened eyes at the man beside her.
One of the playing boys had mistakenly thrown the snowball at her, and Rohan’s eyes had hardened in displeasure at the boy’s mistake of hitting his wife. His expression had caused the activities in the fair to momentarily stop, causing many eyes to turn to them like they could sense the danger around the strange blue-haired man.
Even Belle, who was used to Rohan, could feel his sudden shift that made the air feel colder than it already was. He was scowling darkly at the kids, watching them like little ants he wanted to crush beneath his feet.
"Cow! I told you not to aim at me again! You always throw too hard!" cried out a boy from behind them to the one who had thrown the snowball.
"He hit the lady!" said the other boys as they all stared at Rohan with frightened eyes and pointed accusing fingers at the boy who had thrown the ball, especially when they saw his dark scowl.
"They’re just kids, Rohan. I am not hurt," Belle whispered under her breath, afraid that he might act in a way that would bring the attention they did not seek to them.
Hearing her words, Rohan’s murderous aura slowly began to go down, and the frigid air that had risen with his sudden anger became breathable again.
"Little brat, what are you supposed to say to the lady you just hit?" came Rohan’s hardened words to the boy, who was staring at him like he had seen a ghost.
If it were up to him, he would have picked the brat up by his collar and hurled him down from the top of a building, just like the snowball he had hurled at his wife’s chest, which had caused her to gasp in surprised pain.
But he could tell that his wife would not like that at all, not to mention he had already upset her in the carriage and was still trying to make amends. And from what he had noticed, her mood had not improved—he wasn’t about to make it worse by breaking the stubby legs of a five-year-old-looking boy.
The boy quickly looked away from Rohan and turned to the lady.
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