Chapter 60: Revisiting the Labyrinth of Death!

“You asshole, to think I had so innocently fallen for your trap.”, Selena shouted at him hoarsely, completely pissed off.
Selena felt both insulted as well as humiliated by the way she had been played like a fool by Dominic Vanhuesan while Dominic raised an eyebrow at her, at a loss and unsure of what exactly she had been going on about.
Seeing Dominic’s dubious expression, she snapped at Dominic, “Oh stop, playing dumb and innocent, I overheard your father boasting to his old hags about your plan to take Valyria by wooing me. I knew I couldn’t trust you. That had always been you intention, hasn’t it? Let’s get one thing clear, first that’s never going to happen and the second, I am going to annihilate you at the king’s duel.”
With that she stalked off haughtily, leaving Dominic behind in a state of mess, and internally cursing his father.


Few hours later, a huge crowd was gathered around the entrance of the Labyrinth of death, which was a mix of the citizens of Valyria as well as the men of the Vanhuesan clan. The royal concubine and her daughter was reported missing but as yet none of them was quite taking it seriously to smell any foul play as there were far more serious matters at hand right now.

Every single one of them except Dominic was concerned about the outcome of the battle. Dominic already knew that he would have to give up and bent his head to his woman to fully win her heart and he was prepared to do exactly that, no matter his consequences.
He was not a conqueror like the rest of his family and he never had the intention of being like his father. At this time, all he was worried about was whether Selena would be willing to hear him out and give him a fair chance to explain his position.

Selena was not even glancing at his direction, and it was quite obvious from the malicious gleam in her eyes that she was beyond pissed off.

The council elder nodded at the both of them and stepped aside from the entrance of the Labyrinth, granting the both of them entrance. He was signaling the beginning of the duel and Selena without hesitation went inside as by now she was already very familiar with the maze while Dominic still stood there, frozen with fear of the unknown. After all, this was a maze from which no supernatural or human beings have returned alive or sane, with the exemption of Selena of course.
He had heard rumors and tales of this place, long before he had even stepped a foot inside Valyria and it would be an understatement to say that he wasn’t too fond of this place. He cursed his father’s wretched interference internally while preparing his mind set.

He straightened out his shoulders, after a few seconds of hesitation and contemplation, he eventually went after her into the Labyrinth. Though his powers were stronger than Selena’s, her experience in the maze gave her a slightly upper hand if it ever were to come for a battle, which Dominic didn’t intend to let happen.

Dominic didn’t want to hurt her and was determined to solve it before any of that happens. He never desired the throne of Valyria for his own personal gain and now that the citizen’s savior, their own princess had arrived, he no longer had any claim to the throne and he was more than happy to be defeated by a woman like her.
But as soon as he entered the narrow path, he felt something was terribly wrong as there was an icy, eerie smoke coming from the very ground on which he was standing. He winced as the smoke entered his body and he too started hallucinating his worst nightmares. He put both of his hands on his head as his nightmares started giving him a split headache.


Selena getting back with Caro and ignoring his existence completely.
His eyes burned with fury as smoke Selena kissed smoke Caro and he started thrashing into the air furiously.

Selena who had already got past that passage with her eyes firmly shut and had reached the safe path eyed him warily from the other end as she saw him insanely fighting the air. Afraid of him losing his sanity if it went on like this, she took a step back, intending to backtrack and help him out then his father’s sneer comments ran by her mind again and she scowled, wondering why she should even attempt to help her own enemy. But her guilt was working overtime and pushing her to do something before its too late.
But seeing him put in such a misery, Selena couldn’t just bear to watch from afar, so she once again closed her eyes firmly and made her way back to where she had started initially by using the guidance of the walls.

Selena ran right into Dominic but he still didn’t stop tossing and turning and Selena had to wrap her arms around him sternly and hold him down tightly to prevent him from moving.
“Shush! It’s me”, she whispered into his ear and that was exactly the magical words he had been longing for. He instantly calmed down and relaxed visibly as he smelled her hair and her familiar scent.

“Close your eyes!”, Selena insisted and Dominic immediately obeyed after struggling a little, not even being suspicious of his own supposed enemy. Immediately his illusions vanished and his vampire ears and senses were regained and back high on alert. He felt grateful that despite her hatred towards him, she had still come back for him and put him out of his misery. Selena then gently let him go and then took hold of his hand. He immediately interlinked their fingers and they slowly made out of the narrow, smoky pathway by using the guidance of the walls once again while Dominic merely mutely followed after her, blindly trusting in Selena.

After having reached the safe path, both of them slowly opened their eyes. Selena instantly let go of his hand and stood opposite him with her arms crossed over her chest haughtily and Dominic winced at her stiff posture towards him after the night they had just spent together.
He however, felt like he still had a chance with her, given that she had still come back for him and saved him.
She adjusted her feet and slowly moved along to an attack position and he eyed her warily, determined not to fight back with her.

She moved her hands and immediately two bulky rocks lifted themselves from the ground and without hesitation hit Dominic, sandwiching him from both the sides.
He groaned out in pain as he started getting hit on by rocks but refused to even bulge out from the position and defend himself much less, attack her back.

Selena frowned at Dominic, wondering why the hell he was staying at that exact same position and getting hit at so ridiculously by the rocks. All it took was one single thought of it and the rocks could be turned into sand helplessly, but he was standing there still, and taking all her beatings without complaining.