Chapter 75: Love at War!

Selena was still helplessly dangling from up in the air because of Dominic’s little trick and Dominic was eyeing the woman he loved with all his life with a gleam of amusement in his eyes. He tilted his head to the sideways and motioned at his guards to disperse.
“Thank you for your service. You can all go and join my father and inform him that their Empress is in my hands.”, he said stiffly, a little bit pissed off that the guards had betrayed his woman so easily.
He had intended to get two birds with the same stone which he did. By adequately bribing the guards and brainwashing them, he got her here so that they could move further according to his master plan and at the same time, he was also able to weed out the disloyal men in her royal Queen’s guard which turned out to be everyone except a single soldier who had adamantly refused every single one of his rather enticing offers. He was fiercely loyal to his empress and didn’t bulge from his morals and at that time Dominic had made sure that only that person would remain in the Queen’s guards, the rest of them he was going to throw out after making use of them promptly. They had dared to betray his love and once a traitor always a traitor and he didn’t want any men like them guarding his woman.

The guards nodded at him and took off into a sprint, eager to serve their new master and Dominic shook his head disappointedly at the lot of them. He turned back and looked at his woman who was beyond furious and he found a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

He had been deeply touched when he saw first hand how much she had come to care for him in a such a small amount of time, that even with the looming battle she had been more concentrated on finding out what had happened to him. He only hoped that she would be sensible enough to grant him an opportunity so he can tell her his plan and reunite with her but looking at her venomous glares, he let out a sigh as he realized that was not likely to happen at all, given her current mood. She will probably have her little blood sword which was now lying helplessly on the ground, all alone, up at his throat.

Selena shot deathly glares at their retreating backs and vowed internally to teach the whole lot of them a lesson they will never forget in their lives.

Dominic seeing the malicious look in his woman’s eyes chuckled out loud teased her, “You just made up your mind to finish the traitors off, didn’t you?”

Selena’s malicious eyes snapped back to his and she glared down at her new target and Dominic let out a hysterical laugh at her.
Selena tensed up further and her rage was now boiling hot, as she was sure that Dominic was making fun of her own purpose and not taking her enough to even respect her as an equal, much less a worthy opponent. She felt humiliated at the treatment she was getting from him and tutted at him disapprovingly, feeling both hurt as well as humiliated by his nonchalant attitude towards her as if whatever he was doing right now was perfectly normal and fine. How dare he stand in her way after what he had done?

She narrowed her eyes down at him dangerously and saw that he was still laughing out loud, holding his stomach in agony. Taking advantage of his slightly deviated mind, she concentrated on the tree roots right below his toes and willed it creep its way on to his legs and dangle him upside down.
And because Dominic was slightly distracted with his rather ridiculous laughs, the roots successfully creeped along Dominic’s legs and flipped him upside down, exactly as per her instruction.

He had realized what was happening too late. He shot a dubious look at Selena and let out a resigned sigh. He knew his woman wasn’t the type to go down silently.

“Let me down”, he said and Selena scoffed at him in indignation, still furious at having been played like a fool.

“Let me down first”, she snapped back at him haughtily, slowly regaining her lost confidence as now as his men had left to join the main battle, it was just one on one fight with him and that she was confident she can handle.

Dominic eyed her warily and Selena stared back at him unyieldingly, determined to not break eye contact or show any sign of weakness. After all, the man dangling in the air right in front of her now was not the man she fell in love with ardently, instead, the enemy of her nation.

Knowing her well enough and having already experienced her stubborn nature first hand and knowing that he won’t be able to persuade her to change her mind he replied stoically, “Ok, fine let’s both do it at the count of three together.”
She nodded at him, a small smile playing on her lips which aroused his suspicions and put him on the defensive. He pressed further, being on an alert, “Promise?”
“Promise”, she said resignedly while rolling her eyes at him and he relaxed visible and counted out loud, fully intending to keep his promise, “one….two….three…”

But alas, he was still dangling upside down by the roots of the trees, only Dominic had kept his promise and only Selena was released promptly as she simply refused to keep her end of the deal and left him hanging up there, just out of spite.
He frowned at her while she smugly landed on her feet and winked at him while he rolled his eyes at her, frustrated.
“Oh! You sly little bitch. You promised….you said that we would both let go at the same time.”, he said pouting disapprovingly but despite him wanting to, he never could get mad at his woman.
Selena stuck out her tongue at him and shrugged nonchalantly as she said smugly, “Well, I lied.”

He thrashed and writhed in the air, dangled up in the roots in frustration and Selena scoffed at him as that had been her position for the last several minutes.

It felt nice to see her rival in her place and she let out a haughty laugh, realizing that karma is a real bitch.

Without another word or crude, insulting gestures she took off into a run as she had to stop the negotiations from taking place. She had to get there before any sort of deal is established between the two nations. She had to get there fast and let her foster father know that she was indeed alright and that they still had a chance to fight and emerge victorious at the end of it.

While she was dangling up in the air helplessly, she had overheard his plans and she knew exactly what was going on and she intended to stop that deal from happening at all cost as whichever side her foster father chooses, the loss would be Valyria’s.

Dominic cursed out loud as he saw Selena speeding away from him and blamed his foolhardiness, he should have known that his woman would pull some sort of trick and leave him all dry and in a hopeless situation.

In a moment of weakness, he had trusted her blindly forgetting that she was his enemy at the moment and he was now paying the price for it. But she was going to ruin all his plans that he had so painstakingly made to ensure that the both of them getting married to each other with the blessings of both the nations and its citizens and now that adamant female of his was about to ruin it all and mess up his master plan.