Chapter 77: The absolutely bollocks Grand Master Plan!

She paled and made a horror stricken face as she eyed the two of them in disbelief, not quite sure as to what exactly was going on and who to trust.
There was no way at all that Demetri would betray her too. Even if everyone else did, Selena was confident enough that Demetri would never do that to her as they had been lifelong friends who had grown up and trained together but judging by just how the two of them shot secretive looks at each other, they look chummy together and Selena found herself at a loss, not sure at all about what was going on in here and how she was supposed to take all this in.

Selena raised an eyebrow questioningly at Demetri, silently pleading with him and urging him to spill the beans and inform her about what exactly was going on before she loses her mind and goes berserk on the lot of them.
Seeing the questioning glance thrown his way, Demetri shot a surprise look at his newly formed best buddy Dominic and asked in a flustered and surprised tone, “Why didn’t you explain everything to her already?”

Dominic scoffed at him in indignation and shot a glare at Selena’s direction as he replied dryly, “She never gave me the chance too. The moment I loosened my hold on her to explain myself, she had me dangling up in the air and left without even turning back once. She is not the most patient and forgiving woman in the world in case you haven’t noticed.”

Demetri laughed out loud while shooting an endearing, affectionate look in her direction which left Selena nonplussed. She was starting to feel more and more lost and wrong footed as the moment dragged on as she had been expecting Demetri to jump instantly in front of her in defense to protect her as per his duty as the royal shield when Dominic had showed up unannounced from her back but Demetri was not at all guarded against Dominic and was simply relaxed and poised like he didn’t view Dominic Vanhuesan as a threat.

Selena watched in bewilderment, the cheery exchange between the two important men in her life happening right between her eyes. They looked so at ease with each other and comfortable as if there wasn’t a war going on right now and the entire kingdom as well as it citizens was not at stake at all.

Demetri being duty and honor bond shouldn’t be reacting so calmly, which further aroused Selena’s treacherous suspicions that she was missing the joke between the two of them and she felt more flustered and confused as ever.

Demetri sensing her bewilderment gestured at Dominic to explain everything to her but Dominic eyed the woman he adored warily and shook his head as there was no more time if they were to stop the war.

Demetri sensed that Dominic was intending to just let her push through everything but having already known her stubborn nature since childhood, Demetri was sure that she wouldn’t even budge from the position from which she was glaring down the both of them from, if they didn’t explain everything to her.

“You will save a lot more time if you just explain everything to her as she can be quite adamant and stubborn when she wants to.”, Demetri said resignedly shooting a wary look at his childhood friend, who was still glaring down at him. He shifted uncomfortably at her glare and wanted to reassure her that everything was fine but unfortunately for him, it wasn’t his secret to tell.

Dominic let out a resigned sigh, noticing the point in his words and muttered dryly while smirking at her, “Yeah, I have noticed”
He knew very well how adamant and stubborn Selena can be once she made up her mind about something, he realized that just like Demetri had suggested, it was better to come clean to her right now and let her know everything about the plan rather than having her risk spoiling his master plan solely because of her stubborn nature.
Dominic then shot a look at Demetri and he nodded at him, understanding his intentions and took into a run elsewhere, clearly giving the both of them some space to talk it all out.

Selena furrowed her eyebrows at Dominic questioningly, being on the alert and not quite trusting his intentions one bit and asked warily, “Where is he going to?”

“He shouldn’t be seen for our little plan to work, my love”, he replied smugly and Selena cocked an eyebrow at him, asking him to explain further.

Dominic locked eyes with Selena intently and in a mournful tone he said softly, “Don’t do you trust me even a little bit? Why are you still so stiff and in a defensive stance as if you are expecting me to attack you any moment now?”

She narrowed his eyes dangerously at him. She found herself repeating mentally, ‘don’t fall into his honey traps again. Don’t fall for it again and keep your guard up.’

“Well, I would have trusted you blindly had you not broken your word and lied to me and declared war on my country and bribed my own men and set up an ambush for me”, Selena snapped at him in an annoyed tone and Dominic let out a throaty chuckle, pleased as ever to see the fire raging in his woman.
This had been one of things that made him greatly attracted to her.

He took several steps forward, closing the distance between the two of them slyly and Selena blinked rapidly, suddenly finding herself at a cross road and unsure of which path to take. Should she let him approach her and get close to her or should she take this opportunity to attack him and send him flying through the air and end it once and for all.
Not wanting to a risk or a chance as his real intentions were still kind of foggy at her, she sent a flaming ball of fire in his direction but he merely flicked his fingers and the ball of fire immediately flickered out. He continued walking forward, nonchalant and unbothered by her attacks and she found herself hesitating, realizing that her own attacks had been weak since a tiny, little part of her still believed in him enough to trust that he will never hurt her.

Finally reaching so close to her as there was only an inch left between the two of them, he bent his head slightly and held her eye contact firmly, without blinking and said to her, “Your attacks were weak, my dear…… both by the river as well as here….A part of you can’t really bear to hurt me, can you? At the river, you still could have escaped from my hold had you simply whistled for your Falak dragon and it could have burned me alive and even now, you are attack was just as weak.”

Selena blinked rapidly and guiltily avoided his eye contact and that was all the confirmation he was looking for to assure himself that his initial assumptions about her was indeed right. Now matter how tough and arrogant she looked on the outside, she was sweet little pumpkin on the inside and Dominic found himself smiling at his love.
He was jubilant that even when he had deliberately done some very questionable things that could raise her suspicions and question his loyalty, she had been still holding back and waiting patiently for himself to explain. A part of her still believed in the goodness in him and that made him swoon for her.
He forced her to look at him and maintain eye contact by slyly tilting her head back with his index finger.

She gulped heavily as she looked into his eyes, a battle waging within herself internally as her brain was yelling at her to finish him off when she still has the chance to but her heart was asking her to calm down and give him a proper chance.
Dominic sighed heavily and took a moment to compose himself before he began explaining himself and finally coming clean to the love of his life about his true intentions.

“I had stated before that I had no interest in the throne of Valyria, right?”, he started and she nodded along with him, recollecting their past conversations together.
“Everything I said to you was the truth. Though being a Vanhuesan, trick and deceit was my second nature, I never once lied to you and I don’t have any intention to take the throne.”, he continued on solemnly, trying to reassure her that though the way in which he had handled things was questionable, his intentions were truly in the right place.

Selena raised an eyebrow at him questioningly at him and asked him, “then why did you take all this trouble”
“To ensure that the two of us end up together, not matter the citizens or the council’s intentions.”, he said softly and both of Selena’s eyebrows sprang up and vanished into her forehead in surprise. She was not at all expecting that answer.

“The council’s firm declaration to get you married to Caro Silva rubbed me the wrong way and I was sure that even if we made our love public, there will be countless oppositions from all sides. At that time, one of my men sneaked into Valyria to inform my of my father intention to declare war against Valyria and I decided to make use of the opportunity to end it once and for all as in no other way would we ever get to live a peaceful life together with no drama whatsoever from our two opposing nations.”