37. The evil one.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that you guys were discussing something. I'll come back later," Niya said, looking at Archie.

"That's okay, Ni, we just finished. Come," he said, with a wide grin on his face. Samael looked at Niya and bowed. Then he looked at Archie for a second and she could see they were having a silent conversation with their eyes. A few seconds passed before Samael left the room, leaving Niya and Archie alone.

"What was that? Were you guys arguing?" Niya whispered, looking at Archie.

"No, I was discussing the negotiation meeting with him. Forget it." He smiled, looking at her. She nodded and pulled out her phone.

"Dude, you should see this," she said, playing the video of Darius on her phone. Archie gulped down his anger, looking at Niya's excitement.

"What a jerk he is. Doesn't he know that he can't pass such comments on The Creator Queen? He can be beheaded for this." Archie scuffed, trying hard to control his anger.

"Don't you dare! I have no problem with such an innocent confession," she said, smiling at the screen, looking at Darius.

"Yeah, whatever. Get ready for dinner. Samael will be officially introducing himself," he hit her head playfully.

***

Niya was ready for dinner and since it was an official dinner, she had to wear something special. She opted for a beautiful dark grey business suit with a white tank top underneath it. Emily and her other maids had helped her tie her hair into a beautiful ponytail. She wore her matching heels and put the crown on her head, leaving the room immediately after. She was tired but couldn't cancel the dinner as it was necessary to make cordial relations with the rival party. She covered her tiredness with a bright smile before entering the dining hall. King Samael along with his team was already standing there. Archie, Edward, William, George along with Elena and Marcus, were also there. As soon as she entered, King Samael and his team stood up in greeting.

"Good Evening, Your Majesty," Samael said, bowing along with his team. He gently kissed her hand and smiled.

"King Samael of Drac Prime," George formally introduced Samael to Niya according to the royal protocol. Niya smiled at Samael.

"Welcome to Vamp Prime, King Samael," she said, smiling at him.

"Kevin Petrova, Drac Prime's Prime Minister. Ryan Chaebol, Finance Minister. Hannah Wayne, Foreign Affairs Minister," George introduced the members of Samael's team to her. After all the formal introductions, they all sat, ready for dinner. The dinner table was decorated with so many delicious and beautiful cuisines.

After dinner, they all went to the conference room and started their meeting. Archie gave Niya some files and she read them carefully.

"So you want me to reinvestigate the attacks?" Niya asked, reading King Samael's request written in that file. She looked at him for a second.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Because I didn't plan a single attack and I have the right to plea against the false allega—"

"I don't think we need to reinvestigate the attacks. It's very clear that King Samael breached the wall and bribed King Azizmah and others to attack Vamp Prime," Archie interrupted, looking at Niya.

"King Samael, King Azizmah has given a statement against you in writing. He clearly stated that it was you who forced him to attack Vamp Prime," she said, looking at him.

"I want to meet him," Samael said, looking at her. She paused for a second before speaking further.

"That won't be possible. It's against the protocol," Archie said, looking at Samael in anger.

"We'll see what we can do in this matter," Niya said, turning the page of the file.

"I want to meet Azizmah, if you won't allow me to do that, I won't be part of the negotiation meeting tomorrow," Samael said, looking at Archie with angry eyes.

"We have some demands. If you'll agree with our demands then and only then we will be attending the negotiation meeting tomorrow," Archie said, passing a file to Samael, giving him a death glare.

Before they could further discuss any other demands and conditions, Niya felt a sharp pain in her head, her vision got blurred and she felt as her body fell forwards, her head hitting the glass table before she could comprehend what was happening. She heard various chairs scrape the floor but she was unable to move.

"Niya? Are you okay?" Archie’s voice reached her but Niya couldn’t respond. Everybody in the room panicked. Archie immediately picked her up and left the room. Heading straight for the medical wing.

Once there, the royal doctors instructed Archie to put her on a bed to check on her. Archie remained by her side, the rest of the guys closely behind him.

"What happened to her, Doctor?" Edward asked, looking at him.

"Everything appears normal. It could possibly be a case of fatigue and tiredness. But, still, I want to do some tests to confirm since the symptoms are unusual and by the slight blood on her head, I want to rule out a possible concussion," the doctor explained to them. The doctor already knew Niya's real identity as he was the most trustworthy person in Archie's team so Archie allowed him to do the tests.

"Okay." Archie nodded.

Archie decided to stay with her and everyone else was ordered to leave. Archie sat on a chair, placing it in front of her bed. He looked at her face for a second and sighed.

*I'm sorry, Niya but I can't allow you to permit Samael to meet Azizmah,* he thought, looking at her. Suddenly someone knocked at the door. Archie frowned, looking at the door.

"Yes?" Archie asked, looking at the door. The door opened and it was Samael. He seemed a bit annoyed and angry.

"We need to talk, Archie," he said, looking at him with his jaw clenched. Archie rolled his eyes at him and sighed before leaving the room along with him. They went to the royal garden, away from wandering ears.

"What?" Archie asked, looking at Samael with an annoyed face.

"What did you do?" Samael asked, looking at him, swallowing the anger down his throat.

"What? What did I do?" Archie mocked him.

"With Niya. What are you doing with her? Don't you dare pretend, I saw you adding something in her pasta," he said, taking a few threatening steps towards him, hovering over him like a giant. Anybody could see the anger swirling in his purple eyes.

"It was actually a slow poison," he shamelessly grinned at Samael.

"Why the hell are you doing this?" he asked.

"Her powers are increasing and she is becoming the biggest threat to me and my empire. I don't want to kill her but I can't let her become the most powerful creature too. So I'm poisoning her slowly. It won't kill her," he said carelessly, looking at anything but Samael.

"You don't have to hurt her. Once you marry her, she won't be a threat anymore. Stop this nonsense," Samael said, grabbing his collar in anger.

"Oh? And you will let her marry me without creating a drama? Really?" He laughed at Samael's statement, looking at him. Samael scoffed.

"I won't." He looked at him as if he was giving him a warning. "I won't let you marry her, I won't let you hurt her either. I want her to be mine to rule this world, we both desire the same thing but I don't want to hurt her like you do," he said, looking at him with those purple angry eyes.

"Come on, Samael. Stop pretending. You'll kill her the day you'll marry her, won't you? This is your plan, right? So stop bugging me," Archie pushed his arms away and fixed his clothes.

"I wanted to but now I have changed my mind," he said, breaking the eye contact, he hated the guilt he felt.

"Changed your mind?" Archie scoffed. "Why have you changed your mind?" He laughed at him.

"Because I want the love I always craved for. I want to experience the selfless warmth of love she is been giving to you and your idiot friends," he looked at the ground. "If she is destined to love a monster then that monster should be me, not you," Samael concluded, giving him a death glare.

"Get in the line, brother. Because I know the monster she is been destined to fall in love with, is not you, not me but I won't die without a fight," he said, looking at him, his eyes softening a bit.

"What? How are you so sure that we are not the ones?" Samael asked, frowning a bit.

"I have the unpublished pages of the last chapter of Sanctus Liber," he confessed, looking at him.

"Unpublished pages? Of the last chapter? The last chapter was never written, how can you have something that doesn't even exist?" Samael questioned, exhaling deeply.

"It does exist, Father stole it from the Silver City and wanted to give it to you but before he could tell you about it, I killed him," Archie said, smiling sadly at him.

"You killed our father?" Samael said, taking some steps back.

"He was badly injured after that war between the angels and demons so I decided to put an end to his miseries. I gave him a poison to end his pain." A tear rolled down his cheek as he remembered his cruel deeds.

"How can you?" Those were the only words Samael spoke. He couldn’t process what Archie had just confessed.

"I'm gonna tell Niya everything." Samael looked at Archie with anger.

"Then I’ll have to kill her. If I can't have her, no one will." Archie wiped his tears and smirked at him.

*Shit, shit. I have to stop Niya from reading the letter I gave her or else she'll be in danger*, Samael thought as he realized that Archie could go to any extent to make her fall in love with him.

"Fine. I won't tell her anything. But don't you dare to hurt her," Samael said, grabbing his collar again and looking directly into his soul with those piercing purple eyes. Archie responded with an evil smirk.

The next morning, Niya woke up. Her body was still tired and she winced with pain as she tried to sit.

"What the hell just happened?" she whispered to herself. She looked around the decorated room. Many silver and golden balloons stood floating in front of her bed. She smiled looking at them. Suddenly her room’s door opened with a bang.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Nini, happy birthday to you." Archie, William, George, and Ed sang to her with bright grins on their faces. Ed was holding a cake in his hands while George’s had a confetti bomb. Archie and William were holding *Happy Birthday* balloons.

"Thanks, guys." She smiled and hugged them. They feed cake to each other.

"Now get ready and come down to the hall. We'll be waiting," William said, caressing her hair. She nodded in excitement.

After getting the all-clear from the doctor, Niya took a bath and wore a beautiful navy blue dress. She opened her cupboard to grab the matching gloves and her eyes landed on an envelope. It was the envelope Samael gave him. She picked it up and opened the letter inside it.

On the other side, Samael was walking back and forth in his room as he was trying to make a plan to steal the letter from Niya's room.

"It's her birthday, she'll be busy and I don't think she will read the latter any sooner," he whispered, trying to convince himself. "Let me check if she’s in her room or not, first. " He left his room immediately. He crossed all the security checks in his invisible form and reached the front of Niya's room. Slowly he opened the door and a guard standing near it looked at the door with a frown but closed it immediately, thinking that it might’ve been the wind. Samael entered the room and his eyes widened as Niya was standing there with that letter in her hands.