Louisa's POV
As I was pushed away by Darren, my world collapsed into shatters.
I have thousands of words in my heart, but they melt on the tip of my tongue. All of a sudden, all the beautiful things in my life, friendship, trust, hope, and laughter, evaporated into the thin air.
He lied to me.
He wanted to kill me.
That day in the marsh, before I drowned, he desperately asked about my real name.
The sad image of him was engraved in my mind.
A hopeless, crying warlock, drenched all over in the mud, calling me by a randomly made-up name.
Even when I was lingering on the verge of death, he was still thinking of getting my real name before letting me drown.
He was sitting there, crest-fallen like a dried pear, watching me lose everything in front of him and drown in the full of sorrow as a sea of sand.
A giant pair of hands lifted me up. I looked up and saw it was Lucas.
I didn't protest when he put me on his horse.
I didn't protest when he sat behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
I felt numb and exhausted. I felt that I was floating in the air. Everything that happened to me seemed to be in slow motion.
I remembered that I was taken out of the yard and into the woods.
The horse was galloping like a bolt of lightning and I could smell the fragrance of the grass and dirt.
I didn't know where Lucas was about to take me, but somehow it didn't seem that mattered.
"What's on your mind, little nymph?" I heard his voice.
I looked up at Lucas and saw him looking down at me as well.
"Darren lied to me..." I whispered.
Gloating, he said, "I've told you so. Nobody's going to help you, because nobody dares to defy me."
I continued, "...He lied to me about wanting to kill me. He lied because you made him do so."
His smile disappeared and was replaced by menace.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He said impatiently. "That fucking warlock has literally just admitted to everything! Do I have to peel off his skin and then you can see the true fucking face of that inferior son of a bitch? Is that what you want?"
He lifted up my chin and forced me to look at him.
I took a deep breath and said, "Do you want to know what I want? Do you even care? Does that make you happy to torture and kill people all the time? Do you feel satisfied that you can manipulate others, get into their minds, jeopardize their relationship, and make everyone around you feel miserable? Lucian said you've been through a lot of terrible things in your life. That's why you want vengeance. Do whatever you want to the world, Lucas, but please stay out of my life."
Lucas' eyes were beaming with tremendous anger. I knew he wouldn't hesitate to break my neck, rip off my head, and drink my marrow if it wasn't for the fact that I was his mate.
He squeezed my shoulders with his giant hands as if he was about to crush them and roared, "So tell me what your fucking real name is and accept my rejection!"
I really couldn't hold it anymore.
Tears flooded all over my face.
I turned my head away and shouted, "No. I won't do that..."
He lowered his head and tried to meet my eyes.
"Do it now right now and I'll set both you and that fucking warlock free," he said. "I won't kill you. You know I'm a man of my fucking words. Think about it, you can live a fucking ordinary life in that fucking cottage with your pimp boyfriend for the rest of your pathetic life and I'll never be in your life again. Isn't that what you want?"
I pulled all my strength and tried to push him away from me. All my struggling and efforts turned out to be in vain.
"It's not what I want!" I wept and said. "I don't want to live with Darren!"
"Why not? You were nice to him. You fucking chose to trust him conditionally, despite his lies, his fucking dirty past, and the fact that he wanted to fucking burn you up like a fucking candle to bring his fucking brother back to life! You two are a perfect match. You deserve each other."
"I trust him, but that doesn't mean that I fall in love with him!" I looked up at Lucas and cried out. "What can I do to make you see that?!"
"So what the fuck do you want?!"
"I want your love! Have you ever thought about that?! That's why I don't want to tell you my real name! Because I don't want to be rejected by you! I know you're a formidable and contemptible creature but I just can't help myself!"
After I eventually let it all out of my chest, I felt relieved.
Lucas stared at me without saying anything.
His flawless facial features and passionate glare set my whole body on fire.
"You..." He said and paused. For a brief moment, I thought he was about to kiss me.
But then, he roughly wrapped my neck from behind with one arm.
"Who do you think you are, you fucking little whore?" He whispered next to my ear. "And how dare you talk to me like this? You don't deserve my love. You're fucking nothing but a fucktoy to me. Give me the fucking ring in your hand now."
"No," I said. I held the ring tightly in my hand. If I give it to him, Lucas will get inside of my mind all the time and there would be no way I could run away from him again.
"Give me the ring before I cut off your fucking hand!" He took out a knife.
"I said no!" I roared. Then, I threw the ring in my mouth and swallowed it.
"What the f...?!" Lucas grabbed me and jumped out of the horse.
He pressed me to the ground and got on top of me.
"Spit it out! You crazy bitch!" He slapped me across my cheek and strangled me.
I used all my force to spite the blood in my mouth on his face.
He wiped the blood off his face and pressed the knife against my throat.
"You want my love? You want to put things in your mouth, you fucking little whore? Let's put your fucking mouth into some real use," he said and unbuckled his pants.