The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 135. Making a birthday gift.

Chapter 135: 135. Making a birthday gift.

After her discussion with Rakima, they both force-hugged each other, walked to the door together and finally they were set free. Was it an actual reconciliation between the two of them? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing was certain, their relationship had gotten somewhat better. They now held a sort of silent respect for each other. They still did not talk to each other, but they acknowledged one another if and when they ran into each other.

For days, Neriah thought about Rakima’s words. She tried to wipe it out, but her warning lingered in her head and you would think the reason was that she feared for her life but that wasn’t it.

It was due to the fact that she kept on thinking of her plans to hurt Barak and she kept wondering if he was truly alright seeing that he had not sent word since he left. It wasn’t like he went overseas. He had told her himself that it was a three day ride, so he could have at least sent a message to the family he left behind.

And this feared her greatly.

The preparation for her father-in-law’s birthday was going smoothly. For some reason, her mother-in-law had asked that Neriah be in charge of picking out the decoration of the hall that was to be used. Neriah could guess that the woman truly believed that she was missing Barak and was trying to help her take her mind off her husband that was away.

But I do not miss him, truly. Neriah had repeated over and over but Rakavi’s response remained the same. "I have heard you. Keep deceiving yourself."

Truly she did not miss him. Not at all. All she missed was the deep sound of his voice scolding her, whispering to her, laughing. She missed the little smiles that took hold of his face once in a while. She missed the silent reproach ING look in his eyes whenever she did a thing wrong. She missed the sound of his footsteps getting closer and closer to her at night . She missed the surprising and yet comforting feeling that overwhelmed her whenever he chose to silently sneak up on her.

The playful teasing words he threw at her, and then... What she missed the most was his hands in her hair, always calmly stroking her after they were done making hate. The calm that always came after the fire that burned in them. She missed that. The way he could slowly ignite that fire yet again by the stroke of that same hand...

All these and more were what she missed. She did not miss the man... she just missed all these things.

Really, she only missed the little things he did and not him.

Neriah thought for days of what to present to her father-in-law as a birthday present and after realizing that the man probably had everything he could need, she decided to gift him a coat after embroidering on it.

It was simple and yet not so simple. She was planning to embroider the Tragonian royal family symbol.

Neriah through Farhan had gotten the information of the King’s cloth maker and since the man already had the King’s measurements, it was an easy task. He had the leather coat ready in two days and Neriah immediately began working in the embroidery at the best of the coat.

She was done with the crest and all that was left was to make the open-winged white dragon that stood proud in the center of the crest.

She had no idea why she was putting in so much effort to pick out and monitor the decoration arrangements for the hall and even going as far as to prepare a handmade present! But she wanted to do her best. She kept telling Aria and Riri that she was just putting in effort because she liked to do things perfectly... But deep down he knew it was more than that.

That very evening, Neriah had just returned from the hall that was still being worked on and sat down to continue her embroidery when she heard that familiar flapping sound. For no particular reason, her heart sank as she saw the bed.

"Hello Stacy," She forced a smile but it did not linger on her face for long. As the bird always did whenever Neriah did not go to it, it flapped its wings and made its way to her. It sat on the table and Neriah gulped as she stared at the paper for a while before finally placing down her work. She reached for the bird and her hands trembled.

Why did they tremble? What did she fear? She took the paper and the bird instantly moved to the plate of crackers that was on the table. It was as though it believed they had been placed there for it and it began to peck the crackers.

Neriah took in deep breaths like she was about to open a letter that contained a declaration of war. After more deep breaths, she opened the letter and to her surprise, there was just a short message written upon it.

’It is I my love, meet me tonight at the bookstore. I have something to tell you in person.’ It was a short letter, but after reading it, her hands trembled more than when she had loosened the piece of paper from the bird’s leg.

Ever since Barak had caught ó too the fact that she was meeting her former lover, she and Lyle had limited their meetings. In fact, limited was not the right word. They had stopped! They only contacted each other through messages like this, but seeing that he had asked to see her caused a thousand things to flow in and out of her head.

Why did he suddenly wish to see her face to face? What could he possibly have to say that could not be done through a written note?

"Dear goddess." She muttered with her hands over her mouth as she wondered if Lyle had succeeded. "Dear goddess," She mumbled again with a shaky voice and instantly rose to her feet for the night was upon them already and even if it wasn’t, she would not have waited for it to come.

She had to know, she had to know if Lyle had succeeded. She had to know if_ if Barak had fallen.