The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 228. Buried memories.

Chapter 228: 228. Buried memories.

Everything was dark.

He could see nothing.

He could hear nothing.

The only sound that filled his ears was the rapid breaths coming from himself.

He looked around again and again and still he saw nothing. He couldn’t see anything because of the darkness and then he turned again and he saw a dot.

A green dot, in the distance.

"A light." He said in a breath. Something about that small dot of light was calling him. He still wasn’t hearing anything but it really felt like the dot was calling out to him.

Or maybe it was just because it was the only light in the darkness, so he walked towards it. At first it seemed as though he was walking endlessly. As though the more he walked, the smaller the dot became.

But then eventually, it began to grow bigger. And he was getting closer to the light.

Soon he found himself walking into that light, and it was taking shape, taking form, turning into a familiar place.

The place she had betrayed him.

And now, he could see himself in those same clothes, holding that very same bouquet of red Geranium flowers, and he could see her standing there.

It was happening just as it had happened.

At this point, he knew it was a dream, because he had been in this setting a hundred times already. So he just went with it.

She turned around and she smiled, but unlike that time when it had actually happened, his heart didn’t flutter now at the sight of her.

His heart didn’t flutter, but everything still played out the way it had.

Just like it had happened then, there was a cup underneath the table.

She was saying something and he was replying to something. And just like that time, she was smiling shyly but not blushing.

Even then he thought that was strange.

And now that he was thinking about it he was still thinking it was strange. Maybe she didn’t blush then because she knew she was planning to betray him eventually.

But even now that he knew she betrayed him at the end of this dream just like it happened in real life, he still found it strange.

She was a starlet. The best he had ever seen. She could fake every bit of emotion. He had witnessed that first hand. She could fake tears, and even fake the redness of her cheeks. So why didn’t she fake it that day? Why did she just smile shyly without a blush?

He was thinking too much about the matter and he knew it was because of the nonsense she had said to him... that it was someone else, not her. Could she be telling the truth? He wondered as the dream continued to play out. By all the gods he wanted her words to be true. Maybe that was the reason he was trying to find things that were not there.

Just like in the dream, his hand was stroking her face, her neck and his eyes shifted to the bed of dahlias behind her. Back then his eye had caught something but she had kissed him before he could focus his attention on that thing.

However, at the moment it seemed as though the dream paused so he could pay more attention to that thing...

Blood.

There were blood stains on some petals. His head suddenly replayed her words, that she had fought, she had fought and fought to escape but there were too many of them.

Could her words be true, he asked himself again.

The dream continued and the woman before him kissed him and his eyes fell close. This was it, where she stabbed him.

And like he was expecting, she did... and his eyes opened to see her laughing, his hand on her neck slips down like it did and again, the dream pauses and as his hand slips down her neck, the frills attached to the high neck of her dress is pushed down by his slipping hand and...

’Her neck is bare.’ He realized.

There was no tattoo on her neck.

"Ugh!!!" Barak gasped as he arose from the table where he had fallen asleep. Looking around him frantically as parts of the dream replayed in his head.

"What was that?" He muttered tk himself. He’d had this dream over and over again. He’d watched her stab him time and time again in that dream, but this was the first time the dream played out like that, pausing at certain points.

"What was that?" He muttered again, "A trick of my mind," He wondered, "Or buried memories."

Could it be her words getting to his head? He wondered if it was because deep down, he was wishing she hadn’t betrayed him. Deep down, he wanted everything she told him to be true.

Was that the reason why the dream for the first time since he’d been having it, he was seeing things that he hadn’t seen before?

To be precise, he wasn’t seeing things he hadn’t seen before, it was just that he was noticing things he had overlooked.

Could it really be just a trick of his mind because of her words? Or were they really buried memories?

If yes, then could Neriah be telling the truth?

These repeated thoughts were what was passing in and out of his head when the door that led outside opened and Mileka walked in.

"Yah awake. May Aveliana bless your morning, Yah Highness." She greets and he nods in response.

"I know yah do not want me talking about the lady, but ’tis morning already, should I at least get her some water to wash her face and her hands and feet?" She asks and Barak stares at the door that leads to her room.

Was she still in there? He wondered to himself.

The reason he could allow sleep wash over him last night was because he was certain she wasn’t going to run away. She was a woman who loved her life beyond anything else, so she was not going to willingly walk into the dark forest again. This was what he thought.