Falling for The Cold-hearted Wizard

Nessa was running, passing the dark woods and all the dangerous obstacles that stood in her way. Her instincts didn't warn her about the possibility of being stung by thorns, it didn't warn her about the countless reptiles that habituated in the woods, it only told her to run from the people chasing her.

She couldn't catch her breath as she had been running for almost an hour, sweat dripped from her face from the sugar her body was burning. Frustration evident in her features as she wondered if there was any end to the dark tunnel she was in. She fell to the ground as her left leg hit a tree log on the way. Her breasts bounced back and forth as she tried to catch her breath.

She stared at her leg as she sat on the ground. The terrible rush of blood oozing out made her want to scream but she knew she couldn't.

Forcing herself to get up from the floor, she crawled to a nearby tree as a blockage to the enemies that might see her.

Tears filled her eyes as she remembered what had befell of her village. She lost her parents and her entire kingdom to a worthless war of greed. The memory of her house being burnt to ashes played in her mind like she was watching a movie.

She desperately wanted to continue running but her legs didn't let her. She was the only survival of a kingdom burnt at war and she still had swordsmen chasing after her with well trained horses.

Her heart started panicking when she heard the footsteps of horses coming near her. How could they have reached her so easily? Would all her efforts to escape go to complete waste? She hissed in frustration as tears of pain fell from her eyes.

It wouldn't take any more than five minutes before the horsemen found her. She was going to die and join her ancestors wherever they were. Such a worthless way to die without being avenged by anybody.

A single horse and a horseman stopped at the tree log that injured her. Nessa held her breath in fear as she quietly prayed to not be discovered since she wasn't more than six feet away from the log.

The horseman jumped off the horse with a silent thud, glancing around the woods like he was searching for prey.

He walked with confidence to the direction of Nessa who stopped breathing completely from fear.

She quickly got up to continue running, not minding the presence of the horseman and the throbbing pain in her left leg. The horseman stared at her funny attempt to escape before he said in a dominating voice, "STOP!"

Nessa turned to look at him before she fainted to the ground from shock.

****

Nessa's P.O.V

When I woke up, I first noticed that I was cold. My eyes are finding it hard to get open because of fatigue. I was lying down on a very hard bed, and the bed's hardness made me realise well too soon that I wasn't at home.

"Where am I?" I asked myself, my eyes slightly closed as I tried to make out my surroundings by feeling. My hands landed on a bedsheet that smelled of vinegar like it was washed recently. Next came the pain on my left leg, it came so suddenly that for a moment I thought I had a leg fracture.

I finally opened my eyes to look at my leg and discovered that it was tied with a cloth. My eyes widened the moment I saw the room I was in, it was two times bigger than what I had at home but it was simpler.

The room had enough space for a dozen horses to sleep, it didn't have a chair in it like the one I had at home. It was also painted with a black colour and when I looked at the right side of the wall, I saw a sword wrapped up in a black scabbard.

Then the pain of reality hit me. I was looking around a room in which I don't know the owner of. The last thing I remembered was being in the woods and trying to escape from the horsemen chasing me. But I turned back and then.... what?

My heart suddenly got filled in pain when I figured out that I might have been caught by the horsemen. There were probably not going to kill me at once, they'd starve and flog and use my pain as an entertainment to them. They'd make sure to kill me slowly so that I'll never want to reincernate even if I'm given the chance to in heaven.

Then I looked at my dress, I opened my mouth in awe when I saw that I was putting on another dress, differient from the black and pink gown that I had been wearing when I was captured.

A tear drop fell from my eyes when I realised that I must have been raped. I was only twenty-three and I was still a virgin before now that I'm sure I was raped. I wanted to end my life, I wanted to try my best to get off that bed and look for a rope to hang in the ceiling so I could do what I knew would end all the pain.

But then, just as I was considering standing up, the door to the room suddenly got open and a figure of about 6ft and five inches tall walked in. I froze in fear when I saw that his face was masked and he waked to my direction with so much confidence like he was stronger than Godzilla.

The world spun in my imagination like I was going to vanish into thin air. I couldn't breathe as my oxygen suddenly stopped working and my heart started beating twenty times a second.

A voice in my head asked me why I was shifting back on the bed and my back suddenly touched the wall. *Why are you scared?* The voice asked. *Didn't you think of commiting suicide five minutes ago? Why not just stay still on the bed and wait for a quicker death?*

The figure which I guessed was a guy because of his masculinity finally reached me on the bed and he said a word so quiet that I almost missed it.

"Beautiful."

Alex's P.O.V

I stared at her through the mask as she opened her mouth wide in shock as a result of what I said.

She still looked very scared though she was trying really hard to hide it. I felt my manhood slightly rise up in anticipation when I remembered changing her dress the previous night. "Fuck me!" I whispered to myself quietly.

"Who...are you?" She asked.

She was shivering like a scared kitten but I still didn't feel a glint of pity for her. In fact, I was starting to regret the moment I decided to help her. I didn't want to guess what would happen if the swordsmen from the Sodinar kingdom got to know that she was with me.

I placed my hands in my pocket as I saw in her expression and the way she acted that she was scared of me raping her, or even worse.

"Don't ever ask me for my name again!" I said in a threatening voice and I noticed the way she flinched like my words sent a ball of fire to burn her to ashes.

I should probably go to the woods and keep her back where I took her from. I desperately wanted to fuck her until she dies ontop of me, but I didn't do it. Not because I couldn't, but because I never took sexual advantage of helpless women.

My eyes carefully observed every angle of her face. She was so beautiful, about 5'8 inches tall, big and round hazel eyes, and jet black hair that stretched to her shoulders. It must have taken God some extra days to create her.

"But I didn't ask for your name," she replied. "I only asked who you are."

I walked up to her and held her neck with my fists, pinning her to the wall so she couldn't breathe. "How dare you?" I said, raising my voice to the extent that I was sure it could be heard from miles away.

"I'm...sorry." She muttered; her neck still held captive by my hands. "Please don't kill...me, I beg of you."

I stared at her face with my mask still shielding my identity before I let go of her neck.

"Food's in the kitchen." I suddenly said. "Make sure not to touch any other thing 'till I come back." I slowly strolled to the door and walked out after speaking to her.

*

Author's P.O.V

Nessa looked at his retreating back in hatred as she continued to hold her neck. "He almost killed me." She said to herself; fear evident in her face. But then she remembered something, "He told me that there's food in the kitchen as casually as we've been friends even though he wanted to kill me a minute before that?"

"Oh my God!" Nessa exclaimed. "I'm not sure he's from the Sodinar kingdom, what kind of person abducted me? And why was he wearing a mask?" She continued ranting.

Nessa stood up from the bed she was sitting on to look around the room. She walked to the door and tried opening it but it was locked from outside. *What does this man plan for me?* Was he paid by the king of Sodinar to torture me until I die?*

She let herself slowly fall to the ground with more tears of pain forming in her eyes. "He wasn't even going to tell me his name before he killed me, and he didn't ask for mine either."

The constant blaring sound of an object in the room made her shut up. "What was that?" She asked herself in fear; while slowly walking to the direction the noise came from. It was something she had never seen before. Up in a far corner of the large room, she saw a wall clock blaring as a result of an alarm that was set in it.

"Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed. "I'm finally going to die and join my parents and ancestors in heaven. "So the heartless horseman left a bomb in the room so I would die when he goes out?" Nessa ran quickly to the room door to see if she could force it open. She continuously turned the door handle with so much haste and desperation like she'd really changed her mind from dying.

She banged on the wooden door with her hands continuously, saying, "Please open the door and let me go, I want to at least avenge the death of my kingdom before I die." Tears rolled down her eyes as she shouted the words like a maniac.

The door didn't bulge as expected and she gave up at last, walking back to the room to find the kitchen and eat before she would die.

She walked around the room for five minutes and still didn't find the kitchen, her throat now dry as she swallowed her spit in the absence of water. The heavy feeling of dying and not avenging her kingdom continued to grow in her mind as she walked back to the bed. "I regret the day I was born." She said with so much pain and tears rushing from her eyes that one would think it could form a river.

She dreaded dying and giving the king of Sodinar the pleasure and achievement of being the only king in their continent who wiped out a full kingdom.

"Even if I die, my ghost will come back for revenge, and this wicked horseman who starved me to death would be the first person I'd kill." That was all Nessa said before she slept off on the ground.

Author's note: Please rate and drop a comment if you're reading this book. Thank you for trusting the author's work and for deciding to follow the story of Nessa and Alex. I'm the kind of writer that gets easily discouraged and loses my will to write when I don't see a comment because It'll make me feel like nobody is relating with the book. Just drop a thought of what you think and I'll be happy because It'll encourage me to write more and better. Updates will come regularly when I see reviews and comments.

Thanks to this person for reading the author's note, I pray for all my readers that they'll get something for deciding to read this book.

The Sodinar kingdom shared a boundary with Nessa's now distroyed kingdom, Gantur. They hadn't had any conflict before the Sodinar kingdom unexpectedly planned an attack against them and killed an entire Kingdom in one night. Many people knew it wouldn't have been possible if Gantur kingdom knew about the war, their warriors were two times stronger than Sodinars' and that was why Sodinar kingdom attacked without informing them or stating the reason for the war.

A feast of celebration could be seen in King Damien's mansion palace, the palace was the biggest building in Sodinar kingdom and Sodinar was more developed than Gantur because the city was the most convenient for tourism and that made different people from all over the word to reside there.

A cool royal music could be heard in King Damiens large hall room, his twenty advisors also known as kings chiefs or priests were present in the ceremony. Tons of guards guided the palace and protected it from insane people that might want to try and abduct their king and his family.

The palace hall in which they celebrated all their events was well lit with chandeliers and different sizes and shapes of beautiful lights. A red carpet was spread all over the hall for the high esteemed guests to step on. The people who attended the celebration were about one hundred and fifty, they each wore a black gown with the drawing of an eagle since it was their way of dressing any time they won a war and were celebrating.

King Damien's royal family were the only people in the celebration hall that didn't wear black, the twin princes wore golden royal robes with Prince crowns on their heads. And the only princess in the royal family also wore a golden gown with a princess crown on her head.

The guests cheered and merried and drank to the destruction of Guntur Kingdom, vibing to the silent music that was playing in the hall room background.

The king had the brightest smile out of everybody in the hall room, the pride in his face shone so much that a peacock's pride would never be able to be compared to his at that moment. He was sitting on the gold chair in the hallroom and was continuously answering all the many questions that were thrown to him by his subjects.

"How did you do it?" one of them asked.

"Sodinar has made history," another of the twenty chiefs chirped.

"Oh yes!" King Damien replied with the brightest smile on his face. "Our kingdom is the only one in the world who wiped out a neighbouring kingdom in a single day! I'm so proud of our warriors for making our kingdom's name to possibly go into the Guinness book of record."

The chiefs all laughed in spite of themselves and drank their wine to the merriment of victory. "But how was it possible?" The least respected chief in the palace hall, Chief Eric, asked. The other Chiefs all looked at him with an expression that said "You've begun to ask your irrelevant questions once again".

Kind Damien made an eye roll at Chief Eric and continued boasting of his kingdoms victory to his chiefs.

The palace's hall room was divided into two. The first one was a large space where almost two thousand people could occupy and celebrate an event or meeting, and the second place was a reserved opening in the far corner where the twenty chiefs could meet with the King and discuss while any ceremony was going on. Two strong looking guards guarded the king and were outside the hall meeting room since it was only separated from the main hall by a thick golden curtain.

"The last time I checked," Chief Darra said. He was the king's most special advisor and the most respected of all the chiefs. "You were on good terms with king Valentine of Gantur kingdom. How come you attacked them suddenly without warning or calling us for advice? Did king Valentine cross the line?" Chief Darra asked.

"No, he didn't." King Damien replied. "You know, I've always had an eye for Gantur kingdom, the kingdom's location and boundry with Sodinar's was disturbing to me. So I just had to do what I had to do," King Damien lowered his voice and bent down his head to say, "A secret night attack!"

The chiefs hailed and cheered him after he spoke. "But how exactly did you know the way the city is planned and the time the guards start to guide the city gates?" Chief Darra pressed.

"Me and the King of Gantur were as close as a dog and a bone, but the king was foolish, he trusted me so much that he told me the time his kingdom went to sleep, the exact way the kingdoms escape route is planned and the time the gate guards had their shifts." King Damien took a sip of the wine on his gold cup before he continued, "The king's trust and love for togetherness became too much, and I knew it was time to invade and take over the kingdom for life. The plan of taking it out wasn't very hard because the first male twin and heir to my throne gave me some advice and my beautiful Queen Kimberley helped as well."

All the chiefs' mouths were wide open in surprise and admiration as they thought about how smart and cunning their king was.

"King Damien of Sodinar kingdom!" Chief Darra hailed. "I've never seen or heard of a king in history who is as wise as you. You're even wiser than king Solomon in the bible."

A brief round of laughter stretched around the room when they heard chief Darra. The king couldn't stop smiling, the brightness of the gold and diamond crown on his head couldn't be compared to the smile on his face. "Just give me one week," he said. "One good week and you'd see other kings and Kingdoms from far and near begging for my daughter's hand in marriage to one of their Prince's so they can make allies with our kingdom."

"Yes, we're going to..." another chief in the meeting suddenly started to say but was interrupted by the barging in of Sodinar's kingdom chief warrior.

"Your highness!" General Khalid, the chief warrior, said and bowed to the king.

"Get up." King Damien said. "You've never barged into me anytime I'm in a meeting, hope all is well?"

"Yes, your highness." General Khalid replied and was about to continue before he looked at the eyes of all the chiefs like he wasn't sure if he should speak in their presence.

King Damien seemed to guess his thought because he said, "Speak!"

General Khalid bowed his head for a second time before he said, "There's a single female survivor from Gantur kingdom, our swords and horsemen were after her, and they almost caught up with her before she disappeared with no trace."

"...."