The Villainess Will Die

Prologue

The Duke of Elrod stood outside the ballroom, listening to the sounds of the party inside. He tapped his foot impatiently. But he did not move from the spot. For upwards of twenty minutes he waited, but after that he seemed to become impatient. She was late.

Amarissa Delclair. A woman who was wicked through and through. Everyone was surprised that such a clever man allowed himself to get entangled with such an evil woman. 

At that moment, Lucian heard the sound of high heels approaching from afar. The hall was silent and still with only the sounds of her footsteps that echoed throughout. It's her.

"You have arrived rather late, Princess Amarissa," he said with a dissatisfied sigh. He didn't look up as he spoke to her. "The ball has already begun."

"Such a delayed entrance allows for a sharper focus upon the central character." The cold, toneless pitch of her voice took him aback. "Shall we enter?"

Lucian glanced at her curiously, struck by her unusual attitude. She normally spoke to him in an overly affectionate tone.

His gaze flickered over her dress, then back to her eyes. He knew he was treading dangerous ground. Amarissa was as beautiful as a dream, and as heartless as she was beautiful.

"You're staring," she said. The corner of her mouth raised into a smirk. "Is there something you wish to tell me, Your Grace?"

The black dress hugged her hips and dipped too low in the front. It was seductive, mesmerizing and captivating. She looked like an enchantress who lured men to their doom with her hypnotic beauty.

"We arranged to wear matching clothes." He hastily looked away, avoiding her gaze. "Will Your Grand Ducal Highness change?"

I didn't think you'd really wear them, she thought to herself. You always intentionally wear a different outfit to humiliate me. If he had publicly embarrassed her, should she have slapped him?

​​When she became engaged to Lucian Elrod, he had every hope that he would escape the engagement agreement. He was consistently cold toward her, publicly embarrassing Amarissa by his lack of affection for her.

"No," she said. Her eyes flashed in amusement. "I don't think so."

"Very well," he muttered. He frowned in displeasure, offering her a hand. "Let's go."

The moment their names were announced, the cacophony of voices coming from the ballroom quieted in anticipation of their entrance. Everybody saw them enter, turning their heads to stare as the wicked woman walked into the ballroom.

Amarissa could hear them whisper, "Maybe he's so enamoured with her looks that he doesn't realize what she's really like as a person."

She knew they had every reason to believe as they wished. Lucian was an honest and good man. The only reason they would be wed was because Amarissa took full advantage of the fact that her father was a powerful man.

"I'll be taking my leave," she said, and suddenly pulled her hand out of his grip. "Please do not worry about any of this, Your Grace."

Lucian blinked at her, as if unable to comprehend her words. "I don't quite understand."

"Go along and enjoy," Amarissa said. She turned to leave, needing to get away from his overwhelming presence for a while. "I'll be fine on my own."

His voice stopped her. "Amarissa."

"You still don't understand? Are you really stupid, or are you pretending to be stupid?" she asked coldly. Amarissa glanced over her shoulder into his intense eyes. "I am respectfully asking you to leave me alone."

She left him, standing alone like a fool, her dress swooshing around her feet as she walked. Remarkably, people seemed to move out of her way. I could get used to this, she thought to herself.

~

Amarissa reached the terrace doors in less than a minute and slipped out. The night was oddly silent. There was no sound but the faint echo of music and laughter from the ballroom. Behind her, the door creaked open.

"Why did you follow me?" she asked without turning around, though she already knew the answer. "Don't patronize me."

A gust of wind fluttered the fine black fabric of her dress and molded it to her slender legs. Amarissa turned around to face him, the wind blowing her hair across her face. She looked so beautiful and enchanting. But her beauty only fuelled his hatred for her.

Lucian stared at her for a long time, wondering if he was looking at the same Amarissa. She felt like a completely different person.

"Stop looking at me like that." Her voice floated out into the quiet night. "You've been running away from me for four years. I don't understand why you're here."

"I trailed you to monitor your actions," he said. Lucian moved toward her as if drawn by an unseen force. Reaching out with both hands, he caged each side of her waist, trapping her between the railing and his body. "You are my fiancée regardless of the nature of our relationship."

Amarissa leaned toward him, until the flats of their foreheads were touching and they stared into each other's eyes. 

She truly had never seen such beautiful eyes before, on a man or a woman. The way his irises were the palest grey-blue, the way the pupils dilated as he looked at her. Now she finally understood why Amarissa had been so obsessed with this man.

"You want me, don't you?" she asked, bemused. She heard his breath hitch. "And you hate yourself for it."

His gaze fell to her lips before slowly rising back to her eyes. "A very vile joke, my lady," Lucian said in a low voice. "Are you trying to prove that you can rub me the wrong way? Pity I could never love such a wicked thing as you."

Amarissa skimmed her thumb along his bottom lip. It was such an intimate gesture—one that made him swallow hard. They were so close that she could see his uneven breathing, and the slightly darker flecks in the clear grey-blue of his eyes.

"Your Grace is right." Placing a palm on his chest, creating space between them, she said, "I convinced my father to break the engagement agreement."

"Who said you could do that?" he asked, eyes flickering with anger. He gripped the stone railing, his hands tightening. "There is something you're not saying."

"Don't be angry," she said as she pushed past him, walking back to the door that connected the terrace to the ballroom. "I'm setting you free. You don't love me."

The truth in her words gripped his heart. But he knew she was right, he didn't love her. So why was he so angry?

"Go be free, Lucian," Amarissa said. She opened the terrace door. "Rejoice that you're no longer tied to the devil."

Then suddenly she was gone, like wind. There were no goodbyes or tears left for him by her. Amarissa walked away, not even once looking back, hoping to erase him from her life completely.

Three hundred and sixty-five days. She had three hundred and sixty-five days left as Amarissa Delclair. She couldn't afford to waste another minute on a man like Lucian Elrod. After all, she wasn't the real Amarissa who had loved him so helplessly. 

© SAELAH