It was Dorian.
He slowly released his suffocating grip on her mouth.
'Dorian! What on earth are you doing here?' Isla gasped in sheer, breathless terror.
'If absolutely anyone sees you, you will be killed!'
She looked up into his face and instantly froze. His usually dark, fierce eyes were completely bloodshot.
They were brimming with profound, agonizing tears, carrying a weight of sorrow that entirely shattered her soul.
'What am I doing here?' Dorian choked out, his voice cracking with a devastating, raw pain.
'That is exactly the question I should be asking you, Isla.
What are you doing here? What is the meaning of this wedding, this white dress, this ring? Did you not swear that you loved only me?'
Isla's heart violently broke into a million irreparable pieces. She reached up, gently cupping his tear-stained, familiar cheeks. 'Yes, Dorian. I love you, and I will only ever love you.'
Dorian violently smacked her hands away, his eyes blazing with a heartbroken fury. 'Lies!' he hissed bitterly.
'You are speaking absolute lies. If that were true, you would have never, ever married that bastard.'
'Dorian, please listen to me!' she pleaded frantically, fresh tears spilling down her own face.
'Marrying Lucier was an absolute, inescapable compulsion!'
'What kind of compulsion forces you to sell your body and your soul?' he demanded.
'I... I cannot tell you that. Just know that I had no choice.'
'Isla, darling, are you quite alright in there?' Lucier's arrogant voice suddenly echoed from the bedchamber.
'Yes, I am perfectly fine!' Isla called back, her voice shaking terribly.
She turned back to Dorian with absolute desperation. 'I absolutely have to go now, Dorian.'
She tried to run, but Dorian fiercely grabbed her arm. 'I will absolutely not let you go to him like this.'
'Dorian, please—'
'No.'
He forcefully yanked her against his hard chest, effortlessly lifting her onto the cold marble vanity slab.
He violently captured her mouth in a desperate, punishing kiss, trying to brand her as his own one final time.
Isla struggled frantically to break his iron grip, completely terrified that Lucier would walk in, but Dorian refused to let go.
With no other option left to save his life, she brought her knee up and forcefully kicked his chest to push him away.
As he stumbled back, her eyes flashed with a brilliant, unnatural gold. Using her ancient serpent magic, she instantly cast a powerful binding spell.
Invisible, unbreakable magical cords violently wrapped around Dorian, tightly securing his hands, his feet, and completely sealing his mouth shut, as she had not yet acquired the knockout poison she truly needed for tonight.
Dorian collapsed heavily to the floor, entirely paralyzed but completely conscious.
Isla dropped to her knees beside his bound form. She pressed a devastatingly soft, lingering kiss directly to his forehead.
'I am so incredibly sorry, Dorian. Please, try to understand me. I absolutely have to do this.'
Silent, agonizing tears poured like a river from Dorian's furious, heartbroken eyes as he stared up at her.
With her own heart completely destroyed, she stood up and walked out, leaving him bound in the dark.
She stepped back into the bedchamber, her heart hammering a terrifying, erratic rhythm against her ribs.
Lucier was sitting casually on the edge of the plush bed.
He held a glass of wine in one hand, resting his other hand heavily on the mattress. He smirked as she entered. 'You returned rather quickly, my sweet bride. You could have taken a bit more time to prepare yourself.'
Isla sat rigidly on the very edge of the bed. She desperately wanted to talk, to completely stall the horrifying moment of their consummation, but her mind was entirely blank.
Lucier leaned in, gently brushing a stray lock of hair away from her pale, terrified face.
'Tell me something, Princess,' Lucier murmured smoothly. 'Just yesterday, you absolutely despised the very sight of me.
And yet, today, you were the one rushing to marry me. Why the sudden, miraculous change of heart?'
'I... well, I...' Isla stammered nervously, completely unable to form a lie.
"Thump!"
Suddenly, a loud, heavy noise echoed directly from the bathroom. Both Isla and Lucier instantly snapped their heads toward the wooden door.
'What on earth was that noise?' Lucier asked, his dark eyes narrowing sharply.
'Oh, it... it must be a rat,' Isla lied, her blood instantly turning to solid ice. 'There are so many huge rats in this old palace.'
'I highly doubt that was the sound of a mere rat,' Lucier said coldly, slowly standing up from the bed. 'I should go and check.
Sometimes, enemy spies manage to sneak into the palace. Or perhaps... it is a secret lover coming to assassinate me.'
Isla's breath completely caught in her throat. 'A secret lover? What do you mean?'
'I once read a rather fascinating news story,' Lucier smirked darkly, his eyes entirely devoid of warmth.
'A beautiful princess was married against her will. So, on her very wedding night, she invited her secret lover into her chambers to murder her new husband.'
"If only I could actually do that right now,"
Isla muttered fiercely under her breath.
'What? Did you say something?' Lucier snapped, his head whipping back toward her.
'No! Absolutely nothing. Your ears must be ringing,' she replied quickly, panic violently clawing at her throat.
'Perhaps,' Lucier said softly.
He slowly reached out and drew his heavy, gleaming silver sword directly from its ornate scabbard resting on the chair.
Without another word, he began to walk slowly, deliberately toward the bathroom door.
With every single, agonizingly slow footstep he took, Isla's terrified heartbeat violently spiked, her absolute worst nightmare unfolding right before her eyes.