Athena was frustrated. She was twisting and turning on her bed wide awake. The sound of thunder and lightening had woken her up in the middle of the night and now she was finding it hard to sleep. She could cast a spell on herself to sleep but she didn't like to do that because that meant a dreamless sleep.

She gave up on getting more sleep. Sunrise was still hours away and she was thinking hard about what to do to occupy herself. She got up from her bed and looked around the room for something to do. As her eye caught the door, she got an idea. Maybe she could use this time she had for exploring the castle by herself. Dante had refused to give her a tour.

She opened her door and stepped outside. The door closed by itself and Athena found herself greeted by total darkness. She turned around and somehow managed to find the door handle but she couldn't open the door. it was locked now. She sighed " She had locked herself out." She tried spell after spell to get some light but it was useless. This castle only responded to Dante as the most powerful warlock of his Ronas bloodline. Only powerful Ronas speciallty spells could help her.

Suddenly after a few minutes of waiting in one place, light appeared. She found herself surrounded by burning candles which were all suspended in air hovering around her. The candles started moving forward as though trying to direct her into a certain direction down the corridor. She walked with the candles across a long corridor and walked down a set of stairs. She didn't know how many levels she went down until the candles directed her onto another corridor.

Athena felt Dante's presence nearby. Just as she thought about this, the candles stopped in front of a door. Athena gasped as the door opened by itself and a force pulled her inwards. She then found herself in the most unlikely place, Dante's arms.

She was being held by Dante bridal style in the middle of a room that she could only describe as a green house. As far as she could see everywhere was covered in flowers. So this was where he was growing his flowers. The room was so massive, it's limits were not visible. It was the biggest room she had ever seen.

As Athena was admiring the scenery and had totally forgotten who was holding her, his husky voice made her shiver " I see you are used to my touch already. You didn't even try to push me away when I pulled you inside and held you. A major improvement in this relationship finally."

Athena tried to deny it "I was just relieved that you found me. I thought I was going to be lost. What's with the darkness? Now put me down Dante."

Dante put Athena down and narrowed his eyes at her " Actually about that, what possessed you to leave your room without telling me? Your room is in the highest tower which is a tower out of bounds for all inhabitants of this castle. No one can enter it and no one can leave it too unless I demand it. I have put you there deliberately. As I said, navigating through this castle is only under my control. I haven't permitted you to walk around on any of the floors in this castle freely so you won't be able to teleport any where or reach any chambers unless I demand it."

Athena sighed " Why? Don't you trust me enough? You actually think I would runaway. Don't you?"

Dante nodded " Of course I don't trust you. Do you have to ask that? I am not going to trust you until we have a holy reunion in a marriage ceremony."

Athena sounded hurt " Never mind. Why are you awake so early in the morning anyway?"

Dante spoke " I don't think my sleeping schedule is of your concern, my love. Not yet anyways. When we get married, then you can ask such questions. But right now, I don't think you have earned my trust enough for me to tell you what i do with my time."

Athena was frustrated " Our relationship is a two way portal. Remember. You said it once yourself."

Dante challenged " Athena, do you really want to go there? From what I recall, you were the one who left me in that cabin on the first night that we met. And I was the one who kept summoning you and messaging you in the time after that."

Athena argued " You call threatening images, messages? Why don't you call the offensive spells you threw at me in our duels, love letters then? You hurt me time and time again. Don't you dare put all the blame in the successive failures in this relationship on me. How can you justify going after the people I care about? How can you justify capturing my loved ones?"

Dante spoke with a threatening voice " Firstly, Don't raise your voice at me. I warn you. Secondly, don't you dare say you care for anyone else. How many times do I have to tell you, your heart is only mine. I will show you my darker side if you ever speak of your love for another from now on. You are no longer a healer with limitless free reign. You are my partner now. Last night was our first official date. Your days of being an outlaw are over. Seriously, Athena, for your own good, watch what you say or I will hurt you."

Athena spoke bitterly " Firstly, I have seen your darker side already. Secondly, you have already hurt me many times before. Thirdly, If you think I ever hold back my words, you are mistaken. I don't believe in dishonesty and holding anything back in a relationship. What good would it do."

Dante pretended to think "Let me think. It would mean a painless relationship. Another warning, darling. Don't ever assume you have seen my darker side. You think you know what I can do, think again. Now I am having second thoughts about returning you to your chambers. I think I am going to teach you a lesson not to ever wind me up."

Athena put up her shield ready to defend herself. She could feel an attack was coming.

Dante smirked" You seem to forget where you are standing my love. You are in castle of spears which means I have the control. I have a home advantage for duels. That shield won't protect you." He then waved his hands and suddenly branches of black roses with thornes started moving towards her from different parts of the room. Before Athena could react, the branches formed a cage around her into a sphere shape.

Dante spoke " The black rose cage. My favourite weapon of choice. In case you haven't worked it yet, this is no ordinary green house darling. You are standing in my botanical weapon room. Every plant in this room is a weapon. I conjured those lovely roses I used on you in our first duel from here by the way." He laughed at Athena's baffled expression looking around her with curiosity.

Athena questioned " What are you waiting for? Strike me then? If this cage is a weapon why not use it."

Dante started walking in front if the cage " You are eager to see what I do next don't you. Trust me. You are not going to like this. After all, you are keeping so much from me right now. You don't trust me and you don't make any efforts for our relationship to work. Now lets not keep you waiting. Here is what will happen. I will ask you questions. You must answer me truthfully or this peaceful cage would turn hostile to you."

Athena spoke with disbelief " You actually have to use such weapon to ask me questions. Dante, what are you trying to prove?"

Dante spoke coldly " You said you had seen my darker side. You said I have hurt you already. Well, lets say, I would like you to reconsider your words and take them back. Now lets move on. Answer the first question Athena. Do you love me?"

Athena gasped " I am not going to answer this. You already know"

Dante shook his head " Answer, yes or no."

Athena sighed "Yes." She anticipated something to happen but nothing did.

Dante spoke " You don't trust yourself with that answer. Do you? It seems like you love me in your conscious even though you try not to."

Athena spoke " Where did you get that impression? I don't try to hate you. Really."

Suddenly the ground shook and the cage got smaller as the branches moved around.

Dante spoke with amusement " Really? My black roses disagree with you. I think it's fair to stay, you try very hard to hate me but you can't."

She looked up at Dante with a questioning look " This is ridiculous. What is this cage really and how does it change size? Why is this happening?"

Dante tried to act innocent " I don't know. Ask yourself. You tried to deceive me and these black rose branches didn't like it. A black rose is a symbol of loyalty ... To the Ronas. This flower obeys the Ronas only. If anyone acts against us, it acts to hurt them. Speak the truth and the cage won't get tight enough for the roses to hurt you. Trust me, the spells they would throw at you would be excruciating and ... I won't stop them if you bring it on yourself. I am proving a point. You said you have seen the worst from me. I don't agree. If you had any idea how much I have held myself back from hurting you, then you would take back your words in a heart beat."

Athena rolled her eyes " I think if its about deceiving one another in this relationship, you must take a look into the mirror. You said you don't enjoy hurting me but yet again you conjure this cage over something I said that we could resolve by talking like normal humans."

Dante frowned " But we are not normal humans. We are witches and warlocks. Yet, you amaze me. You recall correctly. I said I don't enjoy hurting you but doesn't mean I won't. It may hurt me to hurt you but if you push me, I would. Now, second question, Do you love Donavan in the way that you love me?"

Athena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She remained silent.

Dante was enraged " What's the matter. You can't answer with yes or no. I want honesty."

Athena opened her eyes " No." To Athena's amazement nothing happened.

Dante couldn't hide the relief in his voice " I see. You don't know how much I mean to you. You don't know your hearts true desires. I believe you." He then growled " You dont love him like you love me but he loves you as much as i love you."

Athena objected " How can you be so sure. He is just attracted to me since he had a crush on me from our childhood. He doesnt truely love me. He hasn't found his blood match yet, so ...."

Dante spoke in a dismissive tone " How can I be so sure? How do you think? Because he told me himself."

Athena looked confused " What are you saying? When did he ever..."

Dante spoke " When you were unconscious. He came back for you. When you cast a spell to send him away, he was forced to go with the coven and Damian. Then after a few hours when all my army had emptied Alpha Augustus's territory and the place was deserted he came back to find you. He seemed quite out of energy. I could tell your coven had put up a big fight to stop him returning to that battleground. He was too late of course. You were gone. Demetrious was given instructions to take you and Aretha back to Arkansas alongside the rest of the army and of course our captives. Everyone was gone and on their way to Arkansas. But I was there. I knew he would come back for you. I stayed there. He is quite an emotional and expressive guy. First when he saw me, he had the nerve to ask me to give you to him. The exchange price was tempting though. He asked me to kill him and instead let you be free from me and be allowed to live your life to be happy. Of course these are not his words. He used some colourful language towards me and also some poetic words about how much he loved you. So that's how I know how he felt."

Athena looked horrified " Dante.... What did you do to him? Did you .... Did you ...?"

Dante spoked in an amused tone " Kill him? No. Of course not. It was tempting to end his life. I wanted to watch the life drain out of him slowly and painfully. When he went on and on about how much he loved you, I attacked him. We had a duel. I beat him up badly actually and was about to kill him. But then when I was about to give him a fatal blow, I stopped. I thought to myself that actually, I like him to live to see our wedding day. I want him to witness how the woman he loves so much breaks his heart by marrying the man he hates. I definitely wanted him to see my glory days and watch me helplessly as I conquer the world. So I didn't kill him."

Athena asked the question she dreaded the most. " Dante... Where is he now?"