The Bride He Hates-Chapter 34: Preparation For The Performance

Lyanna had barely slept, her mind kept replaying the confrontation from the night before, wondering if she could have handled it differently.

When she woke, Azrael was already gone. An hour later, Lyanna was called to his study.

The study door was open when she arrived. Azrael was sitting behind his desk, surrounded by piles of documents and maps. He didn’t look up when she entered, just gestured to the chair opposite him while continuing to write.

Lyanna sat, folded her hands in her lap, and waited. It was a power play, making her wait while he finished his work. Finally, he put down his quill and looked at her.

"The gathering is in a week." He said, pushing a thick folder towards her. "This dossier contains profiles of every vampire who will be attending. Memorize everything."

Lyanna opened the folder. Inside was the information about dozens of vampires, with details of their alliances and feuds. It would take weeks to absorb this information.

"You have a week." Azrael continued. "Helena will tutor you on proper protocols and how to handle each vampire. Morgana will manage your wardrobe and presentation. I will prepare you on political strategy and potential scenarios you might face." He leaned forward slightly.

"Every major vampire court will send its important nobles. This gathering has diplomatic, social, and alliance-building opportunities. But more than anything, it’s a performance. Everyone will be looking for each other’s advantages and weaknesses." He tapped the folder.

"Study it, and know every vampire who walks through our doors. Because any mistake you make, any weakness you show, and any information you reveal accidentally, it all comes back to Thornfield and to me."

Lyanna looked down at the overwhelming information, and then back at Azrael.

"And what if I fail to do so?"

He smiled coldly.

"Then you’ll fail publicly, in front of the most powerful vampires, and we’ll both face the political consequences. So I suggest you don’t fail."

He picked up his quill again, a clear signal that their conversation was over.

"Your lessons with Helena begin in an hour. You’ll spend your mornings with Helena, your afternoons with Morgana, and your evenings with me for political strategy sessions."

Lyanna stood up, clutching the folder. Just as she reached the door, his voice stopped her.

"And Lyanna? Last night you made your stance clear regarding our relationship. But during this gathering, we need to present a united front regardless of your personal feelings. Or is your pride more important than Thornfield’s political position?"

She turned back to face him.

"I can manage professionalism. I’ve been doing it for months, Your Majesty."

"We’ll see. Now go. You’re wasting your time."

The next few days were brutal. It was mental torture with endless hours of intensive study, memorization, and rehearsed responses until Lyanna’s head throbbed and her vision blurred from reading by candlelight.

Helena was even more demanding than she’d been during their normal lessons. While Helena handled political and social training, Lady Morgana took charge of Lyanna’s physical presentation.

"You’re too stiff when you walk." Morgana said during their third fitting session. "You’re human, so you can’t match the natural grace of vampires, but you can at least walk confidently. Shoulders back, chin up, long strides. Own the space you’re in."

Over the following days, they practiced everything from how to sit gracefully to how to walk through the rooms filled with vampires, how to eat and drink elegantly under scrutiny, and even how to breathe in tight corsets.

The evenings were reserved for sessions with Azrael himself, and those were the most difficult of all. Not because he was cruel, but because he was very professional, and treated her like a subordinate being trained for a task.

One evening, he took her to the grand ballroom where the main events would be held.

"This is your stage." Azrael said, his hand resting on her back as he let her into the hall.

He walked her through the space, pointing out important elements.

"The thrones are raised so we can see everything. Kings and queens don’t get involved in the chaos; they watch and control it from above."

They climbed the steps to the dais. Azrael sat on his throne and gestured for Lyanna to sit beside him.

"Every vampire in the realm will be watching us." Azrael continued. "Analyzing our marriage, looking for weaknesses to exploit. We must show them unity." He turned to face her.

"That means for the seven days of the gathering, we need to put aside our personal issues, and work together as partners. Whatever you think of me privately, bury it completely in public."

Lyanna looked at him.

"So we have to pretend to be in love?"

"No." He responded immediately. "Love would be unbelievable given our history. Everyone knows this is a revenge marriage. Trying to pretend we’re madly in love would make us look desperate and delusional."

He stood up and began pacing along the dais.

"We will present ourselves as a king and queen who respect each other." He stopped pacing and looked down at her still seated on her throne.

"Can you stand at my side, defer to me when needed, and make other vampires believe we’ve a strong partnership, all while hating me?"

Lyanna stood up and walked to stand beside him on the dais.

"Can you?" She replied back. "Can you treat me as a partner in public when you see me as property in private?"

For a moment, anger flashed in his eyes. But he buried it.

"For that week, yes." He said. "And I’ve been doing that since our marriage."

"I’ve also survived months of your cruelty while pretending in public that nothing’s wrong. I think I can manage seven more days of the same."

"We’ll see." Azrael said. "Because this is different from court functions you’ve attended before. This is seven days of constant scrutiny from vampires who are much more observant. Any crack in your facade, any genuine emotion you show, any slip in your performance will be noticed and used against us.

You need to be a much better actor than you’ve ever been before. Because if Queen Elise or King Damien or Lord Richard catch even a glimpse of genuine hatred in how you look at me, if they sense that our marriage is fragile or failing, they’ll exploit it without hesitation."

"I understand the stakes." Lyanna replied.

"You’d better. Because failure won’t be just embarrassing. It will lead to a political disaster. Alliances will break, rivals will gain the upper hand, and Thornfield’s power will be questioned. Everything I’ve built over four centuries could be damaged because my human wife couldn’t control her expressions for a week."

The insult was intentional, aimed to provoke her. Lyanna took a deep breath, pushed down her anger, and maintained her composure.

"I won’t fail." She said. "I’ll play my role perfectly. I’ll be the queen you need me to be. And when it’s over, we can go back to hating each other."