Chapter 20
Seraphine suddenly ripped open his shirt, revealing his chest, drenched in medicinal fluids, with golden markings spreading across his skin.
These were the marks of House Frost’s forbidden magic backlash.
These patterns would, over time, corrode his internal organs, eventually claiming his life.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Her voice trembled.
Alistair looked down at her, the silken ribbon around his eyes wet with tears. “Come with me.”
He kissed her trembling eyelashes. “This time, I’m not your uncle.”
Three days later, at the cliff, Lucien’s army surrounded the mountain pass, a dark mass of soldiers.
He had bandages around his chest, but in his hands was the bridal robes..
“Vivienne’s dead.” His voice was hoarse. “And the child is gone.”
Seraphine tightened the pendant at her waist. “What’s that to me?”
“It has everything to do with you.” Lucien suddenly opened a wooden box beside him. Inside, curled up, was a girl who looked eerily like Seraphine.
“Did you think House Frost had only
left?”
pendant.
The girl’s neck bore a bloodstone diamond
Seraphine’s sword–hand trembled. Alistair, standing behind her, grasped her hand holding the sword. “It’s a puppet technique.”
He whispered, “There’s no blood pulse in
diamond.”
Lucien took the opportunity to step forward.
“Come back with me, and I’ll spare the Shadow Court.”
“Master!” The gauntlet members suddenly exclaimed.
Lucien turned, seeing Vivienne’s coffin emitting smoke.
“The smoke is poisonous!”
Alistair quickly shielded Seraphine with his body.
In the haze, his silken ribbon slipped from his eyes, revealing his dull gray pupils.
Seraphine’s tears fell onto his face.
“You can’t see anymore, can you? You’ll never see again, will you?”
“I can see.” Alistair whispered, kissing her. “You’re seven years old, standing in the snow, in my eyes.”
As Lucien crawled out of the smoke, he saw Seraphine sever the golden chain.
The broken pieces fell into the abyss, like their shattered past.
“Three years,” Lucien coughed up blood and laughed. “If he can’t cure his eyes, you’ll have to come back.”
The morning mist of the Hermit’s Hollow carried the scent of coffee. Seraphine, for the countlessth time, peeked at Alistair as he bathed, only to have him bind her wrists with his belt.
“Uncle?”
“If you call me uncle, don’t come in.”
In the mist, he deftly caught her wandering hand.
Seraphine nuzzled against his neck. “Then should I call you Alistair?”
“Call me husband.”
The splash of water in the medicinal pool was swallowed by their lips.
Though Alistair couldn’t see, his fingers burned like flames, tracing up her spine to the back of her neck.
21.05%
“Wait…” She suddenly held his hand that was slipping under her clothes. “Can you see now?”
Alistair chuckled, guiding her hand to the back of his head.
“You thought I couldn’t tell you’ve been changing the medicine?”
Seraphine’s face turned red. She’d secretly used her blood in the medicine for half a year, but hadn’t realized he’d already discovered it.
“You’re being punished,” Alistair said, biting open her clothing. “From now on, you can look openly.”
A sword’s whistle cut the air.
Alistair quickly shielded Seraphine, and a stone pillar by the pool was severed in half.
“Lucien!”
Seraphine grabbed a robe from the shore and wrapped it around her body, glaring at the man who had barged in, sword in hand.
Lucien’s eyes were bloodshot, the tip of his sword aimed directly at Alistair’s throat. “Why must you steal what’s mine?”
Alistair calmly adjusted his clothes, placing Seraphine behind him.
“Prince Valmont, barging into the Hermit’s Hollow, do you want to fall for Vivienne’s poison again?”
“Shut up!” Lucien swung his sword, “Sera, come back with me.”
Seraphine sneered, “Lucien, have you forgotten what I said on the cliff years ago?”
“You said you hated me.” Lucien’s hand trembled slightly. “But don’t you know that I love you? I’ve done so much for you!”
“Love me?” Seraphine interrupted him. “Using puppets to threaten me, lacing my medicine with mandrake’s sleep–this is what you call love?”
“It’s because of Alistair, isn’t it? You won’t come back to me because of him?”
Seraphine lifted her lips slightly. “I love him. That’s all.”
Lucien suddenly lunged, his sword flashing like a rainbow straight for Alistair’s heart.
Without hesitation, Seraphine threw herself in front of him.
The blade pierced her shoulder, tearing through her scapula.
“Fina!”
Alistair caught her limp body, quickly pressing points to stop the bleeding.
Lucien froze, the blood dripping from his sword pooling on the stone floor.
“Why!” He staggered backward. “Would you rather die for him?”
Seraphine’s face turned pale from the pain, but she still forced herself to speak. “Because I love him.‘
”
Chapter 20
