Chapter 264. Confrontation (4)

Translator: Atlas / Editor: Regan

Ishakan held Leah tight, one arm about her back and the other pulling her hips against him.

“I’ll kill him later,” he whispered affectionately in her ear. “There’s no need to do it in front of you.”

Blain’s eyes bulged as Ishakan pointedly ignored him, as if he were an insect unworthy of his notice.

“You think I’ll leave you alone?” He shouted, enraged, and Ishakan’s head swung toward him.

“You seem so eager to die. There’s no need for it,” he explained. “I’ve thought of a better punishment for you.”

He paused to let the weight of the words sink in.

“Wait until the final moment arrives.”

***

Cerdina immediately headed for Leah’s palace. She wanted to pull that damned bitch’s hair out. The slut needed educating, and Cerdina didn’t care if overusing her power destroyed her in the process.

She would show her what it meant to obey. When she was done with her, Leah would never dare to act so arrogant again.

Cerdina still couldn’t believe that Leah had actually dared to defy her.

Thinking of the moment when Leah gave her that glass bottle, Cerdina walked faster. But before she even left her own palace, she staggered to a halt in the middle of the corridor. She had to bite back a scream.

“……!”

Collapsing to the floor, she wrapped trembling arms around herself, retching as she raked at her chest with her own fingernails. She gagged again and again, choked, suffocating, and finally vomited up black blood onto the white marble floor.

Slowly, she swiped the blood away with the back of her hand.

“It can’t be…” She muttered dizzily.

Part of the spell had just broken. Leah had lost her love for Blain.

Why did it break? How did she do it?

Spells that implanted feelings were very complicated. Cerdina had had to alter Leah’s memories to make her love Blain, replacing that desert savage with her son. Every time Leah looked at Blain, she felt the same feelings she had for Ishakan.

But Leah was breaking through. She had only freed her emotions for now, but it was very likely that the memories tied so tightly to them would follow soon. Cerdina hadn’t been able to give the spell the attention it needed lately, since she had been having such difficulty controlling her power.

It was still an insidious spell. It would not be easily broken. In this time, there was no sorcerer who could surpass Cerdina. Perhaps before, some barbarian sorceress might have challenged her, but she knew there was no one alive that should be able to rival her. But then…

How had the spell been broken?

It was impossible. Bewildered, Cerdina continued toward the princess’s palace, but the rage that had sustained her was gone. And on the way, she encountered someone else.

“Blain…” She whispered. He stood alone in the garden outside Leah’s palace, and her heart contracted to see her son in such a pitiful state. “They…did this to you?”

He did not seem to hear her, and she grabbed his shoulder and shook him.

“Blain, tell me what happened?” She shrieked. “Tell me!”

Blain said nothing. He did not even look at her as she shook him, and then he finally slapped her hand away painfully. The back of her hand reddened.

She did not care. All her attention was focused on him, with no care for herself.

“Blain…” She pleaded desperately. “Please, tell your mother…”

“I won’t wait til the wedding,” he said, turning his gaze toward her slowly. He could see himself reflected in her eyes, in their endless greed.

Blain had despised her. All this time, he had thought he was different from Cerdina, better than his mother, but their kinship could not be denied. He was just like her, after all.

“I no longer care about her heart. Her body is enough,” he said, and gave the order. “Make her my doll. Right now.”