Chapter 130-The scheme (2)

The moment she raised those questions a knock came at the door. She lifted Rhysandor off the ground with her spiritual essense and set him down gently on the bed.

She kissed his cheek softly and whispered, "Always yours, now and forever."

Nerezza quickly turned and answered the door. She spotted three beasts outside, Samahita, Zeyron and Theren.

"He said we should fetch you and leave right away. The window to do this is narrow and we must act now," Samahita said, shivering cold. Scared by what she has to do.

"Shhh," Nerezza shushed her, she glanced back inside the room and sighed with relief that Rhysandor was still sleeping and hadn’t heard anything.

She quickly locked the door and stepped out. "What did he promise you?" She asked.

"The same thing he must have promised you," Zeyron said, they all exchanged glances and understood that they couldn’t talk about their visions.

What mattered was that they found a solution out of it. Each of them wouldn’t have to live through the nightmare they saw in the vision because they’d get to stop it.

In that moment, they all forgot Fairy Zarathia’s warning. They just wanted a different future for themselves and went along with the offer.

Theren presented a sheet of paper, on it was a technique they had never seen before. "I drew it exactly as Hadrian described. This is the one he said we use on Sseraphis," he said.

Nerezza felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She knew what losing a mate felt like. She had gone through it when her own mate rejected her. The pain was unbearable and nearly killed her and that was different, she and her mate barely knew each other.

As for her brother, Sseraphis was a beast he’d lived with, spent time with, learnt to love his bad and his good side. He was the apple of his eye.

Even though she blamed Nytherael was for messing up their lives, even though she hated him. Nytherael meant the world Rhysandor. Her husband would never forgive her for killing Sseraphis.

However, thinking back to the funeral. Seeing herself in white mourning clothes with her soul and smile in the ground, all hesitation faded.

"Are you sure you can go through with it?" Theren asked her. "The technique needs all four of us so if you’re backing down..."

"I am not," she spoke coldly. Her eyes lacking light.

She could live with her brother hating her, she could live with Rhysandor blaming her, as long as he was alive and by her side.

"Is what you saw in the vision worth killing for?" She raised the question to the three beasts.

Samahita thought about her beast, the hole she felt in her body and her future, standing as a commoner while her sister shined. She didn’t want to live through that. Sheana was counting on her to rule side by side so she absolutely couldn’t lose her beast, she told herself.

But deep down, she knew it was a selfish excuse. However, she didn’t want to think about it at the moment. "We should practise the technique," that was answer enough.

Theren glanced at her and then at Zeyran. He wondered, was ending up as Zeyron’s bed pet to save Samahita worth waking away and not taking part in the killing mission. No, it wasn’t. The one he loved was Samahita, his heart ached for her and to sell his soul to Zeyron, was not an option.

"We should get started because we don’t have much time."

Lastly, all eyes landed on Zeyron. He hadn’t given his answer. Zeyron thought of what he saw and heard. "I gave up my grand ambitions on the court for you. I know you deserve better so every day I make an effort to be better so that I can be worthy of you. Why can’t you see me? Why can’t you see my effort?"

He had been reduced to a begged Infront of Theren, he was begging for scraps of love after giving up on becoming more powerful and attaining a bigger post. It was pathetic to say the least in his heart.

"I don’t ever want that path. It’s not for me," he whispered.

He desperately wanted to get as far away from that life as possible. Killing was nothing to him, he would gladly kill if it meant never begging for love.

With all of their consents given by word of mouth, they proceeded to the garden where they practised the technique again and again. As they were high ranking beasts, they mastered it quickly.

"Sseraphis is in... the underwater palace..." Hadrian’s voice came.

A vile appeared in Samahita’s mind and again they all heard, "Say that... Fairy Zarathia has brewed medicine for him with... A thousand year old divine tree... That should get all of you in without a problem."

They stared at that small bottle. Hadrian had thought of everything and they could honestly feel his murderous intention in his stammer. It was clear, he wanted Sseraphis to pay for tricking him and pushing him to death’s door.

"Let’s set off," they all agreed.

"We do this," Nerezza spoke, we’ll make an enemy of a nine-tailed fox and a nine-horned dragon. My brother and my brother-in-law won’t let this slide," she said, just then, Nerezza realized that for the first time since everything went down, she referred to Nytherael as her brother.

She acknowledged him just when she meant to ruin his life in way worse manner than he did hers. ’I’ll spend the rest of my life atoning for this sin,’ she felt a heavy burden settle on her chest.

"I’ll think about that after," Zeyron said. It was better to run from enemies that to fall to love.

"Same," Samahita and Theren agreed in unison. They set off instantly.

***

Nerezza stared at the frozen crystals. She had thought she was ready to pay the price of her decision but she was wrong.

Her choice to help Hadrian was to prevent Rhysandor from dying but now he was dead, by their scheme no less.

She earned her brother’s hatred, was deeply wounded, her husband was dead and worse, she didn’t even have his body with him.

She trusted Hadrian and a future she desperately tried to avoid came true that instant. She regretted it. "My smile," she brushed the image of Rhysandor in his prime. "I have lost you despite my effort..."