“No.” The King’s refusal came without missing a beat. Deyanira who was in front of him froze, then smiled, utterly in denial.“…Pardon? I must’ve misheard you, Father.”“I said no. I will not allow divorce and end our alliance with the House of the Wolves.”He shook his head.“Lord Ren de Bach may attack and commit treason at any day, according to my informants. And the werewolves have promised to be our final line of defense. I…” His index finger firmly pointed to himself. “cannot lose them.”Her brows twitch as quiet fury grows inside her.“So…” She scoffs, failing to accept the incredulous words that leave her mouth. “Your Majesty is saying that we need their manpower, so we will sacrifice one of us?”What’s more unbelievable is the man who claims he is their father calmly nods. As if his daughter’s life is not on the line.“Can we not defend ourselves with our own men? Father, we rule all of the united realms. We have so many more allies than you imagine, and also—they’re just the
It was her nth attempt today.Her hands fisted into balls hesitated for a while, suspended in the air, before letting go and finally knocking on her door.“Akira, it is I. Please, I do apologize for not being there for you that night. I can understand if you decide to end our friendship with that. However, please forgive me just for tonight and let me help you. I might just be able to cure you…Please…” Phaedra was almost leaning by the door as she whispered her apologies in front of Akira’s room.Her conscience could not take it, thus the unrelenting spirit that visits her every night. She knew she could help her friend’s disability, but that said friend is now pushing everyone away—even her—especially her, and Flavian. She would not be surprised if Akira knew what kept them preoccupied that night.Phaedra waited despite the silence that stretched, testing her patience, yet despite it her feet remained rooted on the ground. She flinched when the door creaked open and saw not her maid,
On one tragic night, a creature of the night flew through the forest, his big size nowhere to be seen and only a strong gust of air remaining in his path. He need not waste any more time coming here. The circumstances of the Princess fueled his stamina to run from the South to the Northeast of the continent where the pack is. He was still in disbelief.How could Flavian let all these things happen? Is he in some kind of crisis? Is he suffering from something? Did they do something to him?As Fenrir got lost in his thoughts, soon enough, his fury overtook him. His already black slit eyes were slitted more in anger and his wolf breezed through the forest, knowing the place like the back of his hand. Though, there was something new. He faced a tall wall, no less than ten feet, by the edge of the woods. He looked up at it before snarling and charging head-first into the wall.Has Flavian been busy with this? To hell with that. His Luna is in danger yet his attention is on his territory.O
Warmth and solitude surrounded me as I lay on a soft mattress, an almost cloud-like surface. Every breath I took was no longer painful. I did not have pains in the throat, nor aching ribs that slowed my breathing. I for once felt weightless, painless… soulless.My eyes fluttered open and flinched to see light after being used to the dark for weeks.I sat upright as my hands slowly massaged my neck, looking for remnants of the pain I once bore. There was none. My neck was perfectly fine.“A-Ah,” I vocalized. My brows rose in pleasant surprise after hearing my voice.Just then, my eyes wandered around. It was an odd place. I knew no place like this. A white asylum, only broken by the garden to the right. It seemed like a beautiful garden, vibrant green everywhere, just like the garden I used to frequent in the palace. Butterflies fluttered around, bees switched from one flower to another, and birds chirped while perched in tree branches. The garden was alive.I walked to the garden, hop
Once the glow died down, her eyes slowly fluttered open.“I swear, on God, if you’re a demon now, I’ll regret saving you,” were his first few words to the newly awakened woman. Contrary to his words, he didn’t believe she was demonized, but something changed inside her. And he was determined to find out.“Selene,” she whispered almost incoherently, her gaze on him still dazed and unfocused.“What?”She blinks repeatedly. Then frowns. “Why are ‘you’ here?”“As far as decorum and etiquette go, I think you’re quite horrible at expressing gratitude to your saviors,” he scowls. “Though, if you tell me what demonic possession happened to you, mayhap I can consider that as you expressing gratitude.” He slyly attempted to get information, unable to hide his smug expression. He stopped himself from smirking when it was her turn to scowl, irked by his assumption.Ah, this was fun. He thought.“I am not possessed by a demon,” she says, her frown deepening. “I don’t exactly know what happened…”“
The next time I woke up, I was alone in the cabin. I looked out the window, only to see endless snow falling on the forest. The firewood was softly crackling in the furnace, yet he was nowhere to be found.This gave me time to organize my thoughts alone.I must find out the prophecy. The Goddess said only I can unearth the prophecy to heal the lands from the plague. If I don’t, it will not stop until every last race is extinct. The responsibility brought upon me gave immeasurable burden that is now weighing me down. How could I go from promenading the courtyard every morning, drinking tea, and plotting how to catch my father’s attention to now being hunted down by my sisters, and apparently reborn as a being blessed by a Goddess with the responsibility to save the world?And all those sufferings, all those misfortunes, they were all destiny’s scheme to test my resilience to become what I am now? How ridiculous. How foolish I must’ve looked!I could not even start to worry about my per
Indeed…it is not impossible. However, the mere thought of me becoming a cruel, beastly predator sends shivers down my spine. I had never once imagined becoming one of them—I just wanted to be accepted by them.“B-But…the Goddess never told me about that,” I murmured.“Then, can you explain to me what you talked about in detail?”I looked up at him, searching his eyes for any malice, any ulterior motive. I found none. I hesitated for a long while until I finally decided to share them with him. His frown deepened as I reiterated our prophecy and when I finished, he scoffed.“Even I doubt destiny’s choice. Why would they pick this sensitive, validation-deprived, and miserable human for such a mission?” My brows furrowed, utterly offended by the pure truth he spoke. “They could’ve picked me. Then again, mayhap they had to find someone who’d choose to sacrifice themselves for the realms. I am the last on that list.”“I…am also hesitant about why I am the chosen one.”“Mayhap they chose you
The pack was welcomed with an uproar early in the morning when five dead bodies greeted the servants in the Luna’s bedchambers. What’s more, is that the Luna herself is missing. Everyone’s faces were tinted with fear, every action wary and vigilant, every hushed whisper almost always concerned with how the palace will react. This cannot be a matter that they can sweep under the rug.Where is the Princess? Is she kidnapped? Is she still alive?It was a sensitive day for the House.Like last time, the Alpha returned in a rush from overseeing the walls in the borders, where he missed all of last night’s events. He was just as guilty as he was before, but he was quick to react to the situation. Rumor had it Phaedra D’Arcy cried in the Luna’s room and apologized over and over to the missing Luna. Ellie, the Princess’s personal maid, shared a witness’s account of the events where all the rumors sparked.She said it was a sister’s feud, that one of the Princess came with sorcerers with the i
Well, you've flipped to the last page of this book. Thank you for seeing it to the end with me. I'm sorry for the errors. I will edit it diligently now that I've completed it. Please leave your thoughts in the reviews! I'd really appreciate it, constructive or negative! I'll read it all. ^^ Love, zav
Spring has arrived. Its breeze welcomed the new blooming flowers in the flower shops, the redolence of the Capital’s symbolic flower, a daisy, circulating down the streets of the city. It was the perfect weather for a festival, a rather young festival only celebrated for three years.Amid the bustling townspeople, a young girl wandered around, her simple straw slippers softly hitting the cobblestone as she glanced around seemingly lost, eventually stopping in front of the flower shop to admire the daisies. Her wide, curious eyes neared the daisy and sniffed it, sighing at its alluring scent.The old man running the shop spots the young girl, wearing nothing but a humble dress and straw slippers, visibly a farm girl. He smiles, plucking a daisy from its bunch. He hands it to the girl who looks up at him, surprised.“Happy cleansing day, lassie.”“Eh?”He chuckles at the girl’s tilted head with confusion spelled out on her face.“Don’t ‘ya know what day is today?”“Uh-uh.” She shakes he
“She’s taking too long, is she not?” Flavian wonders aloud as they look up at the sky, violent and storming with frequent flashes of lightning and thunder. It had been thirty minutes since they took to the sky. The vampires and trolls are all absorbed and rotting in the clearing, ending the battle. But they were still yet to see even the two’s silhouettes in the sky.Beside him, Fenrir was frowning quietly. He could not feel her. Something… or someone, was intercepting the bond.“What if the purification failed? Will she be alright?” Phaedra worriedly asks and turns to her mother. “Does it really take this long, Mother?”Priscilla crossed her arms, a similar frown on her face. “Let us wait a while longer. It is no easy feat, but I believe in her. What do you say, Fauntleroy?”Two ears perked in her direction. She clears her throat and clarifies, “The older one.”“What?”“Do you still feel your mate?”Only the rustling leaves of the trees answered her. All heads sharply turned to him a
My mind drifted back into the discussion we shared between the advisors, before everything.“Thank you. I’m feeling well enough to hunt down the plague again.” She meets everyone’s eyes. “But I doubt I’ll get lucky and find it at the first forest I go to. Do you have any ideas where it would likely be?”And just like that, the table was open for discussion.The hunt for the plague continues.“How about this?” I pitch in. Expectant eyes meet mine as I continue, “We take a different approach. If I absorb any more, I’m afraid I will explode.”“That is realistically possible,” Priscilla confirms, and my face blanches.“Then, what approach do you have in mind, Your Majesty?” The generals ask after darting a narrowed glance at the retired priestess.I shrug. “Anything that would not include me having to ingest any more power is preferable.”It’s true. I felt like puking the day after I absorbed the plague. It was like eating a dirty cloth, with all the corrupted souls it absorbed. It was no
“Aren’t you tired?” I ask, my eyes warily scanning him from head to toe. He really is here. Right in front of me. In the flesh.That same tall, slender, build with a ghastly white complexion and gravity-defying black hair.The same man in my dreams—nightmares, rather.He looked as if he was swallowed by darkness, with the smoke all around him. He was a terrifying opponent. But I was not one to back down. I bared my fangs and summoned Celeste’s eyes, making mine slit and glowing a brighter purple. If I could, I would’ve sneered and tested the firmness of his will, just to see if I could do to him what I did to my past enemies.Hearing my question, a slow grin spreads out on his face, sending goosebumps down my spine. I felt Flavian flinch from my left.He spoke, his voice thick and yet silky smooth as if he hadn’t been around for centuries.“The pursuit to a peaceful world is a tedious task, thus one must not feel lethargic.”I narrow my eyes at him. “Pursuit to a peaceful world? You m
Expert bodies move out of the way with a smooth tilt of their body, easily evading a lethal charge to the shoulder. Xiao’s murderous glare pinned on the vampire that dared to charge at him.“How foolish,” he remarks and brutally stabs its chest with his wooden staff’s pointy end.Despite the chaos that ensues around him, he keeps his cool demeanor and composure as he breezes through the swarm of enemies that outnumbered them. Realizing a stab to the heart that was long done pumping would not kill the vampire off, he calls for the attention of the wicked witch on his back.“Do finish off this one, Priscilla.” He flings the vampire overhead, using the poor soul’s attempt to charge on him another time as momentum to take him flying.She scoffs from behind and he could already imagine a scowl on her face.“You cannot even finish a mindless vampire? Tsk. This is why I do not desire to live too long,” she says just as the ground that the vampire landed on was scorched. There was no need to
The crisp leaves of the Witches’ Forest greeted us as we arrived, the rich, wide forest being the place we theorized would house the world’s oldest living plague. It made sense. This forest was rich with the energy of the witches, and the coven was temporarily abandoned for the sole reason that the plague was strongest in the forest.Priscilla told me during our meeting that the number of victims in the coven never decreased when the rest of the world did. When I absorbed a fraction of the plague’s strength and weakened it, I thought it gave the world a few weeks of respite. But it never reached the coven.After learning about it, guilt gnawed at my stomach. I immediately ordered the witches and their families to seek refuge in the palace, where the rest of the witches I took to war were. Now, we arrive at a barren coven in the middle of a dark, ominous forest pulsing with energy.I could feel the earth’s power in my veins. Pulsing. Throbbing. Like a streak of power terrorizing my blo
It was a quiet, sunny day for the palace.It was on that quiet and sunny day that the Queen’s advisors were summoned into the meeting hall. They quietly shuffled inside, Priscilla meeting Xiao’s eyes. She observes him. They had not crossed paths in the castle for weeks. She, preoccupied in the witches’ tower and he, cooped up in the archives. The two places were almost on opposite ends of the palace. And yet he looked no different.Xiao feels her gaze and turns her way. He raises an inquisitive brow and she shuts him off with a roll of her eyes. The man, confused, tilts his head. Quietly, they occupy their spots on the right and left of the end of the table, where the Queen’s seat was. That was and had always been their position—they are the left and right hand of the monarch.Two of the most unique hands, at that.All advisors rose at the arrival of the Queen.She wore a modest gilded purple gown with simple gown shoulder caps that drape to her back. Her humble tiara sat atop her bra
“Don’t you look pathetic down there?”Her sarcasm was spot on, her voice crystal clear.Perhaps he truly is nearing his demise. He yearned a little more of her tonight than usual.He waited for the pain of Rognac’s vicious bite, but it never came. It must’ve tripped or something because Flavian heard rustling and struggling. However, when Rognac growled and his heavy claws fumbled on the wooden floor as if lunging, the pain still did not come. And he heard her voice again.“Will you continue to pathetically lay there?”Puzzled, Flavian flutters his eyes open. And the scene before him just felt… impossible. As if he was hallucinating. He gaped at the situation for a while, belatedly registering to him that they were in the middle of a life-or-death situation.Against Rognac was Phaedra, in all her petite glory. She looked at an ant next to Rognac’s giant form. Yet she could still hold her ground as specks of dust of magic floated around her, her hair floating, and her hand up against R