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Chapter 48: Eden’s Warning
Last Updated:
2022-11-29 15:36:31
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The Returned Luna Chapter 49: Final Decision
When Laurel left the inn around lunchtime, she noticed Eden was not among the diners. She wondered where Eden had gone. She wanted to tell Eden of her decision, but since Eden was not there, she decided to go to the castle first to find Adolph.Sarah walked beside her to the castle. They stopped in front of the castle gates. “I can go by myself.”Sarah frowned, but nodded, leaving her side. Laurel faced the gates alone and walked across the lawn. She had to do this alone and carry the weight of her decision by herself. The guards of the castle smiled at her and gave her a little nod of recognition. She walked through the corridors of the castle, taking in the tapestries and the stained glass windows. She’d lived in the palace for three years and had walked every inch of the castle, she was sure. Every inch had some memory hidden in them. A lot of them were painful, but the castle had been her home. It was her home now and there was nowhere she could go if she left here. Laura had f
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Laurel blinked, shocked as she covered her sore cheek. She turned her head and looked at Delia. Something was wrong with her, but she didn’t care to figure it out.The maid behind Delia was shocked. Her voice trembling with panic, “Miss Laurel, are you okay?”Laurel used to think that Delia was just a pretty woman whose only desire was to please Basil. She was a simpering woman who enjoyed her station. Since returning, she’d learned she was more like Basil than she had ever thought possible: selfish, vain, self-important, and willful. She never thought they deserved each other more than right now. She had never expected Delia to have the nerve to hit her either. It was such an impolite thing to do. The thought that such a woman was Basil's mate made her feel sick mostly because she used to love him. If mates were supposed to be reflections of each other, for better or worse, she had loved the selfish vanity and willfulness in Basil at one point. She didn’t think she could hate him
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After Laurel rushed upstairs, Basil stood, straightened his clothes, dusted himself off, and went to find Delia. Upon seeing him, she ran to him with glimmering wet eyes. “That woman!” Delia cried. “That evil woman is bullying me just because she had the favor of the king.”She sniffled and Basil grit his teeth.“I promise. I’ll talk to my father. She can’t just terrorize you even if my father gave her the position. It’s not right anyway! You’re my wife, not Laura. She’s—”Delia pulled away from him sharply. Her cheeks flushed and her jaw trembled, “You called her Laura.” “What?” Basil frowned, thinking back to the conversation. He shook his head, “No, I didn’t—”“Yes, you did!” “Well—”“You’ve been talking about Laura a lot lately like she’s still alive,” Delia sniffled. “Like Laurel makes you think of her.”Basil frowned, thinking about it. They did have very similar features. Laurel was younger, but she had some of the same mannerisms and a way of carrying herself, but what did
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Adolph hadn’t known what kissing Laurel would do to him. Heat rushed through him, the need to mark her was near overwhelming, but he restrained himself, pulling back before he got lost in her scent. “I… don’t want to mark you with the door open.”Laurel gasped, her eyes widened as she pulled away from him. Her face was bright red. He almost winced at his words. That probably wasn’t the best thing to say, but he meant it.“We should… close the door then.”Adolph’s heart leaped looking down at Laurel who couldn’t meet his gaze. “What?”She huffed and glared up at him, “If I have to repeat myself, I’m leaving!”Adolph moved before he had fully realized what she’d said, dashing around the desk to close and lock the door as if she would find a way to escape. His wolf was growling, urging him to hurry up, but he looked at her. She was nervous, he expected her to be, but she wasn’t afraid. Laurel stared at him across the room, watching him as he approached her slowly. She let out a little
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“I don’t think I’ve ever seen His Majesty so happy.” Basil frowned, recognizing the voice as Chasel’s. “With any luck, I can get the Imperial Calligrapher to draft up the announcements by the end of the day.”“Best of luck, cousin. I have to hope the Imperial Tailor is up to the task! Decorating for another wedding so soon is going to be chaos!”The two laughed and their footsteps faded. Another wedding? His father was getting married? To who? Worse than that, he’d told Chasel? What about him? He was his son, he should have been the first to know that his father was getting married!He clenched his fist. He knew that Adolph trust Chasel above all others, but still. Whoever this woman was would be his stepmother. He had the right to know that his mother’s place was being filled by some random woman he’d never met!“I don’t understand why he wouldn’t have told me first!” Basil cried, pacing his parlor as Delia sipped tea on the couch. “I’m his heir! Who could he be marrying?”He hadn’t
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Laurel sank into her seat, still giddy from the picnic. They had been out there for several hours that morning, enjoying each other’s company until Adolph had to get back to finish up a few things before the ministry’s meeting. She smiled looking at the bouquet on her desk. Adolph told her that he’d had it replaced. The sight of roses still stung a bit, but she thought back to the picnic and found herself able to carry on with her work. She had a bit of paperwork to review regarding the orphanage and she still hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with Basil about the orchard. A knock sounded on her door. “Come in.”Gavin Mirabelle entered with a cold expression, sneering down at her. He wasn’t a bad looking man for his age, but his malice and greed had disfigured even the color of his eyes in her mind. He was nothing but a greedy man, pulling his grandson’s strings. As he walked in, he saw several other ministers standing outside Adolph’s office. He closed the door behind him and she wa
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“Have you seen it?”“Yeah, it’s kind of hard to miss.” One of the women giggled. “How romantic. Who knew the king was so possessive?”Tina frowned, turning her head and straining to hear the rest of the conversation. “It makes you wonder how much is true and how much Tina made up just to seem important,” the other one said. “I mean, Maria has been here since before Tina and she said that Luna Olivia was never marked.”Tina gasped, covering her mouth. It was impossible! There was no way that tramp had been marked by Adolph. Her mistress had languished about Adolph’s unwillingness to mark her, bemoaning tradition and his sense of propriety. *He says it’s about tradition, but I know better. She’d said. He just doesn’t want to mar my perfect skin. He loves me so much. He’s so gentle…*Tina had had her doubts about it then, but Olivia had been so in love and Adolph was obviously in love with her as well, so she hadn’t thought about it too much. Tina had never been marked either, but she
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Adolph led Laurel away from the ballroom into a nearby parlor and pulled her close with a sigh, nuzzling her. Her scent was as warm and sweet as ever, soothing in ways he hadn’t ever thought anything could be. The exhaustion that had been dragging him down for years had vanished practically overnight since he’d marked her. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered. Laurel laughed a little, “You saw me this morning.”“It was too long ago,” he said with a little chuckle, before dropping a kiss to her temple. “A gift.” She frowned as Adolph took her hand a put a chain of gold around her wrist with a few charms. One looked like a blue lake made of sapphires under a mountain. Another was a tree made of gold and tiny emeralds. The next was a rose made of rubies. Another was an azalea made of rubies. The last charm looked like a lunar flower made of diamonds so clear they sparkled in the dim light. “Y-Your Majesty, I…” He smiled at her and kissed her forehead. “It’s beautiful but…”“You can’t retu
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His stomach churned but he nodded, walking into the room. Fear filled him, but as he entered the room he started to relax. “You’re so beautiful… you take after your father.”Laurel lay among the sheets, dressed in a loose gown and cradling the baby to her chest.At the distance, he could only see a tuft of honey blonde hair in the swaddling blanket. The wetnurses bowed and stepped aside as he approached. Laurel smiled up at him, “Want to meet him?”“Him?”Laurel beamed at him, “Him… Nimue told me before, but I wanted it to still be a surprise for you.”Another boy. Adolph sunk onto the bed beside her, kissing her cheek before looking down into her arms. He had Laurel’s nose and hair pattern though the coloring was all his. Maybe when he grew up he’d take after his grandfathers, but he wouldn’t be able to tell that for a while.“Can I hold him?”Laurel nodded, offering the child to him. He smelled like fresh water and clean skin as Adolph took him, and held him close. He was so smal
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Nimue took a deep calming breath as Basil let out a mournful sob. The air began to warm slowly around them as the path between their world and the afterlife closed. She should have known when her first evocation yielded nothing that Olivia was going to be another troublesome spirit.She hoped Basil would be able to recover and accept the truth in time.“No… mother…” Nimue’s heart twisted with grief as she calmed her powers and Basil’s hand tightened on her ankle. “Why? She… She lifted it.”“She was prepared to sacrifice you,” she said solemnly.“She lifted the curse, Nimue! You didn’t have to!”Nimue looked down at him, “She only did so to save her existence, Basil. That was the test. It wasn’t about remorse towards what she’d done to your father… it was about what she did to you.”His eyes welled with tears as she set her staff aside, allowing it to hover in the air. “She was never your mother.”She kneeled beside Basil, placing a glowing hand near the dagger in his chest as he fell
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Adolph’s voice was sure and even, but Basil couldn’t believe what he was saying. Didn’t he understand that they had no way of knowing how long that would be? A few months? A few days? His father was the strongest man he knew, but he wasn’t indestructible!“But father—”“You’d let Basil be king?” Olivia scoffed and laughed, “You know he’s not ready. He won’t ever be ready!”The twinge of pain that went through him took his breath away. He pushed it aside. This wasn’t the mother he’d imagined his whole life. He expected his father to say those things, not the woman who died giving birth to him. He winced at the thought. She hadn’t died giving birth to him. She’d died giving birth to a curse. There was no other choice to make.“Nimue, end the séance.”Nimue said nothing. Whether that meant she couldn’t or wasn’t going to, he didn’t know.Adolph shook his head, “Your father tried to make that true, but it’s not. Basil isn’t an idiot. He’s young and inexperienced, but that’s fixable. He h
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Adolph narrowed his eyes down at Olivia. She was just as pretty as she had been before, but he saw the wicked light in her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be greeting our son whom you’ve never met?” Adolph asked. She smiled at him, poisonous and vicious, “I would never put anyone before you dear husband.”“You are dead,” Adolph said, “Speak to Basil.”“… very well.”Olivia turned her head and looked at Basil. Adolph was about to retract his statement at the hopeful look on Basil’s face, but it was too late. “You asked them to kill the man who raised you,” Olivia said, “You asked for the death penalty.”“Mother, they—”“Don’t call me that!” Olivia hissed at him. “All of them. Murdered and for what? What of your loyalty to me?”Basil’s eyes widened, “To you…?”“After what your father did to me?” Olivia said, “What is a bit of money?”“You… You knew?” Basil asked. “But—”“I love your father,” she said, her eyes glimmering with tears. “But… that wasn’t good enough. My love was never good enough f
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Laurel didn’t expect Basil to come quickly, so when the door closed, she was grateful that Nimue made herself a cup of tea and smiled at her. “You were once someone else,” Nimue said. “I am glad that the moon saw fit to bring the white wolf back to us.”Laurel blinked and sat across from her, “You’re… not much like Eden.”Nimue chuckled, “Eden and I have different gifts… He is what we would call an elemental Wiccan. Lightning strikes, fire, flashy shows of power that most associate with real magic. I’m a spiritual mage.”Laurel blinked and made herself a cup of tea, “What… does that mean?”“It means I have a connection to the living and the dead. Hence, I know the body you’re in right now is one you were reborn into. I can only guess how you died, but I assume that Basil knew you in your past life.”Laurel winced, “This… isn’t how I expected this conversation to go.”Nimue shrugged, “You make plans and the spirits laugh, but I’m not concerned about your aura. It’s more than healthy a
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Adolph watched Basil leave. Nimue winced.“I… would like a moment to speak with my wife,” Adolph said slowly. Nimue nodded, “I’ll… go after him.”She left wincing. That had been a fucking disaster if she’d ever seen one. As she exited the room, she followed the trembling confusion, fear, and anger down the hall and around the corner. The thing about magical compatibility between fated matches was that it worked like a homing beacon. She found him in a parlor sitting on the couch with his head in his hand. He lifted his head and shot to his feet as she entered. “You—You can’t just say things like that!” Basil said, “You can’t just accuse her if you—You’re a healer! How would you know something like that anyway?”Nimue watched him, his shoulders heaving as he held himself still. “I am a healer,” she said. “But I am not just a healer. Sit down and calm yourself.”“Look me in the eye and tell me the truth,” Basil said, glaring at her. “Tell me you know for sure my mother did it. Tell
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Taliesin sent the message off with a heavy heart. While his judgment was sound and he knew he wasn’t wrong, the likelihood that it would all go to plan was slim. Curses laid by the dying or the dead were harder to get rid of than living curses and he was not an expert in such dark magics. He had no affinity for creating or breaking them. His late brother and twin, Merlin, had no such limitations, but he had gone into Eternal Repose after his wife, Viviane, had been killed in the war against Morrigan. Merlin could not help them.Taliesin couldn’t blame him. The war had taken so much from all of them and raising the barrier had taxed them both greatly. There was little hope that he would ever wake up, and Taliesin had accepted that centuries ago, focusing on raising Merlin’s daughter as if she were his.“Nimue?” Taliesin called as he returned to the meeting hall. She was seated on the old stone bench, looking up through the canopy of the ancient oak trees that were always in bloom. Hi
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Laurel woke up, frozen in terror in bed. The last time she’d had a vision of the moon goddess, she’d been pushed off a cliff. She wasn’t sure if hearing that her husband’s late wife put a curse on him was better or worse. How bad was the curse now? How much longer did they have? Could she break it? If she couldn’t, what would happen to him?Her stomach turned as she turned over to see Adolph sleeping peacefully beside her. The days of his insomnia seemed to have caught up with him all at once. The strain of the days seemed to be gone now as he slept.His scent was just as bloody and lovely as ever, but that blood that she had once found just a bit sexy seemed tainted with danger now. It wasn’t just the scent of someone who had seen a great deal of war, but it was affecting his mind. An alpha werewolf like Adolph could be dangerous if they lost control of their strength. She knew that Adolph was much stronger than the average wolf. Was it anything like going rogue? Would it kill him?
