Chapter 57: Chapter Fifty-seven: The head that wears the crown.
"Surround the building immediately!" Lucian barked and the men rounded up the house in seconds. A smile of achievement and pride shone all over his face at his accomplishment and he grinned wildly.
He sauntered forward and stood a few steps away from the veranda. "Come out now while I’m asking nicely and I just might reduce your torture." But there was no answer. Not even a pin drop.
Lucian smirked to himself. He had to admit, that was a pretty brilliant idea: to camouflage their surroundings. If a royal blood wasn’t there to notice it, they would never have been be found yet still hiding in the very place they had marked off clean. How clever.
Lucian pulled out his twin daggers and leapt onto a tree branch sticking out sharply from the tree that overlooked one of the rooms of the building. Once there, he shot himself in the air, crashing through the window and shattering it to tiny shards.
"Come out, come out wherever you are princess..." he drawled, stepping on the shards that littered the floor while swinging his daggers in his hands.
He approached a small cupboard that stood beside the lamp on a stool. Getting his daggers ready, he stabbed the drawer with force and dragged it down through the wood. The door split open and he expected them to jump out but to his disappointment, there were only a few worn-out clothes there.
"Damn it." he cussed.
Lucian spun around, taking a closer look at the room. The guards were already in the house, searching for them but none had come to report anything that him.
"Where the hell are you?!" he gritted his teeth, complete annoyed. "Hold on." he muttered to himself.
"I can’t smell them...either of them..." Lucian turned to the cupboard again, grabbed one of the dresses and took a big whiff of it. Nothing. That bastard Severin must have had something to do with it.
No vampire not even a royal could pull off that stunt unless they had a witch with them. And that with must be willing to go any extent for them.
Lucian scoffed at the thought. "You sick twister..." He then waved his hand and vanished from the room.
Meanwhile, Elena and Severin were still on the run. Because of how slow she was, Severin carried her in his arms and leapt across the forest from one branch to another with insane speed and precision. The moment he had heard Lucian’s voice, he knew their cover had already been blown. During the time they were together, Elena had told him of the necklace Damien had given her to hide her scent when she was almost pulled into a portal by a witch.
Severin had immediately yanked out the necklace from her neck, grabbed half of it and instructed her to grab the other half. He had to act fast. If he should disappear with her, Lucian wouldn’t be able to pick up a small wave of power and trace it. If he decided to run with her, Lucian would obviously be able to pick up the sudden dash of wind.
But Severin being the forever right prince had another card to play. He took the amulet and broke it in half, locked one in his hair and instructed Elena to do the same. Once completed, he spun on his heels and slipped his hands under her knees.
"Hold on." he said blankly and Elena wrapped her arms around his neck. In a millisecond, a soft black power emmanated from the gem on his hair and they vanished into thin air. They reappeared again thousands of miles away from forest on top of a soft moss. Severin didn’t waste another second. He had used dark magic to conceal his powers but was still doubtful. Lucian had the dragon scale with him and he didn’t know to what extent that could be an advantage to him.
Severin glided through the forest with precision and grace, all the while maintaining his grip firmly on her knees. Elena shut her eyes tight at the amount of air rushing at her face at once. She had feared they were going to fall countless times but peering up at him had eased her fears. This was the only person she had ever seen near Damien. There was a time she was curious about their relationship and wanted to ask him but by then, he was still the same hardened prince.
Suddenly, the wind stopped slapping her and she finally flipped her eyes open. By the time she was lowered to the ground, she turned around to look at Severin. Only that he wasn’t there. Elena’s heart dropped to the ground at the sight of who stood in front of her. How was this possible?
"Going somewhere? Princess?" Cassian said from behind with the evilest, wickedest smirk on his face. Elena trembled and stumbled back in horror, almost falling down if not for the bamboo behind her. To add to her horror, out of the shadows stood Severin looking as grim and bored as ever. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. Se...Severin? Did he bring her to him?
"Wh-how...when...why...?" Elena broke out as tears pooled in her eyes with betrayal and pain etched all over her face. How could he do this? She had clearly seen who had carried her. He had taken her there, brought her to the forest and shared her amulet! How...how come... How could he stab her in the back like this?
"You’re coming with me you little rat." Cassian declared with an air of finality. "A little birdie told me you were going to be here. Good thing I listened to it." he continued, grinning crazier than crazy as he strode towards her and grabbed her wrists, tying them together with a strong rope before dragging her after him. All the time, her betrayer said nothing. Elena wrestled with him, tearing at the rope with her fingers. It was pointless as Cassian kept on tying her down.
Hopeless, she scratched his wrists wildly with her fingernails, clawing desperately to free herself. Her actions made Cassian pause from his and look straight into her eyes like a demon.
"You damned bitch!" he cursed, slapping her hard across the face. Before she could recover from it, another one landed on the same cheek he had hit. Elena fell to the ground from the impact, landing at the feet of her new owner and dragging the rope with her. She couched out violently, spitting out the blood that pooled in her mouth. The strained rope tightened around her wrists, drawing out more blood from her frail hands. Blood from the cut on her lips mingled with her tears and flowed into her mouth, increasing the amount of blood she coughed and spat out. Cassian looked down at her without any sympathy before crouching and continuing his work. This time, she didn’t resist.
"Serves you right you whore. Let’s see how your lovely lover will rescue you now." he grinned, flashing his orange eyes wildly like a crazed demon.
In tears and confusion, Elena looked back at Severin who just stood there unmoving like a lifeless being. The tears streamed down her face like pools of blood as she felt her heart shatter from betrayal. With a snap of his finger, Elena vanished with Cassian, leaving behind her blood on the grass.
A small bird landed on a short root where Severin stood. In a second, black smoke dissolved out of it and a crouched figure emerged from it.
"Do you think this is a good idea your highness?" Morrigan said, straining her eyes on the blood puddles in front of them.
Severin crossed his arms over his chest, staring at absolutely nothing yet appearing to be deep in thoughts. "We’ll have to see to find out no?" he said, raising an eyebrow before leaping in the opposite direction.
"Let go of me! Let go of me you monster!" Elena screamed at the top of her lungs as he pulled her through the courtyard. Servants and maids fell to their knees as they passed by, not daring to even peek at him. They all held remorseful looks in their depressed uniforms as they bit down on their lips to hide their pain.
’Maybe this was another one.’
’He’s done it again.’ they all thought silently.
Cassian remained unfazed by her screams. Instead, right in front of the bowing workers, he slapped her hard again. A scream erupted from her throat, shattering the hearts of whoever had heard her. He didn’t even give her the time to recover before he landed more and more all on the same cheek. By the time he had reached the fifth, her cheek was already swollen and bringing out pus. She slumped to the ground, lifeless.
"Oh no no." he said laughing. "You can’t die yet. It’s just getting started, princess. Let’s see how you’ll like it when you want to scream again and when there’s no one around." he whispered menacingly to her ears before dragging her limp body across the ground.