Chapter 160: Chapter 160

DAHLIA:

As expected, Tristan did not leave Samalah’s side for the whole day. I came inside the room carrying a tray of dinner when he still did not come out even after it was way past the usual time to eat.

Seeing that he had fallen asleep by the bedside while clutching Samalah’s hand, I was careful not to rouse him. I quietly cleared the small side table so that I could put the tray and leave.

Before I could safely exit though, a hand tugged at the end of my skirts. It was Tristan.

“Don’t leave.”

I let out a long sigh. “I thought it was better not to wake you. You seemed tired.”

“Stay right here, so you could get that tray and leave for good.”

Despite feeling wronged in so many places by what he had said, I sat beside him as he requested.

“Take a good look at Dahlia… Take a good look at what you did to her.”

Did he just blamed me for what happened to her?

“Contrary to what you think, I didn’t do anything. I had never wished her to be harmed like this,” I said.

I was only a few inches away from Tristan, and the smell of his body was so overpowering that I almost can’t think straight.

I wondered if I had the same effect on him, but I guess the answer was no judging from the hostile way he was acting in front of me now.

“So, you’re not going to owe up to your sins on her until the end, is that it?”

“What are those sins,” I asked. I knew Tristan was saying this because I had Samalah’s face and body, but why can’t he sense me? My resentment towards him was building up fast.

He seized me by the chin. “How evil can you get, Samalah? Dahlly has never done anything to you but be good, and yet why did you leave her alone with those rogues? You knew how they lusted after her! How could you be so heartless?”

“Tristan,” I said, “why don’t you believe my words? I told you I am not Samalah!”

“Cut it out with your lies! What? Are you going to tell me now that you’re Dahlia,” he snapped as he inched closer to my face.

“Hah, I could even smell her scent on you, but I won’t be fooled! I knew you meddled with magic for this just like how I tampered with Dahlia’s mate tattoo using magic!”

I was taken aback by the revelation that spilled out of Tristan’s mouth at that moment. So, he could smell my scent, but he couldn’t trust it?...

“Did you use magic again to make that second fated mate mark in the woods,” I inquired. I knew I should refrain from telling him who I was, but I couldn’t help it.

I wanted Tristan to recognize me desperately. I wanted to know that he was genuinely my mate; that his feelings for me were true despite our ill-fated beginning…

“What is it to you, Samalah? You want me to tell you that I had tricked Dahlia because you hated her?”

Tristan grasped me by the hair. “Are you going to remove that trick you put in her scent if I agree with you and say it?… If you will, then fine! I tricked her; I had always tricked her until I found myself truly falling in love with her… All the love I had in my heart used to be yours, but now all I have left for you is nothing but hate!”

A tear fell from my eye. So everything was just an illusion from the start, and even now, it was still all a trick…

“If you don’t believe me, Tristan, it’s fine,” I said. I was done trying to learn the truth from a liar. “Suit yourself! Be with this version of your Dahlia all you want. Just make sure you don’t come running back to me ever again!”

With that, I left the room, slamming the door as loud as I could behind me.

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TRISTAN:

Samalah was a really nasty woman! How can she even think of mimicking Dahlia’s scent? Was she preparing to trick me into pretending to be her?

I only had to sit beside her just now, and her cherry and milk scent was too unbearable that I could not stop myself from touching her chin.

Perhaps Samalah had no time to complete her curse since she had to flee when the fire broke in the woods. I shuddered at the thought of what could happen if she had succeeded.

I looked at Dahlia sleeping peacefully in front of me. Albus and Arthur still regarded her as a fake because of the confusing scents, but I know better. Until I find out a way to reverse the spell Samalah has casted on Dahlia’s body, I must endure her smell. I must never fall into the temptation of wanting Samalah…

Thus, in the next few days, I tried to avoid Samalah as much as possible.

Sir Morland sent me away from Dahlia’s room, telling me that staying like a love struck puppy beside my mate all the time would do her no good.

While I waited for him to treat Dahlia’s wounds and regrow her skin and tissues for several hours each day, I made myself useful by hunting out in the forest.

In the afternoon of our arrival at Camdress, Prince Kaist met with the villagers and announced the death of the king. He told them that Livia and his mother, the late Queen Merlissa, were being held captive by the Apricus Kingdom and that Count Jeteris was behind the attempts towards his and his father’s lives.

I don’t know if they believed him, but they did pledge to back him up with his quest to find Livia and to expose Count Jeteris’ treason should he need their help.

He also officially proclaimed Samalah to be his fated mate.

I don’t know what to make out of that last bit of news…

Frankly, it should have been none of my business. In the past, that young prince dotted on Dahlia as if she was the only woman for him, but now that he had claimed someone else to be his mate, he seemed to have forgotten about Dahlia who was still fighting for her life in Sir Morland’s room…

I could still remember how Kaist told me to leave Dahlia alone, for she was his. Now, he couldn’t seem to bear leaving Samalah’s side even for a second.

I gritted my teeth. Perhaps it was the feeling of injustice that Kaist could forget Dahlia so easily, or perhaps it was because I knew Samalah couldn’t possibly have good intentions when it comes to him…

For all I know, Kaist could really be my younger brother… Either way, I couldn’t accept Samalah as his mate, especially since she was starting to smell more and more like Dahlia with each passing day…

I wanted to voice out my opposition for their union, but neither Samalah nor Kaist wanted to talk to me. It seemed like the two of them were hell bent on avoiding me, always finding excuses that they were busy with work within the village.

Thus, I spent most of my days out hunting.

Today, it was an especially good day to go hunting. I transformed myself into Arthur’s form, and ran into the heart of the woods, looking for prey that could be added to tonight’s dinner table.

That was how I discovered the body of a familiar vampire sprawled in the ground and almost on the verge of death’s door.

It was none other than Sir Casior Willfrey.