Chapter 168: Chapter 168

TRISTAN:

I looked at Samalah’s eyes as it rounded in fear. This wasn’t like her… The Samalah I knew didn’t show fear in this manner…

So, who was this? Who was this new person before me?

Yesterday, as Sir Casion confessed everything he had been through and the reason why I was able to find him in the forest, it occurred to me that our enemies had always been one step ahead of us.

Count Jeteris knew that Kaist would be led to Laudicia in pursuit of his family, and the Blasted Ones must have had a strong hunch that Dahli and I would be journeying to the plains of Laudicia to extract the spirit stone from her.

So in essence, everything felt a little bit premeditated…

I looked at Samalah at that point – the only person capable of creating a grand scheme like this. She wanted everything in Talandor to fall down into ruins even at the expense of bringing harm to Dahlia…

She would be the perfect puppet master behind this plan, wouldn’t she?...

So it came as a sudden surprise when she said something about the stone.

“Prince Kaist, don’t hide the fact from everyone that the red ruby isn’t with Dahlia Hurst anymore.”

I looked at her and back at Kaist. What was Samalah implying? Was the spirit stone with her?

I tried to channel my wolves, asking them to talk to Eva in the Animal Spirit World to confirm what Samalah had said. It would have been better to meet Samalah’s wolf, but Nadia was as sleek as her human counterpart, so asking her would be fruitless.

Prince Kaist was resolute on sending Samalah away. It must be true then… She must have the spirit stone with her for him to be that fearful.

Samalah and Kaist convened several times within the day, but never in public, so it was hard to hear what they talked about.

Finally, I spotted them taking a walk just outside the town wall. Samalah was bending down to look at some wild flowers.

Samalah never cared about flowers… In fact, she hated them because they remind them of her mother.

I hid myself and listened to their intimate conversation together. She plucked a flower and placed it on Kaist’s chest.

“Take good care of yourself, Kaist… No matter what the outcome of this fight, please promise me one thing…”

“What is it?”

“That you’d become a better king than your father in the nearest future…”

My brows furrowed in suspicion. Didn’t she originally want to oust Kaist from the throne? Wasn’t getting the throne for herself part of her plans, and yet her words and actions now did not match just now.

Samalah was really a scary woman… How can she act one way and say something that was completely opposite of what she wanted?

I saw him hug and kiss Kaist then, and my heart throbbed while my wolves cried in anguish inside our shared consciousness.

Once in my youth, I had been in love with Samalah… When I met Dahlia, I thought that love had ended…

So, why now was I feeling this way? Why does it feel like a pair of fangs was sinking into the flesh of my heart directly as she kissed him?

“Thank you, and good bye, Kaist,” Samalah said as she pulled away from their embrace.

Suddenly, I watched as Samalah used her magic towards Kaist.

I frowned. I really did expect that she would trick him. This was Samalah we were talking about, so it was natural to see her scheme against her own mate.

However, where the hell did he learn magic that resembled Dahlia’s healing hands?...

I watched in awe as her hands burst with golden light. Was it another trick of hers? Did she manage to copy Dahlia’s powers just as she had copied her scent?

Instead of healing Kaist though, she had put him into sleep… I guess I was just being overly suspicious… It was nothing like Dahlia’s powers after all.

After putting the prince into an induced slumber, she looked at where I was concealed.

“Come out… I know you’re there. I know you’ve been following us.”

I scratched my head. How long had she known I was there?

“Why did you do that to your mate?”

“I did it to stop the war,” was her plain answer.

“How is putting the prince to sleep going to stop the war?”

“The red ruby is with me… We can stop this war if you take me there,” Samalah finally confessed.

Honestly, I felt relieved. I was agonizing about the fact that Dahlia had the stone in her body.

The extraction ritual is relatively safe, but since I don’t really know how the stone had bound itself with Dahlia, I was afraid I could be putting her life in peril if I made her undertake the ritual, especially in her present state.

But how did Samalah get her hands on the red ruby? I only knew of the extraction ritual as the means to unbind a spirit stone safely. Is Samalah’s magic that advance already that she was able to get the stone from Dahlia?

Before I could even ask her, we needed to stay still once again as we heard the sounds of horses approaching us.

Prince Kaist informed the council earlier that he had contacted Duke Hurst through a mind-link and that he had promised to come by midnight.

It was still hours away from midnight. I wondered why Samalah and I needed to conceal ourselves like this if her plan was to go to Laudicia.

As far as I knew, Duke Hurst did not know her, and she didn’t know who Duke Hurst was personally. Yet, as soon as he passed by, why was she cowering as if she feared being seen?

Indeed, it was really very suspicious… That and the fact that Samalah had Dahlia’s scent up until now…

What was she hiding? Why was she stealing things from Dahlia?

“Who are you really,” I growled as Samalah after the procession passed by.

Fear was written in her face… Samalah was never the one to fear.

“If I… If I tell you I’m not who you think I am, would you believe me,” she breathed. “If I tell you I’m really not Samalah, would you take me for a fool or believe my words wholeheartedly?”