Chapter 178: Chapter 178

DAHLIA:

I was in a dark and suffocating place that I can’t even see my own hands and feet. I tried standing still, but nothing was happening, so I decided to move around.

I started calling to my wolf. ‘Eva!’

Again, I shouted, ‘Eva!’ There was no answer.

I was running wildly, or at least I thought I was. No one can say that this was all happening in my head.

Goddess, I couldn’t even see if my body was still intact! I tried to touch my cheek just so I could verify I am still alive, still seeing, still feeling.

The last thing I could honestly remember was King Helion Cosco drinking the blood off my neck.

I felt around my neck. There weren’t any wounds of any form of punctures.

Am I still existing in the real world, or is this all just a dying person’s dream?

Just then, I heard an anguished voice.

“Dahlia!”

It was the voice I had longed to hear for a long time.

“Tristan!”

I started running again, looking for the source of that voice. “Tristan!”

I don’t know how long I had run. It felt like I was getting nowhere.

Just when I was about to give up, I saw something twinkle in the distance.

I went towards it. I thought it was a star at first. The glow was pale and small, but as I come towards it, it started to become bigger and brighter.

I smiled. It looked like a diamond spirit stone.

“Tristan,” I called tentatively.

The stone did not speak. Rather, it glowed more fiercely than before.

I looked at it for quite some time. Although it never spoke, there was a warm and comfortable feeling surrounding its glow… Could it be?

“Mother,” it then spoke. “It’s time to go back…”

As soon as the stone said this, I was consumed by its brightness and felt a lightness envelope my body all over.

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I opened my eyes and they felt heavy. How long had I not seen the daylight like this, I wondered.

“My baby, can you hear me?”

I slowly turned my head to the right side. Papa was smiling back at me. He put a hand against my forehead.

“Finally, you opened your eyes, Dahlia!”

I had guessed it had been a long time since I was out based from the sore and stiff muscles of my body.

Later, I had been informed I was sleeping for two whole weeks with only a slim chance of recovery as diagnosed by Sir Morland.

My belly had grown significantly since that time. It had become fuller and rounder.

Papa had filled me in with what happened after I had passed out.

Livia and Kaist saw Tristan enter the shack where I was taken. When he did not leave, they struggled to finish off Sir Irvan first, which they miraculously did, before coming to our rescue.

They found the two of us hand in hand and apparently dead. There were no signs of the Apricus King or what had happened to him. Nobody saw him leave the shack…

Livia and Kaist were still deciding what to do with us, when suddenly, light fluttered from within me, filling up the whole room.

Livia and Kaist didn’t know what to do. At first, they thought that King Helion and his men have returned, but that wasn’t the case.

When the light had dissipated, they garnered the courage to come close to Tristan and I, and miraculously, they discovered a pulse.

We were both taken back to Camdress where Sir Morland tended to our wounds as well to all the other injured wolves and villagers who came to our aid.

“H-How’s Tristan now,” I asked papa shortly.

“He woke up three days after he was treated.”

I sighed in relief. He must have already recovered well by now.

Papa held my hands while still on bed. “Dahlia, Tristan has filled for divorce…”

I blinked back at him. What he said didn’t quite register to me the first time he said it.

“Dahlly, Count Abell has been tried. He confessed into tampering with your mate bond. He confessed into his intent of killing the king and into getting back at me and Count Jeteris… Although none of those circumstances made him guilty, the court have decided that it was sufficient enough to void your marriage with him… He was also given the light sentence of being exiled for using spells and for his assault at the vampire villages.”

I couldn’t believe it! All these things had happened while I was asleep?

“Where’s Tristan?”

“He is being held in prison… Do you wish to see him?”

“Yes…”

Papa arranged a meeting for me with Tristan that afternoon.

The moment he entered, I was able to see how gaunt his whole face and body looked. He seemed to have suffered from so many sleepless nights since I last saw him.

“D-Dahlia, are you well?”

He raised his hands as if he was meaning to cup my face, but he stopped mid way.

It was I who clutched his palms in both my hands.

“Tristan, why do you look so unwell,” I whispered.

Actually, there was no need to say my words out loud. I could feel the hum of our mind-link at the back of my head, and Eva wanted to jump at him the moment we laid eyes on Tristan.

I could fully feel the pull of our mate bond, so why?...

Why did he say it was all tampered?

He held my hand into his tightly. “I am fine, Dahlly. How are you… and the baby?”

“I still feel weak, but I think the baby is fine… Ah, actually I dreamed of our child…”

To be exact, I dreamed of our baby’s spirit stone speaking to me. I believed he was the one who rescued me… Was that really possible?

“Dahlia, I am so sorry,” Tristan began to say. His voice was breaking down in a sob. “It was all my fault.”

I watched as he wept. I knew he must have gone through a lot of things when he woke up while I remained asleep. I could feel his remorse through our shared hearts.

Our shared heartbeats were proof of our bond, right? But I have a lot of questions…

“Is it true,” I asked. “Did you really tamper with the bond using magic?”

“Yes… It’s all true,” he said bitterly as he continued to weep.

My heart shattered into a million pieces as I continued to hear Tristan out.