Chapter 66: Chapter 66

By the time that the great bell of Gaulane chimed twelve times, the preparation for Shia’s wedding had been complete. The servants had donned her into the dress his majesty had picked for her the day before. They had braded her hair upwards, revealing her long, slender neck and had decorated her hair with flowers and jewels of every kind.

“Please add more pins to my hair,” Shia requested.

“It’s already well secured, my lady.”

“It’s alright. I just want to make sure it’ll not fall. Please add more.”

Thankfully, the servant had consented to her request. They added more metal pins to her hair. If her hunch was right, she would need them badly today.

After the servant finished fixing her hair, Shia tentatively looked at her reflection at the mirror. She looked like an exquisite porcelain doll – a soul less, lifeless caricature of beauty, which perfectly fitted the position of a queen to a vile old king like Caldwell the First.

Satisfied, Shia turned to Khailis, who was perched at the wall by the right side of her chamber.

“How do I look?”

“Beautiful, as always.”

Shia gritted her teeth. She tried to act as cool as possible, despite the resonating sound of her own heartbeat and the clammy feeling of her hands. She couldn’t possibly show this person that she knew she was not Khailis at all, at least not in the mind...

After returning to her bed chamber, this person bearing Khailis’ face acted weird. She often cocked her head to one side and would smile at her in an odd way. The ultimate giveaway was that her eyes shone like a pair of black coals, when in fact Khailis’ actual irises were of the violet color. Clearly, although this person only looked like Lady Khailis on the outside, she really just wasn’t.

There was another fact that worried Shia. The way that this Khailis had stared in Shia’s bare body as the servants clothed her made the hair in Shia’s back stand stiffly that she almost couldn’t maintain her composure. It dawned to Shia that this person in front of her occupying Khailis’ body must be a man!

However fearful she had felt though, Shia bore it as much as she could. There were twenty servants with her at the chamber. She could put everyone in danger if she acted harshly.

The servant sprayed a final layer of perfume to her body, and then, they finally said, “It’s time.”

The servants collected her skirt and helped her to get up and leave her chamber. It would only take three people to help her with her train, so the other servants have retreated after giving Shia a deep curtsy.

She proceeded to walk at the hallway with the fake Khailis walking side by side with her. The walk to the front door where the bridal carriage awaited would take about fifteen minutes from her bed chamber.

They had already walked for a full five minutes, but it dawned to Shia that something weird was taking place. Surprisingly, they didn’t encounter any living person as they walk. Normally, servants and knights would pass by this area since it was the main hall. Eerily though, there was no one. She eyed the person pretending to be Khailis by her side, her suspicion increasing more and more by the second.

Suddenly, Shia heard a loud thud from the back. When she looked back, she stared in horror as all three servants who were carrying her train had fallen to the ground.

“Finally,” the fake Khailis by her side smiled as she cracked her tense neck muscles. She pulled a small sword somewhere from the back of her maroon riding dress and was about to grab Shia’s wrist.

It was only a brief moment, but Shia caught a figure engraved at the back of Khailis’ hand as she tried to grab her. Out of the instinct of fear and danger, however, a vine of thorns had sprung forth from Shia’s hands, injuring Khailis.

“Ah, darn it!” the fake Khailis retreated. Her hand was covered in blood as the thorns pierced her flesh. Surprisingly, as soon as the blood oozed and touched the figure engraved in Khailis’ hand, a black, sinister-looking smoke fizzled from it. Almost instantaneously, Khailis lost her consciousness and fell into the floor.

Shia withdrew the vines from her hand. The sudden appearance of the vines gave Shia a great headache for they were not drawn using Freya’s power. She also fell into the floor, her knees giving way and feeling that her whole body had suddenly lost its energy.

However, this wasn’t the time for her or Khailis to lose consciousness. Summoning her remaining strength, Shia crawled towards Khailis. She checked her wrist. Her hand wound does not seem too deep, and to her great relief, the mark she saw earlier wasn’t there.

She tried to slap her face lightly several.

“Khailis, wake up...” Shia said weakly. “Wake up...”

Khailis moaned in recognition. Shia smiled in relief.

Suddenly, Shia heard a cracking sound from the behind, and she turned around to see a frightening sight.

Shia looked back at the three figures of the servants, who were sprawled on the floor a few moments ago, and to her horror, they began to stand, their bodies twisted in eerie shapes and fashions, as if they were marionettes with someone pulling the strings upward to make them stand up. Shia looked at their wrists. Patterns that were similar to the ones Khailis had on her a few moments ago had emerged.

“Wake up now!” Shia said, slapping Khailis’ face harder.

“W-what!” Khailis’ eyes shot open, and the first thing she saw was that an eerie looking servant had grabbed hold of Shia’s wedding train. She and Shia both screamed.

A wall of vines had suddenly grown from underneath the hall, shielding Khailis and Shia from the three creepy servants. Thankfully, the vines had also torn Shia’s train away from her dress. Although her energy had been severely depleted, Shia still had the presence of mind to act in haste.

“Quick, help me to cut my dress! I won’t be able to hold the vines soon!”

With her body still hyped in raw energy after seeing the attack, Khailis grabbed the sword that was sprawled next to her and help cut Shia’s dress down, revealing Shia’s knees. Shia kicked away her uncomfortable shoes from underneath and stood as fast as she could.

Feeling dizzy from using the power of her curse yet again, she held on to Khalis and stood up.

“Let’s run towards the carriage!” Shia said, and Khailis nodded vigorously.

The carriage was their only hope. At exactly one in the afternoon, the mage will make an opening directing them into the void where they would meet Langrion and where they would eventually be received by the Red-Headed Knuckles. If they get into the carriage on time, they would be quite safe.

Before Shia had even finished speaking to Khailis, the wall of vines had quickly collapsed. Shia and Khalis ran as fast as they can, never looking back.

Thankfully, the possessed bodies of the servants weren’t too quick. They were able to see the carriage at the end of the hall, a few paces from where they were.

Out of the blue, however, an enormous number of eerily walking servants had surrounded Shia and Khailis both in front and from the back, trapping them completely in the middle. The possessed bodies were numerous, and they continued to pour in like ants on a fallen piece of cake.

“What the hell are they?” Khailis asked dumbfounded.

“They are my army,” a voice coming from the left side of the hall spoke. The possessed bodies had parted away, revealing a young, tall man with ash-colored, wispy hair that twisted itself in the air. He looked comely, like a woman with his pale face and blue eyes matching the blue flames emitted by his hands.

“You! You’re the one I saw in the room!” Khailis gasped. She remembered the ash-colored hair of the youth that greeted her as soon as she stepped out of the void earlier in Shia’s room while Shia was still busy with breakfast. Khailis failed to remember anything afterwards, and her next clear memory was Shia slapping her on the face a few minutes ago.

“What do you want?” Shia asked. Of all the days in a year, why did they need to encounter a cursed one like him now?

“My master wants you.”

“Your master? Which master?” Khailis shouted.

In the depths of her heart and based on the seething pain in her left wrist, Shia knew who that master was. But seeing him walk up to them and reveal himself from amongst the throngs of possessed bodies still made her heart sank and her stomach lurch violently.

“Dearest, why didn’t you ask for my help? Have you forgotten me?”

Of course it would be none other than him – Sirion de Luca – with his wicked, violent eyes shining brightly and his heron tattoo on display at the right side of his neck. He smiled at Shia. Despite taking possession of Prince Danterion’s body, he did not look like the prince at all. He looked ten times colder and more sinister.

Shia had already half-thought Sirion would come like this to her side, but she didn’t think he would make use of other cursed ones like this, endangering even non-cursed people at the Capitol.

“Prince Danterion!” Khailis blunted out in disbelief.

Sirion snorted, ignoring Khailis’ remark and presence altogether. “You must come with me, deary. A bloodbath is inevitable. This place will soon collapse.”

“Sirion, leave us alone! We can get out of here on our own!” Shia shouted on top of her lungs.

As if taunting her, Sirion came closer towards her until he was standing just a few inches from her face.

“Are you planning to escape through the void? It’s too late. The void has been... compromised. Your young prince wouldn’t be able to escape.”

“What do you mean?” Shia said. Did she hear him correctly? Langrion won’t be able to escape? Did he know of their plans?

“What did you do to Langrey?” Shia asked again, her hands seizing his collar while her voice quavered in fright.

“Let’s just say I sent him somewhere he could be more useful. No need to be sad, dear. By now, he would have already been digested well.”

“You’re lying! Bring him back now!”

“I apologize heartily. I know it’s quite devastating, but you will forget him in time. You’ve got me anyway.”

“You promised me you wouldn’t hurt the prince if I come to you, right?” Shia said, a few tears escaping her eyes.

Sirion grabbed her hands gently. “I did, my love, but I couldn’t stand idly knowing that you already spent the night with him. How do you expect me to spare him then?”

Shia’s heart throbbed. How did Sirion know that she and Langrion had been intimate?

He spoke as if reading her thoughts. “Of course I know everything, love. Do you think you can hide it from me? Now, you have to come with me. I can’t possibly let you wed another man, can’t I?”

Sirion grabbed Shia strongly by the wrist. She looked around at Khailis, but it seems she was also frozen on the spot. Shia did not want to come with Sirion, but she couldn’t resist his pull and his overwhelming energy. He did not seem to be exerting so much force, but he was able to drag her a few feet away already.

“No,” she said. “Let me go!”

He did not listen and continued to drag her away by the wrist.

In a frenzied attempt to flee, Shia pulled a long metallic pin from her hair and attempted to stab Sirion’s hand. As if an invisible barrier was protecting Sirion, the pin smoothly grazed his body, and instead, Shia stuck her own wrist with her pin, right in the middle of Sirion’s mark.

The pain from stabbing her own wrist accidentally was excruciating, but at the exact moment that the pin collided with the swirling marks in her body, black fumes rose from the air. Then, as if by some miracle, Shia was able to regain her strength and free herself from Sirion’s grasp.

“Why, you are finally regaining the power of light, I see! Very well, if you do not wish to come with me peacefully, I’ll kill your friend over there instead!” He said, still smiling wickedly at Shia.

Before Shia could even react, the bell chimes rang thirteen times, and the carriage, which was just a few feet from them, burst open, sending heaps of dirt and rocks in the air. A blinding flash of light started to shine in its place shortly.

Shia knew that the light had probably meant that the void has been opened up. She slightly covered her eyes with her stabbed arm and immediately turned to Khalis, screaming, “Khailis, run!”

Understanding what the light represented as well, Khailis, recovering from her shock, nodded and ran towards the light source.

Seeing Khailis spring into action, Shia scampered to her knees and tried to stand as fast as she could as well, but a firm hand held her ankle.

“Where do you think you are going, love?” Sirion’s angered tone screamed at her, “Come back here!”

“Let her go!” A familiar voice said resounded at the hall. It came from the figure descending from the source of light.