Chapter 90 Margot is Back !
The guards dragged Lila from the study. She struggled, trying to make them understand, but they ignored her completely. Servants in the hallway pressed themselves against walls, watching with a mixture of pity and satisfaction as she was hauled toward the lower levels.
The punishment hall was a cold stone room in the basement, designed specifically for disciplining servants who broke rules or failed their duties. A wooden post stood in the center, scarred from years of use.
The guards chained Lila's wrists to iron rings on the post, forcing her to face the wall. Her back was exposed, vulnerable.
"Twenty lashes," one guard announced to the small crowd of servants who'd gathered to witness. "For destruction of royal property."
Lila's mind raced frantically. Who had done this? Aria had given her the bucket and soap personally, had instructed her exactly how to clean. Had Aria known the solution was wrong? Had she deliberately sabotaged it?
But why? What did Aria gain from this?
The first crack of the whip against her back drove all coherent thought from Lila's mind. Pain exploded across her skin, white-hot and all-consuming. She bit down hard on her lip to keep from screaming, tasting blood.
The second lash fell with the same brutal precision. Then the third.
By the fifth strike, Lila couldn't hold back the screams anymore. They tore from her throat despite her desperate attempts to stay silent, to maintain some shred of dignity in front of the watching servants.
The gathered crowd watched with varying reactions. Some looked away, uncomfortable with the brutality. Others watched with cold satisfaction, seeing justice finally delivered to the cursed woman who'd brought plague to their kingdom.
Among them stood families who'd lost loved ones during those terrible weeks. Fathers who'd buried children. Wives who'd watched husbands transform into mindless beasts. Their faces held no pity, only the hard conviction that Lila deserved far worse than twenty lashes.
Aria stood near the front, her expression carefully composed but her eyes gleaming with dark satisfaction. She'd lost her sick mother to the plague, watched the woman waste away in fever and madness while Lila had remained untouched and healthy. The bitterness had festered for weeks, fed by whispers from others who felt Lila had escaped true judgment.
The guards showed no mercy. Each lash fell with mechanical efficiency, tearing through the thin fabric of her servant's dress and into the tender skin beneath. Blood began to seep through the torn cloth, staining it dark.
Somewhere around the tenth lash, Lila's vision started to blur. Her body hung heavy against the restraints, her legs barely supporting her weight anymore. The pain had transcended physical sensation and become something else entirely, a realm of pure suffering that consumed everything.
Just as the guard raised his arm for the eleventh strike, a voice cut through the room with absolute authority.
"Stop."
Every person in the punishment hall froze. The guard's arm remained raised, whip poised, but he didn't bring it down.
Keal stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable but his presence commanding immediate attention. He wasn't wearing his usual training clothes but formal warrior attire that marked his rank as Delta. His brown eyes swept the room before settling on Lila's bloodied back.
"By whose authority?" the head guard challenged, though his voice lacked conviction.
"By mine. And by order of His Majesty." Keal pulled a sealed letter from his coat. "I petitioned the King on her behalf. First offense, no prior misconduct. The sentence is suspended.“
Murmurs erupted through the crowd. Suspended? The cursed woman was being spared?
Aria's face went white with rage before she caught herself and smoothed her expression. "Lord Keal, with all respect, the crime was severe. The King's marble floor—"
"Can be restored." Keal's voice was flat, brooking no argument. "Release her. Now."
The guards exchanged uncertain glances but moved to unlock the chains. The moment Lila's wrists were freed, her legs gave out completely. She would have collapsed to the stone floor if Keal hadn't moved with impossible speed to catch her.
He lifted her carefully, mindful of her shredded back, and turned toward the door. The crowd parted instinctively, none daring to stand in the path of the hunter wolf.
As Keal carried Lila past, one voice cut through the shocked silence.
"Well, well. How touching."
Every head turned. Standing near the back entrance, dressed in elegant traveling clothes that marked her as someone of status, was Margot.
Sydney, pressed against the far wall, felt ice flood her veins. Margot was back. The temporary exile had ended. And if Margot had returned, that meant Garrett couldn't be far behind.
"Lord Keal," Margot continued, her voice dripping false sweetness, "always the unexpected hero. Though I must say, taking such personal interest in a disgraced servant seems beneath someone of your station."
Keal didn't respond. Didn't even acknowledge she'd spoken. He simply walked past her as if she didn't exist, carrying Lila out into the corridor.
Margot's smile tightened, fury flickering behind her eyes before she smoothed it away.
Aria stepped forward quickly. "Lady Margot, we weren't informed of your return. Welcome back to the palace."
"Oh, my exile was always meant to be temporary," Margot said lightly, though her eyes remained cold. "Just long enough for tempers to cool and for certain... situations to resolve themselves." Her gaze lingered on the blood drops Lila had left on the stone floor. "Though it seems some situations remain stubbornly unresolved."
The crowd began to disperse, servants returning to duties while whispering frantically about what they'd witnessed. The cursed woman saved by the most feared warrior in the kingdom.