CHAPTER 170

CHAPTER 170


Reika's POV

At first, her words made no sense. I mean… they held no meaning. But slowly, they sank into my mind and suddenly, my eyes and mouth widened. I slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle the guttural growl threatening to break out.

Lena let out a short laugh, as if she was basking in my shocked expression.

“You should be careful of what you say, Lady Lena,” I warned. “If Ileus were to hear you now… you would forget about the fact that you are a member of the royal family. You wouldn’t think twice before he beheads you.”

“You are still very funny, my Lady. You really think I would come here to risk my life for something I’m not sure about? You think I would stoop so low as to play around with the young innocent princess?”

I stared at her for a long moment and her expression gave nothing away. She was right.

But then… why was I so surprised? When I had first arrived here, I had always thought that the princess shared no resemblance whatsoever with Ariadne or Ileus, but I had disregarded it and assumed I felt that way simply because of how much I hated her parents. When I noticed that she had the same brown eyes as Addams, I had thought she had taken after her uncle’s eyes, which wasn’t totally impossible, and that as she grew up, she would start taking on some of Ileus’ features.

Still… it was difficult to wrap my head around it all.

“Are you sure about what you’re saying, Lady Lena?”

“Most definitely,” she replied confidently. “The Luna and my husband have been in a secret relationship for years. Even when I sent my maids to come see you this afternoon, the Luna was in my husband’s study getting fucked.”

And that was how she began to explain everything: how she had found out, how she had confronted the Luna and her husband, but Addams had threatened to kill her if she told anyone, and how she had learned about the princess’s paternity this afternoon.

Her words slammed into me like a sledgehammer, the former heavier than the latter. By the time she was done, my mouth was hanging open. Not because I didn’t know that the bitch Ariadne was capable of everything, but because I didn’t understand how Ileus couldn’t notice. If his mate was cheating and his daughter didn’t belong to him… shouldn’t he know through the mate and parent bond he shared with them?

“How come Ileus never knew?” I murmured subconsciously.

Lena shrugged. “I don’t know either.” Then, after a second, she clapped her hands loudly. “Black magic.”

“What?”

“My husband uses black magic… maybe he has used that to numb his bond with his wife and that is why he can’t feel her betrayal, nor can she feel him.”

I nodded slowly. That was it. Nothing else could explain the fact that all those times Ileus and I had fucked, Ariadne had never felt it. Just this morning, she had been perfectly fine even when her husband had fucked me all night, when she should have been hurting from the fact that he had claimed another woman.

But how had Lena figured that out?

“Who are you exactly?” I couldn’t hold my curiosity any longer. “How come you know everything?”

She half-smiled. “I don’t know everything. I just know enough that will give me freedom and let me get back at those who hurt me.”

“What do you mean?”

“In exchange for the information I gave you… I want something in return.”

“And what is that?” Not like I had anything to offer her though.

“I want you to help me inform the king.”

Oh… now I pitied Ileus.

Even though I had a lot to gain from informing him, I didn’t think I would have the courage to do that.

I knew how much he loved his little princess more than anyone else, how he lived for her and carefully made every decision that would affect her in the future. Learning that the same daughter wasn’t his would not only break him, it would ruin him completely.

She continued. “I want you to help him instigate a brutal punishment against the Luna and my husband.” Her eyes blazed. “I want them to regret ever hurting and looking down on me. You will let them know that I was the one who told you. I want them to know the person responsible for their downfall, but that is after I leave tomorrow night. If I leave… Addams would want to hunt me down, so I need you to make sure that the king knows before he gets the chance to hunt me down.”

Lena wanted freedom and she would use what she knew to get it.

Oh… Goddess, this woman was smarter than I could have imagined.

“Can I count on you, Lady Lilith?” she asked. “Would you promise me that?”

I cleared my throat. “Of course,” I responded firmly, even though I didn’t know how I was going to tell Ileus yet. “I will definitely… do everything that you ask of me.”

She heaved in relief and pulled me into a sudden embrace. “Oh… thank you. Finally… I will be free.”

I was taken aback for a while, my arms just hanging in the air, but eventually I wrapped them around her.

“I’m so happy for you,” I said when she pulled back, and truly, I was.

“Thank you.” She cheered. “I won’t be here to see everything unfold, but hopefully, in the future, I will come back to see that you’ve become such a beautiful and powerful Luna Queen.”

I forced a smile at her. If only she knew that I had no real desire to become the king’s queen.

“Thank you.”

“I will leave now.” She turned away and walked out of the dimly lit forest with her maid trailing behind her.

When she was completely out of sight, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding.

Oh…. Moon Goddess.

“What did she say?” Archer asked, clearly curious.

“I will tell you everything later. Let’s get out of here first.”

He nodded and together, we made our way out of the forest.