Chapter 92 Something Is Wrong?
Kira’s POV
Poor child?
She’s what, two years older than Abby? Tops. Why talk like some ancient nanny scolding a toddler? Creepy and suspicious.
“Liana,” I said, voice sharp, interrupting her scramble. “What did you just say?”
She stopped dead, hands clamping in that classic maid pose…fingers laced tight, head bowing low like I was royalty mid-execution.
“It was an honest slip, Princess. Since I’ve not been by your side like before, I’ve been around the young palace maids. Their lingo is rubbing off on me. I’m sorry if it put you off, Abby. But the important thing…we have the hair. We need to hurry the cleaning ritual. He tainted you again and that’s pretty bad. You have little to no time left. I need to leave and get to work as fast as possible.”
She turned to bolt, even before I dismissed her…desperate, skirt swishing.
But as she spun, my eyes snagged on something weird on her neck. A flash of skin under her collar…pale, too pale, with thin black veins spidering out like ink in water, pulsing faintly like it’s alive.
“Wait,” I said sharply.
Liana froze mid-step, back still to me, shoulders stiff like she’d been caught stealing.
Slowly, she turned, that polite maid's smile already sliding back into place, but her eyes…something flickered there. Wariness? Fear? Or just my paranoid brain making shit up?
I slid off the bed, bare feet hitting the cold floor. My legs felt wobbly, still sore from last night’s marathon, but I ignored it.
I walked straight toward her, slowly, like I was approaching a skittish animal. Liana just watched, curious, head tilted slightly, hands still clasped in front of her like she had all the time in the world.
“Stay still,” I muttered when I got close enough to smell the faint earthly scent from her apron.
She didn’t move. Didn’t even blink as she waited.
I leaned in, craning my neck to peek at the spot under her collar where I’d sworn I saw those black veins crawling like living ink. My fingers hovered near the fabric, not quite touching. I tugged the collar down just a fraction…careful, gentle.
Nothing.
Smooth fair skin. No veins. No spiderweb of black. Just the faint edge of an old scar, silvery and long, curving like a claw mark right above her collarbone. It looked like a wild animal tore through her.
I blinked. Hard. Pulled the collar back up in confusion. I stepped back fast, heat rushing to my face.
“Did I see wrong?” The words came out small, almost to myself. “What’s wrong with me today?”
Liana’s brows pinched together, concern softening her features. “Princess? Is everything alright?”
I swallowed, pointing vaguely at her neck. “Yes…just that…just that…” Just that what, Kira? Drop it before you sound like an insane woman.
I cleared my throat and squared my shoulder. “How… how did you get that scar?”
Her smile came slow…sad, almost fond, like she was remembering something bittersweet instead of brutal.
“It was a very sad day. One of the worst, actually.”
She touched the edge of the scar lightly with two fingers, almost absentminded. “The king got drunk. Really drunk. He wanted to attack you…Abby. You’d said something that set him off. I stepped in front. His claws came out before he could stop himself. Ripped right across here.”
My stomach dropped like I’d missed a step on the stairs.
What?!
“Oh my God,” I breathed. “I didn’t know… I’m sorry that I didn’t remember.”
Wait.
I stared at her, pieces scattering too fast and too loud in my head.
“He gets drunk… and then turns violent? Adrian? How come?”
Liana’s eyes darted to the door, then back to me. She dropped her voice to barely above a whisper.
“I’m not supposed to be saying this. If anyone finds out I told you…if the council hears, or worse, the king…it’ll have me killed. Quietly. They don’t like loose tongues about the royal… weaknesses.”
Royal weaknesses? What in the name of royalty is going on?
I stepped closer again, voice low and urgent. “I’m with you, Liana. No one’s gonna find out from me. I swear.”
She searched my face for a long second, like she was weighing whether I was still the same Abby she’d once protected. Then she exhaled, shoulders dropping just a fraction.
“It’s the curse of the throne,” she said quietly. “Years ago…way back, the great-great-great grandfather of the current king…he committed a sin. Forced himself on his beta’s mate. She was in so much pain, so much shame… she couldn’t bear it and killed herself. When the beta came back from the front lines and learned what happened, he lost his mind with grief and rage and turned to black magic. He went straight to the throne room, sliced open his own palm, let his blood spill across the seat, and cursed whoever sat on it next. Said their beast would control them. That the hunger for blood would grow until it led to their demise. That their wolf would run wild and slaughter everyone they ever loved.”
My mouth went dry. I could almost see it…the blood pooling dark on stone, the beta’s voice cracking with hate as he spoke the words.
This is beyond everything I’ve ever known. Like a chapter from a book…or an episode from a werewolf series.
Liana kept going, voice steady but haunted. “The council scrambled for years trying to find a way to break it. Then Adrian’s great-grandfather discovered something simple: alcohol. It numbs the wolf’s hunger for bloodshed. Quiets the urge to rip and tear. So every king since has been… a drunkard. They lock themselves away when the thirst gets bad so they don’t make a scene in front of the court. But that day?” Her fingers brushed the scar again. “The king’s wolf was insatiable. It wanted blood…real blood and he came for you. I couldn’t let him hurt you. I took the slash instead. It took the beta and three warriors to drag him off us. He wanted both of us dead that day. Would’ve done it, too, if they hadn’t chained him.”
“Oh my God,” I breathed, the words barely making it past my lips.
Her gaze didn’t soften. If anything, it sharpened…cold, certain.
“This,” she said quietly, every syllable sinking in like a blade, “is exactly why you can never let him get close to you. He won’t stop. He can’t stop.”
She leaned in just enough for the warning to feel inescapable.
“He’s going to kill you,” she finished, voice low and chilling. “One way or another… it’s inevitable.”
A gasp echoed inside my skull…not out loud, just in my mind, sharp and cold. So I’m not safe? Does this mean that Adrian could lose his mind at any second and kill me?
Guilt slammed into me like a truck. Liana did all that for Abby and I was still finding her suspicious?
To make matters worse, here I was, planning to run, to leave this whole cursed mess behind… while people like Liana were still taking claws for Abby. For me.
The weight settled heavy on my shoulders, pressing until it hurt to breathe.
But even through the guilt, something else itched at the back of my brain. Something off. A detail that didn’t line up. An itch I couldn’t reach but I could feel that it was there. The story was too neat. Too tragic. Too perfectly explained. Like someone had rehearsed it.
What am I missing?
I opened my mouth to ask the question that had been gnawing at me since I saw her…since the flash of pale corpse-face, since the dream voice begging come find me…but before the words could form—
A sharp knock cracked against the door and we both jumped in sync.
The tense air shattered like glass.
Liana’s head snapped toward the sound, eyes wide.
I stared at the door, heart suddenly hammering in my throat. We both stayed still, like someone ordered us to freeze.
Before I could move, the knock came again…three hard, deliberate raps that sounded more like accusations than requests.
Liana’s face drained of color so fast I thought she might actually faint. Her hands flew up, fingers pressing to her lips like she could shove the words she’d just spilled back down her throat. Her eyes…wide, glassy…darted from the door to me and back again, pure panic.
“Don’t say a word to anyone about this, Princess,” she whispered.
Something is definitely wrong. But what could it be?