Chapter 27 CHAPTER 27

Chapter 27 CHAPTER 27
LUCIAN's POV

I stood next to my throne, Althea standing opposite me. She bowed slightly. “My Lord.”

“Althea,” I answered. “You requested to see me?”

“Yes,” she did, her face warm. The air seemed colder than usual after Sera left, but I ignored it. “What is it?”

“I may have found a way to get the answers the goddess is refusing to give us,” she informed me.

“Can you explain more please?” I sighed, rubbing my head. Sera’s taste was still in my mouth, and I would rather be alone than here.

“I have been working on a potion that can—”

Her voice trails away, and suddenly, the red-haired girl walks into the room. Her eyes lit up, her lips curved in a seductive smile, even as I bit into her neck.

There was so much…heat. For five hundred years,the only thing I felt was the cold pang of pain, and yet, when I drank from her.

I wanted to live.

I wanted to write, to go outside and stand in the sun. Desire bloomed so fast in me, as I walked towards the window, staring at the sky.

It was so beautiful tonight, the silver stars forming a constellation as they traveled across the galaxy, the sounds of birds scouring through them reaching my ears. The moon seemed brighter than usual, its light hitting the trees, making them look brighter too. A small smile tugged my lips as I wandered to the past, where in a night so beautiful like this, I would have gone out with a book and a pen, writing in the wild, happy and…just happy.

“My lord,” Althea grabbed my shoulder, making me blink. She jerked back immediately, clutching her hand.”I forgot how cold you are.”

I sighed and turned. Behind her, the frost climbed higher in the wall, enveloping me back in my ice cage. The heat was leaving, my heart throbbing slowly.

Her effects, it was going. I should have drank more, I hissed, grabbing my chest.

“Are you alright, Lucian?” Althea asked, concerned in her voice. “I have been talking for a while and you have not been responding.”

I shook my head. If there was something Althea could do to help, I had to listen to her. “What's the next course of action?” I asked.

Althea gives me a weird look, and points at the throne. Her scrying bowl is already set up there, and I walk slowly, stopping next to it.

“To test my theory properly, I need the catalyst blood and one of the king's. I planned on taking yours before you fed in Sera, seeing you were the only one that has not. That was why I rushed in, when I heard she was here. I just did not expect to find you already…..”

My face flamed. I was…embarrassed? Of all the things to feel, I felt embarrassed Althea has walked in on me feeding.

This is good. I could still feel emotions.

I was almost normal again.

Almost human.

“Do we have to wait,” I licked my lips, licking the cold away, “for her blood to leave my body?”

“Unfortunately, there is no time,” Althea responded. “The potion will last only six hours and since I missed my chance to take Sera’s blood, we're just going to have to use yours now that hers is still in it.”

I raised my hand, biting into the flesh. Blood dropped into the bowl, the liquid turning red as Althea closed her eyes, beginning a soft chant.

Nothing happened.

I stared at the bowl, willing something to happen. A change in colour, a sign, one that would tell us that this would work.

Suddenly, the mixture started bubbling. The liquid trembled, the surface rising up even as Althea continued to chant, spilling over the bowl onto my throne.

“Althea,” I called sharply. “What is happening here?”

Althea opened her eyes, the blood in it draining as she watched the mixture from the bowl flow to the floor, reaching our feet.

“Can you tell me what is going on?” I hissed. “You know just how much I hate suspense.”

“ I don't know my Lord,” she cried out. “It was a spell, to let us know what the catalyst role is. Green would have meant she was the one we were waiting for,” she replied, her voice trembling.

“Amber, would have meant that the future was uncertain,” she continued, still staring at the bowl.

It was red.

“But red—” she stopped abruptly, staring at the mixture.

“Do you think I added too much blood?” I asked.

Althea shook her head. “This is not excess blood, this, this is a warning. I just don't know what this is for.”

“You're supposed to be able to tell,” I snapped. The blood stopped spreading, forming a small pool. "That is why you are here,” I screamed, my voice echoing.

“I am so sorry, My lord,” Althea said, hurriedly picking up her things. “I promise, I will not rest till I find out what this means,” she said, running out of the room.

I stared at the blood, a dark thought forming in my head. Dante said when he bit into Sera, he saw blood.

Lots of blood.

Our blood.

The frost covered the pool of blood quickly, even as an emotion I had never felt before, filled me.

Fear.

What if, Sera was not meant to be our salvation?

I stared at the frosted blood now, my heart racing.

The catalyst we had waited for centuries, she might not save us.

No, she might be the beginning of our end.