Chapter 64 Hints

Chapter 64 Hints
The night winds were blowing stronger as fog fully engulfed our ship that midnight. It had been three days since we set off for the Forbidden Island. 

And three more days before we reached our destination that would mark the start of the third trial. 

Kieran had been unusually quiet since Alfonso and Mischa arrived. Even Castiel and Augustus, who both seemed in somewhat civil relationships with the Prince, dared not cross his path. 

Alfonso hadn't left his quarters since earlier this morning either. Mischa told us that his master was resting, given the stressful fate of their voyage. 

And while Fluke growled internally, not buying every word he said, I kept my mouth shut and didn't question him further. 

His offer back in the borderlands kept on echoing in my mind. As stupid as it sounded, his voice carried hints of sincerity that made me wonder if he was telling the truth. 

But what makes him think that his kin would accept me? Even the Lycans in the Capital struggle to accept me. Or fear me. Or both. 

I stood at the bow of the ship, scanning the unpredictable waters through my binoculars. The Black Wolves on duty tonight had begun drinking once more, going rowdy to the point that I couldn't fall asleep with their noise. After sending them to the mess hall on the lower decks, I took over the duty of guarding our ship. 

From what or who, I don't know. Because somehow, something inside me tells me that the enemy has boarded the ship, quietly watching. 

“Can't sleep, Your Majesty?”

I flipped my head, only to see Alfonso approaching me. He was wearing almost nothing but a half-tied sleeping robe, yet his face remained hidden underneath a mask. I gave him a curt nod before returning to my binoculars. 

“Your Highness… It's quite late already. You should be resting.” 

“And the same can be said to you,” he replied as he walked closer to me, almost standing beside me, a few measly centimeters in between our bodies.  

“I can't sleep because of those noisy Black Wolves. Might as well guard tonight.” I let out a deep sigh before looking back at him. “Really, Your Highness, you should sleep. I don't want us to become the talk of town tomorrow morning.”

He chuckled as he leaned against the wooden railing, gazing at the waxed moon in the sky. “Darling, I don't think anyone would dare do so.” 

I scoffed. “You'll never know.” 

Alfonso remained silent for a few moments. Then, he let out a deep sigh, as if he was disappointed. “I’ve heard about the news of you and His Eminence being involved in a scandal.”

I froze. “It’s nothing but a misjudgement. His Eminence helped me remove the effects of a potent aphrodisiac in my body. That’s all there was to it.” 

He scoffed. “Darling, you and I both know that that’s not all that there was to it.” 

Is he… jealous?

Alfonso’s golden eyes glimmered under the moonlight as he stared at me. I wanted to look away. I wanted to stop myself from thinking about his words, his actions, and his similarities to the Stranger.  

The Stranger, who, just a few days ago, marked me as his mate. A Lycan mate to a Red. 

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I fail to see how that concerns you—”

“Is that why you didn’t want to become my principal wife?”

I stopped in my tracks. My mind was doubting if it was the wind, or if I had heard his question clearly. But Alfonso didn’t make me guess. Nor did he want me to avoid his question. 

“You turned me down over and over, rejected my offers of companionship, because of those three Lycans?”

“I thought you were testing me before.” I cleared my throat as I wiped my clammy hands on the sides of my pants.  “Besides, you only asked me once—” 

He chortled. Alfonso looked at me, his eyes painted with a mix of emotions I could barely decipher. “You haven’t realized, have you, my darling trouble?”

But before I could even register in my mind that last word he said, an ethereal, haunting melody began to mix into the air, searching cracks on the ship that it might be able to get into. 

The first night I heard it, it was subtle. As if it didn’t want its presence to be known. 

But this time, it was louder, stronger. More dangerous. 

I immediately looked at Alfonso. And just as I had suspected, he was not affected by the siren song because of his Red heritage. 

The song only worked for the living. And the Reds were half-dead. 

But while it didn’t work on him, he still scoffed and walked towards the pair of harpoon guns lying near the mast. He cocked one as I reached for the other. “That’s quite a problem you got there.” 

“I’ll take the hull. Search the quarterdeck and call me if you find anything,” I commanded as I began to look through the sides of the ship, trying to spot a siren’s tail or anything that might give her away. 

But the pitch-black waters and the fog hid her from my eyes. As I turned to join Alfonso, the sound of what seemed to be rapid movement of small suction cups sticking on the wooden boards of the ship piqued my attention.  

Before I could even investigate what it was, I felt something soft and squishy wrap around my neck and chest, slowly tightening. I revealed my golden claws to scratch whatever it was, but through the soft light emanating from the ship’s light sources, I saw massive tentacles squirming around me, as if studying how to slowly suffocate me to death. 

“Hestia!” 

A harpoon flew past my cheek.  The siren holding me captive shrieked as the tip of the harpoon pierced her skin. Her tentacles immediately let me go, before jumping down to the side of the ship.  

I coughed as I grabbed my harpoon, chasing after her. 

Alfonso followed suit, as angry red vines of dark magic emerged from the sides of the Queen Selena, intertwining with my and Castiel’s magic. He created a massive sigil illuminated on the pitch-black water, trapping the siren. 

Its angry shrieks almost tore my ears open. The siren, now in a human form with the lower half made up of tentacles, thrashed around the magic binds that Alfonso placed as he held her high in the air. 

“Your Majesty!” I screamed as I immediately saw one of the siren’s tentacles, one with a pointed tip, lunge to attack Alfonso.  I grabbed him by the collar of his robe and pulled him away, blindly aiming my harpoon at the siren as she fell into the water, shrieking. 

But I was too late. Rich, red blood poured from Alfonso’s gaping chest wound where he was hit. The water below splashed and roared before we were engulfed by the stillness of the night. 
“Your Highness, you’re bleeding!” 

I raised my hand, my divine magic working to heal his wounds, when I noticed that familiar thick, black rope of smoke linking our wrists…