Chapter 204 Chapter 0204

Chapter 204 Chapter 0204
AERITH'S POV.

"You are my daughter!" Silas's scream shook the room. I froze; my heart palpitations increased, and my head spun. I can't be this monster's daughter; I don't want to be.

"You are not my father!" My voice came out weak. The king looked directly at me, tears filling his eyes as though he had just discovered the greatest truth and the greatest tragedy of his life at the same time.

"You are my daughter," he repeated, his voice almost breaking.

"I said no," I screamed, tears were already streaming from my eyes, the gods weren’t fair to me, I had loathed this man all my life, not just from all the stories they tell me but from everything he and his son did to me and what he did to my mother, and now he stood there saying he is my father.

"I am not lying." his voice came out lower. He pointed to the blood. "They turned gold when we are blood-related, especially between a father and a..."

"Stop!" I screamed, "I said stop!" His tears fell; Aria pulled him.

"Silas, you need to stop. She is not your daughter. Have you forgotten that Valerie cursed you?" She questioned him; he turned and looked at her. "She doesn't even look like you, she is not your daughter with Valerie.”

"Valerie?" King Silas asked. He took a trembling step toward me. "Valerie was pregnant?" He asked but Aria pulled him.

"Stop being stupid. I just told you she is not your child with Valerie. If she were, why didn't she look like you or Valerie?" Immediately, the words came out of Aria's lips. I felt magic consume me, then I heard a voice in my head.

'The scale had been broken, and now the father would recognize his daughter.' I felt something like a magical scale fall off my face, then Silas's eyes bulged, he looked surprised his trembling fingers reaching out to me

"Valerie!" My mother's name escapes his lips like a broken whispered, I stared at him confused, he took one unsteady step toward me, "you look exactly like her," for a second, I couldn't make sense of his words then it hit me, mother must had cast a disguise spell on me, that is the reason, I had come in front of the king many times. Still, he didn't recognize me, but Aria knows; yet she hid it. She didn't say a word. "You are Valerie's daughter?" I couldn't speak because everything was still. I was in shock. How is that possible? Lucien and I had done this type of test before, and we are not siblings. Aria screamed suddenly.

"She is not your daughter, she is just manipulating you." King Silas shook his head.

"She is my daughter." Silas's voice was firm this time; Aria's face twisted with fury.

"I said she is not your daughter! She is the last Fae, so kill her." She tried to force a dagger into his hands.

"She is my daughter with Valerie!"

"What?" A familiar voice exploded from the doorway, I turned to him, my heart shattered at the sight, Lucien was standing there covered with blood, his clothes were torn, his hair was disheveled, and his sword was still clutched in his hand, his chest rise and fell heavily as though he had run through the entire Battlefield to get here, perhaps, he had reach the riverbank and couldn't find me. His eyes moved from Silas to me, then to Aria. "What did you say?" No one answered Lucien stared at me, then at Silas. "Does it mean, I am committing incest with my sister?" His face went pale.

"No, Lucien, don't listen to them." his eyes went to me. "We already did the test, and we are not siblings." My tears fell. "Don't listen to him; I am not his daughter," I screamed; Silas's voice came out.

"I am not lying, look at that." He pointed at the gold Blood on the ground; the blood was glowing.

"No," he screamed. He took a step backwards as he shook his head violently. "No, what have I done!" He screamed ready to run off.

"You are not my son!" Silas's words stopped him. Lucien froze; he turned around slowly.

"What did you say?" His voice was barely a whisper; Aria rushed forward.

"Don't listen to him!" Her voice became desperate, "You are his son!" Lucien's eyes snapped toward her.

"Shut up!" The force behind his voice made me flinch. He looked at Silas. "Is it true?" His jaw trembled. "Father," he swallowed hard. "Sorry." his eyes lowered. "King Silas." I could feel his emotions once more. Without saying a word, I knew he desperately didn't want it to be true, that he wasn't Silas's son. “Tell me, are you lying about this?” My eyes went to Silas. For one terrifying heartbeat, I wished Lucien was his son, because I didn't want Lucien to be broken. Silas closed his eyes, then nodded slowly.

"Yes, you are not my son," Lucien's expression shattered. "Your mother was having an affair with my stepbrother." Lucien stared at him; a single tear escaped his eyes.

"Is it Raezor?" I asked. Silas nodded. Silence erupted in the room, and the battlefield outside suddenly seemed impossibly far away. Somehow, I feel my fate and Lucien's fate are the same; we both loathe the men who cause our existence.

"You knew?" Aria whispered, Silas looked at her,

"I knew everything." Aria's lips parted.

"But you..." She couldn't even finish her words when Silas's voice came up.

"I knew about Raezor," his voice was painfully calm, "I knew about the affair, I knew how you sneak out of the kingdom to meet with him, and I knew when you got pregnant for him," My eyes filled with tears, I didn't even know what I was crying for. Was it the man I love, who just found out that the man he called father all his life wasn't his father, or the man who called himself my father, who had been betrayed by his wife for twenty years? Silas's voice cracked, "But I said nothing.'"

"Why?" Aria asked, Silas looked away.

"Because I didn't want anyone to call me, a weak king." Lucien laughed, it wasn't a cheerful one, it was a broken one.

"So that explains it." he wiped his face. "That explains why you never loved me, while you look at me with disgust." Silas looked at him.

"Lucien!"

"You never looked at me like a son." Silas opened his mouth, but nothing came out; he coughed instead. Blood stained his lips as he clutched hard at his bleeding wound. My eyes went to Lucien; I could see pain in his eyes. "Now I know the hatred was because I was not from you."

"Lucien..." Silas whispered.

"It's fine." He said, turning toward me. My heart broke as I saw his face; every step he took was filled with determination. "Will you love to..." His words didn't finish before I pulled him to myself. I buried my face in his chest; maybe this was what we both needed. His tears fell into my hair while I hugged him tight. "You are choosing me?"