Chapter 101

Malachi’s past…

The kids weren’t exactly happy that they had to stop playing, but they had to anyway. And it also involves food, so they were half excited.

They rushed to their governess who got them dressed in their new clothes and they followed their father to a new completely different town. Of course, Delphine was here seeing all these straight from Malachi’s mind. She had no idea where all this was leading to, because according to this, Malachi wasn’t exactly evil back then. So, she was right about that, no one was born evil.

Their carriage led them straight towards the new town. A blazing hot sun was shining, everywhere was so hot that Althea had to bring out her fan to fan herself.

“Feeling hot already, Thea?” Malachi said in his childlike voice.

“Of course. Who wouldn’t in this hot weather? Maybe you should wear this tight dress and be a girl, then you will know how hot it is,” Malachi laughed. Even their father found it funny, his made Althea blushed, she felt embarrassed, her dad and brother are both making fun of her, not nice. Delphine watched the happy family chat and laugh together. It felt nice to be in their presence. It was definitely a wonder how all these changed within a couple of years.

It took a long time before they eventually reached their destination. They got down from the carriage, stretching their bodies and hands, they were shocked to have found themselves in a deserted island. No restaurant to eat and no playgrounds. Just dead buildings.

“Daddy, where exactly are we?” Malachi asked.

“You don’t have to worry for now. Just go to the tent and have some lunch,” the king said, nodding at one of the guards to take them to the tent where they sat and ate a lot of desserts and food.

“Oh my, I am so stuffed.” Malachi rubbed his bulging belly while lying down.

Althea chuckled. “You look like a fat pig. Like those daddy’s pigs in his pigsty.”

Malachi huffed. “That’s not true, Daddy’s pigs are pink, I am not pink. You look like…” he placed his hand under his chin as he tried to think of the perfect insult for Althea.

Althea wiggled her eyebrows to taunt him. “You can’t even find the perfect animal for me. That’s because I am too cute and you are too dumb.”

“That’s not true. I know what you look like…like…a bee.”

Althea gasped. She folded her arms in annoyance, her cute little face scrunching up. This time it was Malachi’s turn to laugh, he laughed so hard that he started wheezing.

Althea rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t even that funny. And besides bees are queens, pigs are dirty, so I am far better than you.”

Malachi gave her a raspberry. “You are just trying to make yourself feel better, you are a bee. Buzz.”

Delphine sat there confused at their cute conversation. They were both fun and free of worries, Delphine also noticed that Malachi eyes had a bit of brightness in them unlike now which is totally black.

Malachi got up from his side and said he wanted to pee, so with the help of a guard he went to pee. On his way back, he decided to stargaze. He started singing that song. Twinkle, twinkle little star. He even added that when he grew up, he would name a star after Althea, since Althea loves stars so much. This was so touching that Delphine’s heart swelled with tenderness. She stared at the little boy who was a little smarter than his age.

Malachi wanted to head back to his tent when he saw his daddy with his guardsmen, he wondered what they were talking about so he decided to eavesdrop. Listening in, he heard his father addressing his men.

“The dragons have a cave where they keep precious objects, we are here for a specific rare diamond. Your job is to find it and to deflect the dragon’s mind from going to that cave to prevent us from being detected.”

They all nodded and split. So that was what the king was here for. Delphine thought. She looked down at the little Malachi who had confusion on his face. He clearly had no idea what they were talking about, so he whistled and headed back to his tent.

After a few minutes of resting, Althea suggested for them to go play hide and seek.

“Isn’t it a little too late for that?” Malachi asked.

“Not really. I think it would be a great way to have fun. We always play hide and seek in the evening, are we going to stop that now?”

Malachi sighed. “All right, you seek, I hide. Good?”

Althea nodded eagerly. She turned on her seat and closed her eyes and counted to ten. Malachi quickly rushed out of the tent and headed towards any of the empty buildings, but most of them were either depleted and seemed like they were going to break down anytime soon. Malachi was about to give up when he saw a little cave.

Delphine was like a leech stuck on him as she watched him walk towards the cave. Delphine crossed her fingers, hoping it’s not what she thinks it is.

Inside, Malachi saw different types of diamonds.

“Wow, glittery things,” Malachi said.

“Althea would never find me here and I will win” He said to himself happily. This was a great achievement; he was about to win hide and seek against Althea.

Delphine who was standing close looked around, she was the first to notice the gem around the corner. It was glowing green with black sipping out from the middle. This was the gem that gave Malachi most of his powers, the one which had corrupted Damien’s mind. The one with dark magic.

So, this was how it all happened. He didn’t even know this was what was going to happen to him. If he hadn’t decided to play hide and seek, he would still be the little boy everyone knew.

Little Malachi finally noticed the gem. He felt like the gem was calling to his soul. He didn’t want to touch it, but his mind was already consumed. If Delphine could stop this moment from happening she would, but she can’t change the past.

Malachi finally touched the gem and he felt his mind consumed with darkness. He froze, standing there staring at nothing, his eyes clouded with darkness. Black vein lines were crawling up his body towards his head. He started convulsing, Delphine wanted to save him but her hand went through his body.

Luckily, the king arrived early and saved Malachi. He gasped when he saw the gem he had touched. Delphine could see the fear in his eyes as he stared at the child, he feared what would happen to Malachi now. Him and his guardsmen rushed towards the carriage, they also picked Althea on the way too and they all headed back to the castle.

Althea kept crying when she saw her unconscious brother. She did not know what happened but she was sad.

It took a week for Malachi to wake up. His memory had been wiped of any knowledge of the gem but from what Delphine noticed, the damage had been done. When he woke up, he was quiet, his eyes no longer had that childlike brightness anymore, it was completely black.

From that moment he started being more mischievous. Of course, all the kids were mischievous. Malachi’ was on a whole different level. He would add extra salt or pepper to the food he was given so as to see his father fire the cook or maid every single time. Cooks were changed up to 90 times a month because of Malachi’s constant complaints.

Delphine watched as he grew older, the worse he became. As a teenager he started treating Althea badly.He became envious of her and hated his own sister. Sometimes he would look at her with scorn and hatred. His family started watching over him more. Hoping he would change but he didn’t, he was becoming worse. He was so envious of every little thing Althea did better than him, his heart was already so dark that he had started planning ways to get her killed.

The end of the rope for Malachi happened when the king died and gave the throne to Althea. Chaos broke that day. Malachi was so upset he literally strangled Althea. The guards had to push him off from their queen.

He said he needed time to cool off so he disappeared.

Malachi was so angry, he didn’t even attend her marriage with the blacksmith, which was Delphine’s father. At this moment he was gathering his men, waiting, lurking in the shadows like a thief.

He continued his anger, and gathered his soldiers and killed Althea’s husband. This was a great pain for Althea. Being pregnant did not even make things easy for her.

In her pain and pregnancy, Althea then placed a spell on Romulus that Malachi would never be able to enter in all his life, she then fled with her pregnant belly.

Delphine was pushed out from Malachi’s memory. She felt cold after watching all the things Malachi did to her mom and dad. She was so upset that she wanted to kill him. Yes he wasn’t in control of himself…but still. He killed her best friend and everyone close to her.

He was cruel. The gem just intensified that cruelty. How could he? How could a gem like that even be held in the hands of the dragons…it should have been destroyed a long time ago. Now see what that caused. Trepidation and despair for an innocent family.

“Happy with what you saw?” Malachi uses this moment to ask. He wasn’t happy that Delphine entered his mind, he was upset and annoyed. So he didn’t give her a chance to reply. He stabbed her, pressing the knife straight into her heart.