Chapter 211 The Relic

Chapter 211 The Relic
Adrian’s POV

So far, so good. 

The fight grew more vicious around us. I tore through the rotten rogues like a machine, claws slashing, jaws snapping. 

Blood sprayed hot across my face and chest. 

Every time one of those decaying bastards tried to get close to Kira, I lost it…ripping limbs, crushing throats, making sure none of their filth even breathed near her. 

My queen stayed right behind me, just like she promised. No wild stunts. No running off. She was being such a good girl tonight, and it almost made me smile in the middle of all this carnage.

Where the hell did these things come from? 

These cursed rogues were supposed to stay trapped in their wolf forms for life…mindless, rotting shells. 

None had been sighted in any kingdom for centuries. 
So why now? They don't think for themselves because they are feral. They only followed whoever managed to brainwash their rotten minds. 

So who was hiding behind these puppets? Why wasn’t the coward showing his face?

Suddenly, I felt Kira go completely still behind me.
I mind-linked her immediately while still cutting down two more rogues. ‘You okay? Does your head hurt? Your stomach?’

No response.

The rogues were thinning out fast. We were winning. But her silence made my blood run cold. I spun around, damn the risk, and pulled her tight against my side.

She was staring hard in the opposite direction.
I followed her gaze, and my stomach dropped.

Ariston. His wife, Selene. And…wait…is that Liana? How the fuck is she still alive? Didn't Thomas handle it properly?!

At least it wasn’t my dear father-in-law like we’d feared. 
That made me breathe easily.

I don’t think I could’ve handled seeing the pain and hurt in Kira’s eyes if she’d been forced to choose between me and Tristen.

Thomas had filled me in earlier on their departure and that ominous promise to return for Kira. 

He was still confused as hell about how Tristen could possibly be her father when she was obviously Ariston’s daughter. 

When I tried telling him the real truth, he laughed in my face and called it “mountain-induced movie nonsense.”
So we stuck with his theory…that Ariston had stolen Tristen’s child to raise her as his own and marry her off to me for closer access to the throne. 

It made better sense to him. I let it slide. He’ll figure the truth out someday.

I started pulling Kira behind me, but she planted her feet. 

“This is my fight, Adrian,” she said slowly, voice ice-cold. “Abby would’ve loved the closure. I would too… After all, it was because of their greed and manipulation that my family got destroyed before I was even born.”

I wanted to argue, but those eyes…cold, hard, and burning with something dangerous…stopped me. I nodded and stayed right beside her.

I’d already mind-linked Thomas. ‘New development. Ariston, Selene, and Liana led the rogues here. Have the warriors form a protective wall in front of us. My queen wants a word with them.’

‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

I watched the formation snap into place immediately as the three fools walked forward like they owned the battlefield. 

The remaining rogues were now trapped behind a wall of our best warriors. Good. All I had to worry about now were these three idiots.

I stole a glance at Kira. Her expression was ice-cold, but underneath it simmered a dark, almost amused glint…like she was actually enjoying this more than she was scared. 

It nearly made me laugh despite everything.
The three stopped a short distance away.

Selene’s lips curled into a mocking smile. “Well, well…what do we have here? Never thought I’d see the day this failed copy of my genes would stand on her own two feet and actually fight like a warrior.” 

She tilted her head, eyes dripping fake sweetness. “You feel like a queen now, huh, sweet Arabella?”

Kira rolled her eyes, looking bored. “Please…being a queen suits me more than it ever suited you, woman. Can you see? I’ve become what you never were at my age. Doesn’t that make you mad? Does my beauty make you look like a duckling next to me?” She smirked. “What, you came all this way to fight me for a crown that isn't yours? Aren’t you ashamed? Can you even stand properly, or should I get you a wheelchair? You look like you haven’t eaten in weeks.”

Ariston growled low in warning at Kira. I snarled right back at him and he wisely stepped backward.

Selene’s face twisted with rage for a second before she recovered, forcing another mocking laugh. “I didn’t come here to exchange words with a failed offspring like you. I only came to settle scores once and for all.”

Kira laughed. The sound was chilling enough to make even me flinch quietly.

“So you walked into my kingdom, onto my battlefield, and you think you get to settle scores and just walk out alive?” Kira’s voice was pure venom wrapped in silk.

“Are you really that stupid? Didn’t your mama ever teach you anything about danger? Listen here, old hag. I will make you pay. For everything you did to Abby. For the humiliation. For every time you made her feel less than human. I will kill you myself and let your blood drip all over my fingers.”

The crazy look in her eyes made my chest tighten. 
Goddess, I hope she hasn’t completely lost her mind.

Kira turned to Ariston immediately.. “And you… a foolish puppet of a king. A failure tagged as a father. Shamelessly parading yourself as royalty when you’re not even the man of your own bedroom.” She smirked. “Tell me, are you the man in this relationship or the woman? Does she make you wipe her ass after she uses the toilet?”

I almost laughed. I had to bite the inside of my cheek hard to stop myself. This was serious, damn it.

Ariston’s face turned bright red. He opened his mouth to howl something, but Kira cut him off coldly. “Shut up. I’m still talking.”

Then she looked at Liana, who was staring at her with that obsessive, worshipful gaze that made my skin crawl. 

I instinctively wrapped my arm around Kira’s waist and pulled her flush against me. 

That crazy bitch was still alive? Thomas told me the sorceress had stripped her of her wolf and left her in the deserted mountain…the worst punishment our kind could receive. She should’ve been dead by now.

Liana’s face twisted with fury the moment she saw my arm around Kira.

The audacity.

Kira’s voice stayed steady. “You were my greatest mistake, Liana. My mistake was handing your obsessed ass over to Thomas instead of killing you on the spot myself. I thought I was being kind. But here you are, still flying your crazy flag.”

Liana’s eyes gleamed with madness. “My princess… I love you. I’m the only one who truly loves you. Can’t you see? My heart beats for you…that’s why I didn’t die. We are meant for each other. We live and die together. How can you still choose him after everything he did to you?”

I nearly lunged at her. It took everything in me to stay put. Kira looked one second away from turning on anyone who interrupted her.

“We? I'm fucking straight, you chicken! Abby was straight too!” She yelled angrily.

Selene’s voice rang out again, loud and mocking. “Come to think of it… why do you keep referring to yourself in the third person like you're not even my daughter Abby?”

Kira chuckled darkly. “Take a wild guess, maniac.”

Selene smiled back, cold and sharp. “I don’t care to know actually. You have no idea how far we went to gather this army. How the Draven palace declared us traitors and made us wanted criminals across the lands. But it’s all ending today. I am taking back everything that should have been mine."

Kira tilted her head. “What makes you so sure it’s ending just because you said it is?”

Selene’s smile widened. She slowly raised her hand, revealing a strange object…roughly carved, dark, and pulsing with unnatural energy. 

It looked like some twisted voodoo relic.
What the hell is that?