Chapter 80: 80-Not okay
"A dragon?"
The two beasts were stunned. They didn’t expect that the conspiracy against their marriage was from a dragon. A fox or a snake would have been a most likely guess because of the nature of the scheme. However, they couldn’t doubt the knowledge of the ancient fairy.
"Do you know who the dragon is?"
Just then, the doors burst open, and Aenyra stormed in, her voice cracked through the air, frantic and scared. "Brother, come quick. Something is happening to Sheana!"
Aeltharion got up without hesitation and ran towards his sister. Nytherael and fairy Zarathia followed immediately behind.
Aenyra rushed his brother to the power level of the inn, to the room assigned to her where Princess Sheana lay on the bed, still paralysed.
"What happened to her?" Aeltharion asked, immediately taking Sheana’s hand in his to read her pulse.
Her finger had started turning bluish, and so had the rest of her body. She had stopped mumbling repeatedly, but her eyes remained frozen open and barely blinked.
It was after a second thar he realized that he was in unfamiliar waters. Sseraphis was the physician in the family, and the one who specialises in medicine and poisons. He knew nothing about that department and always relied on his mate when situations like that arose.
He found his heart craving his violet venom. The snake would’ve raced to examine Princess Sheana, not because he cares about her royal title or her but because she mattered to Aenyra.
Aeltharion nit his lip. Tears welling up in his eyes as he thought of his missing wife and worry clawed at his chest. It was impossible to imagine his family without him. They were incomplete without him.
"I was reading to her when I realized thar she was getting quieter and quieter. When I looked up from the book, she was already turning blue," Aenyra explained.
The sight of Sheana fading more and more melted her isolated attitude and made her heart ignite with a fire of worry. It hadn’t dawned on her that her cheeks were wet with tears of worry for the seductress.
"Can you tell what is wrong with her?" She looked at her brother with hopeful eyes. Unlike Sseraphis who with one touch would have given her answers, Aeltharion didn’t react. "She’s not okay, is she?"
Nytherael noticed him freeze up and walked up behind him and pressed a soft squeeze of his shoulder. "Why don’t you let the fairy take a look at her," he suggested.
Aeltharion slowly let go of Princess Sheana’s hand. He wiped the tears creeping out and hid his wet eyes from his already panicked sister. Nytherael pulled him to the empty seat on the side of the room and stood before him, shielding him from Aenyra and fairy Zarathia’s line of sight.
"Let it out if you want. I’ll shield you," he let out.
Aeltharion glanced up, his amber-gold eyes locked on his crimson and gold eyes. The softness behind Nytherael’s mismatched reassured him that for just a moment, he could let himself be weak and the tears fell naturally.
Nythereal didn’t stop him or hold him. He let him let it out, he knew that Aeltharion needed it after holding it in for so long. Comforting him too early would only force him to swallow his feelings and rise up to his role of the most dominant mate, worrying about everyone else and neglecting his feelings.
Fairy Zarathia approached Princess Sheana. She didn’t need to take her pulse to know what was happening to her. She had seen such a tragedy in the past and knew what was wrong with Sheana at a glance.
"She’s dying," she announced.
Aenyra held her breath. Those two words cracked her iced-heart and made the world twirl around her.
"How can that be? She is a healthy phoenix," Aenyra asked, "No, no... this selfish seductress can’t die so easily. She still hasn’t annoyed all the beasts in the world, how can she be dying?" Aenyra mumbled, she cpuld barely recognize the words that came out of her mouth in her denial.
Self blame wasted over her. Princess Sheana had helped her when she activated the cursed hourglass that released the beast that attacked them all. Sheana was in her current predicament only because of her, she couldn’t breathe properly.
"You must be wrong right?"
Aeltharion heard the fairy’s verdict and inhaled. He sucked in all the unbearable ache in his heart that was slipping out. He composed himself and tapped Nytherael kindly.
"Thank you but I’m okay," he let out, the practises assurance of the bearer of everyone’s burdens.
Nytherael grabbed his arm and halted him. His eyes held a plea, "You are not. Take a minute. I’ll handle this for you."
"I need to be there for her," he brushed off her hand and went over.
He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs to the brim with fresh air to kick out the toxic air of sadness and longing. It wasny the time to miss Sseraphis with everything he had, his sister needed him.
"What do you mean she is dying?" He stumbled as he walked, weak from the exhausting events that came at him one after another leaving him without room to catch his breath.
Fairy Zarathia caught him and held him up effortlessly. Nytherael rushed over and offered to take him, "Let me. I’ll hold him," he wished to be there for Aeltharion in the ways the dragon had showed up for him a million times in the past.
Zarathia easily agreed and Nytherael carried Aeltharion’s weight on himself as he held the dragon up by the waist, with Aeltharion’s right hand grabbing hold of his shoulder to keep steady.
"I’ve seen this happen before," she informed them. "It’s the effect of Hadrian’s powers," she added.
Nytherael felt glad that the fairy had arrived. Frankly, he didn’t think they’d be able to survive rhe nightmare before them without her. And without her, he wouldn’t have learnt that he had been charmed to sin against his mates and have the guilt of the past lift off his shoulders.
"Is there anything that can be done?" Aenyra inquired.
"Yes, fairy Zarathia. Please enlighten us," Nytherael requested.
The information could save millions of beast who were paralysed in every corner of the beastworld. They needed her knowledge.
"She has used Hadrian’s power and spoke of it. Now, she’s dying as the price," Fairy Zarathia let out.
"Hadrian?" Aenyra uttered, she found the name strange and alien to her. Nothing of the records she’d memorised or her indepth knowledge of beasts held any mention of a Hadrian. "Who is that?"
"The beast released from the hourglass," Nytherael filled her in. "He is the one who kidnapped Sseraphis."
"But Sheana didn’t use his powers. Can you be mistaken fairy?" She asked, addressing Zarathia as a fairy because she heard her brother and brother-in-law do so.
"How can I be?" Zarathia doubted she was wrong. "Clearly she used his power of vision, caught a glimpse of the future and spoke of it. That knowledge isn’t like messages on stars that count as heavens revelations, it’s forbidden clear glimpse into the future and such a memory isn’t meant to exist in her current brain. So it is slowly draining her," she said.
From her words, it was clear she had a clue about the predicament and the three beasts listened attentively to her.
"The only way to save her is to erase the vision from her mind," Zarathia added.
