Chapter 294: Prayer Of the Ill Intended
They saw the trio standing before the host family, who looked as though they had just been struck hard across the face.
Internally savouring the sight, Ivan murmured just low enough for Eve to hear, "Come. It is time to tend to these vultures."
"Mhm," Eve hummed as she moved forward with the ease of calm water. The warm light from the grand chandelier above reflected off her gown, making it appear as though she were dressed in starlight itself. Every movement she made was so graceful and refined, seamless in its elegance, that it drew the gaze of all who witnessed it.
Above all, her soft features and ethereal beauty were undeniable, entirely unmatched by any other woman present, yet somehow perfectly complemented by the presence of their handsome prince at her side.
As Eve and Ivan made their way towards the host family, the world Ruby had so carefully constructed for the night, a world where she was the centrepiece and Ivan her inevitable prize, shattered like a mirror dropped from a great height.
Her jaw slackened, crimson eyes widening as she stared at the woman clinging to Ivan’s arm. This was not the "broken lumen" the rumours had promised. The woman before her was a vision in champagne and silver, her skin glowing with a vitality that mocked the frail, sickly image Ruby had imagined.
A toxic heat surged from Ruby’s chest to her throat. She glanced down at her own beige gown, the dress she had once believed to be a masterpiece of seduction, and suddenly felt exposed, cheap, and utterly outclassed. In comparison to Evelyn’s intricate embroidery and diaphanous layers, Ruby felt like a common street performer attempting to play the role of a queen.
The sight of Prince Ivan’s smile, that dazzling, rare warmth he offered only to the woman at his side, struck Ruby like a physical blow. She had spent hours practising her own smile before the mirror, hoping for even a flicker of his attention, only to watch him openly adore a woman the nobility had already written off.
Her fingernails dug into her palms so hard she nearly drew blood.
The "delicious need" she had felt moments earlier curdled into something bitter and black. She no longer wanted merely to entice Ivan. She wanted the woman beside him erased from existence.
Just then, Evelyn looked towards her. Their eyes met for a fleeting second, and Ruby felt her blood run cold. The woman who had been acting all innocent and shy before the Prince only moments ago was gone, replaced by a gaze so frightening it felt capable of freezing and burning Ruby simultaneously.
Ruby was paralysed by the sudden, violent shift in Evelyn’s demeanour.
As she stared, she caught the slightest flash of molten gold behind those blue eyes, as if she saw right through her skin to the rot beneath.
Stunned, Ruby blinked, and Evelyn’s eyes were back to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
’What was that?’ Ruby screamed in her mind, the hair on the back of her neck rising at the sudden, unnatural chill.
Before she could regain her composure, Ivan and Eve were standing directly before them. A deep, masculine voice cut through the fog of her thoughts like velvet-wrapped steel.
"Minister Silas."
Ivan’s voice didn’t just snap Ruby out of her daze; it acted like a cold bucket of water over her parents, who were still gaping with shock written across their faces.
"Y-Y-Your Highness! It is such an h-h-honour to have you here. I cannot tell you how g-glad I am for you to finally grace us with your presence!" Silas stammered, an utter mess of a man. It was as if the circuits connecting his brain to his tongue had overheated before frying completely under the Prince’s silent, judgmental stare.
Ivan wore a mask of indifference as he regarded Silas, his gaze blank, as though the man before him were little more than a bumbling nuisance. Meanwhile, Silas’s wife and daughter remained fixated on Evelyn.
From the corner of his eye, Ivan noticed Eve staring right back at them. A ghost of a cold smile curved her lips, subtle yet unmistakable. It was enough to make both mother and daughter’s hearts stutter, their bold stares turning cautious in an instant.
Ivan knew he did not need to worry about Evelyn. He understood how much she had grown, how capable she had become of handling matters on her own. Still, that did not mean he would let anyone off lightly if they crossed a line before his eyes.
For now, however, he chose not to intervene. He knew this gathering bowed only to power, and power came in many forms. Tonight, surrounded by vampires and watched by everyone, he wanted Eve to establish her footing, to force them to truly open their eyes and see who she was.
And more importantly, to understand exactly who they should never dare to disrespect.
"Minister Silas, I believe you have already met Princess Evelyn?" Ivan asked. His hand curled possessively around her waist as he pulled her closer, a subtle movement that commanded the attention of every eye in the vicinity.
Silas clenched his jaw, the muscle leaping in his cheek before he managed to muster a tight, forced smile. "I-I believe so, Your Highness."
His red eyes shifted to the lady at the Prince’s side. "Welcome, Princess Evelyn. I trust you will enjoy the evening."
"Thank you, Minister Silas," Eve replied, her voice smooth and untroubled as she finally broke eye contact with the hostile mother and daughter.
Then, as if emboldened by a sudden, desperate surge of frustration, Silas dared a subtle jab. "Although I must confess, I did not expect to see you here....considering the reports we received regarding your..."
He paused, his gaze dropping pointedly toward her legs, hidden beneath the shimmering folds of her gown. "...unfortunate health."
Ivan’s eyes darkened to the colour of dried blood. His hand twitched against Eve’s back, his fingers itching to wrap around the Minister’s throat once more, and this time, he was more than determined to finish the job.
Eve felt the sudden, dangerous shift in Ivan’s mood. To ground him, she released a soft, mesmerising chuckle, reaching out to brush her hand along the lapel of his coat.
"Oh my! Did you hear that, darling?" She threw the endearment out once more, causing every head in the vicinity to snap toward Ivan.
Ivan was jolted from his dark fantasies of strangling Silas, turning his gaze toward the woman at his side. She met his eyes with the sweetest smile, leaving him wondering exactly what she was about to do.
She then shifted her gaze back to the bewildered Silas. Though the smile remained on her lips, her eyes were sharp and icy cold. "As you can see, Minister, I am standing right here before you all."
Tilting her head with a deceptive air of innocence, she asked, "Was there something that was supposed to be wrong with me?"
Silas felt a bead of cold sweat track down his spine. The air around him seemed to thicken, pressurised by Ivan’s lethal gaze, pinning him. He looked around at the sea of nobles, the very people he had invited to witness his uprising.
"I....I only meant..." he began, his voice cracking slightly. "There were whispers, Princess. Concerns for your well-being after your....absence from the public eye for a long time.
"Whispers? Mistaken?" Eve repeated the words slowly, as if tasting something bitter.
She stepped closer, her champagne silk rustling like a warning. "It sounds to me as though you were listening to the hopes of your enemies rather than the truth of your allies, Minister. One would think a man of your position would know the difference between a report and a prayer of those with ill intent."
The Minister shifted uncomfortably under her cold gaze and cutthroat words, looking to his wife, Maribel, to intervene. But even Maribel was caught off guard by Eve’s unexpected retort, her tongue tied by the sudden shift in power.
Before she could utter a word, Ruby, who had been silently burning with jealousy, blurted out, "Oh, Evelyn, was it? My father was just-"
"It is Princess Evelyn to you. Surely your parents taught you how to address your superiors with their proper titles in mind?"
Cece interjected, her sharp tongue cutting through Ruby’s sentence like a blade. Ruby’s eyes snapped to Cece, her cheeks burning with humiliation as she was corrected like a child in front of the entire assembly.
"R-right....forgive me," Ruby murmured, her voice small and tight. She shifted her gaze back to Eve, trying to reclaim her footing. "As I was saying, Princess Evelyn, my father mentioned the rumours only out of concern. Everyone said you were....that you couldn’t even walk! How were we to know the Prince had....cured you so miraculously?"
At those words, Ivan finally lifted his gaze. For the first time that evening, his eyes locked onto the woman standing beside the Minister. The moment Ruby met Ivan’s freezing, crimson stare, she didn’t feel fear; instead, she felt that same desperate, primal heat surge through her body, a dangerous hunger she couldn’t suppress.
