Chapter 21: Bleeding For Another Man
The greenhouse was a ruin of shattered glass and withered plants. Eveyr didn’t care about Sylas’s rank or the crown’s power. The only thing that mattered to him was this man had dared to meet with his wife alone at midnight.
"Is this what the great Warlord of the North has become?" Sylas taunted, his voice steady, despite the crushing weight of Eveyr’s magic. "A paranoid guard dog barking at shadows inside a glass box?"
Eveyr gave no reaction. He kept staring at him with murderous intent.
"You snuck into my cage, Spymaster," Eveyr rasped, his voice vibrating with inhuman power that made the remaining glass panes in the roof rattle. "And you dared to look at my wife. I do not care about your rank or status. I am going to carve your eyes out for everyone to see."
He raised his left hand. The shadows immediately snapped upward and wrapped around Sylas’s right leg like a vice. With a loud crack, the magic crushed his knee.
Sylas jerked forward, a choked gasp escaping from his throat. His dark clothes instantly soaked with blood, but he kept his jaw shut, refusing to give Eveyr the satisfaction to listen to his scream.
The system interface immediately appeared in Esme’s vision.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Imperial Retaliation Imminent.]
[If the Crown’s Spymaster is executed, the Emperor will authorize a full military siege.]
[Host Survival Probability: 4%... 3%...]
[ACTION REQUIRED: STOP HIM IMMEDIATELY]
Esme’s stomach twisted. The system had never sounded this desperate before.
Think Esme!!!!
"Eveyr, you need to stop!" Esme shouted, standing up and taking a step towards him. "Julian will send the entire army! You will start a war!"
"Let him send them," Eveyr replied, completely deaf to her words. The bloodlust had consumed him. "I will kill them all. And I will start with him."
The words weren’t a threat. They were a promise, and both Sylas and Esme knew that.
Esme quickly realized that a lecture about politics, armies, and survival wasn’t going to work anymore. Words were useless against a man who was acting on pure, possessive instinct.
I have to do something drastic. I have to snap him out of this!
Esme dropped to her knees and frantically searched the debris until she found a large, razor-sharp shard of shattered glass. It was as long and thick as a dagger.
Her survival instincts screamed at her to drop it and think of something else. But the blaring red system warning flashing in her eyes told her it was the only way for her to survive.
She didn’t have the time to have second thoughts. She gripped the glass tightly and cut her left forearm with it. The cut was deep. Blood immediately oozed out, dripping onto the frost under her knees.
Esme gasped, her vision blurring as a sharp pain ripped through her arm. The glass shard slipped from her trembling fingers and shattered on the stone.
The silver anklet on her leg detected her pounding heart and the rapid loss of blood immediately. It flared with a blinding silver light.
Because the anklet was forged directly from Eveyr’s bloodline magic, it didn’t just send a simple alarm to him, instead, it transmitted her pain straight into his veins.
Eveyr froze mid-swing. A violent shudder ripped through his body. The homicidal rage in his eyes shattered, replaced by pure terror.
"Esme!!"
His shadow blade dissolved into mist. Eveyr abandoned bleeding Sylas and crossed the distance between them in a blur. He dropped to his knees so hard the stone floor cracked under his weight.
Eveyr grabbed her arm and pressed his hands over her wound to stop the bleeding. Just a moment ago, he looked like a deadly monster and now, he was a terrified husband watching his world fall apart.
"What did you do?" Eveyr murmured, his voice cracking with panic, stripping away all his bravado. "Why would you do this? Esme, look at me! Look at me!"
"I... I told you to stop," Esme choked out, her head spinning. "But you wouldn’t listen. If you kill him, Julian will march on this estate. I won’t let you destroy yourself and take me down with you."
Eveyr stared at the blood on his hands as he realized she had cut herself just to pull his leash. She had hurt herself to save a man he hated and was giving a political reason to justify it.
The realization hit him like a physical blow, twisting his obsession into something even darker, and far more dangerous.
He didn’t turn around to look at Sylas, but his magic did. A tendril of black fire shot across the greenhouse, wrapping around Sylas’s throat. Sylas arched his back, a strangled groan escaping his mouth as the magic burned a permanent rune into his neck.
"A tracking curse," Eveyr said coldly, his eyes still fixed on Esme. "If Julian ever sends you near my wife again, even she won’t be able to save you. I will tear you apart piece by piece while you are still breathing. Run, Spymaster. Before I decide your life isn’t worth the blood she spilled tonight."
Sylas didn’t need to be told twice. Leaning heavily against the bench and dragging his crushed leg, he pulled a glowing spatial gem from his coat. He crushed the gem and vanished from the estate in a flash of blue light.
Sylas was gone, but the air in the greenhouse was still suffocating. Eveyr didn’t care that Sylas had escaped, and what he would do once he reached the palace.
He tore a strip of cloth from the hem of Esme’s dress, and wrapped it tightly around her bleeding arm. His hands were gentle, scared of causing her more pain, but the dark aura rolling off his body was still terrifying.
"He is gone," Eveyr murmured, looking into her eyes. "You bled for another man tonight, Esme," he leaned in and whispered into her hair. "You intentionally hurt your body which belongs to me now."
Esme shivered.
"Now, we are going back to our room to discuss your punishment for leaving my bed."
