The Lycan King's Puppet-Chapter 74: We Meet At Last

She couldn’t see his face. Not even his outline.

"I came to see if you are... well, Your Grace."

He said nothing.

"Your Grace?"

"You should not be here. You should leave."

After everything she just passed through?

"Why are you hiding?" The question escaped her.

More silence.

"You have seen me, I’m fine... you can leave now."

She edged closer. "I haven’t seen your face... I want to see your face."

"No, you don’t. If you see my face, you’ll run away from me."

No matter how she squinted her eyes, all she could see were those piercing yellow eyes, nothing more.

"I’m not afraid of you... Yeren. Come forward."

A dry laugh, like the sound of scraping metal echoed through the room.

"You’re not afraid of Yeren. But, you should be afraid of me."

"Afraid of you? The only thing I’m afraid of is the cost of the window I just broke. ’Yeren’ would never hurt me."

"He won’t, but I will."

In the blink of an eye, a figure dashed forward and held her by the neck.

"Don’t underestimate me." He growled.

Her eyes felt like they were going to bulge out.

The only sound she heard was the rattling of chains as he moved.

She could make out a face stubbed with overgrown beard and longer hair.

A squeal left her parted lips as she was lifted off her feet. She felt him run his fingers over the cut on her arm.

"Who did this to you?"

How did he exoect her to respond

"S... stop. Ple... please, Ye... Yeren."

His hands around her neck fell away and she crumpled to the ground in a heap of heavy skirts.

"What is wrong with you?!"

He backed away from the light.

But it was too late - she had caught a full glimpse of him.

The shackles about his wrists and ankles jiggled as he retreated into the comforting darkness.

"What happened to you?"

She could no longer see the bright yellow eyes anymore.

"Look at me. Where is the King?"

"Leave... please Claire. Leave before I do something I don’t want to do."

She folded her arms across her chest, readying to argue to the ends of the world until she got an answer from him.

"Take her out of here." She heard him say.

Then, the oak doors were thrown open and two of the guards who had been manning the door entered.

The one in the fore narrowed his eyes at her. He removed his helmet and stared at her with wide eyes.

"How did she get in?"

Claire’s mouth dropped open for a split second. So they could speak?

Both of them glanced at the scattered glass by the window, then, they looked at her.

"Come with us." The one in front reached for her arm forcefully.

Claire tried to jerk her arm out of his grasp to no avail.

"Handle her with care." Yeren had the nerve to say.

"I’ll leave by myself."

The guard turned to Yeren’s direction with lowered eyes and gave a slight bow.

Claire cursed under her breath and left the room.

She could feel their gazes burning into her back as she walked away.

"How dare he!" She muttered to herself throwing her hands up recklessly without looking up.

She crashed into Andon who was coming from the landing.

He looked from her to the open door.

"I told you to stay away, young woman." He wasn’t smiling.

She plastered a smile on her face.

"The King summoned me."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Even your sister would not believe such a flimsy lie, Miss Stenly." Then, his eyes softened with something that looked very much like concern. "Are you hurt?"

Without waiting for her answer, he snatched up her hand and examined the cut - exactly how the King had done.

"He did this, didn’t he?" Then he muttered some inaudible profanities before brushing past her.

"No. He did not." But Andon wasn’t listening.

"I told you to stay away! The King is..." He broke off, curling his fingers into fists.

Claire watched him disappear into the room and the devious guards spared no time in closing the door.

And she was left alone with the guards once more.

Claire headed back to Aurora’s room and locked the door behind her.

Rory was seated on the floor fixing threads of yarn on a yarnstick.

She stood by the entrance for a while, watching her sister’s careful actions.

She had always hated sewing when she was younger, her finger got pricked too often. But, Aurora had a hand for it. A good one at that.

Aurora looked up from her needle work and smiled at her.

"Any luck? Did you see the King today?" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Claire sighed out loud, a very long one. Then she sat cross-legged beside her sister after minutes of beating the folds of her dress.

"Be careful of the needles." Rory warned.

She adjusted with a grunt.

"I saw him."

Rory’s needle fell out of her hand.

"You saw him? How is he?"

"He’s still alive, for one. But..."

Her sister’s eyes widened like saucers. "But what?"

"I don’t know how to describe it, Aurora. He’s not the King we know. Something is terribly wrong with him."

"You’re scaring me."

"I’m only telling you what I saw. His yellow eyes are so bright in the dark, his hair is longer... he looks less like a sane man."

"I don’t believe you. Stop making up stories, I’ll understand if you didn’t see him today."

Claire swatted her forehead.

"I know what I saw."

"Are you telling me the King is running mad?"

Claire stood up and dusted herself up.

"Let me check the book I was reading. It might contain something peculiar about Lycans."

Aurora said nothing.

She spun on her heel and left the room with a renewed purpose.

What made his eyes turn yellow in the first place?

The only thing that came to her mind was the blood moon.

She laid on her bed and produced the book from under her pillow.

A note fell out of it.

"From the irises that shine in your eyes, to your smile that gives life, I love you."