Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife-Chapter 258: Vengeance

"What do you mean, Nadia?" Ave asked as she leaned down to hear her words clearly.

"She is going to die regardless. It’s either we let them both die, or we cut her open and remove the infant before it dies in there," Nina said with an emotionless voice, like she was talking about the weather rather than cutting someone open.

Ave felt her stomach again churn as bile rose to her throat at the cruelty of such an act. This was totally wrong. If only it were in the modern world, there would be no need for what they thought was the only way. A C-section would have been performed, and the mother and child would have been saved.

She had no right to decide or do anything when the mother herself had decided for her child to live. If only she were a doctor or some nurse before her transmigration instead of an actress, she would have looked for another way to help and prove them wrong that it wasn’t because Nadia was an omega but because the baby was too damn big to come out!

Ave glanced at Nadia, who didn’t meet her eyes but was looking sideways at the wall. No tears came from her eyes as she’d seemed to accept her fate. She was barely even breathing properly.

"I lost my ma to childbirth," she muttered softly without looking at Ave or anyone in the room. "She died giving me life. She sacrificed her life for mine. Perhaps the moon goddess had planned this as well in my fate... Save my baby and tell Kale to love him as he loved me when he returns. He must not hate our child for the decision I had taken. Tell him..." She paused to take deep breaths. "That I am sorry..."

Ave could barely hold back her tears. She covered her mouth with her palm as she turned to the silent midwife at the side. "Surely there must be another way for us to save both of them... Your kind heals fast, we can make a small incision and bring the child out and sew it back to let her heal. We can—"

"She’s an omega! She can’t heal like us!" Nina yelled without intending to. She also wished there was a way to save the woman because she knew how miserable her brother would be if his mate were to die. She wasn’t ready to watch a living man behave and move around like a walking dead. But then again, if they didn’t cut the child out, the mother and child would die together.

"Save my child... I beg of you... Don’t let him die..." came Nadia’s weak, hoarse voice as she looked pleadingly at Nina and then Ave.

Nina didn’t waste any more time. She yanked out a dagger from her boot and moved forward. Before Ave could run away from the scene or even move from where she stood, the princess had looked at Nadia and apologized before using her dagger to cut open her stomach. Ave didn’t want to watch. She didn’t want to see it, but her head didn’t move away quickly enough before her stomach was opened, and blood spilled out, even splashing on her dress.

The bile in her throat rose until she gagged and ran out of the room at the same time the loud wailing of the baby filled the room. Ave ran without seeing where she was going. She wanted to be far away from the room and the scene. She wanted out of the palace until she could breathe again. She dashed out of the entrance door and kept running until she reached the garden where she had once sat with Lucian. She dropped before the tree and began to throw up.

She threw up everything in her stomach until she felt empty, and then she began to sob as she hugged herself and moved to lean against the large tree. She still felt sick to her stomach and shaken to the core by the last scene she’d seen before leaving the room. This was why many parents wanted their children to be doctors—to save many lives—and if she had been one from the modern world, she would have avoided the death of a friend and saved both mother and child.

Ave cried even harder, recalling the days she had spent with Nadia and how she had consoled her the day she was feeling miserable about Lucian’s absence. Her chest tightened to an unbearable knot that made it hard for her to swallow or breathe. She looked up at the sunset and hit her chest to take the feeling out. She wished she could have done something, she could have...

Ave bolted up from her sitting position. She could do something. She could try to heal Nadia like she had Lydia with her spell. She could bring her back with her spell. She could try. With that thought, she gathered up her skirt and began to run back to the palace when she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Prince Acer staggering and running in her direction from the gate, blood trailing out from his mouth and his clothes stained red. Her heart momentarily stopped beating as she saw he was alone and struggling to walk.

Where is her husband?! That thought made her change her direction, and she ran instead towards the prince, who had now fallen to the ground clutching his chest. Her heart beat loudly in her ears. Nothing must happen to her Lucian, nothing!

She went on her knees in front of the prince. "What happened? Where are the rest?" she demanded as she tried to help him straighten up and also keep her own panic at bay before she’d go crazy at the scary thoughts that were now swirling in her mind.

Prince Acer managed to stand to his feet with her help as he started to tell her. "We were attacked on our way back by some strange men... Their weapons were soaked with wolfsbane... My brothers and your husband were shot down before we could act... The men were stronger than we are..."

Ave felt all the blood drain from her face as she listened to what he said. She knew what wolfsbane was; Lucian had told her about it and how it could kill a were-person. She felt her legs threaten to give way beneath her as she asked, "Where are they now?" It was all she could do not to let her legs give out. She couldn’t faint or let her emotions take the best of her before she find her husband.

"I will show you where we were attacked. Come with me..." he said as he took her hand and began to lead her out of the gate. Ave was too disoriented and panicked, sickened to think with a clear head. She didn’t think to seek out Lucian’s men and Zane in the courtyard before she followed the prince out of the back gate where he had entered. She didn’t think to wonder where the guards who were guarding the back gate were as they ran past it.

She blindly followed the prince, praying with all of her heart that nothing worse had happened to Lucian and that she would manage to save him. They had run past the castle when she realized something strange with the prince. He had been too weak to walk when she first met him, and now he was running as he pulled her along with all of his might like he had not been injured.

"Where did you get attacked?" she asked him as she kept following him.

"Up ahead, my lady," he said with a voice that sounded too strong to be weak or injured. Something wasn’t right; she could feel it. Instinct told her something was not right, and she had learned from experience to never ignore her instinct.

Ave looked back and saw they had gone far away from the Nazia palace, and he was leading her into a dense forest. She yanked her hand away from his grip and stopped in her tracks, causing him to stop as well.

"Where are you taking me?" she demanded as she began to take little steps backward when he turned to look at her with a smirk playing on his lips and an evil glint in his eyes.

"To the imperial palace, my lady," he said smugly as he began to walk toward her.

Damn, she had been tricked! Ave realized dreadfully. She was about to wonder how Prince Acer had been bought and made to trick her when she noticed his appearance began to change. He transformed into a completely different man. He was tall and had a lean stature and long, unhealthy hair that framed his narrow face and sunken eyes. He was wearing a shabby white attire that looked beaten and dirty.

"Who are you?" she demanded as she kept walking backward while he moved forward. He had tricked her away from the palace with the believes that her husband was in danger. She needed to go back even if it meant fighting him because she had someone else to save back in the palace.

He threw his head back and laughed like a maniac. "You dare question me after how you made my poor mother lose her life?!" His laughter ceased as he looked down at her with crazy, wild eyes.

A frown settled on Ave’s face as she wondered what the crazy man meant. She had never seen him since the day she’d come to this era. And as if he read her thoughts, he provided calmly, "I am Jonah, the son of the witch that was beheaded by your husband the day she made a deal to give you out in exchange for her life. My ma would have lived had it not been for you, and now I seek vengeance!" he growled as he began to move in long strides toward her.

Ave might have been too disoriented to act earlier or to think before following him out, but she was slowly regaining her wit with the realization that her husband hadn’t met any attack. Thus, when he came at her, she didn’t run; instead, she took up a fighting stance and sent him falling with a leg kick that caught him off guard.

"You messed with the wrong person, loser!" she growled angrily, furious that he’d wasted her time when she needed to save Nadia. She wanted to beat him into the ground, but there were pressing matters to attend to. Before he could regain his strength after the kick, she turned on her heels to make a run for it. However, she bumped into another man who looked eerily like the one behind her. This one was larger, more muscular, and scowling darkly down at her.

The smell hit her like a wave, he reeked, as if he’d never showered a day in his life, and he stood uncomfortably close to her.

Raising her clenched fists to punch him, her hand froze mid-air as he muttered something under his breath. Ave’s eyes widened, her heart plummeting into her stomach with dread.

Before she could register what happened next, he muttered another spell under his breath. This time, she felt her consciousness slipping away before she could fight it.

The bulky man caught her before she hit the ground. He glanced toward his brother with narrowed eyes, his displeasure evident as the other man wiped blood from his nose.

"You fool," he snapped. "Why did you reveal so much to her instead of knocking her out with a spell? You even let her kick you!" He shook his head, glaring at his skinny, tall brother in disappointment. "You may be good at changing form, but you’re useless in a fight."

Jonah scoffed, ignoring the insult. "I wanted her to know she’ll be the one to pay the price for Ma’s death. Ma would still be alive if her husband hadn’t interfered, and we must make him regret it by taking her back to the Empress and claiming the prize as promised," he said, beginning to tie Ave’s limbs with a rope they’d hidden in the forest.

"We need the prize money to start a new life. We mustn’t allow the tricky Empress to deceive us. I will get the portal ready, hurry up!" the bulky man said as he moved to the side and began to make circles on the ground with his fingers while muttering spells.

Not long after, the portal opened up in midair—a portal that would take them straight to the imperial palace where they had agreed to make the exchange with the Empress.

Jonah roughly put the unconscious woman on his shoulder, and in the process, the purple bracelet around her wrist fell to the ground. He went into the portal with her, and his brother went after him before it closed behind them, like they had never been there before.

Ave’s purple bracelet remained on the forest ground.