Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife-Chapter 265: Gone

Seraphina didn’t look up from what she was doing as she replied, "When I was a young lass, my Pa used to lock me in my chamber because I wanted a different life than the one he chose for me. I would sneak out of the palace to see the world outside and meet a lad I had befriended. He was a blacksmith’s son with many skills up his sleeves. He taught me how to unlock all sorts of locks..." Her voice trailed off, and though Ave could only see her profile, she noticed the sadness that flickered across her expression as she spoke of her youth.

"What happened to him?" Ave asked curiously, finding it hard to believe that a woman like the Fourth Consort—who was so adamantly against her children associating with anyone of lower status—could have once been friends with a blacksmith’s son and even sneaked out to meet him.

Seraphina smiled bitterly without losing concentration on what she was doing. "He was killed by my Pa when he discovered I had been sneaking out to meet him. The blacksmith’s entire family was slaughtered right in front of my eyes. That was when I learned never to associate with those of lower status—they lack the power to defend themselves. We were never meant to coexist," she said with a conviction that made Ave finally understand the root of the woman’s misguided beliefs about the lower classes, and also why she was so determined to make sure her kids don’t lower themselves.

Ave wanted to ask her another question when she heard the click of the lock on her ankles come unlocked. "I got this one as well." Seraphina smiled proudly as she looked toward Ave.

Ave thanked the woman and hurriedly stood up on her feet, momentarily forgetting her injured thighs until pain shot up her body and she fell back on the bed with a groan. She couldn’t afford to waste time anymore now that she knew Lucian might invade the palace at any time.

"Lean on me for support," Seraphina said as she moved to put Ave’s arm around her neck and the other around her waist. "We have to leave. When I went to get the pin, Edward had recovered from his sickness and I saw him ordering his guards to go to the blacksmith in the village to collect some newly invented torture tools. He plans to come to you first thing tomorrow morning."

Ave was surprised to hear that Edward had been sick when he left her and was coughing out blood, but he had recovered now. She put the pieces together and realized he must have been sick from her blood when he spat it out and said it was tainted. Now that he had recovered, he would return with vengeance to torture her more.

"Let’s go," Ave urged as the fourth consort supported half her weight on her shoulder, guiding her quickly out of the room.

Ave let the woman take the lead, watching as she turned a flower vase on a wall stand. The wall shifted, parting to reveal a hidden, narrow passage that led into a dark tunnel. No one would have known a place like this existed within the walls, and it made her jaw drop in surprised disbelief.

"I learned of it the first time I came into this palace as the fourth consort," Seraphina told her when she noticed her questioning eyes. They walked into the passage at the same time they heard approaching, echoing hurried footsteps. The wall closed behind them and they continued walking down the dark path without a moment of hesitation.

Seraphina seemed to know her way in the dark because she walked Ave through it with the ease of someone who had done it many times before. No wonder her twins were good at sneaking around to meet the men they loved; they’d taken after their mother, Ave thought as she ignored the throbbing and sharp pains on her thighs and how it felt uncomfortable with every movement and the graze of her chemise against it.

When they came out of the other side, Ave realized they walked directly into the quarters of the fourth consort.

"What do you plan to do now?" Seraphina asked worriedly. "We can’t leave the premises with so many guards outside."

"We are not leaving. We are going to make ourselves scarce until my husband and his men arrive." Ave told the woman her plans and how she intended not to allow herself to get caught before Lucian arrived.

She could feel he was getting closer to her, and if she could make herself hide until he arrived, it would be good. She could have suggested they hide in the dark path in the walls, but one could suffocate to death with no air there—not to mention she had no idea when her husband would arrive. He could come tomorrow or even the day after, and if the men didn’t find them before then, they would probably die from lack of air in that narrow space.

"Where is Thalia? We should find her and find a place to hide away before he comes," Ave said as they resumed walking down the quiet halls of the deserted quarters that had been abandoned after the fourth consort was disposed of and reduced to the position of a handmaid.

"Thalia is not here," Seraphina said gravely.

"What? Where is she?" Ave asked, taken aback.

---

Elara slammed her fist on the table, angry and displeased about the news she was hearing from her brother. "If we can’t use her blood to wake them up, then we are left with no choice but to force her into using her powers to wake them."

She had been happy that even though Selene had no idea how to use her powers to unseal the spell in the night creatures’ world, her blood was enough for them. All they had to do was take as much as they needed from her and put it against the spell barrier, and once it was opened, they’d go around feeding it to their people until they awakened them all. But now everything was ruined after the news she heard from her brother.

She was tainted by that bastard. There was no way they could feed such blood to their father and the rest of their people, even if they managed to open the spell barrier around their world. It would kill them rather than wake them!

"The spell the witch brothers cast to seal her powers will disappear by midnight. By tomorrow, after we kill the bastard, I intend to force her to unseal our people, even if it means I’d have to threaten her with what she carries inside her. The bastard is closing in on us; he will soon come for her, and we need to plan everything accordingly before his arrival," Edward remarked as he gulped down a glass of clean witch blood to wash down the tainted blood he had tasted from that wench that had almost killed him.

"Your plans better not fail this time around, Edward. If we fail to kill the bastard when he arrives, you know the outcome. It was your idea to use Selene as bait to get to him. We just need him to bring his guard down and be vulnerable; one shot of the arrow to his chest coated with her blood would kill him," Elara said as she stood up from her chair.

She had looked forward to this for so long that the waiting was killing her now. Her men were double the ones the second prince had, and she had a feeling victory was on their side for as long as Selene was in their custody now.

He would never act recklessly knowing the life of the woman he loved was in her hands. She should have used Selene to get him from the start had she known he still loved her, but the boy had been smart to hide his feelings. If it weren’t for the fact that he took her with him when leaving the palace, Elara would have never known he cared for her. Selene was the key to many of her problems.

After killing Lucian, she would use Selene to get her complete family back and make the night creatures roam freely in the human world. Everything would fall as planned, and then she would kill Selene. Her son would be devastated at her death as he’d planned to use her and keep her for himself after she was done, but she refused to keep a woman who could destroy things for her alive in this world. She would rather kill her, and very soon, her son would come to terms with the fact that this Selene was not the one he had once loved, like he said.

"Trust me, sister, this plan will work out. I have given the men the blood to put on their weapons. All we need is to bring him to his knees with Selene, and Selene is—" he didn’t get to finish his words when Caelan barged into the chamber looking furious and slightly disoriented.

"Where the hell did you take my woman? Did you change her room without my knowledge?" he demanded from his mother as he scowled at his uncle. He had gone there to pay her a visit and feed her dinner to give her strength, only to walk into an empty room. There was no way she could escape, and he’d assumed his uncle had talked his mother into changing her room so he wouldn’t see her again.

Elara frowned in confusion as she looked at her furious son. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Caelan scoffed to his mother’s face. "Your brother changed her room! Ask him where he changed her to because my men searched the rooms in that quarter and couldn’t find her in any of them!"

Elara turned to glare at her brother, and Edward hurriedly leapt to his feet. "I did no such thing! Perhaps you went to the wrong room," he said, knowing there was no way Selene would have escaped such chains because she couldn’t use her powers, and no one would dare release her unless they wished to die.

"I didn’t go to the wrong room, damn you. She wasn’t there, the chains were unlocked, and the door was left ajar!" he gritted through clenched teeth. He was superior to his uncle; he was the Emperor, and he would not allow Edward or anybody to tell him what to do or think he was a fool.

"You will watch your tongue when you speak to me, young man," Edward rebuked furiously, not liking how his nephew was talking to him. And he blamed no one but his sister for the way she brought the boy up.

Caelan was about to talk back when Elara interjected. "Enough of you two. Edward, go and see for yourself what Caelan is talking about, and I hope as hell she has not escaped and he’d only gone into the wrong room, because Lord help you if she has."

Edward was positive his stupid nephew had checked the wrong room, thus he didn’t leave the room in a hurry and walked at his own pace. There was no way Selene would escape without the keys. He was the only one with the keys, and he could feel them in his pocket as he walked now.

However, Edward was dumbfounded when he arrived at the chamber and found it empty just as Caelan had said. "Hell be damned!" He muttered.