Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 433: Chapter 433: Prelude of the Wedding [2]

Chapter 433 – Prelude of the Wedding [2]

"Me...or this bitch I am going to kill?" Esmeray asked, and her voice did not sound like that of someone making an empty threat.

No.

Her Essence was already churning, and the air around them grew deathly cold as wandering souls began to screech, releasing sounds neither Dorian nor Javiona could hear, yet both could somehow feel the atrocity carried within them.

Esmeray was truly going to kill her.

Javiona had known that the Princess wanted her dead, of course, but some part of her had still refused to believe that someone so young would genuinely go this far over something like this. Now, as Esmeray’s overwhelming killing intent locked onto her, Javiona’s heterochromatic eyes widened and a shudder ran through her body.

This girl was actually going to do it.

Unfortunately for Esmeray, Dorian was both stronger and faster.

He brought his hands together in a single violent clap.

The impact was so powerful that the air throughout the room rattled and churned, but the sound itself was irrelevant. The moment Dorian’s palms met, his control seized the blood flowing through Esmeray’s brain and violently forced it backward.

Had Esmeray been a normal human, the action would have killed her.

But she wasn’t.

And Dorian allowed his control to last for only a fraction of a second, just long enough for Esmeray’s eyes to lose focus before her entire body went limp.

She collapsed without warning, like a soldier struck dead in the middle of a battlefield.

Thud.

The dull sound of her body hitting the ground echoed through the room, and it was only then that Javiona seemed to regain her senses, blinking rapidly as she stared blankly at the unconscious Princess.

Slowly, her eyes shifted toward Dorian.

He remained standing where he had been, his arms now hanging loosely at his sides.

His hands were red. Crimson, almost as though they had been sculpted entirely from blood.

It was only while staring at him that Javiona realized she was sweating.

’By the Storm...so the stories weren’t exaggerating. These two families really are fucking crazy.’

Perhaps being imprisoned for so long had dulled her sense of danger more than she had realized.

She had been reckless. Provoking the Princess had not been her wisest decision.

And Javiona became even more aware of that fact when Dorian finally turned his crimson eyes toward her, the coldness within them belonging to something that looked human far more than it felt human.

"Next time, I advise you to learn when to shut your mouth. Alright?"

It took Javiona several seconds to even realize that he expected an answer. "...I just wanted—!"

"Stay silent."

Her voice disappeared.

Javiona froze. She didn’t move her head, only her eyes, slowly lowering them toward her mouth before horror flashed across her face.

Thin threads of blood had stitched her lips together.

"I should have done this from the beginning," the Second Born of Desdemona whispered.

And the longer he looked at her, the more Javiona could feel something deeply wrong happening inside her own body. Her blood no longer felt like something that belonged to her. It stirred beneath her skin, rebelling against its owner as though awaiting nothing more than a thought from Dorian to transform into countless spears and tear her apart from within.

The sensation was horrific.

There was something uniquely terrifying about realizing that the very blood keeping her alive could become the weapon that killed her, and for the first time since leaving the Deathless Prison, Javiona felt completely helpless.

Completely naked.

But she was experienced, and even more experienced when it came to dealing with men.

Dorian was angry. That much was obvious.

So Javiona did nothing that might anger him further. She lowered her eyes, remained still and swallowed whatever pride might have compelled her to resist.

Besides, the fact that Dorian hadn’t killed her meant her plan was still working.

She only needed to be patient.

And patience was one thing Javiona had learned very, very well during sixty-four years in that hell.

Trying to ignore the pain pulling at her stitched lips, she watched as Dorian crouched beside Esmeray and carefully took the unconscious Princess into his arms.

He sighed.

Javiona could almost imagine exactly what was going through his mind—!

And that was her last thought.

Dorian’s blood manipulation struck without warning, and darkness swallowed her consciousness.

Thud.

For a few seconds, Dorian simply stood there with Esmeray unconscious in his arms and Javiona collapsed on the floor beside him.

Then he sighed again.

"Who cursed me?"

...

"Argh." Esmeray groaned as her mind jolted awake.

She opened her eyes, confused, and looked around.

She was inside Dorian’s room, she realized, and that alone made everything that had happened come rushing back.

The Princess tried to bolt to her feet...only to fail.

She looked down and realized she was chained to the bed, both arms and legs, barely able to move.

Her anger reached a whole new level as she screamed, eyes ferocious, "Dorian! You fucking—!"

"I am right here." Dorian cut her off. He sat on a chair in front of the bed, legs crossed, watching her struggle with her restraints. "And don’t bother. You won’t get out of it."

"Now you’re chaining me?" Esmeray said incredulously. "All for a whore? Where even is that whore?"

"You—!"

"I said where the fuck is she! You think you can keep her from me? That you can keep me here? I am the fucking princess of this kingdom, Dorian. You can’t do any of this unless you want to learn why we are the rulers of this Kingdom."

"Only because we aren’t interested in ruling a small kingdom." Dorian retorted sharply, his eyes narrowing.

Uncrossing his legs, he leaned forward in his chair, staring at Esmeray as she desperately tried to free herself. "You tend to think we are who we are because of you Hoods backing us."

"It’s the truth."

"If that’s what you think, then so be it." Dorian shrugged, unwilling to debate their two families’ strength. "But you are getting terribly irritating with all the blackmail you’ve been pulling, Esmeray."

As he spoke, blood began to weave out of his body like threads and gather behind him.

An oppressive aura descended on the room, and the threads of blood began to weave between each other as if an invisible puppeteer were doing a marvelous job.

Soon, the body of a woman was formed from the blood: long crimson hair like a carpet of blood, stitched eyes, and a stitched mouth that forcefully opened into a bloody grin, showing chainsaw-like teeth.

Esmeray’s heart skipped a beat, and the blood inside her began to rush in all directions, as if her own blood wanted to leave her body and join Dorian.

"I am stronger than you." Dorian spoke, or rather, the blood woman behind him spoke.

The voice was hollow, devoid of something no one could explain but everyone recognized instinctively: a soul.

"If you are counting on the fact that you are a Hood and I can’t touch you, you might be right. But I can do much worse things that won’t leave a single wound on your body." Dorian continued. "Sometimes I think you are far too comfortable with me, because I am your cousin."

He interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on them.

"And looking at me as your cousin makes you forget that I, Esmeray, am Dorian Desdemona. I am the Patron of Bliss. I am the Innkeeper." The voice of the blood woman went deeper, colder, more monstrous. "I am the Slaver of Lust."

Esmeray was coughing, barely able to breathe. Yet her face, despite all the fear and horror, remained ridiculously stubborn as she growled at Dorian.

"You can’t kill me," she said. "And you won’t."

"You’re right," Dorian admitted. "But I can say fuck you and tell you to go ahead and tell everyone. That’s the only thing you have on me, isn’t it? The fact that you know I’m doing something I don’t want my family to find out about. But what if I tell them myself? What if I decide to free myself from all this psychological and emotional blackmail you keep using to keep me beside you?"

Esmeray fell silent for a moment, staring at him with wide eyes. "You...wouldn’t dare."

"I would, Esmeray." The Desdemona said with utmost seriousness, his aura rising higher and higher. "I’d rather admit what I’ve done than live like this with you. It will hurt, but I trust my siblings to still consider me their brother, even if they’re disappointed. Eventually, I will do everything to earn their respect back. But that will be the absolute end of you and me. And if after that you dare come to me, I will fucking kill you."

The Princess of Hood didn’t say anything else. Her lips were shaking as she realized the dreadful situation she was in.

After a moment of tense silence, she managed, "If you wish," she growled. "Do it. Tell them everything. But I assure you I will kill that woman either way. I have sworn it, Dorian."

"Even if she could be the one to deliver you from this curse?"

"You are mine, Dorian." Esmeray said, eyes filled with madness. "If I can’t have you, no one will. You will have to kill me to stop me from killing every fucking woman you’re with. So save us the trouble and kill me now."

Dorian understood something chilling at that moment. "We both want something different," he said. "And neither of us can have what we want without the other suffering for it."

"You have no business wanting that whore."

"I want you healed, and my peace of mind. Not her."

"You will find your peace of mind with me."

"With...you?" Dorian looked at her with scorn.

"Yes." Esmeray said with conviction. "Now free me of these shackles and tell me where that bitch is. Then go tell everyone, and kill me after I kill her. I don’t care. This life, Dorian, I am either going to live it with you or against you. Choose."

’This is truly impossible.’ Dorian thought, and for the nth time wondered just who had cursed him.

Was this the curse of committing incest for power?

The heaviness of the mind? The lack of peace? The constant problems and struggles? The mental breakdowns?

What was worse than this? Worse than living with fear, panic and anger poisoning your heart every single second?

There was nothing worse. But Dorian knew this was the choice he had made for power.

A choice that, if he wanted out of it, would require destroying the relationship between the Hoods and the Desdemona by killing Esmeray, or something even worse.

That was something his mother, or even Cassius, would never forgive him for.

In an instant, Dorian knew he was trapped. Trapped by his own past decision, and the regret was killing him from the inside.

He took a breath, looking at Esmeray, and said with a tiredness that came from the depths of his soul, "At this rate, I will do something horrible, Esmeray. Do you really want to do this?"

"You and I." Esmeray said, looking at Dorian, understanding what he was going through. Yet at the same time, she couldn’t let him go.

This was no longer simply about the curse.

Esmeray loved Dorian. No. It was more than love. She was obsessed with him, and didn’t know whether it was the effect of their Dual Cultivation or herself.

It didn’t matter.

It truly didn’t.

Only one thing mattered at that instant, and even though it hurt her to see him like this, she had to obtain it. "We are together," she said. "You promised me. And my parents said nothing about our relationship. Your family—if telling them might help you, then do it. I will convince them. I will show them that we are going to be fine."

"Are we?"

"If you would fucking stop running away from me, then yes! We can!" she cried out suddenly. "I am the only one trying to keep this relationship together, and you’re making me look like a crazy woman! How is it so difficult to realize that I want us together?"

"How is it so difficult to realize that I don’t?"

"Because of the incest?"

"Yes. And because you are fucking crazy."

"Poor you." Esmeray hissed. "But we are both crazy."

Both of them understood this talk was going nowhere. One of them needed to give in, but neither wanted to.

But Dorian had one more thing to consider. Cassius’s wedding was in five days, and he couldn’t afford any problems on that day.

So, straightening his heart, jaw clenched,

"I hate you, Esmeray." Dorian said sincerely. "But I have an important wedding to attend. So to avoid risking anything, let’s make a deal."

His eyes went cold, and the blood woman forcefully opened her stitched eyes.

"If you refuse, I might as well tell you fuck you, and your whole fucking family. Except my mother."

"I am listening," she said. "But first," she looked at the chains, "get these off me."

Dorian looked at her blankly, then said, "No. Bitch."

—End of Chapter 433—