CHAPTER 454: HAUNTING PAST

For a moment, Abrielle forgot everything, Cedric, the urgency, the danger. The picture stole all her attention. It felt as if she looked away, it would be a crime.

It was a drawing made of only black and white lines as it was drawn from memory. Each stroke touched her, the picture looked like it held high importance and important memories.

She had more important things to do, but her hands refused to let go of the picture. She was confused and didn’t understand why Aurelius had a drawn picture of her in his study.

The person in the image was a striking image of her but yet it didn’t seem like her. The way the eyes were depicted felt different. It looked like Abrielle but didn’t feel like Abrielle.

She had a lot of questions for which she could not find any answers. The frame looked very old but well-maintained. It was an old picture but the question lingered.

Who was the lady in the picture smiling sweetly?

"This isn’t the time Abrielle. Cedric is in danger. You need to get the emperor." She snapped at herself frustrated that she got distracted for a moment

She wanted to drop the picture but a part of her told her to carry it along. Abrielle ran out through the door. She recognised the garden Aurelius was in. She has been there before and without directions, Abrielle was able to find the way there.

From the entrance of the garden, she could spot the emperor and Aurelius having a serious argument. No servants were around to save themselves from being caught in the crossfire.

Abrielle didn’t hear what they were saying, there seemed to be a strong sound magic barrier covering the garden. Whatever they were arguing about was very confidential.

She didn’t want to be selfish but someone’s life was on the line. They had to help her. Her hand clutched the picture frame and she stepped into the garden. The father and son were caught up in their own world and they didn’t notice her presence.

Abrielle could feel the magic barrier easily part for her. It was strange but she didn’t have the luxury of time to know why.

Once she was inside the barrier she could hear their voice. "You are still not going to accept it when the obvious fact is before you, Father. You failed, mother and now you are failing your family once again." Aurelius’s voice was filled with emotion.

His voice was hoarse, as if he were holding back his desperate cries. The king was stunned with guilt and regret. He could not name them all. His fist clenched and he answered through his gritted teeth.

"It was beyond me, I am as confused as you are Aurelius. I loved your mother and her death equally devastated me." He admitted. His words may seem like they lack genuineness but it was the truth.

His fists were tightly clenched until they bled. Aurelius’s eyes haunted him. The last time he saw his son cry was the day he heard his mother had died. He didn’t even cry at her funeral and here he was on the brink of almost crying for a girl he barely knew.

Aurelius scoffed, "You didn’t think of the fact of how your actions affected us then."

His voice broke, and a lump formed in his throat.

"You were the crown prince. Father, you had the power to make the choice..." He paused, then glanced at the sky.

Silence boomed between them, "You could not do anything then the same way, despite being the strongest mage there is, you can’t save the one person who means the world to the daughter, whose mother you betrayed. You never deserved Bethany."

Aurelius’s words felt like a dagger going straight to the emperor’s heart. His blood dripped on the floor. Abrielle was confused about their argument. She knew she had to call their attention..

The moment felt so intense that she didn’t want to ruin it.

"I tried but this is also beyond me. The curse isn’t something I have seen before. I tried my best, but even the most powerful men are weak at times, Aurelius." He said then paused.

Aurelius’s jaw clenched, and he did not blame his father for that. He had other grievances, questions he needed answers to.

" Besides, we are not certain of the fact. It is impossible. I saw your mother’s corpse hanging from the roof. I held her cold stiff body. It makes no sense, it is impossible, Aurelius. Maybe it is just a sick prank." The emperor was exasperated.

Aurelius snorted. "Is it that you find it impossible, or the fact that you refuse to accept the truth? Mother didn’t take her life,"

" Her death, or rather disappearance, isn’t as simple as it seems. She had Abrielle, by miracle or whichever way we have no idea of. She is the baby mother had in her womb...."

Abrielle almost lost her footing; she stumbled a few steps back but held onto a nearby wall. What were they talking about?

"She is an exact replica of her mother. Maybe the gods did that to mock you, and most importantly, you can’t deny the fact that you can sense her magic core. It was what called out to me." Aurelius’s words were irrevocable evidence.

He would feel Abrielle’s magic even if it was very weak. It was the same flame passed down generations in the Caephyr family. He didn’t understand why because he was certain his mother had died with the baby

Then what else could explain the fact that there was a girl with a striking resemblance to his supposed dead mother, holding the Caephyr’s flame core? Someone was lying somewhere.

"Even if that is the case, I was too late. Cedric was already on his deathbed. Maybe if I had seen him earlier, things would have been different." Silvanius admitted. He was frustrated and didn’t know what to say.

Aurelius sighed, "Fate is making a joke out of you. You were too invested in securing a perfect match and political power; you refused to grant them an audience. I tried reaching out to you about my suspicions, but you didn’t listen."

Aurelius remembered how he even tried telling his father about the strange prince’s consort he met in Draconia. He even tried getting him to meet Abrielle and Cedric when they arrived but the emperor was adamant on playing his cards right to show he had control of the situation.

In reality, he hasn’t had an idea of the truth for 20 years now.

"You wanted to marry one daughter’s husband to another daughter, how ironic, and in the end, everything fell apart," Aurelius said on a final note.

A shaky voice finally said, unable to be a bystander anymore. "Cedric is already in his dying bed. He can’t get saved anymore." She could barely say. The picture of Bethany, Aurelius’s mother, slipped from her fingers.

She didn’t hear anything else aside from that, or rather, she heard them but was too mentally exhausted to react to anything else.

Aurelius and Silvanius finally sensed her presence. "Abrielle," Aurelius called out, confused about how to handle the situation. He took a step forward and she backed away.

"He is going to die," she cried out, the painful reality she had been denying finally sank in..

A sharp cry escaped her lips. Her hands rushed to cover her mouth and she ran out crying. Aurelius, helpless, ran away from her, but she was gone.

Abrielle ran until her legs gave up and she could move again. She collapsed outside by a lake and broke down crying.