CHAPTER 304: WITH THORNS-I

Blood? Her blood?

Ariel’s green eyes narrowed as she spotted the vial Alice had just received. The deep crimson inside gleamed with a viscosity too familiar to mistake. Her heart clenched. She hadn’t imagined it, Alice was holding a flask of her blood. And Morpheus hadn’t said a word.

No deflection. No denial. Just that haunting, telling silence that speaks volume than any words could.

If that was her blood... and if Morpheus had claimed he was seeking a substitute... then the truth was far more chilling. The real prize, what he truly wanted, was Arabella’s blood.

So it’s true, she thought bitterly. His goal has always been Arabella. Her power... her blood. A flicker of movement then startled her. Alice turned her head to the left.Toward her.

For a breathless moment, Ariel froze. The witch’s gaze was sharp, too sharp, as if she could see straight through walls, causing her stomach to twist. No.

She can’t see you. She’s just guessing. Ariel told herself but cold sweats began to form over her forehead, making her to gulp in fear.

Still, Ariel ducked lower, heart hammering as she pressed herself behind the brick stone. It felt ridiculous to hide like a child, but the fear was real. Then, Alice’s eyes slid back to Morpheus.

"But this is such a small amount," she mused, twirling the flask like it was perfume. "If I could be greedy and ask for more... could you fetch me, say, three glasses of it next time?"

Morpheus exhaled, a long breath escaping through clenched teeth. "It’s dangerous. We take too much, we risk killing her."

Alice raised an amused brow. "Oh?" she lilted. "I thought you didn’t care about her. Yet here you are, worried about her well being. Could it be... somewhere in that dried up husk you call a heart, you actually care for her?"

Ariel frowned. She could hear the bait in Alice’s voice, and yet, something twisted inside her all the same. The idea that Morpheus might care would have softened her, once. But now? After what she’d just heard? She didn’t buy it.

He was too full of secrets- of goals too large, and lies too smooth.

And then his voice came, cold and clean as ice.

"I don’t care about her."

The words were precise and firm, measured to hurt someone straight to the heart and Ariel didn’t flinch. She had expected it, expected that everything Morpheus had said was lies and the teachings he taught her was just to be on her good side, that everything about him were lies and fake.

But she was still impressed by the absolute lack of hesitation. So much so that she had to press her palm against the stone beside her, steadying the furious sting in her chest. Impressed

, yes. Impressed she uses as another word for furious. So much so that she wished she could step out and slap him clean across the face.

"What about the sister then?" Alice continued to speak, "You told me that it won’t be long before you bring her to the castle? It’s been quite a long time."

"If you stick to the plan, it wouldn’t take more time," said Morpheus as he traced his finger on the new potions, "But if you keep doing things according to your whims, then we would only lose more precious time."

"Ah so you’re warning me not to play around," chuckled Alice. "But what could I do? They’re really fun to play with. Especially that vampire Queen they have? She’s so foolish that it’s so fun to watch her! She told me to kill the Crown Prince but I thought of a better way to torture him by killing his sister instead and that human queen beamed with such wide smile."

"Anyway," Alice then rolled her eyes as she saw how disinterested Morpheus was by the words she had said. "The next blood moon is in a few months. It won’t be long but that would also be the last chance you have if you wish to get out of this castle and break the curse for good. You also know just how much this moment matters to you, so I hope you don’t get swept by your emotions and instead care for those girls... after all we both know just how weak you are when it comes to women."

Morpheus let out a faint scoff, his eyes crescent as he pulled a smile, "That won’t happen. It won’t ever happen again. Especially not to the girls that share her power."

Alice watched his face and reached out her hand. After cupping his cheeks and pulling her closer, she then leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheeks. Morpheus, didn’t seem any bothered but Alice was giggling, as if she had done it just to tease Morpheus rather than to show her affection.

She then reached out and ruffled his hair with mock affection. "So when the time comes for me to kill the sisters," she said sweetly, "promise you won’t stop me just because you suddenly feel bad for them?"

Morpheus stared at her, unmoved. His voice came quiet but firm, "I don’t make promises to a witch."

He shoved her hand away, rubbing the side of his cheek as though trying to erase the trace of her touch. Then he stood, turning toward the door.

"And whatever fantasy you have of me caring for her... protecting her? That’s never going to happen."

Behind the walls, Ariel stiffened. Her fists clenched at her sides, jaw tight. She had heard enough.

She no longer needed to wonder who the true enemy was.

It was never the vampires in the castle.

It was them.

Ariel who had discern the enemies in front of her went back to her room but this time she has a plan. By the next morning when she walked into the dining table to eat her breakfast with Morpheus, she had a soft smile on her lips, her eyes and expression was trained to look as gentle as a sheep.

She also reached out to Morpheus’s hands, her beaming smile so innocent that Morpheus’s eyes were stunned as he found himself drowned by Ariel’s sincere air.

"Morpheus, would you like to walk around the garden with me?"