Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 319: Blood II

Chapter 319: Blood II

"More than enough," Daphne breathed out with relief. Now that the supply of blood was all but certain, she felt new hope. Nereus could be saved!

With renewed determination, she focused on the next chain. Somehow, the blood from the dead woman was a lot easier to control than Nereus’s own blood. If Daphne had the time, she would gladly ponder on possible reasons for such a difference, but since she was tired and pressed for time, she merely decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and treat it as an unprecedented blessing.

Meanwhile, Zephyr kept a close eye on the door, occasionally turning to look at Nereus, who was already unconscious, his face paper-pale. Zephyr knew he talked a lot of shit about that stupid water horse, but he didn’t actually want him to die!

"Oi, you kelpie bastard. You’d better live!" Zephyr said warningly. "Or I’ll dump a whole bunch of meat right at your grave. Don’t test me!"

Was it his imagination, or did Nereus twitch irritably at that statement? Emboldened by this response, Zephyr continued to talk nonsense into Nereus’s ears. Daphne let him since she knew that this was merely Zephyr’s way of showing his worry.

Also, Nereus would never die with Zephyr’s voice in his ear, giving terrible suggestions. Sheer spite and distaste would keep him alive.

Soon, Daphne managed to free Nereus from the three remaining chains, without Zephyr needing to rip off the leg of another dead body. Small mercies. Daphne nearly slumped to the floor in exhaustion.

She said a mental prayer for the poor woman, whose blood was used to free Nereus from his shackles. When she got out of there, she would make sure Alistair would face punishment for his actions against innocents.

"Alright, time to go," she whispered victoriously, trying to grab Nereus carefully so that she wouldn’t aggravate his injuries.

Nereus groaned, low and painful like a wounded animal. Daphne’s heart ached for him.

"Don’t worry, Nereus, we’re getting you out of here," Daphne said.

"I’ll carry him," Zephyr offered worriedly."Daphne, you’ll walk behind me. You look dead on your feet."

Daphne looked a lot paler than when she first started freeing Nereus; there was sweat beading down her temples and her breath was coming out in quick pants. Clearly, she had used too much energy to free him, and he knew she wouldn’t be able to support Nereus’s dead weight since he was a lot taller than her.

"Can you manage?" Daphne asked, and Zephyr responded with a cheerful grin to lighten the somber mood.

"Of course! He’s so light that he weighs practically nothing in my arms," Nereus boasted and was surprised to find out it was true. He carried Nereus experimentally and found him ridiculously light.

"See, this is what happens when you eat vegetables only," Zephyr scolded with no real heat behind his words. "You end up light as a feather. I would know. I have many feathers."

Nereus’s eyelashes fluttered and he twitched in Zephyr’s arms, as though Zephyr personally offended him with his words. Daphne knew that if he had enough strength, Nereus would have easily smacked Zephyr in the face.

At least he was now conscious enough to respond. Daphne was heartened at the mild improvement.

The three of them quickly made their way out through the tunnels and up the long stone staircase. It was completely deserted, and Daphne held out hope that perhaps the entire residence was abandoned― Alistair might have gotten what he came for and simply decided to let Nereus die alone with his wounds.

However, fate was not that kind.

Just as they were emerging from the secret passage, Zephyr caught the scent of other humans. Before he could turn around and yell a warning to Daphne, he was greeted with a blast of fire aimed straight at his face!

"Shit! We’ve been found out!" Zephyr cursed as fireballs began to rain on him. "Daphne, be careful!"

Thankfully, his wings had instinctively curled in front to protect Nereus from the worst of the blast. He had no doubt that if it hit him, all their earlier efforts to save him would be in vain.

"I knew my troublesome little sister would be here!" Alistair snarled triumphantly, a manic glee in his eyes as he caught sight of Daphne’s ashen face behind that irritating bird’s shoulder.

As expected, the lure worked perfectly. He didn’t know how they had managed to break him out of the obsidian chains but Alistair did not care. Once he captured her and delivered her to Eugene Attonson, he would be rid of her once and for all, and he would have his complete hand back.

That very thought was enough to power him. He roared, creating a wall of fire to cage the three of them on one end. If they tried to flee into the tunnels, he would simply wait them out. There was nothing in the dungeons they could use.

"Daphne, what are we going to do?" Zephyr took a wary step back, making sure to shield Daphne from the worst of the heat. "Do you want to go back down?

Daphne’s mind whirled. With her weakened powers, there was no way she could take on Atticus, but going down was also a dead end. They risked being caved inside if Alistair decided to destroy the path, and if Alistair sent fire down the tunnels, they would be cooked alive.

"No, if we go down we’ll be trapped for good," Daphne said grimly. "We have to fight our way out. I’ll distract him. Zephyr, when you get the chance, smash through the ceiling and get us out of here!"

Zephyr didn’t like that plan one bit, but he couldn’t think of a better solution. If he were to be the one fighting Alistair, Daphne would have to carry Nereus― and if he got injured, there was no way they would be able to fly out of the estate.

"Alright, but you must be careful!" Zephyr said warningly, looking for his chance. There was a window in the room, and that was the best escape route in his eyes.

Unfortunately, it was behind Alistair’s back. They would have to make it past him to have a chance at escape.

Daphne gave Zephyr a nod before she turned to yell at Alistair, her garnets glowing an angry red. She pushed the flames aside and leaped through, using his own flames against him.

"Alistair, you won’t get away with this!"

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