Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 478: Missing Magic III

Chapter 478: Missing Magic III

"Take back what he deems is a curse..." Leonora echoed after her elder sister.

She stumbled backward, her knees suddenly going weak. Daphne wasn’t able to catch her in time and Leonora simply collapsed onto the floor, dazed. She looked straight ahead, her eyes glossed over as she struggled for air.

What monstrosity was this? How could he? How dare he?!

"Our magic isn’t his to take back!" Leonora suddenly yelled.

A storm of emotions painted her face with a frantic anger that bordered on desperation. Her eyes blazed with a wild fire, almost like a wild creature cornered and fighting for its escape. Lips quivering with pent-up raw fury, her entire body seemed to tremble with disbelief. Every evidence was laid out before her but Leonora couldn’t believe it.

She didn’t want to believe it.

How could her magic be gone? This was her life and blood, a gift she was born with, a gift she had known all her life. How could it be taken away just like that?

Daphne pursed her lips. She wanted to comfort Leonora but she knew there was nothing she could say or do that would help. It was as good as slapping a small palm-sized bandage over the wound of a dismembered limb. She could only clench her fists, biting her lip as she watched her younger sister slowly break down before her very eyes.

"No... It can’t be..."

Leonora shook her head as her eyes darted back and forth. Then, they finally landed on Daphne’s new obsidian ring. Something unrecognizable flashed across her eyes, highly akin to hope. She pounced for it, clutching Daphne’s fingers as though they were her last saving grace, before looking up at her older sister, her expression pleading.

Her fingers grazed over the three small silver sheen obsidian stones that were set into the silver band. Recognizing the electrifying sensation, a small smile wormed its way onto her face.

"This ring... there’s magic in this ring!" she exclaimed. "You can use this ring, can’t you?"

"I―" Daphne wanted to pull away; she wasn’t too comfortable with the rabid look in Leonora’s eyes. She now reminded Daphne of Drusilla when the latter had been driven to borderline madness.

"Try it!" Leonora commanded. "Use your magic!"

"I can’t!" Daphne tried to argue. "Atticus confiscated my stones. I can’t use magic without them!"

"Use the obsidian, then!" Leonora said. "Look at it! You’re obviously calling out to the stone."

"That’s ridiculous," Daphne said with a frown. "I have no affinity with obsidian. I―"

She stopped short when she looked down at the ring on her finger. Then, her eyes widened immediately. There was a sheen around the ring beyond the natural silver shimmer silver sheen obsidians usually had. In fact, the shine was so prominent that there was no doubt― Daphne was calling to the stone for magic.

However, she couldn’t understand for the life of her why and how. She had touched Atticus’s ring multiple times in the past — with his permission, of course — and there was never a time the stone answered her silent calls. She had tried using the obsidian ring once or twice, attempting to harness its magic just like how she playfully tried to do so with all sorts of other stones in her youth.

It never worked. So why now?

"Lift something," Leonora firmly said. "Just like how King Atticus would. Try to move something with nothing more than a thought in your head."

That was enough of a persuasion. She raised a hand at a random fallen vase that had shattered against the ground in the previous tremors, focusing on the fragments of ceramic. She took a deep breath and pictured the shards floating. It didn’t even take more than a second for the pieces to soar into the air, a silvery sheen surrounding the pieces as they slotted themselves back together to form a full vase once more.

In her shock, Daphne pulled her hand back with a gasp, and the pieces fell without her magic, breaking into multiple pieces again.

But that was enough; Leonora had already proven her suspicions.

She laughed to herself, shaking her head as she stared dead straight at the fallen pieces of the vase and the flowers that were strewn around it.

"How cruel," Leonora murmured under her breath. "He has taken all magic from this world but left you with them. In fact, you now have something even better than flames!"

Daphne could only take a step back and away from her sister as Leonora’s eyes turned red with envy. At that moment, she saw the old Leonora once more― always filled with jealousy and disdain for reasons Daphne could not fathom. That green look had been wiped clean ever since what had happened with Silas; who knew it would return this quickly?

"I need to find Atticus," Daphne muttered to no one in particular, but also everyone at once.

Her eyes darted back and forth anxiously between Leonora and Nereus before she gestured to the road ahead. For some reason, she knew where she might be able to find him.

"Nereus..." Daphne glanced at the kelpie and a look of understanding passed between them.

Nereus nodded. "Go," he said. "I’ll join you shortly."

She didn’t need to be told twice. Holding up her skirts, Daphne turned on her heel and sprinted straight for the infirmary. Nereus stayed behind, holding Leonora back as the latter’s deranged laughter tore through the hallways of the palace. Daphne tried her best to ignore it, willing the sound of that haunting laughter to leave her mind.

However, she knew it was impossible. That chilling sound would no doubt return in the form of nightmares unless Daphne was able to find a way to turn this around.

She needed to find Atticus, and quickly. Perhaps there was still a way to reverse this, and maybe she would be able to convince him. Of course, Daphne knew how foolish it was for her to even try. He might not listen― if he was going to, he wouldn’t have gone through with the ritual in the first place.

However, whatever the outcome was, she needed to find Atticus. Quick.

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