The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 169: Lifeless Hand

Chapter 169: Lifeless Hand

Mineah slumped to the ground as she started crying, her eyes glossing over as she stared helplessly at the black ground. Vulcan was attacking the barrier she had created for herself, and she didn’t know how long it would actually hold.

"You bjtch! I’ll crush and destroy you!" Vulcan cursed as it tried breaking through her barrier.

Mineah closed her eyes, still sobbing as she recalled something she talked about with her mother. According to the older woman, she failed to call out Ezekiel’s soul while Vulcan tried to attack her numerous times. Her mother’s barrier broke, so she had no choice but to escape Ezekiel’s subconscious mind with his spirit, or else Vulcan would end up not just destroying Ezekiel’s spirit, but also ending her mother’s life as well.

Her mother had advised her numerous times to retreat the moment her barrier broke, and it looked like that was exactly what was about to happen.

Mineah couldn’t help but feel helpless. She felt like shouting with all of the pent frustrations inside her. She couldn’t possibly fail this. She had to bring her brother back no matter what!

In front of her, she could hear how the barrier protecting her was starting to crack. However, she ignored it. Instead of fleeing, she slowly got back on her feet to try again.

"I won’t let you take my brother away from us!" she firmly declared as a powerful energy surged from within her body. She slowly raised her head, her fight coming back to her as she stood resolute. Unknown to her, her eyes glowed with a fusion of ice and fire as she gritted her teeth. "Ezekiel!!!"

She couldn’t... She refused to give up on her brother!

Back in the real world, Tarah watched as Mineah’s body floated into the air, a mixture of red and blue auras colors covering her body as fire and ice fought over her. The hot breeze inside the cave caused by the dragon all turned into ice, the heat replaced by the chilling cold.

Tarah’s knees weakened and she slumped to the ground. Her body suddenly convulsed, and her eyes turned completely white as she weakly murmured, "It’s slowly taking over her now... The curse is starting to envelop her body." Her eyes darted at the sleeping dragon and stated, "In order to save you... the dormant power within her was activated, triggering the curse in her body to spread and consume her and the world."

*****

In the wilderness, Nikolai stirred before he suddenly jolted awake. He was still naked, but Mineah was no longer on his side. "What happened?"

He frowned as he tried to recall the last memory he had. From what he remembered, he was making love with Mineah, but then... he passed out?

His eyes narrowed, and Nikolai quickly put on his clothes and went out of the tent. "Mine!" he called out, only to freeze when he saw Mineah sitting on the fire and roasting a rabbit.

"You’re finally awake," she greeted him with her warm smile.

He blinked and looked around. There was only the faint light of the day peeking up, but he was sure it was already noontime.

As if nothing was wrong, his wife approached him and encircled her arms around his neck. Tiptoeing up to him, she gently brushed her lips against his as she whispered, "I’m sorry, I made you pass out again. I promise that’ll be the last time I’ll be taking energy from you, Lai."

Mineah was peppering his lips and cheeks with light kisses. Despite this, the frown on his face deepened further. Something wasn’t right. Was it natural for him to pass out when he didn’t even feel himself getting weaker? His inner energy remained the same last he checked, so why would he pass out?

"It feels strange to me that I’d pass out due to such a menial thing as that, Mine," he voiced out despite how distracted he was with his wife being so sweet and touchy with him. Her soft body was currently pressed against him, and she was even hugging him tightly as if she was afraid to let him go.

"Maybe we can ask the royal physician to check on your body later. Or let’s have wizard Lurio look over you as well since he’s also a knowledgeable healer," Mineah murmured, her warm breath hitting his chest despite the fabric covering it. "He probably knows why you usually pass out whenever I take energy from you."

His expression still unchanged, he gently pushed her away, and she simply smiled at him as she said, "Come and let’s eat. I tried to go hunting while you were sleeping, and I actually got lucky enough to catch a rabbit." She then pointed at the skewer that was currently over a fire. "I started roasting it already, see?"

She then walked up to the fire where she was currently cooking their meal. Nikolai followed her, and they promptly sat beside each other. Through the silence, he couldn’t help but have this urge to ask her a few questions. In fact, he was just about to speak when Mineah suddenly fainted on him.

"Mine!"

Catching her midfall, Nikolai never felt as much fear as he was currently feeling right now. He was trembling as he carried Mineah in his arms, his form immediately shifting into mist before he traveled as fast as he could back to the encampment.

The moment he arrived at his tent, he rushed inside and gently put Mineah’s body down on the bed. "I need wizard Lurio right now!" he commanded at the nearest guard before he turned to his unconscious wife. His hands trembled as he gingerly held her lifeless hand and kissed it. "Mine... Please wake up. What’s going on?"

Before long, Lurio rushed inside the tent together with Queen Dana.

"What happened," Dana asked as she approached Mineah.

"Her hands are so cold," Nikolai murmured while kissing and rubbing her hands for warmth. "I don’t know what happened. She just passed out all of a sudden."

"Nikolai, please come with me for a while and let Wizard Lurio look at Mineah," Queen Dana suggested.

Hesitantly, Nikolai released his wife’s hand and moved away from the bed to give Wizard Lurio the space he required.

"Nikolai, let’s go. Mineah will be fine," the Queen Mother repeated. "This isn’t the first time she passed out like this."

Despite the reminders, Nikolai shook his head. Instead, he remained silent as his heart hammered inside his chest, his eyes glued to his wife as he watched wizard Lurio do his work.

"No, I won’t leave, Mother," he insisted. "I’ll stay here with my wife."

He just couldn’t do it. It felt like he would suffocate to death the moment he lost sight of his wife for even a single second. He wanted to make sure that she was fine, even if he had to stay awake forever to do it.

****

A/N: How Ezekiel’s spirit fused with his soul was intentionally not elaborated here. More details about Ezekiel and the dragon will be written in his future book. *grins* lol

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