Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 196: Getting caught

Chapter 196: Getting caught

Ave didn’t know for how long she was in that room with the dead body, but she didn’t allow herself to drift into the sleep that was threatening to take over her as the minutes ticked by and turned to hours. The sun had set long ago, and she sat in one position inside the dark room without moving nor adjusting her legs that were hurting from the long hours she had been sitting for. Her eyes burned from how much she kept staring at the body, willing some miracle would happen and the girl would wake up.

But no matter how much she wished for a miracle, nothing happened; the body remained unmoving and completely still. Though Ave could no longer see her face because of the darkness, she could make out the outline of the body. The sight was unsettling, and the guilt that stabbed at her heart made her wish she could turn back time and avoid hitting her with the vase.

Ave’s emotions were hanging on a thin thread, and she knew if she were to let them out, her guilt and fear might cloud her mind and make her get caught in the room with the body. She had remained as still as possible when some of the palace guards had decided to wander over to this part of the palace to eat their dinner and talk about their experience with some of the palace maids they sneaked to the forest to have a few pleasure-filled moments.

It seemed they were so comfortable that minutes had passed by, and they still remained there, discussing and laughing. This part of the palace was deserted because the people here seemed to believe wherever Lyria had stayed before her death was cursed; however, to the guards, it was the most private place they could talk and eat without the royals seeing them slacking.

It was a surprise an alarm hadn’t gone off about the princess missing, because if it had, these guards wouldn’t be slacking here talking about their personal lives to each other; they would be searching the entire palace like when the ambassador had gone missing to look for her. And Ave knew that would surely happen anytime soon, and before it did, she needed to be far away from here.

Today was one of the most nerve-wracking days of her life. She hadn’t only realized this was where she belonged and that her real mother was a lovely, beautiful woman, and that she had a brother who would have doted upon her if he was alive, but she had also watched them all die before her eyes while she’d also committed a crime of taking another life.

Ave was still sitting on the floor, hoping the men outside would leave when she heard the loud sounds of drums coming from outside. The sound was so loud that the guards sitting outside in the hallway got up to their feet in a hurry as they said,

"The sound of the alarm!" One of them cried out in alarm as they all began to curse under their breath before hurrying away, their footsteps fading away in the silent hallway.

And Ave, who had been hoping no one would notice the princess was missing before she could leave this room, leapt to her feet at the alarm drums. The drums were only sounded when something important had happened, and she knew without a doubt the royals had finally realized Madeline was missing. It had been more than six hours since she had been here with the princess’s dead body. They must have sounded the alarms to alert the guards to the missing person!

Without hesitation, Ave blindly ran towards the door to open it and flee the scene before the search would begin, and they would see her here. However, the moment she reached the door and gripped the knob, she froze in place and stepped away from it when she noticed a shadow outside the door that blocked the light spilling in from the corridor from the gap under the door. Someone was outside; she could feel it and see it.

The fact that she hadn’t heard footsteps made her blood run cold as she stepped away. She heard the sound of the doorknob twisting as the person intended to open the door, and when it didn’t open, she was about to sigh in relief when she heard the lock from the inside click.

A cold dread clawed up her spine, rooting her to the spot as her pulse thundered in her ears, every instinct screaming at her to hide when the door unlocked—but her legs refused to move when it began to open. Due to Madeline’s body at the door, it couldn’t open that much, but the person squeezed through the small open gap and walked into the room.

The room was so dark Ave couldn’t make out who it was, and she was certain the person couldn’t also see her. Thus, she began to take backward steps when the person stood where they were at the front, close to Madeline’s body. From the tall shadow, she was certain it was a man, and from the...

Ave stood dead in her tracks as she noticed something she hadn’t noticed when the man first came in due to her terror. And before she could think about doing anything else after noticing it, the room’s chandelier suddenly came on by itself, illuminating the darkened room. But because she had been sitting in the dark for hours, the sudden light made her instinctively shut her eyes for a moment, and by the time she opened them, the man had walked up to her, standing now in front of her.

Ave felt different emotions bubble up her throat as she stared at him. He still wore his dark war armor that clutched to his large muscled form, his face was covered in dried blood, and his flame-like eyes bored intensely down at her. She saw different emotions pass through his eyes as he noticed how relieved she was to see him.

Before he could react or say anything, Ave flung herself into his arms without a care that he was still covered with the enemies’ blood and that his armor would bruise her if she wasn’t careful. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he wordlessly hugged her waist and lifted her swiftly off her feet, pressing his head into the crook of her neck, pressing his warm lips against her skin and inhaling her scent all at once.

"I missed you terribly, my love," he muttered, his words quiet, almost like a growl, the deep hoarse tone betraying his emotions as he tightened his arms around her like he wanted to merge their bodies together right at that moment.

"Oh my God, Lucian...!" She cried out, burying her head into his neck as she ran her fingers into his messy, sticky hair and then his neck like she couldn’t believe he was here. She had never thought he would return at this moment, not to mention she had believed he was the one who had been hit by the witch’s spell. No words could describe the happiness and the relief she felt at the sight of him right now.

Ave didn’t even realize she was crying until she felt his hand begin to move up and down her spine in a comforting gesture as he whispered softly, "Shh. It’s okay, I am here now, my love. I am here," he repeated as he stroked her hair and breathed in her scent, which he had missed so terribly for the past weeks he was away from her in a battle so intense he had thought he would die, but the thought of her being at home had fueled his strength and made him fight vicious dark witches to come back alive, to his wife, to the woman he wished to spend his life with.

Though he hadn’t thought she would miss him while he was gone, judging from the fact that the last time they had spoken, she had rejected him and had been silent on their way back to the palace before they got assassinated, and he’d used some witch’s old tricks to make her forget what had happened with the assassins, he hadn’t expected her to jump into his arms like this.

Lucian smiled as he moved his arm to hold her properly, only for his smile to fall away when he heard her small sharp inhale and felt the stickiness at the side of her stomach. It was then that he realized, apart from the blood of another person in the room, who was probably dead, his wife was also injured and was bleeding.

Without hesitation, he muttered a curse and set her down to her feet before he looked down at the side and saw her light dress was covered in blood. Lucian’s eyes didn’t only darken, they flashed like the devil’s flames as he reached out and swiftly tore away the fabric of her dress from the waist to see the wound. And when his eyes fell on the ugly wound that was still bleeding, Ave thought she saw smoke come out from his ears and nose.

"Who did this to you?" he demanded coolly as he looked up to her face, where her blue eyes were filling up with tears again.