Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 204: Distress

Chapter 204: Distress

Ave didn’t bother to go to the main palace even though the twin Princesses had invited her, saying there would be a little celebration for the witch’s death. They also wanted to go and see their brother to take a look at Thalia, who was with him. Ave would have gone with them when they told her they wanted to check on the sick prince and the elder princess, but Zane had told her to return to the doomed palace for her own good unless she wanted to get questioned like everyone else about the disappearance of the royal guest.

With everything that was going on, the main palace was no longer a place she wanted to be anymore. She’d listened to Zane and rode back to the doomed palace straight away. She had expected to find Lucian at home since he had left the execution center before her, but when she went in and asked Lydia about him, she was told,

"His Highness came back to clean up and change his attire before he left again in a hurry."

Ave frowned as she wondered where he went again. That man needed a lot of rest, and she didn’t like that he wasn’t getting it. He wasn’t a working machine for those heartless royals but a human. He had just come back from a war they fought for weeks, and yet they weren’t giving him even a complete day of rest. If she wasn’t avoiding any complications that might lead someone to get suspicious of her, she would have personally gone to the Emperor to talk to him about this. He wasn’t being fair to her husband, and someone needed to tell him that.

Ave gritted her teeth in annoyance as she was mad at the Emperor. He was as useless as a rock. Even a rock wasn’t as useless as that man who allowed his wife to control him like that. Elara was no different from a witch herself. She was a sorceress in the history books of the future, and Ave was certain she had many secrets. If only she had taken the time to study history when she was in the modern world, she would have learned a lot of things to use against the woman. She would have known her secrets and helped Lucian in exposing her.

Ave’s head was filled with countless thoughts as she made her way toward Lucian’s room, where she had just learned that he had ordered the servants to move her things, as they would now be sharing a room. Even though it wasn’t common in this era for married couples to share a room, they usually had separate chambers, and when the husband needed his wife, he sent for her or went to her. She had learned this in a book she randomly picked from the library and read when Lucian was gone for war, and she needed distractions.

Ave changed her dress and wore the magic dress. She thought about a simple dress that didn’t need a corset before she made her way back to the kitchen. She didn’t know why she came there, but she needed to do something before she began to dwell on thoughts that might get her into trouble if she followed them. She was going to cook lunch for Lucian, she decided.

He didn’t get to eat her cooking that day because he wasn’t here, and now that he was, she would cook something special for him.

"My lady, what brings you to the kitchen?" asked the head cook, who noticed her looking around the pots section. He had come to like her after the day she cooked something unique in the kitchen and even shared the recipe with him. Before that day, he used to despise her and anything to do with her because of the way she treated the servants and the second prince. She had been a self-centered, selfish woman with an arrogance that made him wish he could poison her—until recently.

Ave didn’t even look at him as she bent down and picked up a pan. She replied, "I want to cook for my husband. Where do you store the olive oil? I need it," she told him absentmindedly as she began to pull out the things she needed without turning to see the astonished look on the elder man’s face when she called the prince her husband.

Were the rumors going around the doomed palace true? The man wondered. He had overheard many of the servants whispering about how they noticed the marriage cut around her wrist weeks ago and that the second prince had ordered them to move her things to his chamber under Lord Zane’s inspection. His chamber, where no one could go because he didn’t like anyone in his space, but he had suddenly ordered such a thing. And now the lady had said "husband." It could only mean that they had remarried again...

"Your Highness, let me help you with that!" The head cook went forward and hurriedly helped her drag out the gallon of olive oil, and for a moment, she looked taken aback and glanced at the kitchen entrance before she turned to him with a frown and asked,

"Your Highness? Is the second prince back?" She asked, as she knew he was the only "Your Highness" in this palace. But the elder man smiled at her and shook his head,

"No. I was talking to you, Your Highness," he bowed his head curtly, and Ave arched a brow as realization dawned on her. By marrying Lucian, her princess title had been restored.

Ave spent her time cooking in the kitchen with Lydia and the head cook, who took note of what she was making. She was surprised how welcoming the man became and even told her stories of his hometown before he was picked as a cook in this palace. With such distraction, Ave had no time to dwell on the thoughts of the person she had killed yesterday. She buried herself in making snacks and different things for Lucian to impress him after what he’d done for her today at the exacution center.

By the time she was done, she was surprised to see that the sun was setting already. However, Lucian wasn’t back yet. She paced the hallways that led to the entrance door, waiting for him and craning her neck whenever she heard movement outside to see if it was him, but it wasn’t.

She was never the kind to get this paranoid about things, but she was now. He had killed that woman when Zane had said a witch could not kill another unless they were a different kind of witch. Not to mention the Emperor had looked so displeased when Lucian did it. What if he was punished for it afterward? Or perhaps he was celebrating with the other royals for the success of killing the witches?

Sighing silently, she placed her hands on her hips and looked down. She didn’t know how she was supposed to pass her time in this era now that she knew she belonged here. It seemed everything that had been happening had begun to make her worry too much about things she had no control over. If only there was a book to study to teach her how to use her powers and understand more about who she was and what she could do.

She wanted to help in bringing down the Empress and giving Lucian the chance to sit on the throne. But now that she had killed Madeline, she had killed his way to having the throne because the Banzai kingdom had threatened to cut ties with the Pendragon if their princess wasn’t found. Moreover, the Emperor had only agreed to Lucian being in line if he married Madeline.

It seemed she wasn’t helping him in any way but had instead caused him so many setbacks. Even if Chen and Nazia agreed to support him, it wouldn’t be enough to overtake Elara’s supporters. And if Caelan were to sit on the throne, Lucian and everyone else would be cast away while she would become his sex slave, as the bastard had promised. The thought of it made her shudder.

Unable to control the train of her thoughts, Ave went back inside their room and threw herself on the bed. She stared blankly at the ceiling as she absentmindedly swayed her hand in the air. She didn’t realize when she fell asleep there.

---

Lucian returned to the doomed palace close to midnight. He went to the stables and put his horse away himself, as Hugo and his son must have left at this time of the night. When he walked up to the palace entrance, he saw Zane walking up in his night robe to meet him halfway.

"How did it go?" Zane asked impatiently as he came to stand before Lucian, who ran his fingers through his hair.

"Not as well as I planned, but everything is set. Prince Talinor has agreed. We will move once the time comes. However, the Emperor has withdrawn his agreement for me to be in the line of succession due to the Banzai cutting their ties with Pendragon. The guests will be leaving in a few days, and there will be no marriage between the other Pendragon Royals, as everyone has come to believe the Pendragon palace is cursed," Lucian informed Zane about everything in an automatic voice, without showing any emotions at their setbacks. He never really wanted to marry Madeline, and even if Ave hadn’t killed her, he would have looked for ways to avoid a marriage with her.

Zane digested everything told to him before he asked, "Are you certain Prince Talinor wouldn’t go back on his words when the time comes? For some reason, I do not trust him."

Lucian also did not trust the people of Nazia; however, they were his only hope in his alternative plan to sit on the throne. Since the time they had come to the Pendragon palace, they had kept to themselves without even stepping out to attend the birthday ceremony that had brought them here. They had their reasons for it, though, and Lucian understood that as he swore to keep it a secret.

"We will see when the time comes. For now, I know that he has agreed, and that’s enough. My wife will have a place to stay if things go south," he sighed heavily, before he asked, "Did you find anything suspicious about Prince Aaron so far?"

"Well, the prince spent his entire day consoling Queen Katrina, who had been clinging to him and crying. He didn’t leave his mother until this evening after he stayed with her until she fell asleep. He then went to see his lioness and pet the little cubs. After that, I almost assumed there was nothing suspicious about him until I saw him walk up to the third consort’s old room, where you said she’d killed Madeline yesterday. I don’t know what he went in there to do because he locked the door behind him," Zane reported, and he watched as Lucian’s brows pulled together.

"For how long did he stay there?" he asked, not liking that Aaron was meddling too much into everything. First, he knew that Ave had killed his sister, and yet he hadn’t said a word about it. And now he went to his mother’s old room, to do what?

"He was there for almost thirty minutes, and by the time he came out, I noticed he seemed to be smiling to himself and whistling. After that, he just randomly walked around the palace without a destination and went back into his room. It was exhausting following him around," Zane gritted in annoyance as he recalled how the man had been smiling as if he knew he was being followed. "I think you should kill him as well, since the Banzai have already decided to cut their ties with Pendragon," Zane suggested.

"Not until I find out what he is up to. Keep an eye on him tomorrow again, and let’s see what he does," Lucian ordered. Though he would want nothing more than to kill the annoying prince for the interest he seemed to have in his wife, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get his answers if that happened.

Looking up at the almost full moon, Lucian felt a feeling of dread in his stomach that twisted his guts and made him feel nervous for the first time in all of his life. Not once had he dreaded the full moon like he did now that he was married to a woman his heart and soul desired. This full moon was different, and he knew what to expect from it when it happened, which was why he was feeling the way he felt now.

Noticing Lucian’s eyes on the sky, Zane knew what he must be thinking. "You are afraid of the outcome, aren’t you?" he asked gently. "It’s the red moon."

The red moon happened once, and sometimes twice, a year, and on the day it got full, no one but Lucian knew better what would happen to him. He broke his gaze away from the moon and glanced at Zane. "She doesn’t know what I am yet."

"Are you going to tell her?" Zane asked.

Lucian was silent for a while. In those moments of silence, he recalled how Selene had hated him when she discovered what he was and called him a disgusting monster. He knew Ave was different, but he wouldn’t be able to watch her look at him with such eyes.

"Not anytime soon, at least not when the red moon is approaching," he said quietly. "What did she do the whole day?" he asked, changing the subject as they walked back into the palace.

Zane wasn’t around, but he’d asked around and knew what she did; thus, he filled his friend in on it. "I heard she spent her time in the kitchen with Lydia and the head cook. She said something about cooking for you. I also heard she looked distressed as she waited for your return before she gave up and went to sleep."

Lucian’s footsteps paused as he glanced at Zane with a frown. "She cooked for me?" he asked as if he couldn’t believe that.

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