Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 210: Traitorous Journey

Chapter 210: Traitorous Journey

"What? After me? What did I do?" she asked in shocked disbelief as she didn’t recall offending the Empress lately. She had been careful not to even step away from the doomed palace just to avoid trouble. Had they finally realized that she had killed Madeline?

"Aveline, we don’t have time. I will explain everything to you once we leave here. I just want you to trust me and come with me. I will keep you safe from any harm." He used his thumb to caress her cheeks as he stared into her eyes. "You trust me, don’t you?" he breathed as he leaned down his head and pressed his forehead against hers.

She nodded without a moment of hesitation. "I trust you," she whispered, and she saw as a small smile grace his lips before he pressed a kiss on her forehead and then turned to tell Zane, "Get the horses and men ready. We will leave right now."

His hand found hers, and he interlocked their fingers before he began to walk out of the room with Lydia following behind them, carrying Ave’s things. They were walking down the hallways when the room Ave had left Isolde in opened, and the girl walked out right at the moment they reached to pass the room.

Isolde frowned as she looked from the chest in Lydia’s hands to Ave, who was dressed in a thick coat that almost hid all of her, and then at Lucian, whose expression was as blank as a plain sheet as he stared back at her.

"Where are you going?" she asked puzzlingly as she looked toward Ave in question.

Ave, however, recalled the words the girl had said about how if their father died, their life would be worse than that of servants in the palace. Realizing that he was dead now, she turned to Lucian and asked, "Can we bring her along?" He looked down at her with disapproval written all over his face, but before he could part his lips to reject, she hugged his arm to her chest and blinked her eyes innocently at him and pouted her lips, whispering pleadingly, "Please, my love, let’s bring her with us."

If Ave had asked him to bring down the world at that moment with such a look in her eyes and the endearment she’d used to address him for the first time, Lucian would have gladly done it for her, not to mention a simple matter like bringing his half-sister with them. Fighting down the warmth swelling in his chest and the urge to kiss those pouted lips of hers as she looked up at him pleadingly, he cleared his throat and shrugged.

"As you wish."

Ave beamed and walked up to Isolde, "You are coming with us. Let’s go." She pulled the confused Isolde along with them, even as the girl was asking where they were going.

To Lucian’s dismay, the moment they stepped out of his palace, the royal carriage came to a stop, and the other two siblings, Celeste and Orion, climbed down. They had come to get their sister, and just like Isolde, Ave did the same for them and requested they come with them. Because he couldn’t say no to her, she dragged them along without bothering to explain to them where they were going even as they looked puzzled.

’Are you kidding me? Don’t tell me you will take all of them to a land you made a huge bargain with to welcome you and our wife for some time?’ came Lucian’s beast voice as they began to bring the horses they would use forward.

’I don’t have a choice. Aveline will adjust quickly to the land if she has familiar faces around her. I will bring them along as long as she will be happy and not feel lonely. Now, shut up and go back in.’ He closed their connection link and pulled Ave to his horse.

"We can’t take the carriage; we have to ride on horseback," he told her as she settled behind him on the horse after she suggested they take the royal carriage the siblings had brought.

Ave didn’t question why they couldn’t take the carriage as she preferred riding this close with her husband. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and after turning to make sure the twins and their brother had all sat on the horses—Orion was sitting with Celeste on one while Isolde was—

"Why is Harry coming along?" she asked as she saw Isolde sitting on the horse behind him while Lydia was sitting on another with Evan, one of Lucian’s men traveling with them.

"We need Harry on the journey. He will get back home once we get there. Hold on tight, Aveline," he warned at the same time he snapped the horse reins, and it began to gallop away at a speed Ave had never ridden a horse before. She automatically tightened her arms around his waist and pressed her head on his back. It almost felt like they were flying with the way the mighty stallion was speeding away, causing Lucian’s hair to fly into her face.

At first, Ave had thought she’d worn a thick coat for nothing and the journey wasn’t going to be that hard on her as Lucian had made it sound by asking her every single minute if she was alright. But the moment they left the capital where Pendragon palace was, and they rode to a part where snow was already falling in earnest and winter was in full bloom with the night illuminated by the almost full moon, Ave could feel the journey taking its toll on her and the cold slowly numbing her limbs.

She was an expert in riding horses, but she hadn’t sat this long on any horse before and she felt her legs going numb from the cold and from sitting for so long on a galloping, uncomfortable ride. Not just that, she felt sick to her stomach and wished she could get down for some time. The cold was not only getting at her, but the journey seemed to never want to end as they rode for a whole night and it was approaching dawn now.

It seemed Lucian and his men were used to such journeys because none of them complained, but she wasn’t, and she couldn’t imagine how the royal siblings must be feeling when she was feeling this way. He was going too fast, and though she had enjoyed the speed at first, it made her want to throw up her empty stomach. She tightened her grip on the sides of his shirt and buried her head in his back as the cold wind felt unbearable to her breathing and harsh on her face.

She heard Lucian’s voice ask if she was alright, and she could only manage to nod her head as she didn’t want them to slow down the journey when he seemed restless to take her to safety. It wasn’t until she heard Zane’s voice beside them that she realized he had stopped the horse.

"What’s wrong, Your Highness?" Zane questioned as he pulled his horse beside Lucian’s. "We can’t afford to make any stops at this point. We don’t know if the Empress has sent men after us when she realizes we are gone." He voiced his concern for their sudden stop in the middle of nowhere with snow and trees all around them.

Lucian didn’t immediately reply until he dismounted and carefully carried his wife into his arms in a bridal style. She was shaking uncontrollably and had turned very pale from the cold. The snow continued to fall in earnest, covering the ground in a thick blanket of white. With every step he took with Ave carried in his arms, his boots sank into the snow.

"We need to rest. Get Harry to build the tent," he ordered as he walked up to a boulder by the side and sat on it with his wife on his lap as he cuddled her head to his chest to transfer some of his body warmth to her.

Ave wasn’t the only one in such a condition, as Lucian could hear the voices of his men saying the royal siblings had passed out, but his only concern was the woman in his arms whose bones were quivering. She was conscious but couldn’t seem to speak as she snuggled closer to him.

"Why didn’t you tell me to stop when I asked you?" Lucian scolded tenderly as he glanced down at her trembling form in his arms. He was used to such journeys and couldn’t even feel the cold nor the tiredness, which was why he kept asking her to know how she felt about it as he couldn’t use his own body to judge. But when she kept telling him to go on, he had thought she wasn’t feeling it as well until he felt her gripping his shirt tightly and how she was trembling.

"I... don’t want... to slow us down..." she managed to say softly. "But I’m really cold now..."

Lucian turned and barked orders to his men to hurry up and set the camps before he began to unbutton his shirt quickly. Once he was done, he grabbed both her cold hands and put them under his arms before he pulled her face to rest on his bare chest and cuddled her closer, then he pulled his shirt and covered her face against his chest.

"Is it better now?" he asked as she sighed in contentment when the heat of his body was warming up her hands and face. She nodded and relaxed in his arms.

Lucian looked to the side where his men were working fast to set the camps and build the tents as the snow was heavy here. He couldn’t have imagined what would have happened had he not been in the main palace and got the shocking double news of his life. He hadn’t just learned that the Empress and her brother were night creatures and that they knew about Ave possessing the powers the night creatures would kill to have, but he’d also heard that the Emperor was dead.

If the Emperor had been alive, he would have looked for ways to expose them as night creatures. Though he hadn’t seen it with his eyes, he had no reason to doubt the source that had reported this news to him and urged him to take Ave far away as they would soon come after her to test if she indeed possessed the powers. Why Prince Aaron was helping his wife still baffled Lucian, and had the situation not been this urgent, he would have gotten his answers from the prince before leaving.

’My reasons are none of your business, Lucian. Now get Selene away as far as you can unless you want her dead. I can’t prove my claims to you, but I can swear it to you that the Empress and her brother are night creatures and they will soon come after her. An ancient night creature has been awakened, and he seemed to recognize Selene. He gave the Empress the two descriptions of her, her red hair and blue eyes,’ he’d told him impatiently as Lucian didn’t seem to believe him at first.

’How did you know of this?’ Lucian had asked.

’Because I saw her leaving the palace this morning, and because I was bored doing nothing in the palace, I followed her. She traveled south, to the forbidden forest. I saw her talking to a man behind the ancient seal that had suddenly appeared after being invisible for ages. That was when I found out.’

Lucian had many questions to ask Aaron to get to know his intentions, like how he knew about the ancient seals when humans were oblivious to it. But because he didn’t want to risk his wife’s life by wasting time, he had left the prince and went straight back to get her ready to leave.

Now, as she shook in his arms, he couldn’t believe he had been careless enough to not realize she couldn’t handle the long journey like most of his loyal men who decided to follow him and stick with him regardless if he was a prince or not. They had been trained for it, but she hadn’t.

"Your Highness, your tent is ready!" came Harry’s voice after he was done setting the tent for the prince. It was a special tent that came with a mattress, specially made by Harry himself, which was why he had been brought along on the journey to set them for the prince and his wife instead of them using the normal tent that has no comfortable sleeping space.

Lucian had seen him making it once in the doomed palace and got interested in the boy’s talent and decided to put the tent to use on this journey. But setting it was complicated, and because he wanted Ave to be comfortable on the journey, he had brought Harry to set it himself.

"Let’s get you to a warmer place, my love," he whispered as he stood up, carrying her carefully towards the tent where a lamp had been lit inside it and the bed had been set.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.