Claimed by the Prince of Darkness novel Chapter 231

Chapter 231: The Body That Would Bloom

Six days passed since Ruelle had returned home, seven days since grief had struck the people in there.

The wedding was postponed, and people of the high society wondered if the treaty was cursed, considering it was the second time for it to be disrupted. And half of them wondered if the funeral was held privately, considering no one had received an invitation to attend it.

Right now in the prayer hall, Ruelle sat beside Lachlan on a low wooden bench. Her face had faded from bruise-dark to a faded, cream-dry yellow around the edges, but the swelling was gone and her vision restored. She had come to this room each day. She sat in the same place, on the same bench, and she spoke to him. Even though he had been moved away from the block of ice, his body carried the scent of rot in it.

Her hands were folded in her lap as she watched him now.

Lachlan’s chest had been slightly carved to put the seeds in there. The seeds needed the body to be decomposing, which gave it enough material to grow in. Every three hours, the body was cleaned outwardly, while his clothes had been changed to a clean white shirt and brown trousers.

Her eyes lowered and so did her voice, as she whispered, "I’m sorry."

Ruelle had uttered those words plenty enough that she hoped Lachlan’s ghost would come to find her and tell her to stop it. But she knew her cousin, and he would have welcomed it anyways.

"I am sorry, Lachlan... For doing this to you. I should have—" Her words found it hard to leave her lips and she pursed before continuing, "I know I should let you lie in peace, and not like this. I am sorry I am unable to bring you back... and am using you now. I hope you can forgive me..."

Somewhere during those six days, Harold Belmont’s words had begun creeping back into her thoughts.

’People around you die.’

She hated that some broken part of her had started finding evidence for them. Because if she hadn’t invited Lachlan to the wedding, he would still have been in the north.

Looking behind, she noticed the doors closed. Lucian had only left her five minutes ago as the officer had come to talk to him.

Her hands clutched tightly before she confessed, "I’ve been doing something people wouldn’t like knowing... a little of his corruption, every day without his knowledge." The wind rustled the candle flame where she sat. Last evening, she had thrown up blood.

"I wasn’t aware you had it in you. To be conniving."

The voice made Ruelle jump, and when she turned, she caught King Septimus in the room. How long had he been here? She looked back and forth between him and the door before she swallowed,

"Don’t tell it to Lucian."

King Septimus smiled at Ruelle, his shoes softly echoing in the room as he walked towards her and came to stand Lachlan’s other side. He peered into the dead man’s chest before pulling away to straighten his back. "Looks like it is going to sprout tomorrow or sooner than that."

Though the king had helped her and was related to Lucian, Ruelle had never grown entirely comfortable around him. Some part of her still remained watchful, questioning the meaning behind his words and actions.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify