Ava looked at Josef. The man was confident as he sat just a few chairs away from her. He was leaning against the luxurious chair, a lazy smile dangled on his lips. For a few seconds, she thought of the way Matthew smiled at her. Though Matthew had a tinge of gentleness while Josef’s was filled with malice and... secrets.
She doesn’t like it.
"No. A poison made by a witch killed the Prince," Ava looked at the current monarch. On the outside, the Monarch wasn’t exactly the man that she had expected to rule this place.
King Arkadius de Titan was a very... large man that could barely move. At six feet and a weight of more than five normal people combined, the man looked exactly like a ball. A ball made of gold and velvet. Despite this, Ava didn’t dare to underestimate the man. If anything, she couldn’t stop herself, but felt wary.
"A poison?"
"By a witch? An otherworlder?" someone asked.
"How is that possible?"
"Stop lying! We saw the boy’s body."
Ava pursed her lips until Josef cleared his throat, silencing everyone.
"Tell us more Miss Eve."
Ava didn’t hesitate. She looked at the woman, who was silently crying next to the King, and asked. "Why did you kill your own child?"
"W — What?" the woman already had a pale appearance from the stress of her child’s death. She blinked at Ava as if she didn’t understand what she was talking about.
A fine actor, Ava thought inwardly.
"You aren’t crying because you were sad." Ava continued. "You are crying because of guilt." And this wasn’t just any guilt.
There are times that Ava hated being an empath but in front of situations like this, being an empath is definitely a blessing.
"You— "
"How dare you accuse— "
"You have been poisoning him, didn’t you?" Ava loudly said. She started approaching the mother, but two knights stopped her.
"Let her through..." Josef said. He rested his chin on his palm as he smiled at Ava, urging her to continue.
"Your highness... Sister Esme just lost a child, isn’t it— "
"Let her through — " The king interrupted one of the concubines. "The Duke was right. I want to hear what she was about to say."
The knights immediately moved.
"How dare you accuse me of killing my own child?" Esmeralda, the concubine, hissed. Tears fell from her cheeks as her lips trembled. To be honest, the woman was really beautiful, and crying like this made her look so pitiful even Ava had the urge to give her a hug.
"Don’t get me wrong... I knew you love him. The mere mention of him made your heart skip a beat." Ava said. "But you also killed him."
"I did no such thing!"
"Why did you kill him? Did you think the stabbing would hide the fact that you have been putting poison in his food? No. Did you perhaps put it on his tea?"
"I— "
"I’ve heard some rumors that you doted on him a lot. And that was the reason he became very spoiled. He raped women and killed servants. He was vile and malicious. Did he try to kill you?"
The woman’s hand started trembling.
Seeing this, Ava thought about how she had found out about this just a few seconds ago.
In fact, she had spent the entire night fusing with the ring that currently sits in her hand. She had no time to find out about the real killer.
In fact, she was prepared to run away towards the Arena the moment she woke up. Moreover, the magick inside the ring was different to what Damon told her. She couldn’t even access a tenth of what was inside this ’grimoire’. She thought she had wasted her time and effort.
So, she already planned to escape and leave them to their own demise.
The fact that Alexandra was framed because Josef wanted to trap Ava didn’t concern her. Ava didn’t like Alexandra. Her life or death doesn’t concern her anymore!
So... what changed her mind?
Ava changed her mind when she realized that something had changed inside her exactly three hours after she woke up. It wasn’t magick or anything like that. But a small piece of memory appeared in her head. It was a memory of a blurry woman whose calling out her name as if... she was chasing after her.
Now, she wasn’t sure if this was because of the ring, but the fragment of memory gave her an ominous feeling. And that ominous feeling led her to this palace.
Something inside this place seemed to beckon her.
It was as if there was an invisible force that is calling out to her.
"You are lying!" The woman’s trembling voice pulled Ava out of her stupor. "I would never— "
"The moment I took a step inside that door, I knew that you did it." Ava declared.
"You— "
"These are all circumstantial." One of the Duke said. "You can’t simply believe anything from an other worlder." He snorted. "If you want us to believe in, you, then give us proof!"
"I’m an empath," Ava said as she turned towards the Duke, who just spoke. This man was looking down at her. The moment she took a step inside this hall, she already knew their emotions. And this man had nothing but hatred towards everyone else in this room. Everyone else... except the concubine. "I knew you are jealous of Duke Josef. I also happen to know that you hate the Monarch. I wonder why is that. Are you planning to challenge him soon?"
"What?"
"What did she say?"
Chaos.
That was the only word that Ava could use to describe the situation.
"Or... was it because the Prince who died was... somewhat close to you?" Ava smiled. "Was he your friend? Or... your son?"
"What the hell are talking about!?" The Duke’s face turned red. Of course, Ava used this opportunity to add fuel to the fire.
"You see... I can feel your hatred towards everyone else... but the mother who just lost her child." Ava pursed her lips. "When you look at her, I can feel— "
"Preposterous!" The Monarch’s voice echoed inside the whole room.
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