Chapter 7

"That's nonsense," Derek snapped, a hint of impatience in his voice. "Isabella is the Council's most senior adjudicator. She'd never do something like that."

Victoria froze for a second.

She wasn't used to Derek snapping at her like that.

The next moment, her eyes filled with tears, her lips trembled, and her voice turned soft and plaintive.

"Derek, do you not love me anymore? Do you regret embracing me?" Victoria whimpered.

Derek's expression immediately softened.

He sighed and pulled Victoria into his arms.

He said, "How could I not love you? But this isn't something the Council should get involved in. Just focus on getting better. I'll take care of everything else."

Victoria leaned against his shoulder, then turned her head and met my gaze as I passed by the doorway.

She smiled. Tears still streaked her face, but her smile radiated the superiority of someone who'd just won.

I turned away and kept walking, not looking back.

Caroline jogged up beside me. "Ms. Virellian, she's playing the victim again."

"Let her keep pretending," I replied.

"But Derek always falls for that."

"Let him. He never learns."

Caroline looked like she wanted to say something else, but in the end, she kept quiet.

I walked back to my room and closed the door behind me.

As soon as I sat down, the seventh Mark on my collarbone suddenly pulsed.

Right after, the voice of the Sanctblood Will whispered in my mind. "Host, detected abnormal bloodline fluctuations. The source is the secret room in the castle's east wing.

"This pulse is a near-perfect match for the seventh Mark's resonance."

I cocked my head, curious.

The secret room in the castle's east wing? That was where Derek kept the family's most prized treasures.

The last time I was there, I'd taken that mysterious scroll of parchment from that very place.

"Should I go take a look?" I asked.

The Sanctblood Will didn't respond.

Instead, a gentle heat bloomed deep in my veins, almost like it was nudging me forward.

That night, with the whole castle dead asleep, I pulled on my cloak, slipped past the patrolling servants, and snuck into the secret room in the east wing.

The last time I'd come here was two weeks ago, when the secret room's guards had followed Derek to Nocthollow.

This time, the new guard was nodding off right at the door.

I quietly slipped past him and entered through a side passage.

Deep inside the secret room, the scroll of parchment was still right where I'd left it.

But this time, there was something new sitting next to it—a palm-sized, silvery box.

There was no lock or seal.

It looked like it was simply waiting for someone to take it.

I reached out and touched it.

The lid clicked open by itself, and inside lay a tiny crystal vial.

The vial was transparent, holding about half its volume of liquid—so clear it was barely even there.

The Sanctblood Will shuddered deep within me. "It's Holy Water. Its purity is unmatched and over three hundred years old, enough to exhaust the blood of ten who have undergone the embrace."

I picked up the crystal vial and held it up to the moonlight.

It was crystal clear and looked no different from regular water.

"What's something like this doing here?" I asked.

The Sanctblood Will fell silent for a moment.

"This castle once belonged to the Saintess bloodline," it finally whispered. "That was before it was seized by the Blood Prince."

I slipped the crystal vial inside my robe and quietly left the secret room.

Moonlight spilled over the castle's stone walls, and everything was quiet.

But I knew that peace wouldn't last long.

Things took a turn even sooner than I'd expected.

The next day, Stanley dropped some news right in front of Derek.

Stanley said, "Your Highness, Ms. Wooten's bloodline rejection is getting worse. At this rate, her bloodline will be completely depleted within thirty days.

"The only way to slow it down is to keep giving her high-purity origin heartblood.

"In this whole castle, only Ms. Virellian's blood is pure enough for that."

Derek turned to look at me.

I knew exactly what that look meant.

Here he went again.

"Lillian," he began.

His voice was so gentle that it was almost as if he wasn't asking me to use my own life to keep Victoria alive a little longer.

"Just help her one more time. This will be the last time," Derek said.

I looked at him and just gave a faint smile. "Alright."

Caroline was freaking out beside me. "Ms. Virellian!"

I patted her hand to calm her down.

"But I have one condition," I said.

Derek's eyes flickered. "What is it?"

"Let it be done during the coronation and investiture ceremony in front of the entire Coven," I said. "Let the Bloodbind Ritual Array regulate the extraction, so everything is fair and just."

Derek and Victoria hesitated.

Drawing the origin blood of one of the last pureblood descendants on the Bloodbind Ritual Array to nourish someone who had been embraced would have been one thing if it had stayed behind closed doors—a private matter for the Prince's household.

But once it was out in the open, it became a matter of the entire family's reputation.

But Victoria couldn't afford to wait any longer.