CHAPTER 216: CHAPTER 216 A MOTHER’S PAIN

(Fae Realm)

"Continue the search. Princess Aeris must be found before dawn!" Zeir’s voice trembled with fury.

The guards bowed before marching out of the throne room.

Liora stood at the center of the room, and a worry line broke her calm expression. Her hand trembled by her side.

The moment the door shut, she rushed forward. "Why hasn’t she been found? You told me you have it in control... You promised me." The calm in her voice turned into a shaky mess.

Zeir’s cold blue eyes narrowed at her before softening. "Liora, I’m doing my best to find your daughter." He rose from his chair. "Her disappearance is a big disgrace to our reputation. I never realized she was this shallow and selfish."

Liora looked away, her fist clenching into a fist. "You could have gone to stop her, it would have taken you just seconds to be there..." Her eyes welled with tears. "But you refused to go. Tell me Zeir... why did you refuse to bring her back?"

Zeir looked away, the flicker of guilt crossing his expression far too quickly for Liora to miss.

"I couldn’t go," he muttered under his breath. He closed his eyes, his hands tightened around the armrest of his throne.

Her throat tightened.

She stepped back slowly, her eyes narrowing. "Couldn’t?" she echoed. "Or wouldn’t?"

His lips parted but the words hung in his throat. Unable to bear the weight of her gaze, he averted his gaze, staring at the entrance door.

The silence stretched between them, it was so thick that a knife could slice through.

Liora’s lips parted, but she didn’t speak right away. Her chest rose slowly, her breath shallow.

"You’re avoiding the question," she said at last, her voice trembling. "You promised you’d bring her back. You swore on her birthright that you’d protect her from that world, from that beast..."

"Liora," Zeir cut in softly, but she took another step back like he’d struck her.

"Don’t," she said. "Don’t say my name like you still see me as your sister." Her lips quivered. She felt a hole in her chest... one brought by disappointment and betrayal.

Zeir’s mouth opened slightly, but no words followed.

Her hands curled tightly at her sides. "You let her go."

He winced, unable to deny the fact.

Liora’s jaw trembled. "You wanted her to escape."

Her voice cracked on the last word.

Tears welled in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with the back of her hand, but more kept coming. Her composure was unraveling fast.

"I was wrong to trust you," she whispered. "I was so stupid to believe you were on my side."

Zeir stepped forward, the softness in his eyes making it worse somehow. "There’s more to this than you know..."

"I don’t care," she said through gritted teeth. "You had every chance to stop this. Every chance to step in. And you chose to stand still."

"There was nothing I could do..."

"Liar!"

Her scream echoed through the throne room, loud enough to rattle the glass vials lining the nearby shelf. The magic in the air pulsed around her, reacting to the storm building inside.

Zeir stiffened, his face unreadable now.

Liora’s hands shook as she pointed at him. "You let that monster enter our realm. You let him breathe our air. You let him walk through our lands like he had the right!"

Zeir’s eyes flashed with anger and pain. "You think I didn’t want to kill him?"

"Then why didn’t you?" she yelled. The room was trembling now, the walls pulsing faintly with magic. The torchlight flickered across the floor as the pressure in the room became palpable.

"You knew what he did to her. You knew how he rejected her. How he humiliated her in front of them all. You saw what it did to her!"

"I did," Zeir said quietly, but his voice was drowned by the sound of the curtains whipping behind them from the wind rising inside the chamber.

Liora’s power bled through her control now. Her eyes glowed light blue, her magic swirling violently through the room. The floor cracked beneath her feet as her fury spiraled into the space around them.

"And yet you stood there," she said, her voice raw. "You let him walk away. You let her run back into his reach."

Zeir didn’t flinch.

"Why?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Tell me, Zeir. Why didn’t you kill him?"

Zeir’s eyes darkened at her question.

For a moment, the room stilled as his powerful aura filled the space. His lips parted, but when he finally spoke, his voice was nothing like before.

It was like a clap of thunder.

"You dare ask me why I didn’t kill him?" Zeir’s voice boomed, shaking the high walls of the throne room. "Have you forgotten so quickly... that Princess Anastasia’s last remaining magic lives inside the Lycan King?"

Liora’s lips parted, but no words came out. Her eyes flickered with uncertainty as her chest rose with sharp, panicked breaths. Her fingers twitched at her side.

"We cannot let him die yet... I’ll make him pay but not now."

She blinked hard, shaking her head as her tears returned. "What does that have to do with anything?" she snapped. "Aeris is gone! Don’t you get it? I can’t feel her anymore. Not even a trace of her remains in the fae realm...she’s gone, Zeir!"

Her voice broke at the end, raw with helplessness.

Zeir’s power flared, and this time he didn’t hold back, he couldn’t understand how Liora was not listening to his words.

"I know!" he roared, matching her energy, his control unraveling at the edges. "You think I haven’t noticed her presence vanishing from this land?"

Liora staggered back, her eyes widened.

"I want her back," she whispered. "I want my child back."

Zeir’s gaze turned sharper.

"Your child?" he echoed, his voice laced with something cold and bitter.

He took a slow, heavy step toward her.

"The same child you abandoned for eighteen years?"