The Blood Heiress They Sent to Her Death Chapter 02
“How can this be?!” The chamber erupted.
“The Blood Heiress’s blood rejects the Elder’s! She is no true Bloodline!”
“All these years -we have been sheltering a cuckoo in the sacred nest!”
“The shame of the Night Court! To corrupt the Bloodline is to earn the Final Death ten times over!”
I stumbled backward, color draining from my face. Impossible. I had watched the water changed with my own eyes. How could my blood still reject the Elder’s?
Before I could think, Corvin seized my wrist, his grip bruising, his voice thick with theatrical disgust.
“Seraphina! It is true -you are a fraud! The woman I loved for so many years -a scheming thief!”
Mira pointed at my face, screaming. “The Blood has spoken itself! You are the poisoner who stole my name!”
I swayed on my feet. I turned to my father and saw the warmth that had always been in his ancient eyes replaced by wildfire rage.
“Seraphina. What defense can you offer?”
“I…” My mind churned, staring at that bowl of water, tangled in fog. Then the Blood Memory bloomed again.
I wrenched my head up, staring at the bent figure in the corner of the chamber. Old Marta -the nurse who had raised me since my mother died. The woman I had treated as half a mother myself.
Every kindness she had ever shown me -a performance. All of it, a path paved for her true daughter.
My teeth ground together. I threw myself to my knees before the Elder. “Father -I am your blood daughter.
This truth cannot be undone.”
“It was Old Marta! She corrupted the sacred water with silver dust -that is why our blood would not merge! Only send someone you trust to fetch fresh water, and I will-
“ENOUGH!” Corvin’s voice slashed through mine. “Seraphina -you were the one who insisted my water was corrupted and demanded Marta fetch fresh water. Now that your blood still fails the Rite, you claim Marta is also a traitor?”
“Everyone knows Old Marta is your own nurse -would even she betray you?” His eyes burned with righteous fury. “I see it clearly now. The cornered animal bites at anything. You know the end has come and you are clawing at shadows.”
Right on cue, Old Marta’s body convulsed and she crashed to her knees, old tears streaming down her face. “My lady, I have served you faithfully for so many years. How can you discard me the moment the truth catches up with you? This is how you break a loyal servant’s heart!”
Then her expression twisted -the mask of the loyal servant shattering into something far uglier. “If you want this old woman dead, then I will not protect you any longer.”
She crawled toward the Elder on her knees. “My Lord! This servant must report -Seraphina has been conspiring with House Thornfield! She means to destroy the Night Court from within!”