True Alpha's Chosen Mate-Chapter 260: Your luck has run out
"Tom!!!"
Cora’s voice rang through the thick walls of the castle, sprinting at the fastest speed possible. She ran through the narrow and bleak hallway, leading to where he could smell Tomas’ scent.
Her eyes barely blinked, staring at the broken door as her brother’s scent grew stronger. "Tomas!!" she yelled her lungs out, storming out as the faint moonlight felt blinding as the sun.
Her feet slowly came to a halt, looking around at the almost empty courtyard. Cedrick was no longer there, but before she could wonder where they went, she caught a figure in her peripheral.
She twisted her neck like a rusty metal to look at that figure. As soon as her eyes fell on it, her heart sank. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe while taking a careful step.
From her vantage point, all she could see were broken limbs and a torso. Something she dreaded to see on her way here. The closer she was to the body, the more painful her heartbeat felt against her ribcage.
His head was missing, but there was no doubt this... was her brother, Tomas. The leather wristband Alice gave him as a present, which he had been wearing since her death on that severed arm a few steps away from the body, was a giveaway.
"Tom..." came out a whisper, dropping on her knees with a thud. Her hand trembled as she approached his lifeless body, panting, with her mouth open.
Cora tried to call his name but to no avail. Her mouth wouldn’t close, producing a thin and short sound. When she recovered for a bit, she bent over and embraced the headless body with a few severed limbs.
"Ah... ah..."
Her grip around his body tightened as tears clung to the corner of her eyes. They didn’t want to fall, or rather, the shock refrained her from feeling anything in particular. It was just that her emotions were jumbled, unable to identify which was the dominant one.
The grief? The anger? The confusion?
Either way, when her tears finally rolled down her cheek, a loud shriek rang in the air.
"No!!!" she yelled her heart out, feeling her lungs constrict at every breath. "Tom!" And then her voice shook, embracing the fading warmth of her brother’s body.
This couldn’t be happening, she thought. Her mind denied fact after facts, screaming at the top of her lungs to wake herself up from this nightmare.
She couldn’t wake up.
No matter how loud her cries and the inexplicable torment in her heart of losing yet another sibling, she just wouldn’t wake up from this nightmare. She was still grieving, almost hysterical to release the overwhelming pain within.
"Wake up!!" she screamed, shaking the body in desperation. "Tom! Let’s go!!"
Cora did everything she could to wake up the already headless body. It was a waste of time, but not for her. She shook him, smack his back, and cradled him, but to no avail.
"Tomie..." came out a muffled voice while her face crumpled up. She gazed down, staring at him with almost blank eyes as if death warmed over her.
Tears still dripped on his bareback, her hands on it as well. Her screams slowly grew muffled and somehow, she ended up crying in silence.
***********
In the west wing of the palace, the courtyard almost turned in red as scattered remains of vampires loitered around. Elizabeth stood in the middle, bathed in the blood of her enemies, with a sword in her hand.
She stood frozen in place, even after slashing down the last vampire around the area. Her head hung low, eyes that barely blinked on the ground.
"Tomas," she whispered as her heart throbbed painfully, gripping her sword tighter than ever. Although it was faint, she heard Cora’s wails, screaming Tomas’s name.
Her breath hitched when she felt a sudden presence in her vicinity. Elizabeth slowly turned her head toward her guest, only to see something rolling in her direction.
She clenched her teeth as her eyes burned, recognizing whose head it was. It was Tomas’s. No wonder Cora’s voice was in utter pain. Elizabeth could only imagine what sort of state Tomas’s body had that Cora saw.
But unlike Cora, who was consumed by the pain, Elizabeth kept a calm mien. She slowly raised her eyes at the person standing meters away from her.
"Your gift... is quite precious. Have you, perhaps, been stalking me to ask my hand in marriage?" she inquired without a vestige of humor in her tone and unreadable eyes.
"I expected more reaction from you." Cedrick smiled ruefully, studying Elizabeth’s calm demeanor despite bringing her the head of her brother. He knew Cora was approaching, so he planned to make use of the dead till the end. "But it seemed that was the last thing Tomas could do for us."
Elizabeth let out a dry laugh. "Fascinating." She rocked her head, keeping her watchful eyes on him.
"It is... fascinating, indeed," he agreed, but on a different thing. "I’m curious, your Highness. Will you blame your brother, the seventh prince, and the grand duke of Belcoot, for the lives that were lost tonight?"
"Do I have to answer?" she snickered, sauntering towards the head whilst removing her damped coat. She picked it up, shooting a glance at Cedrick before carefully wrapping her brother with the coat.
"Well... it’s actually a question I would like to answer just in case," she breathed out, taking her precious time. "No, I don’t."
When Elizabeth answered, she finally finished wrapping her brother’s head and gazed up. Her eyes instantly locked gaze with Cedrick, smirking right after.
"Cedrick, was it? Whether or not Hugo allowed you all inside here, the result would still be the same. Tom might still die one way or another and my siblings who will take part in the war we’ve been preparing." She shrugged, putting the now balled coat on top of another person’s body carefully. "If there’s anyone, I should blame... it should be the person who lives over there."
Elizabeth pointed up, directly to the moon. She drew a breath as she stood tall, facing Cedrick without the usual arrogance in her face.
"I feel sorry... for all of you." She smiled, eyes glowing in red, sporting a contrasting expression that somehow sent a sense of dread down his spine.
