Chapter 74

Sebastian’s POV

“Oh, my moon goddess…” Raya breathed as she stared down at the dead body in the middle of the living quarters. “Who is that?”

“Hannah’s handmaiden,” Sebastian said gravely as he knelt next to her body.

Her heart was ripped out and she had scratches all along her body. She lay in a pool of her own blood; it was still fresh, and her body was still warm, so it was a recent killing. He lifted her arm to check for her pulse, but there was none. She was dead.

“I didn’t know she had a handmaiden,” Raya whispered. “Were they close?”

“Yes,” Sebastian told her. “Hannah didn’t have any friends growing up and the stupid girl ended up befriending a servant.”

Sebastian shook his head with dismay as he stood to his feet.

The door of the living quarters swung open, and he heard a loud squeak coming from the girl that stood at the doorway. He turned to see that servant, Valerie, standing there and staring down at Caroline’s dead body. Tears began welling in her eyes instantly and her body was visibly trembling.

“What…” she breathed, trying to form a sentence. “Oh dear lord…”

Tears escaped her eyes and fell down her cheeks as she stared up at Sebastian. At first, she looked like she wanted to run. He didn’t have a good reputation and her first thought was probably that he did this. But as she continued to stare at him and she stared around his appearance, she was realizing he didn’t have any blood on him. She glanced over at Arnold and Raya as if she were to ask them for the truth, but she remained silent.

She sighed out, defeated as she stared back down at Caroline.

“Go get some other servants to clean this up,” Sebastian ordered her, trying to keep his tone even as he turned to leave the living quarters. He paused at the door and turned back to Valerie’s paling face. “And take the rest of the evening off,” he told her before leaving the room.

Raya and Arnold hesitantly followed him; as soon as they left, they could hear Valerie sobbing. He knew they were close and that it would be hard for her to move on from something like this. It was going to be even harder for Hannah once she finds out what happened.

Before he went to see Hannah, he wanted to face Magnolia. He was furious that she would stoop to such low levels and kill his servants over the moonstone scepter. He wasn’t going to let her get away with this and he certainly wasn’t going to allow her to do this again.

He was going to go find her, but she ended up finding him first.

“I see you saw my little gift,” she said, her tone icy cold as she slowly came down the steps. “Consider that a warning.”

“You are never going to get the scepter,” he hissed to her.

He could feel the madness taking over; Eric wasn’t playing around this time. He was going to escape and tear Magnolia apart. Limb by limb.

She didn’t look frightened or faced by his darkening aura and scarlet eyes. She looked more bored than anything.

“Then, I’ll just have to kill more maids,” she said with a sly grin. She glanced over at Raya. “Or I’ll kill her.”

Raya tensed and took an unsteady step backward as Magnolia lunged forward. A small scream escaped Raya’s lips as fear overcame her. Arnold was in front of Raya before Magnolia had the chance to even go near her and Sebastian was in front of Magnolia.

He screamed out in anger grabbing onto her neck and holding her tightly in his grip. She choked out, gasping for breath. Her face was reddening as her hair was being taken from her. She struggled against him; his nails were digging into her neck. He could feel the blood trickling down the nape of her neck and oozing onto his hands as he lifted her off the ground.

He curled his lip up in disgust as he stared around her face. She attempted to pry his fingers away from her neck, but it only made him tighten his grip even more. Soon, she stopped struggling and her body started going limp. She was growing tired, and he was ready to shift and rip the rest of her throat out.

Just as she was about to lose consciousness, the doors of the basement swung open and Jack stood in the foyer, staring at the fight between his mother and Sebastian.

Sebastian glanced at him, noticing his presence nearby. He was covered in blood; his clothes were completely ruined from the blood stains and the stains on his skin looked fairly fresh. This made Sebastian loosen his grip around Magnolia’s neck and allow her to fall to the ground.

She coughed, rubbing her sore neck, gagging for a breath of air. She was trying to gain as much air as she possibly could.

“You might want to stop fighting my mother and go check on your precious luna,” Jack spat.

“What did you do to her?” Sebastian demanded to know, running through the foyer and past him to get to the basement door.

“Nothing,” he said, but he didn’t sound convincing. “She’s just not breathing.”

That bastard.

Sebastian hated himself for letting Hannah be alone for that long; she shouldn’t have left her like this. He ran down the stairs and he could instantly feel that something wasn’t right. He didn’t feel it earlier because the chains that bound her wrists block her from him, but now that he was getting closer to her, he could feel her strength and she wasn’t okay.

Her wolf was almost calling out to him and begging for him to help her. His body was nearly trembling as he barged through the doors of the dungeon. He soon smelled her blood; it was potently in the air, and he froze for a moment. Grasping what was going on. His heart was beating violently against his chest. Eric was no longer angry at everyone around them, but he was worried. He had never been this scared before in his life and now all he could think about was Hannah being in danger and it is his fault.

His heart tugged painfully as he thought about the condition she was in earlier at the trial; he could only imagine the kind of condition she was in currently. He had to take a deep breath to calm his nerves before he continued to run through the dungeon until they reached her cell.

He was praying to the moon goddess that Jack was lying and that she was all right. But telling from the fact that Jack had her blood all over him and the dungeon reeks of her blood, he knew she wasn’t okay.

It was too dark in the cell for him to see properly. He unlatched the cell and pulled the doors open so he could enter. As soon as he entered, he fell to his knees, falling into a puddle of Hannah’s blood.

Hannah lay before him; blood and bruised.

It looked like she was dead.