Es’s patience had finally snapped, and Arabella could see it in every sharp movent, every flare of her nostrils, and every spark of her eyes.
She no longer cared about disguising the truth, about keeping her intentions veiled behind polite politeness or false concern.
It was almost reckless, the way she moved and spoke, as if she had forgotten or outright dismissed all pretense.
Arabella’s brow furrowed, and she studied Es carefully. This wasn’t just jealousy. at least, it couldn’t be. Jealousy alone didn’t make soone so frantic, so careless, so willing to risk exposure by letting the truth slip.
No, there was sothing deeper driving Es, a fear or urgency that she couldn’t mask even if she wanted to. And Arabella realized, slowly, that it wasn’t just Es who was racing against the clock. They weren’t the only ones trying to manipulate ti; Es and Morpheus were running their own ga, running toward so hidden goal that Arabella didn’t yet understand.
Unlike Es, Morpheus seed confident in his control, his certainty allowing him to linger, to toy, to pretend that the world was entirely under his hand. He treated ti as if it were infinite, as if there were always another mont to pull strings, another chance to manipulate events, another chance to mislead her.
Es, in contrast, acted as though every second counted. Every word she spoke, every step she took was rushed, impatient, betraying the invisible pressure that weighed upon her. Arabella could feel it like a shadow pressing down, a silent reminder that they were all running out of ti— and that the stakes were higher than she had guessed.
What were they planning?
Arabella’s mind raced, piecing together the fragnts of Es’s behavior, the hurried steps, the careless words, the flashes of sothing unguarded that threatened to reveal the truth.
They were crafting a plan just as she and her allies had been doing, but the problem was, Es and Morpheus had already begun their moves, and she had no idea what they were.
And yet, unlike Morpheus, Es lacked patience or subtlety; she believed herself untouchable, confident that her sches could never fail within the castle walls, not realizing that Circe had already been smuggled in, not realizing that in just a few days, Morpheus would be facing a reckoning of his own making.
Arabella’s gaze sharpened, narrowing on Es’s face as the other woman took a step forward. There was a smugness in her eyes, a certainty that Arabella had never seen in her before. But Arabella also noticed the fissure beneath the surface, the slight hesitation, the montary falter that betrayed Es’s composure. The calm mask of control was cracking.
"Rembered?" Arabella’s voice was low, steady at first, but underlined with a sudden tension, her frown deepening. "What do you an by rembered? Was there sothing I... have forgotten?"
Es’s lips curled into a scoff as she moved forward, her movents sharp, almost aggressive. "Lord Morpheus said I must have mistaken what happened that night," she said, as though repeating a justification to herself, "but I know what I saw. I know you were trying to trick into opening that room for you."
Arabella froze, her eyes narrowing as a chill ran down her spine. "That room?" she asked, the single question dripping with disbelief and growing anger. "Es, are you... are you implying that I have been fooled? That soone has lied to ? That Morpheus and you have hidden sothing from , that I’ve forgotten sothing?"
Es’s scoff deepened, harsh and venomous. "Stop your pretentious act. It’s far too disgusting to watch. You think Lord Morpheus didn’t notice your moves, but we all saw. Your actions have already begun to change things, and that... that speaks volus. If you hadn’t rembered anything, you wouldn’t suddenly turn so daring. Your true self has never been so daring but just a ek peasant girl who only know how to cower when you feel fear."
Arabella’s pulse quickened. Her hand clenched into a fist at her side as she took a deliberate step closer to Es, her green eyes blazing, her voice rising in ferocity. "What room?" she demanded again, this ti with an intensity that brooked no hesitation. "Which room are you talking about? What is it? What are you trying to imply?"
Sothing shifted in Es’s expression at that mont.
For the first ti, she faltered. Arabella could see it, a subtle tightening around the eyes, a hesitation in the stance, a flicker of uncertainty behind the usual arrogance.
Es had counted on the facade, the composed mask of knowledge that Arabella would never break. But now, Arabella’s eyes, once skeptical and cautious, were desperate, probing, hungry for the truth. She had a clue, a thread of understanding, and she would not allow it to slip through her fingers. Not this ti.
It was as if... as if Arabella hadn’t rembered anything at all.
But when she felt that flicker of doubt, Es angrily bite down her cheeks.
No. She wasn’t going to be fooled again.
She knew it. She could feel it.
That Arabella has rembered everything and that she has planned on doing sothing secretly while Morpheus try to please her into the marriage.
A smile crept over Es’s face, small at first, twisting with amusent and malice, curling the corners of her lips into a grin that was more warning than delight.
"Well, no matter," she said softly, almost teasingly, though her eyes burned with a fire of restrained fury. "I think I should also remind you that... not everything will go the way you plan."
Her words lingered in the air and Arabella’s gaze sharpened, ready to demand an explanation, to know what she ant by that haunting warning.
But before Arabella could speak, Es’s hand moved with a sudden swiftness.
She bit down on her thumb, drawing a bead of blood that fell onto the polished floor. The mont the crimson droplet struck, it spread across the ground like ink in water, forming a glowing red circle that pulsed and throbbed with dark energy. It shifted, moved across the space with terrifying precision, and then, with a sudden snap of its invisible boundaries, trapped Cassius inside a sphere of writhing red magic.
Arabella’s eyes widened in alarm and disbelief.
No. This wasn’t possible.
The magic... this blood magic!
It was the sa as the one she had used on Morpheus during the second test, a spell that none of Circe’s writing ever had.
And yet here Es was, wielding it with ease, only with a flick of her wrist and a drop of her own blood as if she was the one who had crafted the blood magic and learnt it for years when she should have just known about its existence less than a weak ago.
Arabella felt the disbelief coil in her chest like a snake. How could soone who wasn’t even a witch perform such a feat? How could she tap into this power with such ease?
"Surprised?" Es’s voice rang with a cruel delight, snapping Arabella out of her shock. "I can do everything you can do too." There was a glint of mischief in her eyes, a silent challenge that dared Arabella to act.
Arabella’s fingers ignited with a burst of radiant light, shooting forward toward Es’s face.
The light flared, illuminating the dark corners of the room, and for a mont, Es’s feet lifted from the ground, suspended by the sa water-step magic that Arabella had perfected months ago.
But Arabella knew better than to rely on that alone. Her mind raced even as her body moved, summoning every ounce of skill she had honed. The blood barrier circling Cassius flared in protest, struggling to return to Es’s control, yet Arabella wove her magic carefully, drawing it into herself, bending it to her will even as it resisted, feeding on the tension and fear in the room.
"What did Morpheus do to you?" Arabella demanded, her voice sharp with concern.
Cassius, trapped in the sphere, stared at her with a calmness that belied the danger. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to attack back. It was him waiting for her sign when he could.
They were so close to ending everything without being noticed but if he was careless, they were going to just redo every single action they took.
Es, for all her smirk and arrogance, radiated a quiet delight at Arabella’s surprise. There was a dangerous glee in the way she watched, in the way she asured Arabella’s reactions, as though she reveled in testing her limits.
Arabella’s heart pounded in her chest. It wasn’t that Es had suddenly learnt a magic that made her powerful enough to go against her. No. It was the opposite. Sohow, Arabella had... this nagging feeling that it wasn’t sothing about Es that could do it.
That sohow... a very forbidden action had been made by Morpheus. Sothing that even changed Es’s constitution.
"I will be bringing that maid away from you," Es then said with a smile. "Not by Morpheus’s order but my own. I will keep her in the dungeon and make sure that for the length of the third test this maid will not be anywhere around you."
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