Sold To The Cruel Pr Chapter 99: Unwanted

Chapter 99: Unwanted

Aveline looked at the older man standing before her.

His black hair fell just past his shoulders, neat but unadorned, and his skin was so pale it almost looked untouched by daylight. Yet it was his eyes that caught her first—blue, deep, and unmoving, like the still surface of a sea she had once seen in a painting and never forgotten.

He did not look imposing in the way soldiers did, or loud in the way most nobles were. He was composed. Still. asured.

And that made him far more dangerous, and she could feel it.

Edric’s gaze moved past Kael and settled on her. His gaze was not just a passing glance; it was a study. His gaze was slow, thorough, and uninterrupted.

Aveline felt it like a hand pressing against her skin, peeling back layers she hadn’t known she had.

"This is...?" he asked. His tone was mild. Too mild.

"I’m—"

"Ava," Kael cut in, a fraction too quickly.

He stood beside her, shoulders squared, expression serious, one hand loose at his side and ready for trouble at the slightest sign of it. She did not quite understand. Was he lying about her na? Had Theron and Kael decided this together to protect her?

A heavy silence followed.

Edric’s eyes shifted to Kael, and there it was... the smallest pause. The kind that didn’t belong in casual conversation. Aveline felt it, even if she didn’t understand it.

Edric stepped forward. One step. That was all it took to shift the entire space.

He stopped just short of her, close enough that she could feel the difference in the air.

"You speak for her now?" he asked quietly.

Kael didn’t hesitate. "She’s under my protection."

Edric’s gaze didn’t move from Aveline. "And she cannot answer for herself?"

Aveline swallowed.

"I can—"

"What is your na?" Edric asked, cutting cleanly across her words. His voice was not sharp or an, but he sounded absolute.

She froze looking into his eyes. Sothing stirred inside them. For a split second, she almost said her real na.

Sothing in his eyes made it feel... dangerous to lie.

"Ava," Kael said again, firr this ti.

Edric didn’t look at him. He waited for Aveline to speak up.

Aveline did not hesitate. "...Ava," she repeated, softer. Aveline blinked at him, then at Kael, then back at Edric.

This man looked far too much like Kael for there to be any doubt.

Then, because her mind was never wise at the best of tis, and because the resemblance between them was suddenly all she could think about, she asked, "You are Shadow Spider’s father?"

Edric went still.

Not because the question was sharp.

Because it was not.

He had been pressing a compulsion spell against her for several seconds now, drawing on it carefully, trying to force the truth out of her the way he had done with countless others before.

And she was talking about spiders.

Spiders.

Was his son right?

Sothing deep inside him shifted.

This girl was not simple. Not at all.

Edric’s gaze sharpened. "And where did you find her?" he asked, intent on holding the spell in place a little longer. He wanted to see how long she could resist. No one should have been able to withstand that for long.

Even now, he could feel the effort draining him.

Aveline looked at him, then at Kael, then back again, her expression thoughtful rather than afraid.

"So," she said, tilting her head, "he is the big spider who made the shadow spider? Did I get that right?"

Edric let out a slow breath.

And just like that, he released the compulsion. He could not keep pushing. Not anymore.

For a mont, he only stared at her.

What was she doing?

What was she?

Kael, seeing the change in his father’s face, nearly laughed to himself.

Yes, Father.

This is exactly who I have been dealing with.

Welco to her audacity.

Kael cleared his throat, his expression returning to its usual calm. "I already told you, Father," he said. "I found her in the forest."

Aveline looked at Kael, then at Edric.

The more she looked, the more obvious the resemblance beca. It was as though Kael’s father were simply an older, quieter version of him—sa sharp lines, sa composed stillness, the sa unmistakable severity beneath the surface. It was rare to see a father and son resemble each other so closely.

"How long has she been with you?" Edric asked.

"A few days."

"What was she doing before that?"

Kael’s jaw tightened, just slightly. "She was alone."

Edric finally turned his head and looked at him directly. "And you brought her here."

It was not a question.

"Yes."

"Without clearance."

A beat.

Kael’s answer was quieter this ti. "Yes."

Another silence followed, longer than the first.

Edric’s fingers tapped once against his arm, slow and deliberate.

"Even the way your mouths move when you speak is the sa," Aveline observed aloud, because... Of course, she did.

Both Edric and Kael turned to look at her.

Then both of them sighed.

Aveline glanced between them, startled by their reaction. The two of them looked at her with the sa strange expression, and she had the unsettling sense that sothing had shifted without her understanding why.

Sothing was wrong.

Deeply wrong.

What she did not know was that Edric was already uneasy about keeping her in his mansion. The King had spoken of a calamity. If this girl was part of it, if she was the danger moving toward them, then Edric wanted no part of standing at the center of it.

"Wouldn’t she be more comfortable in the palace?" Edric asked.

His tone was gentle. Almost considerate. But it was a trap.

Kael did not answer at once.

Aveline looked from one to the other, her confusion deepening. The words sounded harmless enough, but the air between them had gone taut, like a wire drawn too tightly and waiting to snap.

"The palace," Edric continued, still calm, "is where His Majesty is currently searching for a girl matching a rather vague description."

Aveline’s breath caught.

Kael’s gaze hardened.

Edric looked back at her.

"You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Aveline’s fingers curled at her sides.

She could feel it then—that this man did not want her in his house. And soone else had once looked at her the sa way. Mortir Willowgrave had wanted her gone, too, and had made her suffer in ways she still carried in her body. Her scars throbbed as if they were fresh again.

"I—no."

Her voice shrank before she could stop it.

Edric watched her closely. Her hesitation. Her breathing. Her eyes.

"You do not seem surprised," he said.

Aveline blinked. "I didn’t—"

"You were attacked today," he continued smoothly. "Outside. Near the window."

Her heart skipped.

Kael’s head turned sharply. Edric did not acknowledge it. "Strange, isn’t it," he went on, "for soone no one is looking for?"

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Aveline felt it pressing in from all sides, thick and cold.

Kael stepped forward.

"Kael," Edric said. "Step away from her."