Chapter 241: 241. Blood of Solaris – 2

Winston’s expression was nowhere near the smile that had been etched on his face when he had arrived in front of Annasthasia. The earlier mockery had completely vanished, replaced by something far uglier and far more honest.

His face was filled with annoyance. The muscles along his jaw tightened; for fifteen years, he had tried to bend the will of this woman; he could not understand what was fueling her. What hope had he left to shatter to see defeat in her eyes?

In fact, if earlier her eyes felt calm, then right now they were fiery, as if something had reignited her spirit.

“Well, if you don’t want to believe me, it’s your choice, but don’t forget that your life is in my hands. Do you even know why I have not killed you till now?” he asked with a sinister expression on his face. He came close to the cellar bars and slammed them with his hands, looking at Annasthasia aggressively.

The metal groaned under his grip.

Anne looked at him with a stern yet unaffected expression. Her piercing gaze looked at him. “How would I know what goes in the mind of a swine?” she said with a sneer that refused any form of fear of death that Winston was suggesting.

Her voice carried quiet contempt, not even granting him the satisfaction of anger, only disdain.

Winston got even angrier now. His breathing grew heavier, his chest rising and falling as if he were barely containing himself.

“5000 years ago, there was a pest called Tamaysa, the last heir of the shadow clan that escaped from Lux’s hands, but my lord knew what you meant to that woman, so you should thank him that he told me to wait and keep you alive.”

Winston said his expression slowly turned into a triumphant grin, hoping to break her mind. “Bitch, you are just bait for my lord’s prey,” Winston shouted.

His voice echoed violently through the chamber, bouncing off the walls and mixing with the bubbling roar of lava.

Anne looked at him with the same intensity and fire in her eyes; her expression didn’t betray any emotion that suggested she knew about Tamasya’s return.

Winston, without saying anything, moved on the narrow path outside the cellar and walked towards the adjacent cellar. His long cape followed his trail and brushed against the floor.

Anne saw that; her eyes flickered with worry. Suddenly, she heard the gate of the adjacent cellar opening with a creaking sound.

The sound of chains clinking together sounded. Anne rustled and stood up under the heavy chains. Her eyes were wide; she could not understand what Winston was doing.

Her breath hitched as unease coiled tightly in her chest.

After a few minutes of chains clinking and opening noises. Winston’s footsteps sounded.

The sight of Winston walking slowly toward her cellar came into her sight.

In the dim orange glow, her gaze turned to look at the figure behind him, where he dragged a man with old features, sapphire blue hair, and eyes from the chains wound around his neck.

The man’s body hung limply, his feet scraping against the ground, leaving faint trails of parted dust behind.

Anne’s voice faltered. “Father!!” she shouted in panic. The word “tore” out of her throat, filled with disbelief and fear she could no longer suppress.

“Wait!! Where are you taking him!!” she shouted as she saw Winston dragging the weakened figure of her father.

Anne came forward and clenched the mythril bars of the cell. The cold metal bit into her palms, but she didn’t feel it; her entire focus was locked onto the frail figure being dragged away.

Winton turned around and looked at her with a crazed expression. He was finally feeling the satisfaction of seeing despair on the face of this woman who hadn’t moved her eyes for years.

His eyes gleamed unnaturally, like someone who had found twisted joy in another’s suffering. His hands raised the chains, and he looked at the almost half-dead figure of Anne’s father.

“I just want to see the lengths this man is willing to go to keep her daughter alive,” he said, making Annesthasia panic.

Tilting his head and looking at Anne with crazed eyes, Winston chuckled and said, “I have come to know that recently the heir of the Shadow Clan is back on Aris; to make her come out of her rat hole, I need him.”

His laughter was low and unsettling, echoing unnaturally in the cavern.

Anastasia heard that and was filled with frustration and rage. The name struck something deep within her, igniting a storm she could barely contain. “You will die the most gruesome death; I will make sure of that.”

Her voice trembled not with fear, but with fury. This was not the first time she had seen Winston use baits like this; she had been a part of his scheme before, and she knew how vile a mind he had.

Winston just chuckled. “Don’t worry, Anastasia; I will make sure the heads of you, your family, and that heretic shadow born will be hanging on the capital gate for show, just like I did with your husband.”

The words were spoken casually, as if describing something trivial, yet each one carried poison meant to break her. The last line was a lie, but Winston had repeated that lie over the years in front of Anne, making her believe that her man was really dead.

“De…ath…is…” Suddenly, the almost unconscious figure of Anne’s father mumbled something. His voice was faint, barely audible, like a dying ember struggling to remain lit. Anne quieted down while Winston looked at the lifeless man in his hands.

Even in that broken state, his presence carried a quiet weight.

“What?” he looked at him with a frown. Annoyance flickered across Winston’s face, quickly replacing his earlier amusement.

In a grainy and heavily breathy voice, the Patriarch of the Luneia clan spoke, “Death!! I see it in your stars,” while looking Winston straight into his eyes with his dim eyes.

Winston got so irritated that he threw a punch straight at his face, rendering him unconscious. The impact echoed sharply, the sound sickening in its finality.

Looking at her father being hit, Anne shouted, “You coward! If you have the guts, then open my chains, and I will tell you how precious life is.”

Winston left the carvings through the entrance, dragging Anne’s unconscious father with him while ignoring her curses. His figure disappeared slowly into the darkness, leaving behind a suffocating silence.

Every prisoner in the iron hell prison was given small doses of corrosive neurotoxins, making them almost limp and unfunctional. But that was not the case with Anne.

Since Winston had kept her alive under orders from Lux, the light god, to use her as bait for Tamasya to come out of her hiding.

Winston had just kept the rest of them alive to be killed beside Anne. Winston wanted her to witness these deaths of her clan members before dying.

It was a slow, deliberate cruelty designed to break her spirit.

As Winston left, Anne looked at her father’s figure being dragged and broke down into tears under the orange shade of lava. The light flickered across her face, illuminating the tears that streamed down uncontrollably.

Her body trembled, chains rattling softly as her strength faltered. She remained there thinking about what the future held for her; the bracelet in her hands was clenched tighter.

Her sister, her father, and her son were all in danger, and she did not know what to do.

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