Warning: Triple update this time. Start from this chapter.

                  “Jinki.”

                  My mentor turned to look at the Lord.

                  “Go and fetch the other brothers. It seems that they’ve gotten what they were wishing for.”

                  The instruction was short and simple. Jinki’s fair face paled down when he heard the order. He had tried so hard to maintain the peace between the clans after the Lord came back. He didn’t want to see any unnecessary feud for at least a century or so. I looked at his pained expression. All he could do was comply.

                  “I understand. I will go immediately,” Jinki stood up and looked at Baekhyun, who was thinking deep and hard. There was no judgement in his eyes when he looked at the two of us, only worry that seemed to come from his old age’s wisdom. He suddenly looked older than he already was. “Baekhyun, take care of the Lord and the girl.”

                  It sounded like a goodbye. I felt choked but nodded at him and wished him well.

                  The Lord walked away with Jinki, leaving Baekhyun and I, staring at each other. Like old times, we would try to read the other’s mind. Most of the times, we had the same thoughts. This time it was no different. “Baek, it’s our fault. What are we going to do now?”

                  “Should I go and offer myself to them?” Baekhyun pondered with face as white as sheet. His fists were clenched tightly, as if he was scared of the outcome. We didn’t fear wars. We feared betrayal and regret. I quickly shook my head and denied his ridiculous offer, “Would that stop the war from happening? Baek, you are smarter than this. Going there defenseless is like a man entering the den of hungry lions. You’ll be devoured until nothing is left.”

                  “I… I never thought that Lady Ara would raise a war over Hayoung’s death.”

                  “It’s okay, Baek, I was at fault, too,” I replied curtly and used my hands to support my face, “I’d deal with Lady Ara sooner or later. If Durandal really falls into her hands, I doubt she would use it. Perhaps she would give it for someone else to wield. She is strong, but she is just a servant of the Faery Courts. What can she do when the Kings have given her their orders?”

                  “You should never go against the Faery Kings,” Baekhyun suddenly interrupted. Fear flashed in his eyes, and it was a feeling I knew all too well. “You don’t know how ruthless they are. Their children are nothing but a mice compared to them. Especially the Winter King! He…!”

                  “Baek!” I shouted and grabbed onto the side of his face. He shut his mouth. His heartbeat rose rapidly. “Calm down! They fear the Lord. Nothing will happen to you and me. We’ll be just fine. Remember the time when you had to go against the Vampire Elders? This is just a war!”

                  He looked at me again and slowly calmed down. I sighed and slumped back on the chair. This was all too sudden. We didn’t have any time to strategize anything. I knew the Lord was powerful, but the enemies were not to be underestimated either.

Lord Jaejoong and Lady Ara were troublesome opponents, but the Faery Kings were the strongest of them all. King Yunho and King Leeteuk were over tens of thousands years old and it had been long since their last fights. As the rulers of the Seasons, they had perfect control on nature and weather.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Baekhyun had a sad smile on his face as he pointed his fingers at me, “Everyone can see the kiss marks on your neck.”

***

I let the Lord occupied a space beside me on the roof. The slippery landscape made it almost impossible to climb on, but once I settled on it, I was satisfied. There were no stars tonight, but the sky was nevertheless beautiful. The moon shone twice as bright, full in shape, lovely as it could be.

“Hey you,” I softly greeted him and let him hold me closer. His hands were securely wrapped on my waist, and like always, the Lord made me felt secure and loved. His lips landed on my cheeks. There was no roughness of aftershave, only fair, smooth skin. I hid a smile as I struggled on his grip.

“Hey to you, too,” His voice sounded deep. The Lord leaned his head towards my shoulder and stayed there for a while, his eyes closed tightly, as if he was savoring the moment. I thought his gesture was always sweet and thoughtful, but it wasn’t until now that I realized the length of action that he had done for me.

“Tired?”

“Mmm,” He hummed and kept his mouth shut. “Tired of the world.”

“Why?”

“Because when I woke up from that deep slumber, I thought the other clans would stop hunting for me. I thought I could take revenge for Joo Ri.” He was always honest and earnest, never keeping lies from me. I loved that particular trait of his, because I disliked having to guess what he was thinking of.

“Then what happened? Aren’t we still taking revenge on Joo Ri?” I brushed his hair with my free hand. He looked vulnerable at the moment, like a lonely little puppy. It was a privilege to see this side of his; bare only for me to see. Being his mate, I was fully exposed and linked to his emotion. If he was sad, so was I. When he was happy, I felt ten times more of his joy.

“You happened,” The Lord opened his eyes and stared at me with his dangerous green eyes. They were flashing bright, beautiful, so in-depth, and clear. Not even the clarity of the rarest gem could match up to his alluring eyes. “I was so bent on making the war happens. But along the way I realized that revenge is not all that important.”

“Where did I take part in this? I was always helping you with it.”

“I want to throw the revenge plan away. I want to run somewhere else with you, build a home, comfortably live and rest for the rest of our lives,” He exasperatedly replied, almost as if he was scolding a kid that was too dense and foolish. I gaped and stared at him, wondering if he was sincere about what he said. “I don’t want your safety to be threatened because of me.”

“I will be fine. I’m stronger than most girls.” And guys.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you. I can’t bear to see you die, or hurt. I have lost Joo Ri before, and she is not my mate. Still, the grief of letting her die almost ate me up alive. If it’s you…” He looked so sad as he leaned in for a kiss, one that was swallowing my entirety and burnt me alive. His kisses were always so passionate and tender, full of yearning and devotion.

“My Lord,” My voice was hoarse as I spoke in-between our kisses. “I won’t die. I won’t die before you.”

Our foreheads touched as we whispered sweet promises to each other.

Suddenly he pulled away. It was so abrupt that I almost fell forward. He grabbed onto my shoulders tightly, his eyes wildly looking at the forest. “What is that?”

At first, I heard nothing. Then sounds of drums. The distance was approximately fifty meters away from this mansion. The trees concealed their movements, but the drumbeat had revealed their intentions. Someone was declaring war to us. It was an ambush!

“Baekhyun!” I jumped from the roof without looking back. I landed with a loud thump and rushed into the house madly, looking for that one-person in-charge of our safety. The Lord was running behind me, his features frozen in shock as he ran in the opposite direction, quickly gathering all the servants in the house.

There were only a few Demons that served the Lord, but all of them were lowly beings that held weak powers. They were terrified and frightened, their heads hung low as they tried to make out what was happening right now.

“Baekhyun!” I roared to the second level and found him, sitting wide-eyed in the living room. The book he was reading had fallen onto the solid ground, and he was positively confused at my scream. “Byun Baekhyun, they are attacking! Right now!”

He was suddenly on alert, “Now? But Jinki…!”

“Jinki is not here! This is their plan all along! They know we won’t have enough time to gather our allies!” I gritted my teeth in anger and pulled him towards the stairs. We were running side-by-side, our breathing matched the other. “, , ! I never thought they would plan a surprise attack!”      

“Where is the Lord?”

“Probably gathering all the servants and calling Jinki back, which will be too late by the time people start dying!” I hissed under my breath and came to a halt on the main door. There he was, standing in his black suit like he didn’t care about anything else in the world. His eyes were hardened. He straightened his back when he saw Baekhyun and I, together.

The loud noises died down. There were footsteps from the forest. They were so near. I could hear the heartbeats and counted their numbers. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands. My eyes widened. No! They were bringing the entire major clans and a few minor clans! 

I knew the Lord could sense my fear. He turned my way and raised his hand to silence the chatters. The servants all looked at him cluelessly, waiting for orders. He took a deep, long sigh and spoke loudly, “The time has come. Don’t let them provoke the fear in us. Let them fear you, so that they know their reign has come to an end.”

The sound of drum started again, faster than before. The Lord opened the door slowly, and stepped out first. Baekhyun and I walked behind him, one on his left and the other on his right. I couldn’t feel anything right now, but my whole body was trembling in excitement.

“Baek, give me my sword,” I whispered at him. Over the years, I had many swords in possession, but when it came to big wars like this, I liked to use Baekhyun’s handmade frost. I called it Sanguis, in hope that the sword would draw as much blood as the name was. Sanguis was a 39 inches curved frost that was sharpened to the point that even the edge could cut the dullest surface in the world.

Baekhyun clasped his palms together and used his right hand to draw out the sword from his left palm. Sanguis was now in my hand, all ready to hunt preys. I smiled sadistically towards the enemies. Lady Ara, Lord Kyungsoo, Lord Jaejoong and Lord Junhong were in the front of the lines, each commanding a different battalion.

“It was you,” Lady Ara growled as soon as she saw me. Her usually cold eyes were full of hatred and disgust, so much that instead of scaring me away, it tempted me to challenge her more. Before she could put the blame on someone else, I stepped out and walked towards her direction, all the while keeping the same smile on my face,

“Indeed me. Pity you didn’t see your subordinate die in my hands.”

Initially, Lady Ara came here to negotiate a bit with the Lord, but all the plans vanished as she charged towards me in a maddening speed. I was well prepared as I bent and ducked. The Lady flew in the air in a curved motion as she landed beside me. Before she could launch another attack, the rest of the warriors had rushed to her aids. Even the Lords were stunned by the sudden turn of event and took the opportunity to charge at Lord Chanyeol.

“What did she do to you?!” Ara shouted loudly, her brown-ish hair flowing in the air in rage, “What did Hayoung ever do to you?!”

I dodged her punch and threw a swift kick at the side. She received a fatal attack on her waist but successfully injured my chest by giving me a powerful punch. Both of us spat blood on the ground, while I tried to keep a number of attacks from the other soldiers. I used my swords to dispatch half of them and shouted back at Ara, “You almost killed Baekhyun. We are even!”

Ara was stunned. My reply had stomped on her pride, as she indignantly scowled and pointed her palm towards my direction, “I am giving you this chance before I burn you to death. Were you the one who removed my poison from Baekhyun’s body?”

I laughed and threw a huge fireball towards the soldiers, burning more of them to their painful death, “You… want to burn me to death? How ridiculous of you!” I cackled and concentrated more energy towards my palm. The enemies that blocked me soon gave way because they feared for my flame. “You think you are the only one with a rare kind of ability? So what if I was the one who removed Baekhyun’s poison? What are you going to do?”

“You…! What kind of ability do you have?” Ara took a few steps back while I threw more fireballs to the back to prevent more enemies from coming close. I smirked as I took a few steps forward, mirroring Ara’s expression of caution.

“We are quite similar, actually,” I lazily took out my hand, ready to use my ability, “That’s why I want to see, who will be faster in this; your imitation ability or my ability to steal your ability.”