Ensnaring his Dark Moon-Chapter 246: Sister-in-law

’’I want you to find a way to threaten Aleister. Find a weakness. Something that can threaten him,’’ he said as he kicked her back before stepping away from him.

Luciana pushed herself to her feet as she staggered to lean onto the wall for support, ’’He has no weakness, father,’’ she whispered, ’’Esme can’t be used against him. He is around her all the time. Leo... Leo’s identity is more than we know. The guards in the heaven referred to him as a God.’’

Marcus frowned, deep in contemplation.

In the next moment, he threw his whip and it swung around her neck.

"Ah...’’ Luciana screamed in agony, trying to pull it away as the man tugged her closer. The whip around her neck tightened in the process.

The back of her neck felt like someone had set fire to it. Fire was a mermaid’s weakness and creatures like them felt the burn a thousand times more than humans did.

’’You are wavering towards them, aren’t you?" Marcus spoke through gritted teeth, his eyes widening in a disturbing expression, ’’That little cunt is invoking your pity, isn’t she?"

"Father,’’ Luciana gasped for breath.

’’You are her friend. How can you not fool her? How can you not lure her into your trap?" He tightened his grip around her neck.

Tears rolled down her eyes, clinking with the floor as they turned into pearls, ’’She doesn’t trust me anymore. She... is cunning. She is doubting our intentions,’’ Luciana greedily inhaled air with an open mouth.

She could use her powers but her father would overpower her easily and then the consequences would be severe.

’’Find a way then, my sweet daughter,’’ he loosened the whip around her neck and as she gasped loudly, Marcus patted her head, ’’You always wanted to go to your mother’s room that I had locked after her death.’’

That got Luciana’s eyes widening slowly. She tilted her head to look at him.

’’I will let you go there. She used to have a diary too. When you were in her womb, she would write everything in that. Till her death, she wrote everything in it,’’ he held her hand.

Diary? Was that her mother she got that nature from? Luciana’s eyes turned emotional, ’’Father...’’ With every passing day, she felt like she was forgetting her mother little by little.

She wanted to remember the woman she loved the most in the world. Their happy moments together. She wanted to live through all of them through her vision. She was the only person who loved her selflessly in her whole life.

’’Yes daughter. I will let you go there. Find a way to control that Prince, something that can corner him. You are the closest to them. While they are still thinking highly of you, take advantage of it,’’ Marcus stroked her hair but the soft strokes suddenly turned harsh as he fisted her hair and tugged at it so hard that she cried out in pain, ’’However if you fail, I would burn that room along with all the memories of your mother. You hear me?"

Luciana’s eyes widened when she heard his words, ’’No...’’ she gasped, ’’No father, you can’t.’’

’’Oh dear, I can,’’ he tugged at her a little harder and as strands of her golden hair fell to the ground, he loosened his grip on her and stepped back, ’’But I won’t do that if you are not obedient, hmm?"

Luciana glanced at him with a pleading gaze.

’’Now, you should leave.’’

He turned his back on her and proceeded to keep the whip on the shelf.

She was bruised and bleeding but he seemed to be untouched.

Luciana staggered out of the room, trailing blood on the ground with every step she took.

...

In the Gardens of the Crystal Castle.

Cardan sat on a huge swing with one leg on it and the other on the ground. He was leaning back against the chain of the swing, swaying a rose in his hand.

Sitting next to him on a golden chair was another brooding man. His elder brother whose lover had abandoned him and gone into her new lover’s room.

’’If I say something, will you try to beat me?" Cardan asked the man gruffly.

’’If I beat you, will you beat me back?" Aleister quirked his brow, raising his head from the crushed rose at his feet. It was a rose until he imagined the face of ’Jer the mer’ in it and then it was no longer a fresh rose.

Cardan scoffed, ’’I say we should have a duel. I have grown stronger in the past year.’’

Aleister looked around the garden, ’’She has a fondness for flowers. I don’t want to upset her by destroying all of it.’’

Cardan narrowed his eyes, ’’Dear brother, that woman has you hooked around her finger. I say she is beautiful and—’’

’’Your sister-in-law,’’ Aleister said with a tight smile.

Cardan rolled his eyes. This man still held a grudge over him aggressively pursuing Esme in the past. But he had no such feelings for Esme. She was better suited with his thick-skinned brother. His skin on the other hand was very thin, it turned red when a certain someone pressed his own knife against it and threatened to kill him.

Yes, Cardan was much inclined towards the woman who hated his guts with a passion. And he might be a masochist, but it turned him on that she was beautifully cruel with a soft hidden heart inside.

’’Sister-in-law, you say,’’ Something caught his attention. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Esme and Jeremiah standing near a pillar, ’’She needs to marry you for me to call her that. But I highly doubt that your woman is interested in your old flesh anymore. She has found fresh meat,’’ he winked.

Aleister’s gaze darkened. He did not have to turn around to see why Cardan was running his mouth off.

His eyes gleamed when he saw someone near the opposite pillar of the round garden, right behind Cardan, ’’Luciana, wasn’t it?"