NIGHTS OF HALLOW
Chapter 190: Mark of Identity.

Chapter 190: Mark of Identity.

A/N: Thank you, dears, for your patience, the previous Chapter has been corrected. The unnecessary parts were deleted. Thank you for understanding. I’d more careful. Happy reading ahead! <3

"W—what?!" Perdita gasped, shock evident on her face that slowly turned pale at what she read. "This couldn’t be true, is it?" She questioned no one in particular as she continued to stare wide-eyed at the piece of paper she held.

The siblings? They were coming back? Tales of the great witch siblings had been the talk she had been faced with for the past how many months now. Does that mean she and Marco were the vampire-witch siblings born from the union of the created pureblooded vampire and the witch rulers?

How? It couldn’t be! Perdita slammed the piece of paper on the table and hastily stood up to go look for Sthena. She needed more clarification on what she had read and discovered just now.

Behind every step Perdita took was a shaky one that almost made her feet give away. Just as she reached for the door, Emily who had been startled by the sudden behavior of Perdita screamed.

Perdita sharply turned, almost forgetting that she had been with Emily in the library. She quickly rushed over, her face scrunched with a worried look. She asked the maid, "What is wrong with you, Emily?"

"Did you hurt yourself? What happened?" Perdita queried the agonizing maid who held her hand near to her chest, her light brown eyes brimming with tears that slipped and rolled down her cheeks. "My my hand, My—Lady," She managed to choke out against the excruciating pain she felt on her hand.

Confused, Perdita touched Emily’s hand to see what was wrong, "What happened to your hand, Emily? Please say something, you’re scaring me more than I am already."

Emily whimpered a cry from her lips as she slowly brought out her hand for Perdita to see. Almost immediately, Perdita’s scream was heard. "Oh my goodness, Emily! What happened to your hand? W—what is t—that?!" Terrified and wide-eyed, Perdita made to touch Emily’s hand but the maid was quick to swat her hand away from the reach of Perdita.

"Don’t, My Lady!" Emily shrieked. "It’ll hurt you, don’t touch it."

"Why? What is that?" Perdita’s eyes were still wide with fear as she hadn’t witnessed what was on Emily’s hand before.

On Emily’s palm burned like a hot coal, the flames akin to that of a burning furnace. Mere looking at it was terrifying and it would no doubt hurt like hell. Unable to understand what was happening, Perdita stared in bewilderment.

"I shouldn’t have," Perdita heard Emily say, her words confusing her the more. She inquired from the maid, "You shouldn’t have done what?"

"Touched it," Emily responded again, her answer more vague than the last one. Before Perdita would question her in exasperation, she voiced, "I shouldn’t have touched the piece of paper you dropped on the table."

"Piece of paper?" Puzzled, Perdita questioned back, her green eyes going back to stare at the paper on that table. "What in heaven’s name is this?!" More exclamations escaped Perdita’s lips as the paper she had left on the table was not as it was before. It was nothing like what she would imagine in her life.

There before her eyes lay a key. Not any key, but an intricately woven key, shining molten gold in color. Only staring at it would let one know it was no ordinary key.

More than wide-eyed, Perdita turned towards Emily with a million questions in her eyes. Before she could find her voice to talk amid the shock she was experiencing one after the other, Emily quickly intervened as she stood up.

"It was not my doing, My Lady!" Emily spoke and pointed at the paper and then at Perdita who awaited explanations of what happened. "It was your doing, My Lady." Emily further said, causing Perdita’s brows to arch in more confusion and a slight suspicion mirrored in her eyes.

Emily went on to explain, "When you slammed the piece of paper on the table and stood up, it caused a spark on the paper. I went to see what was happening, I meant to touch it, but it had suddenly let out another spark and transformed into what we are seeing."

"What?" Was what Perdita could only say as she didn’t know what to make of what just happened. She turned to stare at the key and the back at Emily’s hand where the burning had stopped, revealing a mark drawn on her palm.

Perdita pointed at Emily’s palm, the suspicion in her eyes increasing as seconds passed, she asked, "What is that on your palm, Emily?"

"It was caused by the magic key, My Lady," Emily replied.

"Magic key?" Perdita quizzed, her eyes slowly squinted as her suspicions grew. She walked around the table and stood beside Emily as she examined Emily’s palm closely. She heard the maid respond to her question,

"Yes, it is a magic key. The piece of paper must probably be bounded by magic that when you held it, it transformed to what it originally was."

This time, not only did Perdita’s eyes squint in suspicion, but her face slowly marred into a frown. She asked the maid, skepticism laced in her voice, "How do you know this?"

"I—I" Emily stuttered, realizing she had unknowingly exposed what she had hidden. She subtly bit her lower lip and made to reply when Perdita quickly interrupted her.

"Who are you, Emily?!" Perdita’s voice was no longer the gentle and kind tone she had been using, this time it sounded hard and demanding as she stared straight into Emily’s light brown eyes.

"You are not stepping an inch out of this place if my questions are not answered." Perdita further stated in a flat tone, anger slowly brewing in her chest.

"Firstly," Perdita began, "How did you know the piece of paper was bound with magic?"

"B—because it just happened before my eyes, My Lady." Emily’s voice turned low, her hands nervously holding the other as she knew there was no going back. She had successfully exposed herself, though it was bound to happen one day or the other. "Nothing can happen like that if it is not magic."

"Okay," Perdita exhaled, she noticed how Emily had easily woven out of that question. She went on to ask, "I suppose you also know what happened to your palm? No, not what happened, I mean you know the reason behind what is on your palm, the mark, and you also know what it means?"

"Don’t you dare lie to me, Emily. I want nothing but the truth."

"Yes, My Lady," Emily replied, her head bowed and not daring to meet Perdita’s gaze.

"I knew it!" Perdita exclaimed and exhaled in exasperation. She pinched her forehead, feeling as if she would go mad because of everything happening. To say she wasn’t scared of what Emily was going to say was an understatement. But although she was terrified, she still wanted to know what Emily was hiding. "Go on, Emily, I am listening."

Emily slowly raised her head to look at Perdita before she hesitantly began to speak, "About what happened to my palm, My Lady, is called the mark of identity and it is also related to you"

"Related to me?" Perdita quizzed and waved her hand for Emily to continue.

"Yes, My Lady. It is related to you. Please believe me on whatever I say to you, I wouldn’t dare lie to you."

"Believing you lies in the authenticity of what leaves your lips." Perdita swiftly replied, her green eyes staring intently at Emily. Who would have thought that Emily was hiding something? She always looked too innocent to be suspected. Perhaps, the innocent-looking ones were the ones to be wary of.

The look in Emily’s eyes dimmed as what Perdita said pricked her heart. Her Lady was now suspicious of her. She swallowed the bitter feeling as she went on to speak, but just then, the door clicked open and the King walked in, his aura invoking fear into Emily’s body.

"Greetings, Your Majesty," Emily quickly bowed her head in greeting as soon as she saw Sthena walk in.

"I was beginning to wonder if there was a screaming contest going on, but oh, you two are merely conversing, happily, or should I should call it an intense moment?" Sthena drawled as his red eyes went from Perdita to Emily and then back at Perdita who he flashed a smile.

He asked her, "How are you doing, darling?"

"Not good," Perdita honestly replied, her face furrowed into a frown.

"Oh? What could be the problem? Anything I should know of?" Sthena raised an eyebrow and made himself comfortable on one of the chairs. He remarked as his eyes landed on the key on the table, "I didn’t know you two were practicing blacksmithing."

Perdita turned to look at the key once more, still feeling puzzled about how a mere paper could transform into a magical key. She said to Sthena, "Emily here has some confession to make, and we were just starting with one of the questions."

A look of surprise crossed Sthena’s features as he regarded Emily who turned more nervous in the presence of the King, her lower lip she constantly bit into at the mercy of her teeth.

"Seems I missed the beginning part of it all, but, continue, I’m a great listener and I’ll catch up real quick," Sthena commented and waited for the confession session to begin once more.

"Emily?" Perdita called the maid to resume from where she stopped. "There are pending questions waiting to be answered. You said that the mark on your palm is called a mark of identity and that what happened is related to me. Am I correct?"

"Yes, My Lady. That is what I said." Emily answered, her head still bowed.

"Okay," Perdita nodded, assimilating the information in her head before she asked again, "Secondly, before we go over to the crucial part, can you tell me how you are able to know all these? Who are you, Emily?"

The library room fell into silence, Perdita’s question silently hung in the air like a sharp knife waiting to slice through the air.

Emily raised her bent head, her light brown eyes swirling back to reveal a sharp pair of green eyes. "I am a witch, My Lady. Your guardian witch."