The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 319: Slow Pace

Chapter 319: Slow Pace

Mineah let out a deep sigh as she watched Dahlia leave the throne room with a slump on her shoulders. She just watched her spend another day begging Nikolai to let her see Zoran. And once again, Nikolai rejected the request.

"I feel bad for her," Mineah murmured as she got up from her seat. "Can’t we try and give her just a glimpse, at least?"

"You know it’s not safe for her yet," Nikolai sighed back as he followed her and instantly grabbed her by the hand. This was their usual routine after court meetings, getting out of the throne room holding hands or with her hugging his arm. "There’s just nothing we can do for now."

"I suppose so," Mineah sighed. "By the way, Exordium Eva is still plotting against you. She’s willing to hold hands with anyone who can bring you down."

As per usual, her ability to read minds came in handy yet again, especially against someone who she believed could be a potential threat to her husband. To others, she might’ve looked timid inside the throne room staying silent and simply listening to others, but what no one knew was that while her husband engaged in the usual meetings, she too was busy reading their thoughts.

"Did you read all their thoughts again?" Nikolai scolded her. "You’ll exhaust yourself if you do this daily in court meetings, Mine."

"I only read some of their thoughts, so don’t worry," Mineah chuckled. "In fact, I’m only monitoring Eva at the moment. Still, something bothers me with Amed and his mother. Whenever I would look them in the eye, their thoughts... They were just too neutral, as if..."

"They probably have a gift to shield themselves from your power, Mine. Some could have such abilities among powerful vampires, protecting them from hypnosis and compulsion," Nikolai handily explained as he gently kissed her hands. "Again, I believe they have the ability to hide their true thoughts from you, so you might as well not bother reading their minds again, Mine. Besides, I have my men in the shadows trailing them already."

He then stopped walking as he held her by the shoulders to turn her to face him. Leaning down, he kissed her forehead as he said, "Again, I don’t want you overexerting yourself to help me against those who are trying to plot and oppose me, Mine. Your husband is more than capable of handling things. Instead, what I want you to do is to focus on your inner strength and find a way to contain and fully control the inner chaos inside of you while we’re still perfecting our plan to get those magical books to Devon."

He then added, "You see, those books aren’t even an assurance that we’ll be able to break your curse once we have them. So for now, you have to focus on not making that chaos take over you entirely..."

Mineah simply nodded. Ever since the day she told him about her not being able to bear him children because of the divine dagger residing in her body, she noticed how Nikolai became showier with his affections towards her not just with actions, but also with his words.

"I love you so much, and I don’t know what will happen if I ever lose you," Nikolai murmured as he pulled her in for a warm hug. "Just the thought of the possibility of losing you is already killing me slowly, Mine."

Mineah took a deep breath as she murmured, "Don’t worry too much about me, Lai. I’m still fully in control of my chaos..."

"But it’s still growing, right?" Nikolai asked.

Mineah bit her inner cheek. How did his husband find it out? Yes, she was able to control it while it was still growing inside her body, and it had even slowed down compared to before. However, while its progress was getting slower and slower, she was still unable to fully stop it from progressing.

"I marked you, Mine. While we can’t feel our emotions, that mark I gave you gave me the ability to feel the energy inside your body," Nikolai lengthily explained as he looked deep into her eyes.

"Right now, you have three powerful inner energies inside of you. One is coming from the divine dagger in your body, the other is your natural inner energy as a Nephilim, and the last one is the chaos within your body. Compared to the first two, your chaos is currently the smallest in terms of power. However, I can still feel it growing at a very slow pace."

Mineah was speechless as she stared back at him with a pout. All the while, Nikolai simply smiled as he gently pinched her cheek. "Don’t strain your inner energy, because the weaker you get, the more chance the chaos has to progress even at its slowest pace..."

"Fine, I’ll no longer read thoughts," she murmured with a pout. "Still, you should check on Raul today." Nikolai immediately frowned at her, so she quickly explained herself. "I noticed how he kept sneaking glances at you and frowning. He kept sighing often a while ago too, so I read his thoughts."

She then took another breath before she continued, "He’s currently in a dilemma on whether or not he will report everything to you about that secret group called the Hades Coven. He’s hesitating because he’s unable to dig deeper into the group, and he’s having trouble finding out who is really the leader of the group since all of their members and their leader are wearing animal masks. Also, the leader is called Fox."

"I see. I’ll let Raul be for now then. However, I’ll still make sure that he’s well protected against that secret group," Nikolai hummed as he hugged her and carried her in his arms. "It’s for the best. They might try something to manipulate Raul, after all..."

Before Mineah knew it, they changed locations. She now floated inside a sphere as she found herself in the pavilion at the center of the Corvus pond. It was her favorite spot, and her meals were clearly already prepared for her at her usual table.

"Let’s talk some more about it while you have your lunch," Nikolai told her as he gently put her down.

"Very well, but seriously, at least give me a warning before we suddenly change locations," Mineah pouted as she sat on the chair Nikolai pulled out for her. "Also, this place is near enough for us to just walk it. We should walk our way here next time."

"I love carrying you around though," Nikolai chuckled before he promptly dismissed the servants around them.

He then started partitioning meals onto her plate as he said, "I remember how my brother Raul wanted to play with me one time, but his mother would always scold him whenever he saw him talking or getting near me. I’m glad Zaila is helping him out with that since his mother greatly wanted him to take the throne, and I’m sure that this Hades Coven will try to manipulate him into doing what they want. To that end, you must talk with Zaila and Niran and discuss further how we can give Raul the extra protection he needs without him knowing..."

Mineah nodded in understanding. She was already actively checking with Zaila regarding Raul’s condition. From what she heard, he was showing great progress so far, and he was slowly overcoming the trauma of his mother’s shadow. Truly, what the man experienced in his childhood was truly horrendous. She felt for Raul, but she was also at ease with the fact that his familial relationship with Nikolai was improving.

"Don’t worry, I’ll monitor Raul’s condition as well. I’ll also see if I know a few spells that can give him extra protection to stop his traumas from being triggered or used against him by his enemies," Mineah told him. "Still, I believe we should disclose this matter to Raul so that he knows what’s going on. We don’t want any misunderstandings building up between you two after all this time."

"Later," Nikolai replied. "For now, I’ll be going ahead. Don’t wait for me and rest early. I’ll still be meeting with your brother to discuss some plans."

"His coronation is coming though. If our parents find out what he’s planning and how dangerous it is," Mineah absently muttered. "For some reason, I have this uneasy feeling regarding this plan to infiltrate Helion, Lai."

"Don’t worry, Mine," Nikolai reassured her before giving her a loving kiss on her lips. "I can easily escape with Ezekiel if things don’t go according to plan..."

Instead of fighting him, Mineah simply smiled as she tried not to talk about it again, especially knowing how determined Nikolai was with this mission. Still, if there was nothing else she could tell him, then she had to think of something to make sure that she wouldn’t lose the two important men in her life... her husband and her brother.