Chapter 28

“Well, that did not go as planned,” A voice says behind Livia as she walks through an empty hall on the north side of White Castle near the apartments that the king had assigned her to stay in for her duration of the trial. It was still early in the day but grey clouds crawled across the sky and blocked out the sun casting a grey shadow over the land below.

Livia does not slow her pace when Sen falls in step beside her.

“No, it did not,” She can only say with a displeased scowl on her face.

Sen glances behind them, “Your mother?”

“She went to bark out orders at the servants while they packed our things. I slipped away the moment her back was turned,” Livia says.

“It’s probably best you put distance between you and your mother. You had seemed ready to strangle her with your bare hands once you realized what Duchess Valentine had done,” Sen says dryly.

“It would have saved me a lot of headaches in the near future,” Livia says, not the least bit apologetic.

“I’m sure it would have,” Sen agrees.

They walk silently for a moment before turning into a dark and less dazzling corridor. A hall that only servants would travel. It was less gaudy and very bare.

“Where are the other two?” Livia asks after casting a privacy spell around them.

“They are already on the road. They are heading in the direction of your home,” Sen says, keeping a sharp eye out.

“Well, at least that is still going according to schedule,” She says, messaging her temples.

“Hmn,” Sen grunts.

Livia glances up at him, “Will you linger here a little longer?”

“Yeah. There is still some intel I need to look further into,” Sen says, casting his yellow gaze on her.

She nods, “Alright. I better hurry along before the duchess feels the need to send people to look for me,” She looks down the hall when two maids appear at the end of it. Their gaze does not turn their way and they pass by without ever noticing them.

“What are you going to do about being re-engaged to that pompous ass?” Sen asks.

Livia scowl deepens, “I need to sleep on it. My head is still spinning, I can’t focus at all,” She begins to pace while nipping at the nail on her thumb, “What the hell was my mother thinking? Better yet, what kind of dirt did she have on the king to convince him to do something so outlandish!? I’m obviously used goods! I have no worth in their eyes,” She grumbles to herself.

No monarch in their right mind would ever consider her to be the crown princess, much less the future queen of a whole kingdom when she was obviously up-the-duff with a child that she had clearly out of wedlock. And even if she had been a widow, she still wouldn’t have been glanced at. Livia was clearly off the market for marrying into most aristocratic families at this point. She would be lucky if a baron would even consider her as a potential candidate, and yet that foolish king went and did something truly baffling.

“Just what could my mother have possibly blackmailed him with?” Livia thinks out loud, her voice muffled by the thumb to her lips.

“That much is obvious,” Sen says, interrupting her musings as he walks toward her.

He grabs her hand and pulls it away from her face. As he inspects the small wound on her thumb, he says, “That king wishes to keep a firm hand on the pitfall you unleashed by your very dramatic return. No doubt your mother made some deal to help him keep it under wraps and not stir up any more noise or trouble that could sink the Royal house of Silvan any further than it already has.”

Livia snaps her fingers, “Your right.”

Her fingers sting and a small amount of blood was now smeared over them, but Livia pays it little mind as she resumes her pacing as the now obvious pieces of the puzzle fall into order in her mind.

“I should have seen this coming. If anyone can turn a disadvantage into their favor it is my mother. I just never thought she would have the gall to take it this far,” Livia says, her thumb coming up to her mouth again automatically.

Sen closes his hand around hers, easily covering it with his larger one and stopping her from abusing her thumb any further. He pulls out a small bandage from his pocket and wraps her thumb up neatly. He was used to bandaging up wounds. His own, and later, hers.

Livia puts up with it. Indulges him. It was only a small wound. It would have healed just fine with a little spit and some air, but Sen took his self-proclaimed vow to stay by her side very seriously. She wasn’t sure when it turned from barely tolerant companionship to ‘protect the idiot who can’t take care of herself’ (Sen’s words) but it had. It was almost amusing.

Sen was supposed to be the detached but dastardly sexy type with a dark and mysterious past. He was one of the few targets that took a while to warm up to the heroine. Along with him were Saer and two others. Out of all the routes, he was on the more difficult side. There was either the right choice or the wrong one. No in-between. Or so Livia’s friend had said. She never bothered with Sen. She had been quite loyal to Saer, determined to win him without stooping to cheating via the internet. But if it was anything close to the hassle Saer’s route had been then she knows Sen was not an easy target to acquire.

And yet here he was, standing beside her, alive and breathing, and Livia couldn’t care less.

Well, no.

That was wrong. Not completely wrong, but mostly.

Livia pulls her hands away from Sen, and he lets her. Then she reaches up and cups Sen's face with them. He lets her. She drags her bandage thumb under one of his eyes, frowning at the dark bags she finds there.

“Have you slept at all today? Your eyes are more smoldering than usual,” She says.

Sen snorts and pulls her hands away from his face, “Smoldering?”

“Mmhm,” Livia hums, “Your eyelashes are long and dark. It gives off a really smoky vibe. On top of your usual default glare, I guess it can be pretty intense. With the added darkness of the bags under your eyes, it looks fierce. I’m sure many people have swooned just from a look from you. Now they will probably faint on sight,” She tells him with a shrug and playful smirk.

Sen just snorts again, indifferent. If she was any other person, he would have thought she was flirting with him. But he knew her. She wasn’t putting on false bravo or giving a backhanded compliment. She was just stating it as she saw it. There were no hidden overly complicated feelings beneath, no unseen agenda.

It was relieving.

He never really put much thought into his face. Or how a good portion of the planet's population finds him very attractive. For him, it was just another tool he could use to his advantage. Nothing more. His face, his body, it was the first thing that registered to people, drew them to him. But it did not take long for his abrasive and aloof personality to drive them all away. Sen never cared either way.

He wasn’t lonely. He never wished for the company of others. He was okay with the silence.

When you are starving, when you're so cold you can feel it all the way down to your bones, interactions with other living beings fall to the wayside.

Sen's focus had only been on surviving. Once he gained control over his unique abilities, had been taken in, and offered a chance to earn money, surviving turned into completing the mission. Because completing the mission meant he got to eat, got to sleep in a bed, under a roof, near a fire.

It was probably small insignificant comfort to many, but to Sen, it was enough. He had not needed anything else.

“You are always so driven,” Livia says, and Sen only blinks at her, a little lost.

“Once you set your mind, that’s it. You just go for it, take the plunge without looking back,” She continues, staring at him intently, “I get it because I’m starting to realize I’m a bit like that too. Once something comes into focus, everything else kind of falls away and it’s all I can think about. To the point, I forget to do important things. Like, eat...and sleep.”

Sen lips curl up, “Are you really going to lecture me about taking care of myself? You?”

Livia waves her hand, “Yeah, I know. Pot and kettle. But you are no use to me if you are not at one-hundred percent, so, let's make a deal. If you take care of yourself, I will take care of myself. Ok?”

Sen just stares at her flatly.

Livia holds up her hand and extends her pinky finger, “We got a deal?”

Sen sighs and shakes his head, “Fine, whatever.,” His pinky curls around hers.

“It’s a pinky promise! No take-backs,” Livia says in a high pitch and childish voice, then snickers when Sen makes a face.

His finger tightens around her when she tries to pull it back, and Livia glances up, her eyebrows quirking in a silent question.

“You are going to take this seriously, right?” Sen asks with a grave expression, “I can no longer hover around you and play babysitter now that your status has returned.”

Livia rolls her eyes, “Yeah, Sen. I am. It’s not like I survived in a hostile forest by myself for weeks before you showed up. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. You know this.”

Sen opens his mouth to say more, an annoyed expression on his face before he closes it.

“No matter what, don’t trust anybody,” He says after a while.

“I know,” Livia says, “I’m surrounded by enemies. No one is to be trusted.”

Sen drops her pinky and crosses his arms, “Exactly. You're on a mission from this point on. Keep your head clear and stay on task. I will continue with my work and regroup with you a few days from now.”

Livia nods, “I will. Well,” She looks down at her belly, “As well as I can in this state.”

Sen's eyes drop to her stomach. He points to it, “That is another obstacle you will have to overcome. Your enemies will see it as a weakness. They will think you are vulnerable, open for an attack.”

Livia swats his finger, “It’s rude to point.”

“Are you listening?”

“Mmhm,” She hums, blinking slowly at him.

Livia managed to eat after the trial and had eagerly tucked into the food while ignoring her mother's look of horror as she basically inhaled everything that had been in front of her, but she was still feeling peckish and was seriously regretting wearing heels instead of flats. Her mind was still reeling from her mother's interference and it was hard to focus on anything but her simmering anger that lingered even a few hours after her trial, but at least she hadn’t resorted to physical violence so she took it for the win.

She wasn’t joking when she said she needed to sleep on today’s event. Her battery was running low, and her brainpower was stalling and stuttering because of it.

Being pregnant was too taxing.

Just standing took so much of her energy.

And Livia didn’t even want to think about how her magic has increasingly been fluctuating. Was that normal? She had forgotten to ask Beth about it before they had left and now is left wondering.

She had been fine in the earlier stages, all but buzzing with energy, but now she wonders if she has to regroup and take a second look at her carefully laid plans. Her mother already threw a heavy wrench in it. Would it be so bad to take a break? To sleep for a month or a week? Gosh, she was so tired.

Everything was so fuzzy-

No. Wait. That’s her-

Livia stumbles, her head spinning. She tries to straighten herself, to blink her vision back to normal, but it only makes it worse somehow and she trips over her heavy feet.

“You aren’t listening,” Sen snaps as he catches her before she can fall.

“I was,” She mumbles into his chest and squeezes her eyes close. Darkness was good. It helps.

“You’ve been gone too long. Someone will come looking,” Sen says. Though her view was obscured, and his voice sounded unbothered, she could still hear a tinge of worry in his voice. Her fingers tighten in his cloak.

He was right. Down the hall, voices picked up and carried over to them.

“Have you seen Lady Livia!?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“My, were could she have run off to so fast?”

“The duchess is beside herself with worry! That selfish girl! How dare she runoff.”

“Shh! Someone might hear you!”

Lynette’s personal maids hurried down the hall after glancing their way and seeing nothing.

“I need to go,” Livia mutters, and pushes off Sen’s chest to stand on her own feet. She messages her head with a grimace.

“Will you really be okay?” Sen asks, eyeing her while keeping his arms out just in case she falls again.

“I have to be,” She says, suddenly not feeling confident at all.

Livia takes a deep breath, and slowly exhales, and does this twice more with her eyes close. When she opens them again her vision is clear but she still feels a dizzy spell could hit her again at any moment's of notice. She grimaces again.

Could she really do this? And in this state no less? Livia could not help but think.

Whoever heard of a pregnant villainess?

What foolish thing would get themselves in this state and still set out for revenge?

Her, apparently.

Livia rubs her hand over her face and sighs.

This was her life now.

Wonderful.

“Livia! Livia, sweetie, it’s time to go!” Her mother's voice calls out patiently.

“Damn, she really is a good actor,” Livia says out loud.

And committed too. There was barely anyone around and Lynette was still keeping up her font.

“Livia,” Sen turns her physically towards him and stares at her with hard, yellow eyes, “Can you do this?”

She falters.

Livia hates it. She hates it so much. But for a second, she wavers.

Can she?

Could she really do it?

Getting revenge was never going to be an easy road. She was willingly stepping onto a path that might only lead to her destruction and ruin, but she had been willing to risk it. To gamble and lose, because she had reached her lowest breaking point and survived and she had planned to drag everyone who wronged her down with her.

But now that she was back in Wisteria, with her status returned and only hours away from seeing her sister again after so long, other things are brought into sharp focus.

Her sweet little sister.

Her precious unborn baby boy.

And even Sen. She couldn’t muster the strength to analyze the current state of their relationship but she can see the obvious. He was still here, after all, waiting for her to answer. Helping her.

Livia wasn’t the only person who could be hurt. She was risking dragging them all down with her.

If she lost...

No.

You will not.

Livia jumps. She blinks rapidly and realizes tears have been brimming at the corner of her eyes.

“Livia...” Sen's eyes soften a fraction and his thumb come up to wipe at her wet cheek without really putting any stock into what he is doing. His voice is almost gentle when he says.

“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have asked you that now,” Sen says, “It been a long day. You should go-”

"I can do it.”

“Livia...”

“I can. And I will,” She says with burning eyes.

Sen meets them with an intent look of his own, “You can’t go back. Not after this. Why not just live your life like a regular aristocratic woman? It would be peaceful. It wouldn’t be so troublesome.”

Livia sneers as she wipes roughly at her damp eyes, “Like hell, I will. Those bastards deserve to suffer. Every last one of them, and I am powerful enough and cunning enough to make it happen,” She hisses, “I’m not backing down. Not from this. Ever.”

“It could lead to your ruin,” Sen feels the need to say, but he doesn’t really know why. She was powerful, sly, crafty, and meticulous. If anyone was capable of seeing this through, it would be her.

And yet, a certain emotion crept over him. Apprehension, perhaps? It was a strange feeling. And even more annoying, it was persistent.

Livia lifts her chin, “It could,” She acknowledges, “But I will make damn sure that it won’t. I will not let them get away with it. They do not get a free pass to fuck me over and twist it so it all seems like a small insignificant mistake while turning around and offering me a hand like it is the most gracious thing they could have ever fucking done! How can you even ask me to just turn my back and walk away from this!? Especially now?”

“I know. I get it. I do. But-”

“But what?” Livia snarls, defensive.

Sen wonders why he even felt the need to protest. He understood her circumstances better than anybody on this planet. Livia was not guiltless and the farthest thing from angelic as one could get on this plain. In fact, he would go so far as to say she was the most bratty, highest maintenance, and the temperamental person that he ever met. But she had been wronged severely. She had not deserved what had been done to her. It should have stopped at her being exiled, but it had not. And now she sought vengeance.

Sen could sympathize with her plight. He could get behind her anger as a shadow of it bloomed inside him as well. He thought she had every right to seek retribution for the misfortune forced upon her.

But Livia was only a single woman standing against powerful men.

Her vengeance would be a heavy burden to carry, and the longer it went on, the heavier it would get.

She was still young, about one to two years younger than him, and already there was so much weight on her shoulders.

“You still have your whole life ahead of you,” Sen says and then grimaces. What the hell. What was he? Some aged and wise man who thought they could lecture the youth around him? Warn them against the dangers and risks of life? He one was one to talk. Not even a few months ago, he had been smacked in the middle of enemy territory, putting his life at risk just to share a few measly words of intel to his allies.

Sen isn’t surprised when Livia scoffs at him, completely irate.

That was the exact same reaction he had to those words when they had been spoken to him, not all that long ago, and they leave a bitter taste on his tongue.

“What the fuck, Sen,” Livia growls.

Sen groans and presses two fingers to the bridge of his nose, “No, you're right. That was dumb as hell.”

Livia lets out a huffy breath, “No shit.”

“Livia! Livia, darling, we must be going now!” Lynette's voice calls out, her tone sharp and less warm now as she wanders down the halls, looking for her wayward daughter. She stops at the end of the corridor they are in, staring their way.

Livia glares back at her unseeing mother before she curls her fingers and Lynette lets out a little shriek while flinching back, her eyes wide and fearful as she frantically glances around her while clutching at her stinging hand.

The light-headedness and nausea were totally worth seeing her mother scamper away abruptly, now silent and clearly spooked. It soothed some of her fractured anger.

“There. I bought us some time,” She says and squints to clear her swimming vision.

Sen eyes her carefully, his gaze narrowing, “It’s your magic.”

“What?” Livia says, turning back towards him.

“You went pale the moment you cast that privacy spell. The longer it went on, the more unfocused and hazier you had become and then you almost fainted,” Sen guesses with pin-point accuracy.

“I tripped! I did not collapse,” Livia protest while trying to keep her swaying to a minimum.

Sen scowls, “Right, and I’m guessing you are about to ‘trip’ again standing upright on a flat surface.”

Livia glares, “No.”

“Come closer,” Sen says suddenly, his gaze suspicious.

“What? No!” She shakes her head and instantly regrets it. Her hand comes up to clutch at her forehead but she continues to glare stubbornly at Sen.

“Come here. It just a few paces.”

“Fuck you, Sen. I’m still pissed at you,” Livia says, sounding more petulant than angry.

Sen rolls his eyes up, “Like that is anything new,” He mutters under his breath before his yellow eye-roll back down and pins Livia on the spot. The round, black, and human pupils he had been sporting since his arrival in Wisteria slowly lengthen into a feline slit, and then his expression flattens.

“Come here, Livia,” He says in a low rumble.

Livia's feet move before her brain can catch up to her body, and she tries to close the distance between her and Sen, but she gets as far as two steps before the world turns on its axis and her late breakfast tries to re-enter the world. She covers her mouth as her feet tangle underneath her, and she tips forward.

Predictably, she meets the warm mass of Sen's chest and not the cold unforgiven floor.

“See? That wasn’t so hard,” Sen taunts.

“Urgh,” Is all Livia can reply, silently fuming.

Sen mockingly pets her hair, “There, there. Everything will be alright.”

Once she got her nausea back under control, she grumbles, “I despise you.”

“Yes, but I’m the one doing all the heavy lifting for you. Got to count for something,” Sen snips.

Livia attempts to detach herself from Sen, to stand on her under her own weight, but only gets as far as lifting up her head to properly level a glare at him.

“I’m fine,” She insists despite everything pointing to the exact opposite.

Sen nods his head, his gaze sardonic, “Hmn, I can see that for myself. Feel free to detach your heavy person from me at any time. Holding up two people is tiring...that is unless you can’t?”

“I can,” Livia says instantly.

Sen removes his hands from her shoulders, a silent signal for her to release him.

She doesn’t move. Her glare only grows more intense.

“Right. As I thought,” He says, not the least bit happy to be proven right.

Livia looks away, “It’s the stupid spell. It’s draining me.”

“I figured as much,” Sen says, his tone gruff, “You need to get some rest. Recuperate and gather your strength. No one can see you like this.”

“Stop lecturing me, Sen. I know, alright? You can drop it now,” She says, finally able to put a bit of distance between them. Her hand drops from his chest to grip loosely at his bicep.

“No. I can’t.”

Livia's eyes shoot up, her mouth opening.

“No. Shut up. You’ve said your piece, now I get to say mine,” Sen says, glaring.

Her mouth closes, but her pretty face was still marked with displeasure.

Sen sighs and takes a moment to piece his thoughts together while Livia was being silent and not her usual disputant and vocal self.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” Sen says the words as they form in his head.

Livia's head tilts as she stares at him oddly, “I’m aware. Hence, you being here. As well as the other two.”

She thought he was stating the obvious.

“That isn’t what I meant.”

Livia's eyes flicker back towards the hallway, a bit disinterested, “Then what do you mean, Sen?”

He steps closer to her, pulling her gaze back to him, “I mean, that you can put more distance between you and your schemes. You don’t always have to be on the front line.”

“But I want to be,” She says, her gaze startling deep and unyielding, “This is my revenge after all. What’s the point of seeking it out if I don’t get front row seats to the show?”

“You can still view the show without having to dirty your hands,” Sen says slowly.

Livia only stares at him in puzzlement.

“Just...” Sen stops.

Just..lean on me more.

Depend on me more.

Stop walking around like you got the entire weight of the world on your shoulders.

He didn’t dare to voice his thoughts. He knew exactly how she would take it.

She would hate it.

Sen knows because he would have as well.

He starts again, “I just think you should be putting my skills to better use. You will be limited with what you can and can’t do from now on and won’t be able to move as freely.”

Livia stares at him, silent.

“...what?”

“Nothing, I just thought you were going somewhere else with this,” Her eyes darken, “Somewhere annoying and unnecessary.”

Sen's face remains flat.

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Livia asks, still staring up at him. Analyzing.

“Yes.”

“Okay,” She says softly, “I agree with you.”

Sens mouth smirk. The expression coming to his face with practice ease, “How gracious of you.”

Livia mirrors his expression, “Aren’t I?”

They still stand close.

They intrude on the other's space as if it means nothing.

Their posture is relaxed, casual, almost lazy, and if anyone could see them, they would think they were close. Maybe infer that they were in some intimate relationship, lovers. It could be concluded easily enough. Just look at how they gaze into each other's eyes. How they remain almost in an embrace when they could have separated long ago. They had been together for three months. They had time to bond, to learn each other's habits.

Surely, there is something there, right?

Livia's eyes say no.

Sen was almost fooled.

He tucks a strand of purple hair behind her ear. She lets him. He tightens his supporting arm around her thicker waist. She lets him.

Livia even smiles, like she is silently grateful, and her hand comes up once again to swipe gently fingers under his eyes.

“Get some sleep, tonight, Sen. From this point on, you're going to be a very busy man,” She tells him. Another smile.

He presses into her hands, almost nuzzling them, “I will,” He says, his gaze as flat as ever, “If you will.”

“A promise is a promise,” She hums and lets one of her hands rest on his shoulder and holds up the other while expanding her fingers. The red faded mark on her palm stands out in sharp contrast to her pale skin. She wiggles her fingers, her eyes darting to her hand then back up at Sen.

Her smile starts to slowly erode from her face but Sen takes her hand anyway. He slots their jagged red lines together, and as usual, it’s a perfect fit.

Their fingers entwine automatically.

The blood pact slithers to life between them, like a snake coiling in the dark, waiting to strike.

Livia squeezes his hand, “I better hurry along. By now, my mother is probably getting really antsy.”

“And more importantly,” Sen says, as Livia plays with his fingers, “You got a beloved little sister to reunite with.”

“That I do,” For a brief moment, something truly warm and blooming threatens to crack through Livia marble-like face, but before Sen could get a better look, it was gone.

“Are you feeling better?” He asks her after a while, staring at their hands.

Livia leans on him, tucking her head under his chin, “Yeah, I am.”

He strokes her hair as he rests his chin on top of her head, “You ended the spell,” he states.

“A while ago.”

Sen stares blandly at one of Lynette’s personal maids, “I think we have been found.”

Livia pulls away and turns to look at the intruder, her face equally unimpressed, “So we have.”

Goodness, it was the youngest twin, Tinnty. The one who loved to hear her own voice. The one that had loved to point out all the flaws in a little girl who had the small humble wish to be perfect.

“Tinnty, please tell my mother she can head for the carriage. I will be joining her soon,” Livia calls out from within Sens embrace.

Tinnty picks up her mouth from the floor and hastily bows, “Of course, Lady Livia. I will get right on that,” She says before darting off with a gleefully but spiteful look on her face.

Livia doesn’t watch her go. She stands on her toes, her face tilting up, and Sen turns his cheek towards her. The kiss she places on it is chaste and devoid of any warmth.

“This is goodbye, for now,” She tells him as they pull away, their arms dropping to their sides limply.

Sen inclines his head, flexing his hand, “Until then,” he says formally.

Livia waves and turns. She does not look back once, and soon she is gone entirely.

Sen turns his head, his eyes back to something resembling human as he tells a shadowed corner, “It’s rude to spy.”

He isn’t surprised to see the person that steps out of it and meets the distinctive eyes of the third prince.

Kolton tilts his head, his gate lazy despite his complicated expression. He looks over Sen's shoulder, back to the hall Livia had disappeared too before he turns his attention to Sen.

“Well, isn’t this an interesting development?”