In those few seconds, all her life had flashed before her eyes, from her journey to finding her mother to giving birth to her own daughter. So much had changed in such little time.

She had prepared herself for the worst possible outcome the moment Cyrus yanked her by her throat but the sweet embrace of death never came.

He didn’t let it engulf her.

“Let her go, father.”

Her eyes fluttered open as the air carrying his words gently caressed her skin. It was a voice that she had recently become familiar with. The burst of warmth she had experienced in that moment was enough to make her forget about the death grip Cyrus had on her fragile neck.

Despite being on his knees, Cyrus’ built was large enough to hide a fully grown human male behind it yet she was clearly able to see Felix’s shoulder-length silver tresses hanging over Cyrus’ head. His normally frosty eyes had transformed into a pair of dark rubies fixated on the back of his father’s head.

“My father is a powerful pureblood. Ares will not be able to defeat him with strength alone. You will be needing an element of surprise, a variable to my father’s carefully thought-out plan. I’ll be that variable.”

‘Is this what he was referring as his element of surprise?’

He had his usual impassive expressions plastered on his face, spare for his eyes which had failed to hide his agony.

“I’ll protect you and your daughter as I promised, but not at the cost of harming my own father.”

‘He said he won’t harm his father. Then why did he do it?’

Suddenly, a squelch echoed in the large room causing her to trail her eyes down to Felix’s hand. His forearm was buried deep into Cyrus’ chest. A frown settled on her face as she realized what had happened. Felix was holding Cyrus’ heart in his hand. He hadn’t detached it from its place but just a small tug and his heart would immediately lose its connection from its surrounding vessels.

She realized in that second that Felix didn’t intend on killing his father. He was only forcing him to stay motionless.

“Whatever happens, at the end of it all you and your daughter will be safe.”

‘Did he do it because I got myself involved in the fight and he had sworn his loyalty to me? Did I push him into sacrificing his last family member for my own selfish sake?’

A dreadful feeling settled into the pit of her stomach as this thought dawned over her.

In that moment, all of them had lost their composure, particularly Cyrus. She could feel his grip had loosened significantly on her neck and this had not gone undetected by Ares’ eyes. As soon as Cyrus’s hold weakened, she saw a large hand digging its fingers into Cyrus’ arm tugging it away from her neck. Before she knew, a powerful push was sending her flying halfway across the room, far away from Cyrus.

“Argh!”

A loud moan escaped out of her mouth as her shoulder made a painful impact with the wall on her right side.

Clutching her possibly broken shoulder in her other hand, she slowly stood up, supporting her weight against the wall before she turned around to register the events that had led to her present condition.

Ares was no longer on his knees. He was standing tall, his arm penetrated more into Cyrus’ chest cavity whilst both of Cyrus’ hands were dangling by his side.

Cyrus’ hold hadn’t only loosened on her neck, it had grown weaker inside Ares’ chest too, giving him an opening to free himself and grip his perpetrator’s heart into his own hand, before pushing Faith out of the way.

His actions had been too fast to be detected by even her. She could guess how Cyrus in his vulnerable state failed to see it coming his way.

To her amazement, she watched as Cyrus let out a small chuckle accompanied by a fit of uncontrolled cough. The shock he had in his eyes had vanished by now, replaced by an uncanny amusement. She was amazed at how besides coughing on the blood dripping out of his mouth, he was showing no other signs of weakness.

“Ignorant child, you (cough) n-never (cough) learn. D-Do you?”

The rhetorical question wasn’t directed towards Ares. It was directed to the remorseful looking silver-haired man standing behind his father.

“I’m sorry, father. I promised mother to stop you from causing any more harm to others.”

“Ha! … You promised y-your m-mother or d-did you promise the b-belov-ved who was stolen f-from you?”

A heavy silence fell over the whole room following Cyrus’ words. No one dared to utter anything. The only sounds that could be heard were low squelches coming from Cyrus’ heart trapped between Ares and Felix’s hold.

From Felix’s expressions, he didn’t look like he wanted to keep holding his father’s furiously beating heart for a single more second but he was unable to let go because of Ares’ fingers tightly clutching his fist. If he tried moving too much, he could end up accidentally damaging Cyrus’ heart, and that was far from what he intended to happen.

He was only there to save Faith.

His stolen beloved.

“S-So my intuition was righ-”

He could barely let out another word before he erupted into another coughing fit, spitting out more blood out of his gasping mouth.

‘His lungs seem to be damaged badly.’

His breathing had become labored and as his heart was not functioning properly, there was not enough blood supply to his body to help heal his wounds quickly.

“Y-You... w-were never e-even able t-to stand for y-your m-mother. W-Who would b-be m-more important t-to you than h-her to m-make you a-act this way…”

She felt the air in the room shifting. The aura surrounding Ares had become murderous. He had been fighting previously for his people but it had become personal now. She couldn’t see Ares’ face from the distance. His side was facing her, but the way his body had stiffened she knew he had picked onto Cyrus’ words

The animal residing inside him had broken out of his cage.

“Move.”

The command was directed towards Felix.

Slowly, she was watched with a bated breath as Ares’ blood covered hand slid out of Cyrus’ chest.

“Move!”

The order came out much more powerful the second time, making her resist the urge to cower back into the wall. It wasn’t her husband’s voice. It was the Vampire King addressing them.

Reluctantly, Felix, too, took his arm out of his father’s chest, stepping away from the fight.

“Are-”

Her call to Ares soon turned into a horrified gasp as she saw him piercing his own chest with his hand. In no time, a stream of blood started pouring out of his mouth, forming a puddle near his feet similar to the one near Cyrus’ knees.

“N-Now b-both you and I stand on the s-same ground. F-Fight me n-now.”

Ares’ challenge was met with a loud cackle from Cyrus’ side.

“Should’ve k-killed me when you had the chance, nephew.”

His words had come out in a much better manner letting her know that his speed-healing had already kicked into place.

They were not on the same level. Cyrus was already getting better.

She was still registering the situation in her head when she saw a blob of color running towards Ares. Barely dodging the attack in time, Ares turned around to kick Cyrus from behind but instead was met with his attacker already breathing down his neck.

Without wasting another second, Cyrus jabbed his finger inside the hole in Ares’ chest. His mother’s killer would’ve been successful in ripping his heart out too if he hadn’t acted fast enough by going for his Uncle’s carotid. Burying his fangs in Cyrus’ neck, he tore his carotid open, spilling blood everywhere. The stream of it went so high, she felt like she was looking at a fountain of blood.

The blood loss had made Cyrus dizzy making him stumble back on his feet. She knew it was not going to kill him but it was enough to weaken him. Vampires could only be killed by damaging their hearts either with a stake or ripping it out or by burning them alive.

Without wasting another second, Ares shoved his hand inside Cyrus’ chest inciting a squelching sound from under his ribcage. For the second time in that night she watched as Cyrus’ eyes widened.

“No!”

Felix, who had been standing silently in a corner, rushed forward to kneel before Ares. His king was seconds away from crushing his father’s heart.

“Ares Alexandros King, I pledge my loyalty to you. Please release my father as I have helped you release your queen from his grasp before. Please, I… beg you.”

Felix’ words didn’t seem to have any effect on Ares as his he kept looking at Cyrus with a crazed look in his eyes.

“He-We will not bother you again, my king. I’ve already sworn my loyalty to you.”

“What does loyalty mean to a bastard like him?!”

His roaring voice resounded through the empty halls mixed with a series of squelches as he tightened his hold on his uncle’s already damaged heart.

“He killed my mother. He stole my father’s love from my life. He hanged Deborah. All my life, he made sure to shut every door in my path that had allowed the tiniest ray of warmth to crawl inside my hollow shell.”

His words were empty of any emotions yet they didn’t fail to tug at the strings of her heart.

“He does not deserve forgiveness.”

Cyrus had gone limp by now. His blood supply had been compromised too much for him to stay awake. Felix on the other hand was staring down helplessly at his father’s unconscious figure hanging from Ares’ arm.

“He saved me. I owe him my life. Besides him, who else do I have in my life?”

She remembered how highly Felix had been speaking of Cyrus. He really did not have anyone in his life besides Cyrus, neither his mother nor his… beloved.

“Stop, Ares. Release him, please.”

She didn’t want to yet she found herself uttering those words.

The animalistic look that had overtaken Ares’ face dropped the moment her voice found its way to his ears. Slowly, he turned his head to look at her standing in the distance, leaning against the wall while cradling her arm to her chest. The broken shoulder had healed by now, but the pain was still persisting.

Ares’ face was covered in his own blood that had trickled down into his eyes, making his gaze appear bloodshot whilst the rest of his face was painted with splashed blood from Cyrus’ torn carotid. She had once described his eyes as the canvas of a mad artist, torn between painting the coolness of a shadowy forest or letting the fall suck the life out of it.

It looked like the fall had won the battle after all. Every trace of life had been sucked from those beautiful emeralds.

“Please, Ares. For my sake, let him go.”

Suddenly Ares let out a thundering growl. The sound of it was too terrifying, making her lower her head in submission immediately. It had happened subconsciously and as she looked at Felix from the corner of her eye, she found his head in a similar position as hers. The air of authority surrounding Ares was too strong.

After a little pause a thudding sound incited her to look up again.

Ares had dropped Cyrus’s large built on the ground.

“You can go with him, too.”

The smile that was forming on her lips dropped as she heard him mumble his next words,

“My child… I do not blame you for getting rid of it.”

“What?”

Her eyebrows furrowed as she started taking small steps in his direction while staring blankly at him.

‘He thinks I got rid of the baby?’

“I married you as a human but since the day you turned into a vampire, I had been afraid of your real beloved showing up. I had been afraid of you abandoning our child, developing hatred for both of us but never in my wildest dream did I imagine it to be… him. Maybe this is my punishment for wrongly harming a soul. Maybe I’m the hunter after all.”

‘Did Henry find out about Felix’s side of the story as well?’

“Go, I will not stop you. I hold no right to.”

She could see him trying to turn his emotions off, just like his father had done once.

“So you’re giving up on me, just like that?”

“What else I ought to do? Cage you against your will like an animal?”

She could see traces of the medieval Ares peeking through the cracks around his newly formed shell.

“And you know what my will is?”

Closing the distance between them in large strides, she was now standing right before him.

“Your will…the child is no more.”

Despite trying his best to appear impassive, his voice had cracked while saying that sentence.

“Aria Antanasia King.”

“Huh?”

As soon as he comprehended the meaning behind her words, his dead eyes lit up with a small hope as an incoherent sound found its way out of his parted lips.

“She is ali-”

His voice was cut short by her terrifying scream as she sensed Cyrus’ sinister presence peaking from behind Ares’s head. He had penetrated Ares’ chest but he was never able to reach his heart.

“F-Felix…”

Her trembling lips could barely call out his name as her horrified gaze stared at Felix hand holding Cyrus’ heart out of its rib cage.

Felix had stopped Cyrus from attacking Ares from behind.

His loyalty had forced him to kill his own father for the sake of saving his king.