Back at the inn, the beasts stood out in the backyard, staring out to the mysterious light that appeared out of nowhere.
Each of them battling the horrors or joys of visions that played out. Samahita saw her fall from grace. The scene she witnessed didn’t show her how it happens but it showed her standing in the midst of a crowd, looking up at her sister who stood at the top of the world, crowned as the new empress.
She then lowered her head and stared at her body that had been stripped of her phoenix form. Even from outside the scene, she could feel the loneliness of missing her beast. The pain of knowing that she can never feel the wind kiss her skin as she flies in the sky, or the chill of absorbing icy essense from nature.
"Do you feel bad?" Theren came beside her, he too looked up at the awing sight of the seductress he’d known to be self-involved to the point of not caring about the world rise to the point of united all the clans of the beast world.
Not only had she united the broken nation, but she had also married into the prestigious dragon family, the Zhens. She was maritally related to the tri-soul mates and with the behind her as her support, she went from an irrelevant, overlooked seductress to an empress reborn from the ashes of her her former self.
"No, I am happy for my sister. She did it."
"I always thought that if one of you had to be queen, it’d be you," Theren said. "You were sturdier, softer, kinder and more considerate than her. So it makes no sense that she rose to the top while you fell to the bottom."
"It was destined to be."
She turned away and left.
The vision came to an end and Samahita stood frozen for a long while. Her breathing catching and releasing in a panicked state.
Her icy detachment cracked. She let go to fill her lungs with the air she lacked. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
All her life she had been the stable sister. The one who gave herself away for others, the one who trained more and cared about the betterment of the dynasty while Sheana spent her days lazying around and finding ways to ruin other beasts in scandals or leech onto beasts favors for personal gain.
It made no sense to her that not only doesn’t she get to sit on the throne and unite the free world like the astronomer prophesied at their birth but she also loses her beast.
Samahita wondered where in her path it had all gone wrong. Why was her fate so miserable and Sheana’s so good when they were born together and destined for the same fate?"
She inhaled deeply only for her anxiety to force her to breath out and clear her lungs. She looked at the bright light again, her watery eyes desperately searching for the light to show her what triggered her fall.
She needed to know what choice or path had she taken that sealed her fate to such a horrifying extent. However, no matter how long she gazed at the light, no vision showed up again.
At her side, Zeyron who had only come out to examine the light before sending word back to the king about it found himself unable to look away as a scene appeared in the light that felt oddly familiar like his soul was witnessing something that was to come.
"How can you love her? She lies to you, uses your kindness and acts like a saint every waking hour like the rest of us are sinner?" He cried out, eyes red and swollen as tears flowed down his cheek.
Zeyron, who didn’t even remember the last time he shed tears was stunned. He looked closely at the male beast standing opposite him as he tried to figure out who had the audacity to put tears in his eyes.
His hands clenched tightly. He swore that if he saw the face of that suicide courting beast, he’d put them out of their misery before they have the chance to make him cry in the future.
"I love you," the words flowed out of his mouth. "I have up my grand ambitions on the court for you. I know you deserve better so every day I make an effort to be better so that I can be worthy of you. Why can’t you see me? Why can’t you see my effort?"
Zeyron felt his brain explode. Gave up his grand ambitions? Changed for the better? For love? For a beast?
He couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. He looked at his surroundings, averting his eyes from the soul shattering scene that awakened his murderous impulses.
"Who the hell wrote this fate?" He groaned. He didn’t just want to kill the beast in the scene but the idiot that wrote such a disgusting fate for his life.
The idiot wrote him falling in love, that was it’s first mistake. The second mistake was making him love a beast that was already taken and worse, getting him to give up chasing power, wealth and fame in the name of something as stupid as love.
From the way he questioned the beast, it showed the the beast that the beast he loved loves was still alive which was unlike him. He wasn’t in the habit of sharing in general so why would he keep her alive? It didn’t make sense.
𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
He turned back and continued watching because he needed clues as to who the beast was and who he loved so that he can correct future mistakes as soon as possible.
"Why can’t you love me?" He asked, the hom outside felt disgusted to hear the pleading tone coming from his lips and his usually proud face that seemed humbled in the scene. "What do I lack, Theren. What is it that princess Samahita has that I lack of not for her royal birth and inherited arrogance masked in a kind personality?"
Zeyron’s jaw dropped. He felt like vomiting every bit of essense fruit that he had consumed.
Of all the beasts in the vast universe, he falls for the stupid serpent serving in the court. And worse, princess Samahita, the spineless ice phoenix was his love rival and he hadn’t snapped her head off, he felt disgusted.
His face contorted as he watched the vision disappear and the light return to being just that, a bright light enveloping the world.
His eyes darted to the side where he spotted Samahita struggling to breath, her eyes were wet and she looked like she was about to cry.
"She is who I have to contend with for affection?" His face twisted darky.
He twirled his head to his other side where the so-called love of his life stood looking sternly at the light. He ran his eyes over Theren’s body and appearance and felt like he was going blind from how ugly he found the snake beast.
"You reduce me to a crying, begging buffoon that thinks that chasing love and being a better beast is better than having power and money?"
He unclenched his fists. His brain already compiling the numerous ways he could put Theren out of his misery before the stupid beasts drags him down to planet stupid and distracts him from his ambitions.
"For my dreams, you’ll just have to die?" He let out, refusing to accept that stupid fate.
Theren felt his eyes on him and looked over. His body shook from the murderous fueled gaze Zeyron had for him. "Why is he looking at me all pissed?"