Don't be afraid, darling ✔[COMPLETED]

Chapter 35: Ugly Revelations

Down in the Underworld, Zorraine was having a tough time entertaining Jacquelyne's twisted desires.

Her screechy, throaty voice scratched at his eardrums as he breathed out as normally as he could, "Oh poor, poor Ren. You shouldn't have helped Christian to kill me and send me there. I would've gone easy on you if you hadn't."

She burst into peals of gruesome, sadistic laughter, her haggard face more alive than ever.

She loves this, thought Zorraine, I can't let her get to me.

He managed to muster a smirk, "I don't regret that one bit, Jacquelyne. And I'd do it all over again."

Jacquelyne stopped laughing in surprise. Surely, smirking must have taken up all of his strength given his present condition. That meant he could not have been lying.

"Oh Ren. But does Christian know that you only helped him because you were guilty? Not because you had some personal vendetta against me."

She flicked the chain binding her hands and the jagged rock behind Zorraine pricked his skin again.

Pain. Blinding pain shot through his already broken body. But he wouldn't cry out. He wouldn't give her that satisfaction.

He screwed up his eyes in pain and he almost passed out from the effort of replying to her, "Cass never found out that it wasn't me. He has always known that I had tried to kill him with an Undead to take his power..."

He paused, to breathe in as much air as he could before speaking again, " But it was him. Old Grandpa Nathaniel. You joined forces with the old douchebag to fulfill each of your own selfish needs.

"He wanted Cass and my powers to be his own. He wanted to turn the House of Avyanna into the House of Mantzari. And you... you only wanted my brother to be yours. Sound about right?"

Jacquelyn beamed, exposing her blackening teeth, "Exactly, Ren! I helped him take over your body so Christian would think that you had betrayed him. But..." her voice trailed off as she remembered Nathaniel's harsh command: Finish him.

She shook her head to push that thought away and continued cheerfully, "No matter! He survived! But you being the idiotic martyr you are, you finished off the old man yourself but never bothered to correct your brother's misconception. To this day, he thinks his beloved elder brother had betrayed him in a spurt of sibling rivalry and tried to have him killed."

Zorraine listened, bored. He knew all this already. But it was all the truth. He had been in a catatonic state the entire time Nathaniel had possessed his body and was almost crippled with grief when he came to know what his Grandfather had done.

However, Jacquelyne was wrong about one thing.

He hadn't helped Cass because he was guilty. He had helped him because he was ashamed.

Ashamed of having been overpowered so easily by Nathaniel. Ashamed of not having been able to fight him back when the evil mayor had tried to kill Cass.

The rage that had boiled in him because of that gave him the power to force Nathaniel out of his body and kill him once and for all.

Jacquelyn was annoyed at Zorraine's lack of reaction. It would be so much fun if he had gotten angry!

She looked at him with an evil glint in her eye.

"Let the real punishment begin."
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Kiara's POV:

"Nathaniel Mantzari"

Darren's shocked voice resonated through the room like an unpleasant echo. Everyone stared at possessed Cassian with horrified, incredulous and dumbfounded expressions. I could almost hear their thoughts: What the HECK?!! 

"Do I have to repeat myself, you worthless dogs!?" Nathaniel snarled, stamping a foot down on the floor, as hard as he could. Aeschylus managed to counter the attack by striking the ground with his staff, but Nathaniel's curse had already caused most of frontliners to drop to their knees, clutching their heads in agony.

Mel moved forward and jabbed her spear into Nathaniel's chest, but he flung her back with a simple swipe of his hand. She hit the wall with a sickening crack and did not stir again.

Darren yelled in blinding rage and barrelled towards the possessed Cassian, "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THAT!"

Nathaniel growled and grabbed an end of Darren's spear, which crumbled to dust at his touch, "You are only embarrassing yourselves! I have won already, don't you see? Kiara Carlyle! I know you are here. If you care about these imbeciles in the slightest, then be a good little celeste and come out here!"

His lips curled into a triumphant smirk. I recoiled at the beautiful but horrific gesture. Fear ran through my body, making me shiver. But I most certainly didn't want anyone else getting hurt.

I took a deep breath and was about to step out of the camouflage Uncle Ash had placed on me. But before I could do so, Uncle Ash looked at Nathaniel in disbelief, "How do you know she is a Celeste?"

Nathaniel's smirk grew darker by the second as he rasped, "How could I not know about the first Celeste born in centuries? I sensed her power since the day she turned sixteen!"

I couldn't help but utter a soft gasp. He knew about me since last year? I had seriously underestimated his power if he had been keeping an eye on me for that long being dead.

He threw his head back and laughed as the rest of us stared in shock, "You ignorant morons were so easy to fool, it was pathetic! And the boy was so blinded by his obsession with her that getting inside his head was cakewalk. I had never intended him to fall in love with the girl, but no harm done. Her power will still be mine."

Uncle Ash narrowed his eyes, "Wait... what do you mean you never intended him to fall in love with her?"

I was only half listening. I was numb and speechless from what he had just said.

Cassian was in love with me?

How was that even remotely possible?! He was a sadistic torturer! He didn't love!

But... could it be that...
He was trying to change himself for me?

However, before I could decide what I felt about that, what Nathaniel said next made me run out from the back, point at him and yell "LIAR!" :

"Who do you think made him return to Oakwood and fix his sights on the little green eyed beauty?"