Dear Immortal Tyrant

Chapter 279 – Pitiful Queen

There were not many people that impressed Elias, but Lina Yang certainly did. He didn't find her as charming as his employees did, but he saw her as assertive. He could see the centuries of selective breeding flowing through her veins, but her intellect wasn't something to be trifled with. At her wise and sharp words, he bit out a small laugh.

"You know nothing," the King said to her with a slight sneer.

Kaden knew that Lina had hit a nerve. He was always intrigued by how well she spoke in situations like this one. She could effortlessly talk her way out of a kidnapping. Skills like hers could be used for police interrogation. Everyone would crack under her pressure.

"My wife may not know you well, but I do," Kaden stated.

The King narrowed his eyes. "You?" he shot out incredulously. 

"I do know that you could've become immortal," Kaden mused, his eyes flickering with the truth. 

Elias' wicked expression dropped. 

"The Golden Rose, I'm sure you've heard of her?" Kaden began. "If you had proceeded with the ceremony of the Golden Rose a few years back, you would've acquired immortality. Instead, you fell for a human girl and put her through hell just to acquire her."

Elias gritted his teeth, but realized he was revealing too many emotions. In a business negotiation such as this, he was losing. Quickly. Holding back a strain of complaints, he forced out a laugh.

"You two make it really hard to give you the antidote," Elias snorted.

Elias sharply crossed his arms, pretending the Immortal's words hadn't affected him. Truthfully, the words stabbed him more than a sword ever could. He knew this was the truth. How did the Immortal discover the turn of events? That part was as alarming as the memories of the past.

Elias was greedy. He was too selfish for Adeline's own good. Her love for him triumphed over everything. Every obstacle, every challenge, even if her pregnancy immobilized her legs, even if becoming a Pure-Blood nearly killed her, she remained by his side with a smile. He loved his wife with every cell in his heart. Some said he only loved her and barely his children. That was the truth. 

Through a horrible accident, Elias had lost all of his emotions. Sympathy. Empathy. Every little human emotion, he didn't possess them. But he learned. Adeline taught him—anger, kindness, loss, love, and the list went on. Somewhere along the way, his heart only beat for her. 

"I don't need your help in restoring my wife's memories," Kaden slowly stated. 

Kaden made no intent to show his weaknesses. His cards were still concealed. He always had the upper hand. Always.

"She may have amnesia, but I can make her love me again, through the same hard work I put in initially," Kaden deadpanned.

Lina frowned. She faltered and stared at the ground, feeling her vision become double. Her footing grew wobbly, but she forced herself to stand. 

Lina didn't want the King to think that his plan had worked. But it had. Her knees gave out and she expected to see the ceiling. Instead, Kaden's worried face filled her vision as he caught her just in time.

"You will give us the antidote," Kaden said in a hardened voice. 

To hell with hiding his cards. He was going to throw them all on the table just to save his dying woman.

"I have your wife and children captured by my men," Kaden spat out, his eyes flashing with danger. What was a few lives in exchange for Lina's?

"Your wife may be a Pure-Blood, but she was once human," Kaden continued. "Your children may have your blood flowing through them, but they're still weak and infants."

Elias' gaze flickered. He had trust in his men. They would not let Adeline be harmed. However, the confidence of Kaden's delivery made him falter. For a split second, he doubted his trust.

"Your threats are as pathetic as they are humoring," Elias spat, his mouth sour with venom. 

Elias couldn't afford for Adeline to be in harm's way. It was taking every fiber in his body not to violently react at the horrid thought.

"You're not the one becoming immortal," Lina wondered out loud, her breathing growing heavy. These two were beginning to get on each other's last nerves with their long monologuing and zero actioning.

Lina realized she had made a miscalculation in her previous statement. Through hazy eyes and double vision, she saw clarity in the truth. She thought the King was a horrible husband for wanting to outlive everyone. To see his children die, to see his wife drop dead, but that was not the truth. He didn't work this hard to achieve immortality for the wrong reasons. It was for the right ones, to save a human life like hers.

"You plan on giving immortality to your wife," Lina realized.

At this, Kaden stilled. His head snapped to Elias' direction, for it was a misstatement on either part. Elias' confident demeanor cracked by a split second.

Elias' smile faded, his eyes narrowing. "I should cut your throat from your neck. You speak too much."

"You intend to torture your own wife," Lina breathed out. 

Lina could feel the poison coursing through her blood. The delayed symptoms were rapidly building on top of each other. She bit back a pained whimper, for her bones felt like they were grinding together, until fine dust filled her blood stream.

"You might as well give her a poison  worse than the one you have given to me," Lina stated, her voice growing dimmer and lower.

"You won't understand," Elias spat out. "For you're nothing but a little human girl—"

"I understand how Adeline would feel. The pain. The agony. On both parties, as well…"

"I wouldn't know the pain, for I'd be long dead," Elias spat out.

"Of course you wouldn't. You're greedy. But Adeline? Adeline who loves you so much, you should see the way she looks at you, as if you could do no wrong. The Queen won't be able to part with you. After your impending death, she'd find a way to reverse immortality and kill herself."

"Shut up—"

"But she won't succeed. By then, she'd have outlived all your friends and hers. No one would be here to help her. People would call her a freak for being an Immortal. All of her allies would be gone. All of your soldiers that you entrusted her life with, gone. Adeline would be alone in this world, as a crippled woman who once lived in glory, but would end up at the bottom of the pyramid," Lina continued.

With her last, dying breath, Lina let out a laugh.

"My dear… pitiful… Queen."

Lina knocked out cold.

Kaden could feel his entire world shatter before his eyes.

"Lina!" Kaden violently shook her, his heart breaking into thousands of pieces. He felt a knife go through his chest, blood gushing from the spot, but when he looked down, there was no wound.

"Wake up!" Kaden let out a furious roar, like an injured beast. He could see history repeating itself before his very eyes. Fear like no other took hold of him. He resembled a madman as he shook her from every core inside of his body.

Then, Kaden screamed so loud, the castle walls trembled, dust falling off the marble. He hugged her to his chest, his head snapping to the fool that harmed his mate. No one would get out of here alive. Especially not the King of Wraith.

"Well damn," Elias sighed. "You two are the most dramatic couple I've ever seen. It really reminds me of my heyday with Adeline."

Elias reached into his pocket and pulled out the true antidote. "Your wife should consider a career in professional speech-writing, she moved even my heartless self."

Elias approached the couple, but paused. Kaden was ready to tear him into two. Elias swished the vial in between his fingertips, reminding the beast that this was the antidote.

"You'll need me to heal her. You can't just pour the antidote into her mouth, she'll choke," Elias said to Kaden.

Kaden's eyes glowed like a predator amidst a dark forest. The pupils flickered a deadly red, reminding Elias of poppies. As beautiful as poppies were, their poison was the deadliest in all realms. The gaze of a wounded beast who'd just lost his mate.

"Step aside," Elias softly said. "Lina is irritating, but she's good. I won't let her die."

Elias left out the part where his wife had taken a liking to Lina, seeing the parallel in their situations. He also wisely dropped the part where Adeline didn't know anything about the poisoning. She'd give him hell if she did.

Elias knelt to the ground, showed the antidote to Kaden, and allowed the man to take a whiff of it to check the authenticity. 

"If she dies," Kaden growled. "No one will live."

"Charming, really," Elias snorted.

Possessive leaders and their weaknesses.. Elias would roll his eyes if he could, but he was equally as obsessive over his lover.