Claimed by the Prince of Darkness

Ruelle sat in her father's chamber with Lucian next to her, while Lord Azriel had left to personally inform the king about Minister Sylvan and his mother, who had tried to break the treaty which was proposed by him and the Elder Minister.

Her father had stepped out of the room minutes ago. She had heard his voice through the heavy door as he spoke to the council ministers and other officers who had arrived.

"Something weighing on your mind?" she heard Lucian ask her.

Ruelle turned away from staring at the fire. "I was just wondering about King Septimus. Wait, won't the others be able to hear us?" She looked at the closed door, where she could still hear other people's voices.

"The room is warded. Nothing said inside carries beyond the walls, but sound from outside still passes through where you can hear," Lucian explained to her. "What about King Septimus?"

Her lips pursed for a moment, her eyebrows slightly pulling close and she explained,

"For a moment I thought he wouldn't exist either. Because he was the one who let me know about having another way to fix things... So I thought it would affect him too. But it seems like Hailey took the fall for it entirely," it somewhere upset her. Lucian didn't interrupt her, letting her speak, "There are some things that have made me happy, but then there are others where I have lost and I worry if I try to fix it, it will cause another tangled mess..."

"Maybe she is still around and we only need to look for her," Lucian squeezed her hand in encouragement, noticing the sorrow in her brown eyes. "It's been less than a day since we returned," he reminded her.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt as if the reason her cousin had been pulled away was because he had been used as one of the ingredients for the spell to be able to work. The function of the Boline seeds was to grow into a plant and create a connection of pathways through the dead.

"Lucian," she called his name softly.

"Mm?"

"Do you think... we will be punished? For changing so many things... for altering many lives," Ruelle asked him, her stomach feeling queasy at the thought of it.

Lucian's head tilted with a brief, thoughtful look. He then remarked, "Time isn't a judge as it has done its part. We are changing things to avoid mass massacre. That doesn't mean we're being punished."

Her brows remained drawn together and she asked,

"But what if someone suffers because of what we changed?"

"Then we deal with it when we find them and this time carefully together," he answered, his gaze remaining steady on hers. "We cannot preserve a future simply because changing it might disturb something else. Because people suffered in that future too. What we are removing are the causes we already know led to that suffering and Sylvan is not an innocent person, Ruelle."

After a pause, he then continued,

"If time intended to balance what you changed, it already began doing so the moment you returned here. Lachlan. Hailey. Even my corruption didn't return unchanged. It became something else."

Ruelle nodded quietly, finding comfort in his words.

When Carnifex finally returned to the room, he found them sitting close together before the fire, Lucian still holding his daughter's hand between them. He muttered under his breath,

"This is going to take getting used to."

Hearing the murmur in the room, Ruelle turned to look at her father while not pulling away her hand. She asked,

"How are things outside?"

"It is..." Carnifex tore his eyes away from their hands and looked up. "Under control. The courthouse is appalled that Sylvan would attempt something so brazen in public. No one appears to suspect the scene was staged. You are, after all, a human who looks six years old and was reported missing only this morning."

A smile rose to Ruelle's lips and she said, "Thank you for believing me." She was grateful. She and Lucian had sprung everything on him at once and, in the process, thrown the entire courthouse into turmoil.

Carnifex looked at her as though the gratitude puzzled him. He answered firmly,

"You are my daughter. Of course I would stand by you. What sort of father would not?"

Ruelle's smile faltered and she murmured, "It isn't always like that."

Carnifex stared at her for a couple of seconds before he made his way to where she sat and he knelt down in front of her. Meeting her eyes with his serious ones.

"I know I cannot erase what happened to you before this," he began, his voice low, stripped of the authority he carried in the courthouse. This was a man kneeling on the floor of his own chamber, looking up at a child who was his blood. "I cannot erase the scars. They are etched in you, Ruelle, and neither of us can pretend they are not. I would not insult you by trying."

Ruelle hadn't expected reassurance from him. Not then, not now. Because it was neither's fault, as this was something her mother had hidden. And she had already seen how her father looked troubled last time.

When she was about to say something, he said,

"But I can promise you this. From this moment forward, your family will treat you with love and not with pain. We are going to be a family and live together."

Ruelle smiled at the warmth in his words.

"Don't worry, Father. I've been fortunate enough to meet many wonderful people in my life. People who cared for me and stood by me, teaching me what family means." Then after a pause, she said, "About living together—"

"Amelia is more than happy to welcome you with me. If I am not wrong, she's already preparing your room as we speak," Carnifex responded. Even though Ruelle was an eighteen-year-old in a six-year-old's body, in his eyes she felt and looked little.

"Elder Minister Carnifex," Lucian spoke from beside her, drawing her father's attention. "Ruelle will be staying at the Slater mansion."

Carnifex regarded the younger Slater with faint amusement.

"She is my daughter. She will be staying with me," he stated.

Lucian's expression remained unchanged as he pointed, "She is soul bound to me and she will be living with me at the Slaters mansion. You are free to visit her."

The amusement disappeared from Carnifex's face and soon Ruelle watched the two of them stare at each other.

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