The War Bride

21 | Love Within Lies

A range of emotions rippled through Dai Yichen's expression; from shock to disbelief and anger. His eyes traveled between her and Shao Wuying.

"A demon, you say?"

Shao Wuying's face drained of colors, realizing her worst nightmare had come to life; her human family knowing her true self. "N-no, I'm not a demon—"

"Shut up." The lord turned away from her, fixing his gaze upon Luwen. "You'll tell me, Junyi."

Luwen got startled by the way he addressed her by her name for the first time–even if it wasn't her real name. Warmth permeated through her heart, eliminating her insecurities. This time, he would hear her first before others.

He trusted her.

"Lady Shao is a demon," Luwen confirmed, hurriedly filling him in with the details. "There's a red stone embedded in her right arm. It's made by the matriarch with dark magic infused in it to hide a demonic aura. If you remove it, she will reveal her true self."

Fury ignited his eyes. He let out something like a curse under his breath, before leveling a murderous glare at the guilt-filled demon. His hold on the hilt of his sword tightened. "So that's how you entered through the protection wards surrounding this entire place?"

"Listen to me, Yichen–"

As soon as Shao Wuying spoke, she found a hand around her throat and a force raising her from the ground. She choked and grappled at his wrist, watching helplessly as he tore the remnant of her sleeve away and his other hand wrenched her bloodied arm up.

There it was–the magical stone implanted in her flesh. Gleaming ruby red under the moonlight.

A whimper slipped through her lips. "Yichen, p-please... On account of the years we spent together with your brother, please don't kill me."

"Kill you? I would love to burn you this second."

"Please!" she begged. Tears sprang free from her beautiful face. "I truly love your brother. I made a purchase from the matriarch because I wanted to be with him—"

"You seem to forget something," Dai Yichen said with a glacial smile. "Unlike my brother, I do not share his compassion. Your pitiful acting will not work on me."

His voice rose a notch, turning sharper and more enraged as he laid out all her sins for the entire clan to hear. "You lied to him. To all of us. You wore your arm in a cloth wrap because you told us you had a hideous scar, which you got when you were a child. You were the reason that Brother made that trip to the Nightfall Isle, which landed him in his current state."

Shao Wuying's face blanched in terror as Dai Yichen let out an emotionless laugh, clearly finding her heinous and disgusting. "Brother believed you were sick with an incurable illness, but that wasn't the truth. You've been feeling weak and unwell all this time because you forcibly hid your demonic aura, and it was slowly killing you from the inside. You're craving to eat humans. Am I right?"

His gaze wandered from her to Luwen, and he tightened his hold on the demon's throat until her face was flushing red. "And because you were afraid of others finding out your secret, you tried to kill them first. Despite my warnings, you wanted the princess dead—even if it meant setting her room on fire on the first night, or becoming her maid. Tonight, you attempted to kill her for the third time."

Luwen inhaled sharply, recalling her first night here at the Dai residence when she arrived as a bride. Now she finally knew who the culprit was. "That was your doing too?"

Shao Wuying's tears leaked from her eyes endlessly. "I did it because she was a potential threat to the clan. The matriarch might use her to kill one of you brothers–"