Arthav walked toward the garden with heavy steps.
His feet slowly led him to the rose garden.
He stopped in front of the same rose bush.
Which he tried to burn earlier.
His fingers hesitantly moved forward, then curled into a fist.
He took a deep, shaky breath, his gaze moving slowly around the garden.
“Every other rosebush had burned into ashes.”
“But this one… Not even a single leaf on it was damaged.”
“What curse was Ma talking about earlier…?” he thought, staring at the bush.
“What secret are you hiding… and why do you keep whispering to me?”
The faint whispers brushed against his ears again.
Arthav looked at the bush for another moment before turning away and walking back inside the mansion.
His steps stopped outside his father’s room.
“That room.”
The one nobody was ever allowed to enter.
When Arthav was just a little boy, he hid inside that room while playing hide-and-seek with his brother.
The moment his father found him there, he had grabbed Arthav harshly by the shoulder and dragged him outside.
Then he warned him strictly—and left him outside in the rain for four hours as a punishment.
After that day, Arthav never stepped into that room again.
Even though his father had been dead for twenty-three years, Arthav had still never stepped inside that room again.
His hand slowly touched the doorknob.
But before turning it, his fingers stopped.
Arthav gulped and just stood outside that room, staring at the door, then, despite the uneasiness crawling beneath his skin, he twisted the knob.
The study room door opened with a low creaking sound.
Arthav immediately turned his face slightly and coughed.
“They didn’t even open it for cleaning,” he coughed again.
“Mom kept it as it is.” His gaze wandered around the room.
The books resting on the shelves were buried beneath thick layers of dust, and spiderwebs clung to the corners of the room like old forgotten memories.
Arthav stepped inside.
He hesitantly took a step; beneath his shoes, several torn pages from old books were scattered across the ground carelessly, yellowed with age.
Then his eyes landed on something resting on the desk.
His father’s glasses.
Arthav slowly reached out and touched it.
He looked up.
In the wall hung a portrait of a man holding a brown stick, wearing a tailored black suit and the same glasses Arthav was holding.
The moment he looked at the portrait, a memory flashed violently through his mind—
Rain was pouring heavily in the garden.
And his father beating him with a stick.
His breathing instantly turned uneven.
Arthav shut his eyes tightly for a second before forcing the memory away.
When he opened them again, his gaze shifted toward the bookshelf beside him.
One by one, he began checking between the books carefully.
While unconscious earlier, he had overheard everything Kiara and Reiha were talking about.
He was certain now—his father must have hidden the journal somewhere inside this study.
He searched through the drawers.
Nothing.
Then his eyes narrowed slightly.
Inside one of the drawers was a hidden compartment.
He remembered it immediately.
His father always kept its key with him.
Arthav pushed his hair back frustratedly and started searching around the room again.
He was sure the journal had to be inside that hidden drawer.
He searched everywhere for the key.
Under papers.
Inside shelves.
Behind books.
Nothing.
Then he lifted the edge of the carpet; he thought his father must have hidden the key under it, but nothing was there.
Then something faintly glimmered.
Arthav looked at the chimney; inside the ashes, he saw a golden thing.
He narrowed his eyes and put his hand inside the ashes; his finger brushed something cold.
A small golden key.
Arthav immediately grabbed it and pulled it out.
For the first time in that merciful night, he found relief beneath his skin that now finally he could find that journal and all the answers for his unanswered question.
He thought that he was now close to the truth.
He opened the drawer first, then inserted the tiny key into the hidden lock.
Click.
The compartment unlocked.
Arthav pulled it open—
And froze.
It was empty.
Completely empty.
After tearing apart the entire study, he still found nothing.
He exhaled deeply with frustration, and suddenly that cruel ache returned again Get faster updates on g.com.
“Aah—”
His chest burned with the heat beneath his skin; he grabbed his collar and, without any second thought, he tore the shirt brutally from his body.
His heart beat rapidly.
The fabric ripped off beneath his trembled hand and his skin glistened with sweat under the moonlight.
He looked at the window; the reflection looked back at him unnaturally.
His vision blurred.
For a second, the reflection in the glass distorted.
He saw Reiha.
She was standing, wearing a soft green dress; the warm sun shone on her hazel eyes.
Her long hair flowed loosely around her shoulders.
She looked at him, her eyes filled with pure tenderness; love shimmered within them.
Then she smiled softly and gently.
Reiha’s gaze lowered to her fingers clenched tightly into a fist; one by one, she opened her fingers.
A faint light slipped through them.
On her palm a small black sphere floated, and yellow flames twisted violently like fire trapped inside that sphere.
His gaze shifted past Reiha and froze behind her.
A massive shadow appeared with two open wings and glowing yellow eyes watching him.
The golden sphere cracked apart—
Pain shot through Arthav’s head.
He grabbed his forehead instantly and stumbled back against the wall.
The vision broke.
His breathing turned ragged as reality slowly settled around him again.
He gazed again at his ghostly image in the window.
And then he saw it.
A long, dark scar had appeared under his skin across his chest, making it look like a crack was forming in it.
A circular symbol emerged gradually in the middle of it: a sphere of fire, incised into his flesh, glowing like molten embers, hidden beneath ash.
Suddenly, a shadow came crawling over his right arm.
In a few seconds, his whole hand went black.
The darkness unfurled itself and consumed everything warm and alive from his flesh like a monster lurking within his blood.
Arthav’s eyes grew large with terror.
“No…”
He violently shook his arm and started rubbing the blackened skin with his other hand, trying to remove the mark before it sucked him up.
His breathing grew irregular, almost frantic, and he scratched his skin so much that it was left with angry red lines.
However, the darkness would not go.
Rather, it spread out more.
The black marks were crawling up his body like shadows, over his chest, neck, and shoulders, and made his burning sphere at the chest center even more luminous.
Gradually… cruelly… he was being devoured by the curse.
Until darkness had completely covered his body