The Crown's Seduction

Chapter 23: No Ordinary Weakness

The woman's piercing and dangerous glare didn't escape Mineah's sharp eyes. Unsurprisingly though, that malicious gaze quickly faded as it was promptly replaced by an alluringly faint smile.

"Your Majesty, I believe that it's best that you rest first," Rosela pointed out. "You already look so pale and sick. At this rate, you might fall ill. Besides, the Coupling Rites is something that shouldn't be so carelessly performed with a human even on the best of days."

'This venomous snake!' Mineah inwardly retorted with gritted teeth.

Despite her seemingly innocent face, this Rosela was obviously scheming against her. Just reading the woman's thoughts was already making her blood boil.

The Coupling Rites, as its name suggested, was the equivalent to what a wedding ceremony was in human tradition for vampires. It was an act to formally unite two people as a legal couple in the eyes of both their kind and the Almighty, only that it was for their kind.

From what Mineah had read, the Rites involved vampires marking and drinking each other's blood. However, since she was obviously not a vampire, she would be given a choice on whether or not she wanted to become one.

Of course, such a privilege only applied if the vampire doing the marking was an Exordium, a Pureblood, or a Scion since they were the only kinds of vampires that had the ability to prevent their venom from leaking out of their bites.

If what she was thinking was correct, then should she choose to remain human, her vampire husband would simply mark her and drink her blood. Likewise, to complete their coupling, Mineah must also drink Nikolai's blood.

She opened her mouth to speak but she closed it shut when Nikolai spoke.

"The Coupling Rites is traditionally performed before the king's subjects in the royal palace of Valcrez. This is so that everyone can bear witness to the Rites," Nikolai thoughtfully hummed.

"Although, I wouldn't mind doing it whenever you wanted. Still, Rosela is right in that you need more rest after our long journey. We can discuss more about this later."

Mineah simply nodded. While her outward expression was one of calm serenity, in reality, she was already on the brink of collapsing.

Smartly, she turned her gaze away from Rosela and her thoughts. If she ever pushed herself harder than this, she would definitely faint in the next few minutes.

Still, she wasn't going to go without a fight.

"Since you're insisting that I need to rest, then how about we do just that?" Mineah lovingly hummed as she wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and leaned forward until their bodies touched.

She then weakly whispered into his ear, "I'm in need of your arms, dear husband. Carry me to our cabin so that we can continue with our honeymoon."

Despite her supposedly hushed words, she made sure that her voice was loud enough for Rosela's vampire hearing to pick it up. She didn't care how she looked at that moment. Right now, she was too determined in protecting what was hers!

Nikolai let out a chuckle, and Mineah bit her inner cheek as she wondered if he would even bother to play along with the scene she created.

"Alright, I shall go accompany my lovely wife," he remarked in slight amusement. "The rest can all continue with the celebration without me."

Without any warning, Nikolai then swept her off her feet in one scoop.

Of course, she swiftly took the opportunity to deliberately nuzzle her face into his chest. While it wasn't intentional, this could work in her favor, even if she was currently getting so dizzy that the world seemed to be spinning around her.

"Mine," he whispered.

Tilting her head to look at him, she had a faint smile as she whispered, "I feel sleepy…"

Then all went pitch black.

***

Nikolai gently placed Mineah on the comfort of their bed inside his private quarters in the ship. His face held a dark expression as he held her wrist. Her pulse was so weak… almost as if…

His eyes widened. @@novelbin@@

[Get me our best healer this instant!] he swiftly instructed his Scions through telepathy.

Something was wrong. This was no ordinary weakness. He knew that she was of weak constitution, but this was-

He turned when he felt someone rushing through his door. He was more than ready to rebuff them, but the voice that followed made him stop in his tracks.

"Your Majesty, It is I, Dani, the Queen's handmaiden!" the woman begged. "Please let us in so we can see to her!"

Sensing genuine concern in her words, Nikolai let them in. Almost immediately, he barraged them with questions.

Mineah's three handmaidens quickly checked on his wife's body using their medical instruments. After a while, one of them immediately fed her with some kind of potion while the other applied some kind of ointment on her arms and legs as she massaged them.

Frowning, he questioned, "What is going on?! What are you all doing?"

"Please don't be alarmed. Her Majesty is fine," one of the women, the one checking Mineah's pulse, explained.

"This is just something quite normal for her. She would sometime pass out every once in a while if she becomes too exhausted. The three of us are well-versed with Her Majesty's body, and we are trained to be her physicians should the need arises."

Satisfied with the answer he received, Nikolai no longer questioned the three as he simply observed them as they thoroughly attended to his wife. He didn't want to bother them in their work in making his wife get better.

After a while, the three women stood up, their jobs seemingly over as they turned to him.

"She will wake up soon after she gets enough rest, Your Majesty," the shortest woman explained.

Nikolai nodded, and once he confirmed that the three were done helping his wife, he commented, "It would seem that we haven't been formally introduced by my wife yet."

The three gasped. As if by clockwork, the shortest one with curly short hair stepped forward. "I am Dani, Your Majesty."

The two then followed, introducing themselves as Zaila and Krisha respectively.

Having learned their names, Nikolai nodded. "The three of you can leave now. Thank you for your service," he sincerely stated. "In the meantime, I'll be taking over from here. You'll all be informed once Mine wakes up."

As the three left, Nikolai's eyes lingered on Mineah's unconscious body. Letting out a breath, he moved to sit on the side of the bed, his hand outstretched to caress her cheeks.

Absently, his thoughts wandered toward the words he had received from the Seer of Ebodia during his surprise visit to the older man.

'I'm in no position to tell you about her curses, Your Majesty. Only Her Majesty has the right to disclose this matter to you. Even if you try to compel me, you will get nothing because a Seer is immune to hypnotization and compelling…'

Nikolai let out a deep sigh. "Curses…"

He was at least grateful that the Seer was honest enough to mention the word 'curses'. Or perhaps he was simply lucky enough to hear the Seer have a slip of the tongue about it.

Either way, it was because of that one word that he came to discover that Mineah was also immune to hypnotism and compulsion. She hadn't disclosed to him her every curse, and instead simply mentioned a particular curse when he clearly compelled her to tell him all about the curse that she was afflicted with.