Interstellar Beastworld: Raising A Cub With My Mummy System!-Chapter 63

Uriel stood up.

He stepped closer, close enough that his shadow fell over his uncle’s face.

"Watch while I dismantle every alliance you’ve made. Watch while your influence crumbles. Watch while your son rots in a cell and your wife realizes what you’ve become." His voice dropped lower. "Watch while I take everything from you, the way you tried to take from me."

Lord Varnak’s face was white. "You are a monster."

Uriel almost smiled. "I learned from the best."

He turned to leave, then paused. His hand rested on the hilt of a blade at his hip, though he did not draw it.

"How’s Varn?" he asked, not looking back. "How’s his wrist holding?"

Lord Varnak’s breath caught.

Uriel glanced over his shoulder, his gold eyes cold. "Though I may not be able to kill you, if you mess with me or my family again, I’ll do the unimaginable." He let the words hang in the air, heavy as the cape across his shoulders. "Best keep yourself and your son in line."

He walked away. His boots crunched on the gravel. The cape whispered behind him, a shadow that knew its master.

The house was deadly silent, Lord Varnak could not maintain the smug look he had for a few minutes, now it was pure horror.

Lord Varnak stood in the sitting area, his hands still shaking, his chest heaving. The front door had closed behind Uriel minutes ago, but the cold from his nephew’s words still lingered in the room.

His wife appeared in the doorway.

She had heard the raised voices from upstairs.

She had waited, her hand on the banister, until the front door slammed. Now she stood there, her shawl pulled tight around her shoulders, her face pale.

"Varnak." Her voice was soft. Hesitant. "Are you okay?"

He turned to her.

His eyes were wild, his jaw tight, his hands curled into fists at his sides.

"Am I okay?" His voice was low, shaking. "You come down here, wrapped in your shawl, and you ask if I am okay?"

She took a step back. "I was worried. I heard shouting."

"Worried." He laughed, a bitter, broken sound. "You should be worried. Your son—our son—has ruined everything."

Her brows drew together. "Varn? What does Varn have to do with anything?"

"Everything." Varnak spat the word. "If he had not been so stupid. If he had not tried to poison that woman and gotten himself caught. Uriel would not be here. He would not know. He would not have come to my house and threatened me."

Lady Serys’s hands tightened on her shawl. "You cannot blame Varn for—"

"I can blame him for all of it." Varnak’s voice rose, cracking at the edges. "Six years. Six years of planning. Building alliances. Bleeding that boy’s estate dry. And now it all comes apart because Varn could not keep his hands to himself."

She shook her head slowly. "You have been stealing from Uriel for six years?"

"I have been securing our future."

"Our future?" Her voice sharpened. "Or your future?"

He stepped toward her, his face red. "Do not speak to me like that. I am still your husband."

She did not back down. "You are a man who used his own son as a tool. Who blamed him when the tool broke. Who sat in this house for years, smiling at family gatherings, while you plotted against your own blood."

His hand shot out and grabbed her arm.

She flinched but did not cry out.

"You do not understand," he hissed. "You have never understood. Uriel is not like us. He does not care about family. He cares about power. About control. He would have crushed us eventually."

She looked at his hand on her arm. Then at his face.

"Let go of me."

He did not.

"Varnak." Her voice was quiet. "Let go of me now."

He released her. She stepped back, rubbing her arm, her eyes never leaving his face.

"You are wrong about Uriel," she said. "He is not the monster you have made him in your head. You are."

He opened his mouth to respond, but no words came.

She turned and walked to the window, her back to him. The garden outside was grey, the trees bare, the pond still.

"I will not check on Varn," she said. "He made his choices. You made yours. I am tired of cleaning up after both of you."

Varnak stared at her back. "You cannot just—"

"I can." She turned to face him. "And I will. You wanted power. You wanted to win. Now you have lost. Live with it."

She walked out of the room, her footsteps slow but steady.

Varnak stood alone in the sitting area, the morning light cold through the windows, the weight of six years pressing down on his shoulders. Uriel’s words echoed in his head.

If you mess with me or my family again, I’ll do the unimaginable.

He sank into a chair and put his head in his hands.

He did not know what that meant. But he was afraid to find out.

Lin Yue found Mira in the kitchen.

Not the main kitchen, the small one off the servants’ corridor. The one where the older staff took their tea when they needed a moment.

Mira sat at the table, a cup in her hands, her deer ears low. She looked up when Lin Yue walked in.

She was holding Auriel who was cooing happily in her arms.

"Madam."

"Mira."

Lin Yue pulled out a chair and sat across from her.

"I’m sorry," Lin Yue said.

Mira blinked. "For what?"

"For suspecting you. I thought you were the rat."

Mira set down her cup. "You were not wrong to suspect me. I have keys to every room. I know every secret in this house. If I had been the rat, I would have ruined everything."

"But you weren’t."

"No. But i was just too afraid to stop it."

Lin Yue waited.

Mira looked down at her hands. "I noticed the discrepancies about four years ago. Small things, not alarming. Supplies that did not arrive. Pay that did not match the records. I asked questions but I was told to stop."

"By who?"

"Selas. He said the prince had approved budget cuts. He showed me documents with His Majesty’s signature."

"I guess they were forged."

"I know that now. But at the time, I believed him. Why would I not?"

Lin Yue leaned back. "When did you realize?"

"When the good flour stopped coming. The kitchen staff had complained, so I went to Selas. He said the supplier had changed. But I had been ordering that flour for fifteen years, we’re practically family at this point. I wasn’t convinced so I called them myself."

Her hands trembled as she said this.

"They said they had not received an order from us in over a year."

Lin Yue let the silence stretch.

"I went to Selas again, but he threatened me. Said I had been here a long time. That I had a good pension coming. That it would be a shame if something happened to it."

"He threatened your pension?"

"He threatened my life, Madam. Just more politely."