Transmigrated Into a Cannon Fodder Phoenix, Stuck With the Ice Dragon-Chapter 120: You Created Me

Lucian’s eyes remained cold as they fixed on Severin.

"Your wife is not here," he said calmly.

Severin’s jaw tightened in anger, "Do not test my patience."

Lucian scoffed, disbelief threading through his voice.

"Your patience?" he echoed. "So the entire world is supposed to revolve around it?"

He stepped forward, deliberately placing himself between Severin and Arienne.

"My mother is not going anywhere with you," Lucian said flatly. "Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever."

Severin’s expression darkened, "You think you have the right to decide that?"

Lucian didn’t raise his voice, "I’m not deciding it for her. I’m enforcing it for myself."

The room fell into a dangerous stillness.

Severin’s lips curved into something thin and humorless, "So you’ve finally decided to defy me."

Lucian met his gaze without flinching.

"I decided to do that the day you replaced her."

"You know why I did that!" Severin barked.

Frost burst outward from him, crawling over the marble floor and climbing the walls in glittering veins of ice. The temperature in the living room plummeted in an instant, breath turning white in the air.

Most of the servants immediately began shaking, arms wrapped tightly around themselves.

Only three people stood unmoved in the biting cold.

Seraphina frowned, unease tightening her chest. This wasn’t just an argument anymore, it was becoming dangerous.

She turned and caught sight of the staff huddled along the far wall, fear written plainly across their faces.

Without another word, she walked toward them.

The moment she reached the nearest maid, Seraphina flicked her fingers together as though striking a small flame. A pale warmth bloomed in her palm... soft, golden and alive.

She gently closed the maid’s fingers around it.

"Here," she said quietly. "It’ll grow warm if you breathe on it. Keep it close when you go somewhere safe. It will hold against the cold for a while."

The flame pulsed faintly, responding to the woman’s touch.

Seraphina moved to the next servant and then the next, placing a whisper of warmth into each trembling pair of hands.

"Go," she urged softly, meeting their frightened eyes with steadiness. "It’s not safe here. Find shelter. Stay together."

One by one, the staff bowed deeply, some with tears freezing in their lashes before quietly retreating down the halls, clutching tiny suns against their chests.

When the last of them disappeared, Seraphina turned back toward the living room.

The frost was thicker now.

And so was the silence.

"Let’s go, Mother."

Lucian moved without hesitation, stepping behind the wheelchair and placing his hands on its handles.

"What are you doing?" Severin’s voice cut through the room, low and dangerous.

Lucian didn’t stop.

"I’m taking her away from you," he answered calmly, without looking back. "The only reason you’re still standing in this house is because she asked me not to tear you apart the moment you arrived."

The wheels rolled softly across the frozen floor.

Severin’s jaw clenched. Frost rippled under his boots as he took a step forward.

"You think you can just take what’s mine and walk out?" he growled.

Lucian finally turned his head, eyes glacial.

"She stopped being yours the moment you abandoned her to the hands of monsters. The moment you chose another woman and called it ’moving on.’" His voice hardened. "You don’t get to claim her now just because she survived what you failed to protect her from."

A muscle in Severin’s jaw twitched. He walked closer, slow and heavy, until the cold rolling from his body thickened the air.

"Don’t you have a mouth?" he asked Arienne coldly. "Is he your spokesperson now?"

Lucian tensed, ready to step between them but Arienne lifted her chin before he could move.

"My mouth works perfectly fine," she said quietly.

Severin’s eyes narrowed. "Then answer me."

Arienne’s breath misted faintly in the air, not from weakness, but from the trace of Alarion frost still inside her.

"You only ever heard... yourself," she replied. "Not me."

That struck something. A flicker of irritation, or something uglier.

"You didn’t speak back then," Severin retorted. "You didn’t even lift your eyes to me unless I allowed it."

Arienne exhaled shakily, but she did not look away. "That wasn’t devotion," she whispered. "It was survival."

A beat of silence.

Severin leaned closer, voice dropping into something darker. "You’ve changed. Did the ritual finally harden your spine?"

Lucian bristled. "Enough—"

But Arienne continued speaking.

"No ritual hardened me," she said. "You broke me so far, I had to rebuild myself from the pieces you left."

Severin’s expression froze.

"And now?" he asked softly, dangerously. "You think you’re strong?"

"No," Arienne answered. "I think I’m finally free."

That was when Severin lost the last thread of restraint.

He lunged forward and seized Arienne’s wrist, yanking her from the wheelchair with violent force.

"YOU DARE—" Lucian moved in the same instant.

His hand locked around Severin’s arm like iron, stopping the pull mid-motion. Two frost collided where their skin touched, hissing in the air like something alive.

"Let her go." Lucian’s voice was quiet and far more terrifying than a shout.

Severin snarled, threatening to rip free. "This is between husband and wife."

Lucian stepped forward, placing himself between them without loosening his grip.

"No," he said coldly. "This is between a tyrant and the woman he broke."

Arienne straightened despite the pain in her wrist, her breath unsteady but her eyes unyielding. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"You never owned me," she whispered. "You only borrowed my life... and spent it like it was yours to waste."

Severin laughed bitterly. "Everything I have is mine."

Lucian’s hold tightened sharply, "Not her, stop your nonsense."

The air itself seemed to freeze around them.

Severin slowly lifted his gaze to Lucian, a cruel curl at the corner of his lips.

"I suppose you think you’ve grown old enough... and powerful enough... that you no longer need to fear me," he said softly. The words were velvet, but the threat beneath them was bare steel.

Lucian did not flinch.

"You created me," he replied coldly. "Which means you should know exactly what I am capable of now."

Severin sneered and finally released Arienne’s wrist, letting her hand drop back to the armrest of the wheelchair.

"Ah... and you should remember something else," he added lazily. "I always get what I want." His eyes flicked toward Arienne, "Don’t I?"

Arienne swallowed hard, "Lucian..." she whispered.

Lucian leaned in just enough for her to hear him alone.

"Don’t worry, Mother," he murmured, his voice steady and certain. "I already sent your people somewhere he can never reach."

For the first time... Severin’s smile wavered.