Chapter 408 What Kind of Twisted Fate Was This?
By the time Zara reached the hospital, quite a few people had already come to visit Lucian.
Once everyone had left and the door was closed, Lucian asked, "What did you find out?"
Zara cleared her throat. "I found something important. It's about why you keep passing out."
Lucian looked surprised. "How did you find that out?"
How could Zara's father possibly know anything about his sudden blackouts?
[Well, I asked, and he told me.]
Since she was about to reveal everything anyway, Zara no longer cared whether Lucian heard that thought.
She told him the entire conversation she had had with Owen.
Lucian was thoroughly stunned.
He had never imagined that his connection with Zara had begun when they were children.
What a twisted fate.
Then something occurred to him. "My grandmother said I was always weak and sickly as a child..."
The story had seemed so strange that he had sent people to investigate it. But too much time had passed, and they had never uncovered anything useful.
So this had been the truth waiting for him all along?
The mysterious people his parents had met when he was young had been Zara's parents, the Holy Sovereign and Holy Consort of the Divine World.
While Lucian was speaking, Zara noticed a dark glow seeping from the side of his neck.
It was bright enough to show even through his clothes.
She instinctively reached toward him. Lucian tilted his head away, and their eyes met.
Zara paused. "Well... Your neck is glowing."
Lucian fell silent.
His body went slightly rigid.
Zara pulled his collar aside and saw that the black wing-shaped mark was pulsing as though it were vibrating, giving off flashes of dark light at a steady rhythm.
The glow itself was black, but every pulse stood out sharply.
Lucian looked at Zara, whose bright eyes were fixed on his neck.
When he spoke, his voice was calm and distant. "If you reclaim your power, I'll die?"
"Don't say things like that," Zara replied immediately. "I'm not letting you die. It doesn't matter whether I ever get that power back."
Lucian fell silent.
His heart jolted.
He had not expected Zara to say something like that.
After a moment, he gave a quiet, disbelieving laugh. "It's your power."
"So what? I'm already strong enough," Zara said. "You're still a human life."
Her tone made it sound as though she had said he was, at the very least, a life worth keeping around.
Lucian had no response.
Lucian fell silent for a moment.
His head was still tilted to one side, and Zara's fingers lingered near his neck.
Of course, she was only examining the glowing chicken wing.
The black wing-shaped mark was growing brighter by the second. Zara wondered whether that meant it was about to separate from his body completely.
Yet she felt no reaction within herself.
Lucian shifted uncomfortably. "Can you tell anything?"
"Nope."
Zara withdrew her hand and frowned. "This thing is a real pain. Looks like we'll have to ask Cyranth after all. The problem is, who knows when he'll come back? If I go to the Divine World and he shows up here while I'm gone, the time difference between the two worlds could make us miss each other."
Lucian lowered his gaze. "Are you sure Cyranth will tell you?"
Zara considered it. "Not really. But if I ask and he refuses... well, Soraya is still under my care."
Lucian fell silent.
Soraya called her Mom, for heaven's sake.
The thought made him scoff. "Didn't you used to spend every day hoping I'd die?"
Zara did not even blink. "Of course not. Why would you think that? Do I look like that kind of person? I'm not."
[I was blinded by money back then. Looking back, I was simply too impatient.]
Now that she already owned half his stake, she no longer felt quite so desperate.
Lucian fell silent again.
Zara might have developed more of a conscience, but listening to her still left him feeling strangely suffocated.
He suddenly asked, "What if I really do die? If I leave you my estate, could you actually take it without feeling guilty?"
He appeared to be asking seriously.
Zara answered with complete confidence, "If you really leave it to me, why would I feel guilty?"
Lucian said nothing.
Neither did Zara.
The room fell silent.
For one brief instant, time itself seemed to stop.
The look Lucian gave her suggested he genuinely wanted to strangle her.
Only then did Zara realize that her answer might have sounded somewhat heartless. She let out an awkward little laugh.
"That's not what I meant, Lucian. Nothing has happened to you yet, so stop imagining the worst. We'll deal with the future when it comes."
Was that really something a decent person would say in this situation?
Lucian felt his chest tighten. "Forget it. Just leave. I don't want to see you right now."
"And who's going to solve this problem if I leave? You're so ungrateful!" Zara immediately turned the accusation back on him.
After a moment, she added, "Based on what I know right now, I honestly can't identify that thing inside you. Maybe I'll remember something eventually."
Owen did not know what she was.
Zara herself did not know either.
That left them at a dead end.
Did she truly have to recover all her power before her memories returned?
But if that happened, Lucian might already be dead.
No one else had heard their conversation.
When Zara stepped outside, she found the spirits crowded together, staring at one another. They had obviously been trying to eavesdrop.
They might have been able to pass through walls, but even spirits had to respect basic logic.
A soundproof room was still soundproof, so they had heard absolutely nothing.
Robert was the most agitated of them all.
"Zara, what did you two talk about? Did you find out what's wrong with my nephew?"
He looked frantic. His nephew might be dying, and even as a spirit, Robert seemed ready to faint all over again from sheer panic.
"Well... Uncle Robert, you should probably try not to get too worked up."
That single sentence was enough to make Robert wail.
"My poor nephew!"
Zara's face darkened. "I haven't even told you anything yet. Uncle Robert, aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?"