Chapter 27
"I think it is about time for me to take my meal away. She makes the perfect meal to consume for years. I also think that if I took her back, my king would accept me as well." The woman wanted to take Celia and show off what she could do.
'Wait, that means that I can meet Laonn again.' Celia was about to burn her before she found out that she could possibly take her vengeance on Laonn.
'What the hell are you thinking?! Do not think of going with this old snake!' Daise was annoyed that Celia was thinking about seeing Laonn again.
"If you don't wish to die painfully, then let her go," Sachin growled, letting his feral instincts kick in as he despised the snake that was keeping Celia hostage. He did not want her to be held captive again like she was with Laonn.
"She isn't even related to you. You have your wife and son over there that I will spare." The snake laughed and quickly escaped, going through the old orphanage building. Using it to her advantage while Sachin chased after them, she used the building as it started to crumble and slithered with Celia through the back. Using her hands, the woman broke any molding wood within the building to let it fall faster on top of the archmage that chased after her.
Sachin had reached out, attempting to grab the woman's tail, but had only scratched it with blood tracing out. "Celia!" He roared out before the building started to crumble above him. Reg held out his hands and created another shield, letting it surround his father under the crumbled building. The woman had slithered away with Celia in her grasp.
"Father! Hurry and get out of there!" Reg shouted at his father to get a move on. He did not have all the strength to keep it up. Grunting, he tightly clenched down his jaw to let himself hold the shield up much longer.
Sachin crashed his body out, dusting himself off while checking on his son. "Are you alright?" Sachin checked Reg, looking at his son up and down to ensure he was not harmed anywhere.
"I am okay. Where is Celia?" Reg was not in the old building to see what had happened, but before Sachin could even say anything. There was a loud infant cry from the carriage, and Lauro was just waking up to hear the cries of an infant.
Sachin clenched his jaw this time. "Reg, I need you to get your mother and Lauro back home. Tell Ernest to summon mages to my location. I have to get Celia back." As much as he wanted to see his newborn child's face, he had to go and save Celia. He knew that the chances of meeting Laonn were sooner than he knew. If he missed this chance, then he would lose both Laonn and Celia. 'I cannot let her go through his experiments again.'
"Father, please let me come along." Reg wanted to follow him.
"No, I need you to care for your mother and younger sibling. It is going to be dangerous when I find them." Sachin sighed deeply and knew there was a good chance he could get hurt or worse in this case. 'Not just that, but anyone would want to take control of the Maximus family without an heir. Only Reg can take over the family and care for Priti and his sibling.' Many humans and beasts would be greedy to take over his family and destroy it completely.
Reg clenched his fist, "Come back with Celia. She is like my little sister and my mother would not let you off if you die out there. She will get married to that human you hate so much." He tried to make it sound like a threat, but it was more like a way to encourage his father to come back.
Sachin ruffled his son's head, "I am not going to leave her to that bastard. Do not think that your old man is that weak." Sachin would then walk to the back of the fallen building, seeing the trail of blood. He had managed to injure the woman, allowing her blood to be something for him to use to trace her. He moved his nose to the blood, catching the scene of it as it made him growl. His feral instincts were strong and clear within his lion's blood. He slowly shifted more into a beast, allowing him to start running at a fast speed on all four.
**
Reg hurried back to assist Lauro back into the carriage. He saw his mother's exhausted look as she held his new baby sister in her arms. A little human, this time with black hair, the little newborn was sleeping soon after crying out. "Reg, where is your father and Celia?" Priti was covered in sweat from the recent birth, and she did not try to show any pain during this time. There was more guilt in her, knowing that if she had not insisted on going to that place, then none of them would have been in danger.
"Father is going to track the snake down. We have to get back home." Reg did not allow his mother to speak, slamming the door shut. He mushed the horse to start moving, controlling the ropes on the horse.
"What?! Your father is out there with Celia?!" Priti rolled the carriage window down, asking Reg who was steering them away from the crumbled orphanage home.
"We do not have time to waste. Father wanted me to get Ernest and have him track them down. We have to hurry back home before we are too late. We are against time now." Reg was quite the clever lion cub; most children his age would panic and cry, but it must have been due to taking after his father. He knew he was pushing the horse, but they needed to return home sooner. Ernest must have been back at their mansion, confused about where his father went.
The newborn had started crying in Priti's arms; she cradled the baby and tried to hush her. "It's okay, baby. We will be okay." Priti could not even think of what to do next other than to call a doctor and have them check up on her newborn. Priti wished that she could cry, but there was no time to cry—as if hope was gone. She could not do anything; she could not even track down her husband and Celia since she was still the Duchess of the Maximus household. 'Please come back safely.' She prayed within her heart, hoping that both Celia and Sachin returned home safely.
***
Celia could hear the rustle of the leaves and bushes around her, and the woman quickly made her way through the forest. 'Where is she taking me?' Celia could see the woman was fast, and she did not seem to stop slithering through the forest. 'I wonder if there is perhaps a location that they have or a connection way that Laonn gave them to communicate amongst each other.' Many thoughts ran through her head.
'You are going to die!' Daise was frightened, knowing the situation was happening to both of them. 'Are you stupid!? How are we going to survive? Do you know that if we meet Laonn, we will both revert back to being prisoners and lab rats?' This poor creature did not know that Celia did that all on purpose to come across Laonn. She believed she could stop Laonn now even though she was still only a child who was still learning to control her strength and powers.
'I have to meet him. We are bound to come across one another sooner or later. I would rather meet him sooner and get business done between us. I do not want to live a life in fear for the rest of my life. We have always been a prisoner since birth.' Celia did not know how long they would be traveling through the forest, but she could spot the trail of red blood that bled from the woman's snake tail that only kept squeezing her. 'That clever lion.' She smiled inside. There was no way that Sachin was going to lose their trail.