Scomed Heir’s Second Life: The Rebirth That Made My Brothers Ween
Chapter 52 Night Of Burning Schemes
Sadie fixed her gaze on the rose–tinted gauze draped above the bed. For a while, the world drifted like smoke, then the canopy’s delicate weave sharpened and the room slid back into focus.
Propping herself up on trembling elbows, she drew a slow breath. “How did I get back here?”
She could still see Zephyr ordering his men to haul Madison away while the flames roared around her, leaving her stranded in that blazing hall.
Alexander’s eyes lit up. “Zephyr carried you out! You cannot imagine how fierce your grip was. When the physician tried to pull you from his arms, you clawed his forearm open. The blood soaked straight through his sleeve!”
Sadie sat stunned. Zephyr, ruthless to a fault, had doubled back at the last moment and saved her. In her fevered swoon, she had raked his skin raw, yet he had not lashed out or ordered her death.
She wet her lips. “He… He isn’t angry with me, is he?”
Alexander shook his head, still half shouting from excitement. “He has no time to be angry! Clifton told me the blaze was Gregory’s trap for Zephyr. Instead of killing him, the fire swallowed his own son and every henchman who had drunk that spiked wine. When Gregory heard, he fainted on the spot. Worse yet, because he arranged the plot himself, he cannot even demand an investigation. It is eating him alive!”
Sadie silently pieced the story together. Gregory had once injured Alexander. Zephyr, who paid every slight in full, must have seized the scheme, turned it inside out, and used Gregory’s own knife to cut away his closest allies–while ensuring Gregory could neither howl nor bite back. She and Madison had simply blundered into the crossfire.
Alexander lifted a small fish–shaped lantern, pride gleaming in his eyes. “Madison woke at noon and said you bought this for me. Sadie, you treat me far too well. Half burned alive, yet you still remembered my lantern.”
While he spoke, Katy and two maids slipped in with steaming dishes. The smell made Sadie’s stomach twist with ravenous need.
After downing a bowl of oatmeal, she looked up. “Madison is terrified of fire.”
Alexander borrowed a mouthful from her bowl and mumbled around the spoon, “His mother burned to death when he was ten. Ever since, just the crackle of flames turns his blood to ice.”
-Sadie’s curiosity deepened. “Is that why he’s so weird?”
Alexander lowered his voice. “Partly. You’re my sister now, so I can tell you. Years ago, the imperial government demanded each duke send a son to the capital as a ‘guest‘–really a hostage. Zephyr was supposed to go, but Madison slipped away and took his place.”
The revelation froze her. She had always known Zephyr treated every brother, legitimate or not, with the same protective hand. She had never imagined Madison would answer that loyalty in kind.
“What happened after that?”
Alexander spooned another serving of oatmeal for her. “Madison was only seven when he left. His mother followed to watch over him. He was handsome, made friends easily–princes and princesses included. Then, for some reason, the royal children turned on him. Over seven years, he lost everyone. His mother died in a fire, every servant who had grown up beside him perished, and at fourteen, he trudged back to
Chapter 52 Night Of Burning Schemes
Dwarven City alone through waist–deep snow. No one knows what he endured there, only that he came home different–haunting the apothecaries, dissecting corpses in the courtyard. No maid or servant in the residence dares serve him now.”
Sadie had heard the rest of the tale how Nicolas, disgusted, cast Madison out of the estate.
After Alexander left, she sat before the dressing table, staring at her own reflection as if it, too, were smoke needing time to settle.
Sadie had guessed right. The Gates clan’s private army had grown so formidable that the man in Jamore felt threatened. To weaken them, he chose the darkest method–crasing their bloodline, one heir at a time. That was why Zephyr and Alexander kept meeting with mysterious accidents.
Perhaps, she thought, Nicolas had not cast Madison out of disgust at all but had hidden him for protection. The mess inside that household clearly was more complicated than she had feared.
Sadie lifted her eyes to the bronze mirror. A girl stared back, soft–cheeked and bright–eyed.
Since her rebirth, she had plotted vengeance against her father and brothers, yet she also weighed the cost of her future.
She had once thought of striking out on her own. Yet, staying beneath The Duke’s roof promised unrivaled leverage. Even a casual stroll would earn her deference because power walked behind her.
People often bowed to power before anything else.
Yet, a shadow clung to the thought. One day, Zephyr would raise his banners against the imperial government.
If she stayed, she would share his brand as a rebel.
She pressed her palms to her cheeks. If only I had lived long enough last time to know whether Zephyr really fought his way into Jamore and took the throne.
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