Elysium: Desired by the Cold-hearted Princess [GL]-Chapter 328: The trapped abomination

E’s POV

I knew who Yuna was. Her name wasn’t strange to me, even if Electra had never called her a friend. She was always around, always sneering, always throwing looks that carried more venom than words. To Electra, Yuna had been a thorn, and to me, she was little more than a name attached to a body that carried hate in its eyes.

So when Roxana told me she was dead, I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry. I wasn’t human, not really, so grief didn’t sit in me the way it did in them. All I felt was shock, shock that a life had been taken, and shock that someone had fallen from the rooftop and never gotten back up.

It was more like being reminded of how truly weak humans were compared to me, and then came the bigger shock, which was the timing.

Yuna and Seraphina had both been hurt almost at the same time, and that couldn’t be coincidence.

I swallowed hard, my voice coming out quicker than I intended. "Weren’t Iris and that Yuna girl friends?" I asked Roxana, though my eyes flicked between all of them.

Irina answered before Roxana could. "Yes, or maybe not friends in the true sense of it, but they were close enough. Let’s just say they had a common enemy." Her eyes landed on me. "They both hated Electra, and both wanted her gone."

I nodded slowly, my thoughts spinning. "If they were allies... or whatever you want to call them, then doesn’t that mean Iris might not be the one who stabbed Seraphina?"

All three of them stiffened at my words, but I didn’t stop there. "If what you said about Seraphina being found on the stairway is true, and Yuna was found dead at the bottom, then whoever killed Yuna is most likely the same person who hurt Seraphina. Both happened in the same place, which is too close together and too close in time. How can that not be connected?"

Penelope sighed loudly, her shoulders slumping. "We’ve gone over it a hundred times," she said. "Every angle, and every possibility, and still... we kept coming back to Iris. She’s the only one that makes sense to us."

"That doesn’t make sense," I shot back, my voice sharp. "Why would Iris kill her own ally?"

Penelope shifted, clearly uncomfortable. "We don’t know, but then again, we don’t even know Iris all that well. That girl is a total psycho from the little we know, so we can’t predict what she can and can’t do. To make things worse now, she’s gone, and that says more than anything else."

My frown deepened. "What do you mean, ’gone?"

Irina answered this time, her tone calm. "After everything happened, we tried to find her to confront her. We know she’s also not human, so we’re no match for her, but we wanted to still ask her where she was when Seraphina was attacked and why Yuna was found dead, but no one could find her. Not a single person. She literally just vanished."

"Vanished?" I repeated.

"Yes." Irina’s gaze didn’t waver. "The last time anyone saw her was the morning of the tournament, but after that, nothing. No one has seen her since. We couldn’t possibly tell the school authorities that we suspected her since we have no grounds to, and no one has a clue where she is."

I turned back to the mirror, my reflection still staring back at me like a stranger. My phoenix form looked steady, but inside I was anything but.

Yuna was dead, Seraphina was stabbed and barely alive, and as for the main suspect, Iris, she was missing.

The whole mess twisted together into something ugly, and no matter how I pulled at it in my head, the knot only got tighter.

I let out a sigh and looked at the three of them. "What hospital is Seraphina in?" I asked. "I need to see her."

The words left my mouth steadily, but inside, I felt shaky. I couldn’t just stay here while she lay in a coma. If she was still alive, if there was even a small chance she could hear me, then I had to try, but instead of answering, all three of them exchanged glances.

The kind of look that told me they didn’t like what I’d just said.

Irina was the first to speak. "You can’t leave this room," she said softly.

I blinked at her, not sure I’d heard right. "What do you mean I can’t leave this room?"

Her shoulders rose with a sigh, as though she was already tired of the conversation. She looked like she was searching for the right words, but before she could find them, Roxana cut in.

"Do you and Electra share the same memories?" she asked suddenly. Her voice was blunt and direct. "And feelings. Do you feel the same things she does?"

Her question caught me off guard, and my brows pulled together as I tried to make sense of it. "Some," I said slowly. "I do have a few of Electra’s memories. I remember things from her past, and I remember everything that has happened since I was awakened inside her, but having her memories and being able to understand them are two very different things."

Their stares made me go on. "Without Electra to guide me with these memories, I’m basically... new. You could say that I’m a different person, and as for feelings..." I shook my head slightly. "I’m not human, so I don’t feel like humans do."

They looked even more confused after that. Penelope’s eyes darted to Irina, then back to me. Roxana’s frown deepened.

I raised my chin a little, my voice sharper this time. "Why did you ask? And why can’t I leave this place?"

Roxana exhaled, her arms crossing tightly. "Because, for starters, you’re a phoenix, and in Elmeria, a phoenix is one of the deities people worship."

That made me pause, not because I didn’t already know this. I already knew that I was superior to humans, but I didn’t know how to respond to that.

"So what’s the problem then?" I asked. My voice rose, frustration slipping out. "If phoenixes are deities here, then why am I being locked in a room instead of being respected?"

Roxana didn’t flinch at my tone. She only let out another sigh. "The problem is that the kingdom knows and is upset at your father since they know now that he broke a law that was never meant to be broken."

I stared at her. "What law are we talking about?"

She didn’t answer right away, and Irina did. Her voice was quiet, almost hesitant. "Electra’s father... your father... is being criticized everywhere right now because everyone has learned the truth that he had a forbidden relationship with a deity, and to make matters worse, he had a child with her."

My chest tightened.

Roxana added, her tone sharp but calm, "And even worse. He let that child—he let you—be raised by his wife as her own, even though you weren’t fully human. He tried to hide what you were, and now that it’s out, the entire kingdom sees it as betrayal."

I swallowed, the back of my throat burning as the word "betrayal" stuck out.

"Why is that betrayal?" I asked, though my voice sounded smaller than before.

"Because you’re not supposed to exist," Irina said simply. She didn’t sugarcoat it, and maybe she knew I wouldn’t want her to. "A human and a deity as highly respected and as powerful as a phoenix aren’t allowed to have a relationship, much less have children together. It’s been forbidden for centuries, and now that the truth is out, the people are calling you an abomination."

The word hit harder than all the others. Abomination.

"And now, they’re calling for you to be killed," Irina finished.