Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 459

Chapter 459

Chapter 459

Natalia’s POV

+25 Bonus

I couldn’t sleep in this horrible place, so I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out what the ring did. It was so small and dainty that the ruby was hardly the size of a pebble. When I held it up to the dim light, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary; no hunger emanating from it, no light flickering within. Still, I had to try.

I bound it to myself with a tiny pinprick from my finger. Hardly any blood came out with how exhausted, dehydrated, and malnourished I was, but eventually, a single drop fell onto the ruby when I squeezed my fingertip.

Then, I slipped it onto my finger and focused on the stone, willing it to do something. Anything.

But nothing happened. Each time I tried, the ruby remained cold and lifeless. I began to wonder if it wasn’t enchanted, and was just a bauble.

When I wasn’t busy with the ring, I tended to my baby. She wouldn’t stop crying–she was going hungry. I tried breastfeeding her, but, just like my blood, my body could hardly produce any milk at this point. All I could do was hold her against my chest and rock her, humming softly.

That didn’t help, of course. She just kept crying. Her little face was red and scrunched up, and I could feel her ribs through her swaddle. She was getting thinner. Weaker. Like me.

If I didn’t find a way to feed her soon, she was going to die. And it would be a slow, painful death.

The thought made my chest tighten painfully. I pulled out the vial of poisoned water and inspected it. I’d poured most of it into the King’s cup, but there was a little left. Just a few drops, but it was enough.

Enough to kill a baby.

Maybe enough to kill me, too, if I drank what remained and didn’t make myself throw up this time.

I stared at it for a long time. Would it be better to die here, together, than to let her starve slowly? Would it be kinder to end her short life now before the King could take her and perform his horrible rituals on her?

I didn’t know. I just sat there on the bed, holding my crying baby, and stared at that vial. But deep down, I couldn’t do it. Not yet. Not while there was still a chance, however small, that I could find a way out of here.

I looked at the ring again. There had to be something I was missing. One of the King’s wives had hidden it here for a reason. It had to do something, right?

In a final bid to uncover the ring’s secrets, I channeled my energy, carefully, just as I had trained myself to do with the knife. My head swam from the effort, but I willed myself to stay conscious and focused harder. I pictured the ruby glowing, imagined that familiar hungry energy flowing through it.

At first, nothing happened. But then, slowly, I felt the ruby pulse. Just once.

The warmth was faint, so faint it was almost there, but I knew I had felt it. When I opened my eyes, the tiny stone was glowing like the red tip of a blown–out match. Still, though, I wasn’t sure what it did. I pushed my matted hair out of my face and straightened, lifting my hand and turning it this way and that.

And then I saw my reflection in the mirror across the room.

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Chapter 459

+25 Bonus

Except it wasn’t my reflection. Not really. The face staring back at me was… A baby’s, Round, Pudgy, Red and crying.

And the child in my arms no longer had the face of a child, but a grown woman. My face.

I gasped, rubbing my eyes. The vision blurred, then flickered and returned to normal. I feared the poison was taking its effect and making me see things, but the ring was warm, pulsing–so I tried again, just to know for certain, even as my vision doubled from the effort.

It happened again. Just for a moment, but long enough to see reality warp around me. I still felt the same, still felt like me, still saw my own hands and body when I looked down, but in the mirror, I was my daughter. And she

was me.