Chapter 138-Figure it out together

Chapter 138: 138-Figure it out together

"Addessa, are you in here?"

Maisa pushed open the next door and rushed inside, her eyes sweeping across every corner in search of the blackblood. When she found no sign of Addessa, she immediately turned and moved on to the next room.

One after another, she charged through the mansion without hesitation.

Her usual caution had been replaced by an almost reckless confidence. The blood pool had restored her strength, flooding her body with renewed energy and leaving her feeling more capable than she had in hours.

"Where did she go?"

Her search carried her deeper into the mansion through hallways and chambers she had barely noticed before.

At this point, it felt less like a search and more like an unwilling tour of the estate. She barely had time to appreciate the grandeur surrounding her before rushing into the next room.

Then she reached the library. The moment she stepped inside, she was greeted by the familiar scent of old books mingling with the subtle fragrance of jasmine. Tall shelves stretched toward the ceiling, their rows of books disappearing into the shadows above.

"Addessa?" Maisa called, her voice edged with worry. "Are you in here?"

She took another step inside and stopped. Someone else was here, and her presence was enough to let Maisa pause on her search.

Her concern for Addessa was momentarily pushed aside as her expression tightened at the sight before her.

"Lumi?"

The blueblood didn’t respond. It wasn’t because they were too far apart, nor because Lumi’s superhearing had somehow weakened. She simply wasn’t listening. Her entire attention had been swallowed by the book in her hands.

Her head was buried between its pages, long strands of blue hair spilling around her face, and obscuring nearly every trace of her expression.

Books surrounded her, and there were hundreds of them. Some were stacked neatly on the tables, others were piled haphazardly across the floor and benches, while several lay open around her, their pages covered in notes and markings. There were books she had already finished and others waiting to be read.

Maisa stepped closer. Seeing Lumi buried in a book wasn’t unusual. If anything, it was one of the most predictable things about her, but this was different.

There was something obsessive about the way Lumi flipped through the pages, as though every second spent not reading was a second wasted.

Maisa approached and lowered herself onto the empty space beside her on the bench.

She glanced at the open books scattered across the table, trying to decipher what Lumi could possibly be researching.

"Lumi, are you alright?"

She received no response as the nlueblood continued to read and tuned out the world.

Maisa frowned. "Lumi?"

Still, she received no response. She sighed softly before reaching over and touching the blueblood’s shoulder.

"Hey, girl. What’s wrong?"

Lumi suddenly jumped. Her hair bounced around her shoulders as she hurriedly swept it aside to see who had interrupted her.

"Oh, Maisa..." She pressed a hand against her chest. "You scared me."

"Are you alright?" Maisa softened her voice to come off as friendly as possible to get Lumi to open up to her.

Lumi’s expression immediately fell. "No... I am not."

The words came quietly. She closed the book in her hands but didn’t let go of it. For a moment, she simply stared at the cover as though the answer she desperately wanted might somehow be written there.

Then she raised her head and looked at Maisa. The concern in the redblood’s eyes only made the weight inside her chest heavier.

"I’m sorry about the attack," Lumi said. "It wasn’t my doing. It truly wasn’t..." her voice weakened at the end because the truth was, she didn’t know what had happened either.

She didn’t know what had taken control of her or what had attacked Maisa, and most frightening of all, she didn’t know whether it could happen again.

"It’s okay." Maisa kept her voice gentle. "I don’t blame you for what happened. I know it wasn’t your fault."

Lumi’s eyes widened. "That’s exactly what bothers me!" she snapped the book shut and pushed it aside. "If I wasn’t the one who fought you..." Her fingers curled tightly against the edge of the table. "Then who was?"

The question hung between them. Lumi’s mind returned to the moment everything had gone wrong.

The last thing she remembered before the incident was preparing to head to the training grounds with Maisa, and then the air around her had changed.

It had intensified into a powerful pressure that had descended upon her, accompanied by a gaze unlike anything she had ever experienced. It had felt captivating, almost hypnotic, as though the very air itself had gained a will of its own.

She had tried to control it, tried to tame the air around her to strengthen her magic, but the pressure had overwhelmed her and then... nothing.

The next thing she remembered was opening her eyes to find Kayden standing over her, congratulating her on apparently being some hidden powerhouse.

He had shown her the recordings from the blood monitors around the training grounds. Lumi had been completely stunned as the figure in those recordings had looked exactly like her.

The same face, body, and blue eyes, and yet, there had been something horribly unfamiliar about those eyes.

They were cold, detached, and empty of the warmth she knew belonged to herself. That woman had looked at Maisa as though she were nothing more than an obstacle to be eliminated, but Lumi would never have done that.

She had never mastered that kind of detachment, nor did she harbour any grudge against Maisa that could explain such murderous intent. So after rescuing her brother, Lumi had come straight to the library.

If something had taken control of her body, there had to be an explanation. Possession? That was the only possibility she could think of.

She had searched every book she could find on vampire possession, and so far, she had found nothing.

No recorded cases of possession, no ancient accounts, and no documented instances of a vampire being completely overtaken by another consciousness.

But Lumi refused to stop. ’I have to keep reading!’

There had to be something she hadn’t found, one forgotten record or some obscure piece of vampire history. Anything that could explain what had happened to her.

Maisa watched her carefully. "Lumi..."

The blueblood looked back at her. Her eyes were filled with uncertainty. "I don’t know what happened to me," she admitted quietly. "But whatever it was... it wasn’t me."

Maisa remained silent for a moment. Then she reached over and gently placed a hand on Lumi’s shoulder. "We’ll figure it out."

Lumi stared at her. She felt reassured by her support. It meant that she wasn’t alone.

"Together," Maisa added.

For the first time since entering the library, Lumi’s expression softened, but the fear remained because somewhere deep inside her, one question refused to disappear.

’If it hadn’t been her who attacked Maisa... then who had been wearing her face?’

She and Maisa continued ramaging through the books in the library to get to the roots of the problem.

In the whole time, Maisa held back from revealing the conversation she’d had with the being that possessed her. The being even revealed that she was going to be the next Queen of vampire nation.

A revelation that she was yet to decipher but was determined to find out. ’No matter what, i can’t play pawn to any hidden powers!’