Garden Of Poison-Chapter 266: One with the same blood

Logan?

Emily remembered seeing the boy in Raylen’s memory dream. The memory had been etched so deeply in her mind that it felt as though she had personally lived through it. The boy had blond hair and appeared scrawnier than Raylen due to their two-year age gap.

"How is that possible?" Emily asked, because the last she had heard, Raylen had killed his entire family.

Raylen wore a grim expression and abruptly stood up from his seat, suggesting to her, "Let us take a look at the room below, shall we?"

With that, the two of them walked down the stairs and came to stand before the room containing the sitting skeletons. Raylen snapped his fingers, and immediately, the lanterns ignited, brightening the room to reveal it as Emily had never seen it before. There sat the skeletons, covered in layers of dust, their sizes varying from one another.

Emily turned to Raylen, watching him stare intently at a skeleton in the far left corner. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his mind at that moment. She began to say, "I will check him—"

Raylen interrupted her, stating, "No. Take a look at everyone in this room." He watched Emily as she began with the nearest one, which belonged to his father. Until now, he had been under the impression that his entire family was dead. Although his actions had been driven by rage and pain, there had been one or two occasions when he pondered whether killing them had been necessary. His eyes followed Emily, who moved to the next skeleton, examining one after another while paying close attention to what she heard.

When Emily finally reached the skeleton in the far left corner, she placed her hand on it and closed her eyes. After two minutes, she pulled away and turned to meet Raylen’s eyes.

"This is the only skeleton that doesn’t belong to your family. This isn’t your brother," she said, shaking her head.

Raylen’s face quietly contorted into one of anger, his lips twisting in distaste before parting to release a dark chuckle. The look in his eyes changed, becoming decidedly sinister as the gears in his mind began to turn and make sense of the situation.

Meanwhile, Emily took a step away from the older teenage boy. She found it hard to wrap her head around the fact that the man who wanted her soul was actually Raylen’s brother. She would have suggested that ’razzleberry’ might not be an uncommon word until she touched the last skeleton in the room.

"He has been searching and hunting for a Barter Soul to bring our mother back," Raylen remarked, his voice cold and devoid of emotion. "I made sure to kill him with the rest and bring them to this room, to be stuck here for eternity. But he seems to have escaped somehow." His eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Emily asked him, "Have all the family portraits been burned?"

Raylen responded with a brief nod and added, "They have. But nothing that can’t be fixed," prompting Emily to regard him with curiosity.

Before long, Westley and Lauren arrived at the lower ground floor, joining Raylen and Emily where they stood. Lauren immediately sensed the grim atmosphere in the air and couldn’t help but wonder what had happened.

"Westley, fetch the portrait that was burned after it fell on the ground," Raylen ordered, and even the demon wondered why his master needed it. "Don’t move it around too much, and leave the dust as it is."

Westley bowed and fetched the large portrait, holding it in his hands. "Master Raylen, I will need to tilt it slightly to get it through the door."

"Place it down on the floor," Raylen commanded, carefully positioning the lanterns in front of where the demon had laid down the portrait. Lauren, holding another lantern, contributed its glow, holding it beside the portrait as well. "Restore the portrait to its original state," he instructed.

Emily tilted her head to take a better look at the portrait and noticed the thick layer of dust obscuring whatever was painted beneath it, making it difficult to discern the details. She observed as Westley clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and muttered something under his breath.

An eerie silence fell over the room, and a few seconds later, Emily heard the sound of something crumpling. It was faint, but she heard it with a hint of surprise, as she hadn’t expected Westley to possess any ability. The portrait exhibited signs of movement in the areas where it had been scorched. The dust gradually began to shift away, while the charred fragments still adhering to the portrait began to reverse, as if undergoing a process of mending. After two minutes, the portrait was free of dust, and the missing faces had been restored to their original places.

"It is done, Master," Westley announced, then lifted the restored portrait and leaned it against the wall.

When Emily’s gaze fell on the figures within the portrait, she first caught sight of Raylen. He stood at the side, next to his mother, who bore a stoic expression. It was when her eyes shifted to the boy standing next to Raylen’s father that she felt her stomach drop. Her past memories had been marred, and she had made an effort to repress them, only now coming to the realisation that she had forgotten the face of the person who had haunted her nightmares.

"That is him..." Emily whispered, a chill running down her spine. He stood there with a calm smile on his face, his blond hair partially obscuring his face and the sides while revealing his piercing green eyes.

"Does he still look the same?" Raylen inquired, a bitter taste settling in his mouth.

"Older," Emily replied, and the servants looked a little lost by their conversation. "He looked about your age now. Maybe a little older."

Lauren’s eyes widened as if she had connected the dots, realising the subject of their discussion. To verify, she interjected and asked, "Prince Logan isn’t dead?"

"Apparently not. People these days are having trouble dying and end up staying alive," Raylen remarked, leaving the servant’s mouth hanging open.

"But you killed him." Lauren’s eyebrows furrowed, recalling the moment when Raylen had run a dagger through the second prince’s chest.

Emily found it hard to believe that the person was Raylen’s brother. All this time, the Storm family had been involved—one seeking to protect her, the other wanting to kill her.

"Something must have happened between the time I believed I had killed him and when I went after Mother," Raylen said, the hollow look returning to his eyes as he recalled that fateful night. "We thought it was Logan who was brought to this floor and placed in the room before it was locked. Yet all this time, he has been alive."

Lauren remembered that chaotic and bloody night. At that time, she was just an ordinary earthling, unaware of the events unfolding in the castle until she stumbled upon the lifeless bodies of the princes and princess strewn across the floor.

"He knows the castle as much as any of us do. It must have been easy for him to infiltrate and make it look like Julia was murdered." Raylen snapped his fingers, and in the next second, the portrait caught fire, the flames consuming the front until it turned black. "What an eyesore," he commented.

"He was the son of the previous Storm King; how did he stay immortal for so long?" Emily inquired. This person, Logan, had lived for many years in the realm of the living. As long as Raylen had.

"He must have made a deal with a demon," Raylen replied, and his words sank into everyone’s minds. "He had taken after our dear mother."

Raylen had been intrigued by the concept of the Barter Soul, not realising that his father’s curiosity had been passed on to both him and his brother.

Far away from the Storm Castle, concealed in a remote location, Julia entered a secluded house. She removed the hood from her head, which had collected snowflakes, and asked,

"You killed Janelle?"

"She was supposed to die sooner, but it was hard to get to her with my Barter Soul hanging around, where I could see it bloom," Logan said in a low voice as he worked on a bubbling cauldron. "How did she look?" There was a hint of eagerness in his voice.

"She was upset, but not enough. Her health has recovered from the last time," Julia informed.

Logan, who was holding a glass, shattered it in his hands with evident anger. He then turned to look at the lowly demon he had transformed and said, "Everything was in order."

"Forgive me..." Julia apologised, lowering her head, unable to meet his eyes.

"You were supposed to bring me that man’s body. You had two things to do. Poison and body."

"I—I was working on it, but—"

"Did you allow yourself to get distracted, Julia?" Logan looked at her with an expression utterly devoid of emotion. "I rescued you from your wretched life, giving you purpose. Yet you couldn’t manage to be even a little useful?"

Julia had been introduced into the Blackthorn Palace, where she had tried to seize every opportunity to get close to Emily, but it proved harder than expected, especially with that good-for-nothing sister of hers constantly interrupting her plans.

She didn’t dare to refute his words, well aware that the man she worked for didn’t take kindly to such defiance. He was furious when he heard about Emily having a soulmate, as if he had forged a one-sided attachment to the Princess. And to make matters worse, her soulmate turned out to be none other than Raylen Storm, his own elder brother.

"Viktor was on his way to distract Raylen, and her heart had corrupted. Everything was proceeding according to the plan, until..." his hand clenched so tightly that blood began to drip from his fist. "No worries. Mother is with me. It is only a matter of time before I get my hands on Emily Blackthorn."