The Cursed Prince

Chapter 915: Poisoned

The royal doctor finally knelt down in front of Julian's body, he took something out of his pouch and made the man drink it.

"I... this is something used for most poisons, and it'll lessen the effects based on my previous studies but it isn't enough to completely negate it. Please don't move him while I administer the rest to the others."

Rowena grabbed the old man's wrist and gave him a dark look. "You may have saved yourself now by coming out of the light now and admitting your mistakes, but if you had spoken earlier then Julian would have been fine."

The royal doctor felt himself quiver at the glare that a young woman gave to him.

He didn't expect that someone so young would scare him in a way that was similar, or even far better than Queen Serena did when she threatened to end his loved ones.

The doctor looked down in shame. "I understand, I will do my best, Your Highness."

Rowena finally released her grip and looked down at Julian. Droplets of her tears fell down on his face as she watched him despondently.

She couldn't care any less about Queen Serena's screams, or whether or not Prince Liam was slapped by his mother, or how the royal guards stepped in at last at the words of King Xander to seize his wife—no, the murderer that killed his first wife.

The situation of the Verona family was displayed to all of the people gathered during that event and it was a shock to everyone who attended, but Rowena didn't care if everybody started dying behind her or whether or not Queen Serena screamed profanities in her direction.

Rowena's eyes were only on Julian and she bawled right in front of him.

Terrible questions filled her mind as she looked at Julian with a pleading smile and said. "If I had been more suspicious, this wouldn't have happened, right? Or should I have not offended the crown prince?"

This was all her fault.

Behind her, both King Xander and Prince Liam approached.

There was a haunted look over King Xander's face as he fell down on his knees and started to sob uncontrollably, he reached out to touch Julian's hand.

"How could I have been so blind?" King Xander's heart broke at the sight of Julian along with the revelation presented by the royal doctor. "You were this close and yet I still let you slip away. What a terrible father, am I?"

"Rowena, I'm so sorry." Prince Liam knelt down in front of Julian and looked over at Rowena. "I only realized that the poison was dangerous when I—"

"Are you apologizing to me?"

"Yes."

"Don't apologize to me." Rowena laughed hysterically at Prince Liam. "You and the king as well could have stopped this, since your mother doesn't seem to be sane. You could have done something before any of this all happened? So why?"

"Rowena please–"

"If you're sorry, bring Julian back."

***

"Noooo! Release me!" Queen Serena shouted in vain as she tried to pull away from the royal guards that captured her.

Her gaze landed on King Xander, Prince Liam, the two of them surrounded Julian and she cried out in protest.

"He's the one who should be gone, not me—unhand me! Unhand me!"

The queen struggled and raged at the men who captured her but then suddenly stopped when King Xander

sat up.

He looked at the royal guards and then back at her.

King Xander wondered if he could kill her—he could have easily ordered it to be that way.

The rest of the nobility who got poisoned would have requested the same exact thing—and yet his mind was on his late wife.

Despite everything, Gabrielle wouldn't have wanted to see her sister to be killed because his wife was hopelessly forgiving and loving towards her family.

"Xander, please! Let me explain!" Queen Serena's voice was pleading. "I did this for all of us."

"You did this for yourself, Serena." King Xander said disappointed.

"It's all his fault." Queen Serena raged and turned towards the body on the ground as the royal doctor took care of him. "He should die—die for ruining our family."

"Take her up to a tower and lock her there," King Xander finally said. He may have been shocked and even furious about the news, but unlike Serena, he wasn't quick to decide on who deserved to live or die.

Instead, what overwhelmed the King the most was the fact that his son had been alive all of these years. If he had known that Julian was alive, then he would have searched for him—he wouldn't have made all of his mistakes or become foolish.

And yet there was nothing that he could do about it. King Xander wiped his tears and looked worriedly over his son as Doctor Gerald took care of Julian.

If the gods granted him the chance to make up everything for his son, then he would do it.

"Please, let my son live," King Xander prayed fervently underneath his breath.

As Rowena turned away from Liam and only focused on Julian alone, Prince Liam couldn't help but feel a pang of overwhelming guilt in his heart.

He had almost killed his own brother and hurt a friend that he managed to make.

Prince Liam tried to apologize but his words held no meaning to Rowena who was heartbroken to see Julian in this state.

Even though the prince could see that Rowena held no romantic feelings toward Julian, it was clear in Rowena's distressed state that Julian was like her other half.

The two almost seemed inseparable—one couldn't exist without the other one and it showed.

Prince Liam's chest ached at the thought that his own selfishness had destroyed such a thing—he didn't want anybody to get hurt, but it still happened.

A couple of minutes passed and Doctor Gerald stood up to move to the next patient.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rowena grabbed the old man's sleeve. "Julian is still not awake—"

"I have to administer to the other patients—" The doctor's words became background when a sudden voice sounded in Rowena's ears.

Julian groaned and slowly sat up, he touched his head and looked around dizzily. "Is it just me, but is everyone going around in circles?"

"Are you okay?" Rowena immediately knelt in front of him worriedly.

Julian smiled weakly and nodded. "I have a massive headache and my throat feels really dry—but I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Rowena said. Even though Julian had woken up, she could still see that he was deathly pale and his lips were blue. She could even see a faint hint of green in his skin that didn't quite belong... as if it was some kind of toxin in his blood.&nbs

p;

What the royal doctor did wasn't enough.

Rowena couldn't believe it. She rushed back to the doctor who currently aided the rest who were poisoned by Queen Serena's schemes and immediately fell down to her knees. "Doctor—you need to treat him. Give him a cure. It's not enough—you stabilized him but you didn't actually remove the poison."

"I..." The royal doctor looked at the young woman on her knees and shook his head. "My apologies, your grace. After much research over the past decades... I've still yet to find an antidote for it. It's dangerous to attempt to remove it because it's mixed in with his blood. At best, as you can see—I've slowed down the effect."