“It’s not your fault, Maya. It’s Noreen’s. She’s the one who controlled you,” I said, trying to comfort her. I felt so bad for her at that point.
Maya choked on her sobs. A look of guilt flashed across her eyes as she glanced at me. “I want to make up for everything I did, Miss Todd. How can I do that? And please catch Noreen and make her fix me. I don’t want to feel this way anymore.”
I moved her hair to the side of her face. “Do you remember when you last met Noreen?”
Maya looked down and pondered about it for a while, but she eventually shook her head. “I can’t remember anything.”
“Maya, think it over carefully. Please.” I looked at her expectantly, hoping to get some useful information from her.
Unexpectedly, Maya covered her head with her arms and grimaced in pain. “No, I can’t. My head always hurts whenever I think about it.”
I was about to go closer to Maya so I could hug her, but just then, I heard Rufus’ voice as he shouted, “Watch out!”
He grabbed Maya as he spoke and threw her aside, knocking her out in the process.
That was when I noticed something. Maya had been holding a small dagger. If it weren’t for Rufus, she would have stabbed me.
Rufus clenched his fists. He could no longer suppress his anger, and I could tell that he wanted to kill Maya right then and there.
However, I stopped him just before he was about to turn into a wolf and begged, “Please don’t hurt her, Rufus. We can fix her after we catch Noreen!”
However, Rufus turned to look at me and frowned. “She’s not Maya.”
Sylvia’s POV
I was stunned when I heard what Rufus said. My eyes flew between Maya, who was lying face-down on the ground, and Rufus, who looked grim and cold. I didn’t understand what he meant.
“This isn’t Maya? Who is she then? Didn’t Maya commit all those terrible acts because Noreen was controlling her?”
Rufus shook his head and stared at the person on the ground with unfathomable eyes. “Maya has been with me since she was only eight or nine years old. I am the one who is most familiar with her. Even though she is about my age, she has always treated me as her child, forever wanting to protect me and take care of me. When you came to the palace, she behaved the same way with you.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yes, Maya is gentle and kind. I have often thought that if she had a child, she would be a wonderful mother.”
At this moment, Maya seemed to wake up. She looked up at Rufus and me and began to sob again.
This time, I didn’t dare rush to her. Instead, I stepped back to Rufus’ side. “So why don’t you think this is Maya?”
“Look at her eyes carefully. Even though she is crying, there is a devilish glint in those eyes every time she looks at you. The real Maya would never look at you like that.”
I was shocked and scrutinized Maya in disbelief. She stopped pretending to be sad in front of me and revealed an evil grin.
Then there came a burst of familiar laughter.
An ominous premonition rose in my heart. Sure enough, the person in front of me transformed into Noreen in the next second!
“How can it be you?” I was so enraged that I couldn’t stop myself from charging ahead and hitting Noreen on her head.
Rufus stopped me in time. “Don’t act rashly, or you will fall into her trap.”
I got a handle on my emotions and glowered at Noreen’s smug face. “So you have been pretending to be Maya and spying on me?”
Noreen raised her chin lightly. “Not just that. I have disguised myself as several people. Maya is just one of them.”
“What do you mean?”
Noreen chuckled and covered her face with the loose sleeve of her robe. When she revealed her face again, I was greeted with another familiar face. It belonged to Ethan’s chef.
“You’re the one who hurt the lycan king!” I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. All these incidents had been arranged solely by Noreen.
“Wait, there is something else.” Noreen laughed shamelessly. She seemed to be at her happiest when she was fooling us. She covered her face with her sleeve again and changed into yet another person. This time, she wore the face of one of Rufus’ confidants, who often acted as my bodyguard when I went out.
“You evil bitch!” I shouted furiously. Standing beside me, Rufus was also glaring at her murderously. Before I could react, he turned into a wolf and charged forward, scratching Noreen’s face viciously.
Black witches were not good at close combat, and Noreen was no exception. Rufus’ attack on her was so sudden that she didn’t have time to defend herself. She slammed into a tree stump and began to bleed.
In retaliation, she hastily took out a crystal ball and threw it in Rufus’ direction.
The crystal ball exploded with blue light, creating a protective barrier around her.
She clutched her chest and spat out a mouthful of blood. Then she slowly got to her feet and gave us a sneer. “Mad already? The truth is, I’ve been lurking around you for a very long time, but you are so stupid that you didn’t even have an inkling about it. The strongest werewolf in the werewolf race is obviously not as impressive as legend tells. In the end, I still fooled you easily.”
The last sentence was obviously meant to provoke Rufus.
His expression was icy, but he showed no evidence of being irritated by Noreen’s words. Instead, he stonily said, “Go on. Let’s see exactly how many identities you have used.”
Noreen looked bored. She scoffed and waved her hand, transforming into Layla.
Sylvia’s POV
It never crossed my mind that Noreen also disguised herself as Layla. No wonder Layla hadn’t returned to the imperial capital afterward.
“When did you start pretending to be Layla?” I questioned Noreen in a frosty voice.
She returned to her own appearance and casually replied, “From the very beginning. From the moment you met Layla, it has always been me.”
“Where is the real Layla?” I was so furious that my whole body trembled. Noreen not only made fun of us, but also played with our lives.
When I’d first gone to the stone chamber, I’d searched for the mechanism everywhere like a fool. I didn’t know that had been Noreen’s plan all along. She forced my hand to use the pendant and suspect the relationship between my mother and black witch race. Then Noreen deliberately led me to discover the lab. And finally, she engineered an opportunity to rescue Flora and me from the stone chamber. She must have felt so smug at that time. We looked stupid when we couldn’t locate her, and didn’t know she was right there with us.
No wonder Flora was so resistant to Layla at the beginning. Layla’s weird actions towards me also made sense now.
“The real Layla already passed away in an accident. She was never a student at the military school. I took her place, tampered the enroll list, and purposely created the scent of werewolves. Although the process was a little complicated, making you believe that I’m just an ordinary werewolf made it all worth it in the end.”
When I heard that the real Layla was dead, I was shell-shocked and hastily asked, “What about the real Maya?”
Noreen wasn’t surprised I was asking this question. In an indifferent tone, she answered, “She’s dead.”
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