Chapter 309: The Fire of Retaliation

Dorian felt his entire body burning.

It wasn’t merely the place where the black powder had fallen. The heat seemed to spread beneath his skin, racing through his veins until every part of him felt as though it were being consumed by an invisible fire.

He thrashed against the sheets.

There was something wrong with his assistant. Dorian had known it the moment the man had walked into the room. The way he had bowed had been different—too low, too eager, almost theatrical.

Dorian should have trusted that instinct.

Instead, he had overridden it because he believed money could buy loyalty.

Apparently, he had been wrong again.

And once again, despite everything, his mind went to her… To Katerina.

He hated that. He hated that he thought about her every moment, even now. She would have eliminated this man before he ever reached his bedside. She would have seen the betrayal coming. She had protected him a few times in their last life.

But she had never been on his side. She had betrayed him too.

“Help!” Dorian screamed. “He’s killing me!”

At this point, part of him wanted to die.

Yet another part refused to accept that this was how his life would end. He could not bear the thought of dying betrayed, surrounded by the only people who had turned against him.

Arthur slowly rose from the stool. He glanced toward the door, then leaned toward Dorian, to his ears.

“My name is Arthur Goodman.”

Dorian’s breathing faltered.

“My father was Philip Goodman, the mayor of Hillsdale.”

Dorian stared at him.

Arthur’s voice remained frighteningly calm. “The town your company destroyed with its toxic leak. Remember?”

Dorian clutched the sheets.

Hillsdale… That miserable little town.

He remembered it.

There had been a leak at one of BioQuant’s factories in the middle of the night. Toxic chemicals had escaped into the surrounding area, killing almost half the population before anyone could contain it.

The journalists had tried to turn it into a scandal. His grandfather had wanted the matter settled quietly.

So he had sent Dorian. He had barely been twenty. But even then, Dorian had known exactly how to solve problems.

Fear worked better than apologies.

Philip Goodman, the mayor, had wanted to play the hero. He had threatened to expose BioQuant and demanded accountability.

So Dorian had arranged an accident.

A fire.

The mayor and his family had died, and the rest of the town had finally learned to keep quiet.

Dorian’s eyes widened.

“But…” He looked at Arthur. “You survived?”

Arthur smiled faintly.

Before Dorian could say anything else, the nurses rushed into the room. Arthur immediately raised a hand and pressed himself against the wall.

“He started shouting out of nowhere,” he said.

The nurses hurried toward Dorian.

“He tried to kill me!” Dorian screamed.

“Mr. Blackwood, please calm down.”

“He threw something on me!”

Dorian clawed at his own chest.

“A black powder! It’s a curse! I’m burning! I’m burning!”

The nurses exchanged worried looks.

“Get assistance.”

More hospital staff rushed into the room.

Several men struggled to hold Dorian down, but his panic had given him a strength that seemed impossible for someone in his condition.

“It was Maximilian!” he screamed. His eyes bulged with feverish conviction. “Maximilian Whitmore! He hired hitmen to kill me!”

He fought against the hands restraining him.

“He couldn’t kill me last time! I annexed his kingdom, and he came back to take what was mine!”

“Ahhh! I am not dying in the hands of a woman! A crazy woman!”

His back arched as another wave of pain tore through him.

“It burns! It burns!”

His fingers clawed desperately at his hospital gown.

“Take it off me! Take the powder off me!”

“There is nothing there,” one of the nurses insisted.

“It is here! See! It glows… It glows like her eyes… Those eyes that trusted me… as she ate the poison I gave her… Stop staring!!!”

Dorian twisted violently.

“He cursed me! Maximilian cursed me! Keep those green eyes off me!”

Then his fear turned into rage.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you!”

Arthur watched from the corner of the room. His hand slipped unconsciously toward the blade hidden inside his pocket.

He had carried it for years. He had wanted to kill Dorian for almost as long. He had never expected to get this close. But before he could do anything, those people had begun uncovering Dorian’s crimes for him.

Spectacularly.

Even now, he had thought the black powder would expose Dorian somehow. He had no idea what Maximilian had given him, or whether it would actually do anything.

If it failed, Arthur would still use the blade. He had already made his choice.

Arthur’s fingers tightened around the handle.

Then he looked at Dorian’s chest.

The black powder was gone. There wasn’t even a trace of it. It was as though it had never existed.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed.

What the hell had Maximilian given him?

The hospital staff ushered Arthur out of the room. No one questioned him. No one searched him. No one seemed suspicious of the fact that Dorian had been perfectly calm until he arrived.

“He’s delirious,” one of the nurses said.

Another prepared a stronger sedative.

But Dorian only screamed louder.

The medication should have subdued him. It didn’t.

His body convulsed as the pain tore through him again. His wounds reopened beneath the strain, blood soaking into the sheets as the machines around him screamed their warnings, and the staff tried to restrain him.

“Maximilian!”

His voice cracked.

“Maximilian Whitmore…”

He stared at the white ceiling through blurred eyes. He could feel the burning everywhere, yet there was no fire. No explanation. No one he trusted.

“Katerina… Stop it!”

And slowly, as his strength drained away, another cruel realization settled over him.

In his previous life, his own son had killed him. In this life, the man he had believed was dead had betrayed him.

Everyone he had trusted had turned against him.

Dorian’s lips trembled.

He didn’t deserve this. He had been too powerful for this. Too important. Too clever to end like this.

Yet no one came.

No one reached for his hand. No one called him Sire. Alone.. beneath the harsh hospital lights, Dorian closed his eyes.

“Maximilian…” he whispered.

You can never have her!

His voice was barely audible beneath the machines.

“Maximilian Whitmore killed me…”

And with that final accusation on his lips, Dorian surrendered to the darkness, still feeling as though he were burning alive without a single flame touching him.

—–

Catherine was standing on deep water.

The surface beneath her feet was perfectly still, stretching endlessly beneath a pale, quiet sky. There was no wind, no sound, no fear. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, everything was calm.

Then she saw it.

A door stood in the distance, rising alone from the water.

Catherine walked toward it.

With every step, the door grew clearer until she could see the darkness beyond it. She reached out, wrapped her fingers around the handle, and slowly opened it.

Dorian was on the other side.

He was reaching for her.

But he was burning.

Flames engulfed his body, swallowing him as he screamed her name. Catherine watched without moving.

She had burned too.

Maximilian had burned too.

She could only imagine the fire, the heat, the helplessness, the agony of knowing there was no escape as Maximilian stepped inside.

Yet as she watched Dorian suffer through the same torment, she felt no pity. Not even a little.

She simply stood there, watching him burn.

“Katerina…”

His voice echoed through the flames.

“Stop it!”

Catherine said nothing. She only looked at him. And slowly, a smile touched her lips.

Dorian screamed again as the fire consumed him.

“Maximilian can never have you!”

His voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, desperate and furious even as the flames swallowed him.

Catherine’s smile faded. She reached for the door.

Dorian stretched his hand toward her.

“Katerina!”

Catherine simply pushed the door shut.

His voice was cut off.

She stood with her hand resting on the handle for a moment, then whispered softly, with absolute certainty,

“But I belong to him.”

The dream ended.

Catherine woke with a gasp. Her chest rose sharply as she stared into the darkness, her heart pounding.

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