Chapter 135: A Promise Too Late
Gavriel could feel the weight of her emotions and said, "Spirits fall to the dark side for reasons that cannot always be explained. So don’t blame yourself for it."
The moment he said that, surprise flickered across Aliana’s face.
She could only stare at him. ’Did he... just read my mind?’
As if hearing the thought out loud, Gavriel replied, "It’s written all over your face. I don’t need to read your mind to figure that out."
"Oh..." Aliana blinked before asking, "What now?"
Gavriel fell silent for a moment, weighing their options as another glass jar shattered somewhere across the penthouse.
Then his gaze shifted towards Cillian. "Let’s restrain her and call a priest."
The words were so absurd coming from him that even he internally disliked saying them.
In truth, he could think of several far quicker methods to deal with the spirit. The problem was that every one of them carried a very real risk of killing Jade along with it.
His methods were simply too extreme.
Since they were dealing with an evil spirit rather than a demon, the safest option was, unfortunately, a human one.
On the other side of the room, Cillian looked at him as though he might puke blood.
"I’m sorry," he said over the chaos. "Did you just say call a priest?"
"Yes."
Coming from Gavriel, those were perhaps the last words Cillian had ever expected to hear. Yet after a brief moment of thought, he understood exactly why Gavriel had chosen that route.
Releasing a long sigh, as though burdened with a task of unimaginable inconvenience, Cillian pushed himself upright and gave him a reluctant nod.
"Well," he muttered dryly, "that’s not a sentence I ever expected to hear come out of your mouth."
Gavriel simply turned his attention back to Aliana, intending to speak to her, when the chaos around them suddenly came to a halt.
Then Jade’s warped voice rang through the penthouse. "Aliana... come out now. There’s no need to be shy. I’ll be your friend."
Aliana’s breathing hitched.
The woman continued, "Oh... I know... if you won’t come out, then how about I give you a little show? I can begin by carving this petite body with a beautiful design that I’m sure your friend will love. Want to come and see?"
The moment the entity uttered those words, Aliana felt her heart plummet into her stomach.
Rose was threatening to harm Jade.
Swallowing hard, she turned to look at Cillian and Nigel, only to find both of them shaking their heads simultaneously, as though silently telling her it would be a terrible idea to step out.
Not that she needed them to tell her that. She already knew.
But Rose wasn’t finished.
"How about this?" she crooned. "For every five seconds you delay stepping out, I’ll chop off one finger from this body and throw it at you as a gift. Ohh... you’d like that, wouldn’t you?"
As soon as she said that, Aliana heard the unmistakable sound of a knife being drawn from the kitchen counter.
Panic surged through her, and she immediately looked at Gavriel.
He gave her a small nod before glancing towards Cillian, silently signalling him.
"One..." Rose began counting.
Gavriel leaned close to Aliana’s ear and whispered, "Don’t stand up before five. Keep her engaged."
With that, he slipped away, moving along the other side of the counter where Rose couldn’t see him.
Cillian, on the other hand, didn’t have the advantage of the long counter to conceal his movements.
Instead, he lowered himself onto one knee and took position behind the pillar, every muscle tensed and ready to spring forward the moment Gavriel reached Rose and seized her arms.
"...three...four... and f-" Before she could complete it, Aliana shot to her feet.
"Wait!"
"Oh...there she is!" Jade instantly turned towards her, her lips stretching into an evil grin that Aliana knew would haunt her nightmares later. But this was not the time to cower or lose her nerve. She needed to be strong for her friend.
Taking a sharp breath, Aliana forced herself to speak. "Rose..."
The moment the name left her lips, the grin on the woman’s face faltered.
Aliana’s heart clenched.... she had been right all along... this entity was Rose.
"You are Rose, aren’t you?"
Possessed Jade went silent.
A few seconds passed before she suddenly began clapping. The sharp sound echoed through the room, making Nigel, Cillian, and Aliana flinch simultaneously.
"Well done...." Rose drawled. "I never thought you’d be able to remember."
"I never forgot about you, Rose." Aliana’s voice softened with sorrow. "I remember our deal, and I had already made preparations to uphold my end of the bargain while I was on my business trip."
For a moment, Rose fell silent, then the last traces of amusement vanished from her face. "So..." she whispered. "Where are these preparations?"
Her eyes darkened. "Didn’t you say you’d fulfil your promise once you got back? But you didn’t!" Her voice rose with every word. "You lied to me!"
The air in the room seemed to grow colder.
"Instead, you went and found yourself a husband while mine continued spending his nights with that whore!" The final words erupted from her throat in a shriek so piercing that Aliana felt as though someone were scraping rusted nails across a chalkboard.
Nigel and Cillian slowly turned towards one another.
Neither of them had expected the ghost possessing Jade to turn out to be a heartbroken, vengeful wife.
A silent understanding passed between them, ’Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman.’
The saying rang loud and clear in their minds, and both men swallowed nervously.
Turning their attention back to Aliana, the men heard her speak. "I’m not lying to you, Rose. I really did make preparations. I was only trying to find the right time. Please... let me help fix this. I am so sorry for the delay. I’ll take care of everything today, just please... let my friend go."
Aliana spoke with absolute sincerity, praying that her true feelings could reach all the way to the real Rose, not the malicious entity standing before her.
Rose stared at Aliana for a long moment before a low chuckle escaped her lips, making Aliana frown. Before she could process it, the woman burst into another fit of wicked, echoing laughter.
"You’ll help me fix it?" Rose sneered in the middle of her amusement. "How exactly will you do that, Aliana, when I’ve already taken care of it myself?"
"What?" A shocked murmur escaped Aliana’s lips.
The entity’s face twisted into a vicious sneer. "You didn’t expect me to sit around and wait for you, did you? I killed her... just last night. Quite brutally, if you must know."
