118 A Dreadful Message
Reaching the garden like William’s had told her to, she found Nicholas waiting at the arbor. He kept pacing back and forth, looking bothered about something and it made Anna hesitate to take the next step.
“Why does he look so bothered?” She questioningly murmured to herself, unwilling to move and different ideas flashed in her head that instant. Was his wound hurting again? Did William’s mention anything about what happened the other day? Could it be that he still saw them and chose to tell regardless?
‘no.’ She shook her head at the thought, if William’s really did, he would have outrightly said it to her. So what could possibly be the problem?
Unable to think of an issue that somehow, negatively connected with her, she eased her heart beat and cleared her mind before striding towards the arbor to meet him.
Nicholas stopped pacing after seeing the lady come into sight. His half-worried expression dissipated with relief when Anna stood before him and politely bowed her head in respect.
“Greetings sir Nicholas.” She said with that appealing dulcet voice of hers and a slow smile adorned Nick’s lips.
“You came.”
She nodded before adding, “it would be wrong to refuse.”
“Forgive my sudden call but it was urgent.”
.....
“Is there a problem? Is it your injury? Does it hurt again?”
He shook his head, “no, that’s not it.”
“Then what is?”
“A demon was sensed at the autumn forest last night, a strong one at that and I heard you and your brother took that path, so I got worried and had to confirm you were alright.” He stated with concern, but Anna’s expression slowly paled at his words, thankfully it wasn’t too obvious to make her drop her guard.
“D_demon?” Anna felt her heart stop for a few seconds as she took time to register his words perfectly and to her fear, he nodded.
“Yes, but the energy instantly disappeared like it never came, it was so quick to hide itself back in its shell.” He frowned, “fortunately, there are no news of demon creating havoc so when I heard you and your brother went out last night, I just got concerned, but I’m glad to see you’re alright.”
Anna’s demeanor still froze, but just for a few seconds to let all of Nick’s words sink in before giving her head a mental shake and returning Nick’s smile with a grateful one.
“As you can see, I’m fit and fine.” She assured the noble being who believed her to a point and Anna used the few minutes of silence to guess how he knew about last night, and how it became possible for him to have sensed Roshan.
The glacier was deeply concentrated in using the mind Array last night, his powers might have gone overboard due to mixed up emotions and he must have accidentally made a slip without realizing.
They’ll have to be a lot more careful from now on.
“You have an event tomorrow, it wouldn’t be right to have your mind distracted on things like this.” She politely tried to convince him and sway his mind away from it, but he shook his head and met her surprised stare.
“Sooner or later, whoever held a power so indescribable will be revealed. The safety of my people comes first.” His expression softened after that, “Demons are vile creatures, they are no different from the creatures of the night and it would be advisable to stay away from one.”
They were already walking together this time around, taking a little stroll around the wide garden path and the more Anna heard him speak about how heartless they were, she couldn’t take it anymore and blurted out her own question.
“What if all demons aren’t the same?” She asked, causing Nick’s step to shorten as he stopped walking. Anna had suspected her words would leave her with this baffled reaction of his, but it was wrong to generalize all of them without knowing their story.
“Meaning?” His amber eyes quizzically glinted and Anna didn’t hesitate to continue.
“I mean we have both the good and the bad in this world right? It’s equally possible to say the same for Demons as well. Some might be good but they aren’t given a chance to speak, or even prove it since they were only written and known for their screams.”
She met his gaze, and to Nick’s bafflement, she wasn’t joking around.
“Are you...”. He paused in his question after noticing her demeanor turn pale for a few seconds, an unusual reaction he suddenly got from her and when he wanted to ask what the problem was, she moved back a bit, almost unsteadily that he had to hold one of her hands to avoid her tripping. Her eyes seemed to spin as she closed them in pain, placing a hand to the side of her head as though it’d ease the striking headache that came and overtook her senses from who knows where.
“Miss Ann..” he called softly, wanting to gain her attention but to his shock, when she opened her eyes to look at him, what he saw in them showed weakness.
“I don’t...feel...” she wasn’t even done speaking when she unexpectedly slumped to the ground, but before she could hit the ground itself, Nicholas had caught her quickly in his arms and to his awe, she was unconscious.
“Anna!”
Roshan, who happened to have shown up at the event as promised, didn’t find Anna amongst the crowds. She always sat with Madame Alina during the event but strangely, she wasn’t there today.
He had left to go find where the silly woman went, knowing she wasn’t the type to abandon an event she enjoyed watching.
He strode past the downstairs hallway with a searching gaze, only to catch a glimpse of the annoying woman taking a stroll around the garden with Nicholas as he peeked through the glass window.
His jaw clenched at the sight and he let out a controlled sigh to keep his unexplainable anger in check. He couldn’t understand why seeing her with Nicholas always made him restless and uncertain of his feelings towards her. He didn’t like seeing her walk beside that man, it was a sight he couldn’t bear and just when he was about to walk out, the unexpected happened and before his very eyes, he watched her slump, only to be caught in the arms of Nicholas.
“Anna!” He heard Nicholas scream, obviously in shock as the look on his paled gravely. Roshan, who witnessed the scene, felt a part of him fade and his eyes widened slightly. It almost appeared as a nightmare to him, except this time around, he wished it was.
“What happened?” Nicholas looked completely taken aback as his hands reached to tap both her cheeks lightly, trying his very best to revive her but unfortunately, she wasn’t responding to his touch.
He quickly felt her pulse and they were critically weak. He shook his head as a dreadful thought creeped into his head and when he tried to pick her up in his arms and get her somewhere safe, a hand instantly stopped him from nowhere, giving him no chance to pick the unconscious Anna in his arm and when he looked up, he locked gaze with a certain being.
Those hazel-green eyes appeared as a surprise to him, but the dreadful message it sent wasn’t ignored, as if silently telling him to back off.
“You...”
Roshan deliberately ignored him and picked the unconscious Anna into his own arms, snatching her away from Nicholas’s hold. A look of worry contorted his handsome face as he sensed her heartbeat slow down to an abnormal rate.
Without speaking or uttering a single word to Nicholas, he walked off with Anna in his arms. Her lashes slowly fluttered open and her eyes subconsciously met his.
“Roshan.” She whispered with a smile, as though happy to see herself in his arms. It was a smile that made the already painful feeling in Roshan’s chest sink drastically and before he could say a word to her, her eyes closed shut and she was out completely.
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