178 Family Ball Trouble
Becca’s face proposedly came into view the moment Anna opened the door, but rather than acting surprised to see Becca standing before her threshold at a busy time like this, Anna just smiled as usual at Becca’s unforeseen presence.
“Becca.”
“Forgive me if I’m intruding all of a sudden” she quietly began with an apologetic tone, “I understand that you must be busy and need to get ready but I was wondering....I was wondering if Gemma is with you by any chance?”
Her sudden question made Anna’s brow furrow and her forehead creased in puzzlement. She wasn’t blind to the worry that Becca was failingly trying to hide, but her mind didn’t really dwell on it until now.
“No, she isn’t with me.” Anna finally responded, leading Becca’s face to gradually pale since Gemma turned out to not be with Anna in the end, despite her wishful thinking.
“She’s not with you?!” The unexpected panic in Becca’s voice threw Anna off guard and judging from her ghostly expression, it was more than obvious that something was wrong.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“There’s a huge problem, I’m certainly doomed for!” Becca anxiously declared and was about to spill everything to Anna before shutting her mouth all of a sudden, as though something just popped into her head for a split second.
She looked to her left and did the same to her right in case anyone was watching before getting into Anna’s room and dragging the clueless Anna with her.
.....
“What happened?” Anna proceeded to ask as she watched Becca shut the door behind her. A look of worry contorted her face as she moved away from the door and tried to keep her mind in check before uttering.
“Earlier, I_I was busy dressing Gemma up for the family ball, making her look really splendid and all, so I left her for a few minutes to go get something from her Aunt Letitia, and when I returned, she wasn’t in her room anymore, I couldn’t find her, almost like she just vanished.”
“Wait..wait, calm your heart Becca.” Anna tried to steady the panicked Becca as she slowly registered everything she just said to her.
“You can’t find Gemma?” That sounded very strange to Anna, “how’s that possible?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, obviously looking lost on what to do, “I’ve searched the places she visited the most in the palace, but she’s not in any of them. She’s not even with you.”
Anna shook her head at that statement, unwilling to believe Gemma could just disappear like that. It sounded too impossible for her heart to even believe.
“Maybe she’s hiding somewhere.” Anna suggested, “You and I know how much she likes games, and Gemma can be very mischievous in this kind of thing, she must be somewhere around.”
“But_ I’ve called her out and she always responds when I do that. If anything happens to Gemma, her family will have my head.”
“Don’t think so negatively,” Anna tried to calm her down, “we’ll look for her together, she must be with one of the family members, or she must be with his highness Levi.”
At the mention of the rest of the family, Becca also tried to reason in the same line with Anna, trying to shove away the fear of what the Astaroth family might do to her if they figured out she lost their little Gemma.
“Guests and other family members are starting to arrive,” Anna added, breaking Becca from her thoughts, “it’s possible she went downstairs to greet them, Gemma barely leaves the palace so she must still be around, we just need to find her, okay?”
Due to Anna’s reassuring words, Becca was able to recover to some extent before meeting Anna’s comforting gaze.
“Should we search for her together then?”
“I’d really appreciate that.” Becca responded while Anna smiled before placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
Together, they left her chambers to go find Gemma.
~
Meanwhile in another chamber that stayed at the highest corridor, Calista remained seated on the big bed, looking bored and visibly lost on what to do.
Her expression already gave away the idea that she had given up on escaping from this cage that man or demon had currently trapped her in.
“If I had powers I would~”
She wasn’t even done mumbling to herself when Azazel appeared in her chambers, startling and breaking the woman from her thoughts.
His sudden appearance really left her heart hanging on her throat but after seeing it was him, her anxiety didn’t dissipate either. Based on his exquisite royal attire, Calista couldn’t help but blink at the handsomeness of the man standing before her.
His looks could be described as drop-dead gorgeous most especially having those blue eyes of his stare at her with such low interest, not that she bothered but she sometimes wondered if the ice in his eyes would dissolve someday.
Regardless of that, it didn’t do anything but add to his charms and his facial look appeared soft, she didn’t need to touch his skin to know they must be delicate, probably even more delicate than hers, he looked attractively fragile, but his icy aura would make one think twice about going near him.
And his silvery white hair that cascaded down to his shoulders, added to his nobility and those full lips, she’d bet they tasted as cold as his aura.
“If people could get arrested for looking this handsome, you’d be arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.” She quietly muttered as her gaze admirably swept over him from head to toe.
But Azazel ignored her statement as that wasn’t his main reason for coming here. He didn’t even want to be here but felt the need to come.
“You’re familiar with the human named Annalise, aren’t you?”
At the mention of Anna, Calista immediately got out of bed to stand before Azazel with a smile. She had seen Anna for herself from the window and knew Azazel couldn’t be talking about anyone else but her.
“Yes,” she nodded, “she used to be my maid in Euphrasia, my closest maid and my friend, she was more like a sister to me” the warm remembrance lasted only for a while as her sweet smile slowly faded from her lips, “but then, she got blamed for what she didn’t do and was forced to leave Euphrasia, I never really thought I’d see her again.”
After getting the news that Anna stepped into the dark woods, almost everyone had concluded she was dead, since not even the guards were able to make it out till this day. But shockingly, she saw Anna and it left her head ringing with many questions that needed answers.
Azazel rolled his eyes at her sympathetic gesture, if she thought acting all innocent would get her his attention, then she was obviously bluffing. Not that he cared, but she’s doing a little too much to get his attention which is just weird and unlike the princess of Euphrasia.
Her case was completely different from Anna’s cause she is the daughter of the King of Euphrasia, she came from the family of those who dared to lock his brother up in that disgusting old temple.
“Well, can you do something then?” He asked with a deadpan tone, leaving Calista’s gaze to meet his unreadable icy stare.
“What?”
“There’s an event happening downstairs, I need you to remain here and don’t make a sound, don’t even speak, if you can make a zipper that will guarantee your silence then do it.” He instructed, “I’ll inform Anna of your presence when I see her, and if she’s interested, she’ll come keep you company.”
Calista’s blue eyes suddenly brightened at the last phrase of his words, “you mean you’ll send Anna here?”
“Yes, if you remain quiet and stop yelling like a hungry bird, if you plan to leave here sooner and unharmed, then you’ll have no choice but to listen to my orders.”
“Okay.”
She readily agreed, and that was it, to Azazel’s surprise.
“You just agreed?”
“Mmmn.” She nodded before turning away from him, leaving Azazel somewhat taken aback by it as he blinked in surprise.
This woman was really confusing him with her attitude, his main confusion was the fact she carried no hate in her tone, as though she was enjoying this.
He wanted to say something else to her but decided to leave it for after the event. His main objective for wanting to bring Anna here was so she could reveal about the Valerian sword to her. A very powerful sword that could only be wielded by Aveline, yet he feared it.
Hopefully she reveals its whereabouts so Roshan can commence on how to fully destroy that sword. If Anna ends up wielding her sword again, if she survives the fate of her mark then, there was still primal doom that awaited them.
“Good.”
Seeing he was done here, he turned around to leave before he heard her say.
“You look very handsome tonight sir, do send Anna over while you can.”
And again, she left Azazel dumbstruck by her words which he claims to be nonsense. Without responding to her compliment, he vanished out of sight.
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