64 Unacceptable Gratitude
Luderick’s hand froze mid-air the moment he heard a knock on the door, his face wrinkled with annoyance as he lowered the dagger at his side and turned around.
He thought he made it clear to those miscreants that he didn’t want to be disturbed once the door was locked! So who dared to defy his orders??
Anna’s chest heaved up and down, both in fear, relief and panic as she watched the dagger drop to the ground with a clatter. She closed her eyes, feeling thankful to whoever had knocked on the door and interrupted the process but she didn’t let her hopes skyrocket as she waited to see who knocked as well.
“Who is it?” Luderick growled his question, but there was no response which made the situation even weirder and his brows furrowed at the disturbing silence, it oddly felt as though whoever was standing outside was taking his time and it was unusual because he was sure his trusted guard was standing right outside that door.
To his unprepared gaze, the door instantly bursted open with a sharp jolting sound, he even had to look away due to the dust that followed as he blocked it with his hand.
Roshan carefree walked in, his footsteps echoing on the cold tiled floor and behind him, the dead bodies of Demons perished utterly, like a blown-out candle.
Roshan’s guards stood at the entrance, scanning the area for more grotesque Demons but there was none at sight. Roshan flicked his wrist as he dismissed his guards with an order.
“Kill anyone present in the fortress.” His voice amplified, an authority that even Anna was tempted to follow if only she wasn’t trapped against this stupid coffin stone box.
Her heart skipped a thousand beats at the sight of Roshan who was literally dressed in a....
.....
Isn’t that his night robe?
His eyes were a crimson red that looked expressionless to both their gazes, when he strode in farther, they both realized he held someone’s head in his grasp. The bloodied thing left traces of black blood on the tiled floor, while his other hand held a sword which rested on his shoulder and he stopped walking.
“I was expecting his energy to be a lot tougher than this but turns out he’s only good with arrows so I bit his head off, he’s useless, you need a new and improved trust guard uncle.” He threw the head at his uncle’s direction and watched it roll on the ground only to stop in front of Luderick.
Luderick’s angry gaze shifted to Roshan who smirked in return, his extremely sharp white fangs could be seen and Anna just stared as though she was dreaming about Roshan being present here, unknowingly forgetting about her own predicament.
Why was he here?
Anna sensed the already rising tension thicken in the air due to Roshan’s incompetent actions and the two Demons locked gaze, hate darkling in their irises as the swift winter hail, it gave Anna the chills.
Roshan’s bloody red eyes shifted to the lady in red, lying on top of an Ossuary with a pale face and a bleeding wrist. His hold against the hilt of his sword tightened in an attempt to keep his anger in check and he could very much tell his uncle had held her down. He was holding her down without mercy.
He has to distract his mind from her.
“You know something else uncle.” Roshan added in a carefree tone, gaining his attention back “Time just ran out, it’s over.” He spoke freely while pointing at the moon which had disappeared from the sky, but they were like a sting to Luderick’s skin and he couldn’t take it.
“Why didn’t you just die in the temple?!”
The two Demons instantly charged at one another, the sounds of their blades clashing echoed loudly in the room, followed by a breeze that swept past them in accordance to the force of their powers. Due to his lack of concentration on Annalise, the force no longer held her down and she was able to move herself from the stone.
She didn’t wait to recover and quickly crawled to a corner and hid there to regain a little bit of strength since she was losing blood. Staring at her bleeding wrist and the pain still lingering like thorns to her flesh, she sniffed and returned her stare to the two Demons who were currently in a heated battle.
Watching their blades clash in fury sent Anna’s heart on a race and she stared at Roshan who successfully dodged the man’s massive hits with such skills she didn’t imagine he’d have, he was staying on the defensive side. He was rather fast with his movements and accurate with his stances for someone they kept calling weak.
But she can’t let him fight alone since he must still be down by that poisoned arrow, he wasn’t showing it but she knew. What if he gets hurt again??
‘No’ she shook her head at the thought, she wouldn’t let him get hurt all because of her.
Knowing it wasn’t possible for her to fight thanks to her current state, her alarmed gaze quickly searched the corner where she hid and the candles caught her attention. She picked a burning candle with her uninjured hand but yet her arm still hurts. Resisting the pain in her own system, she tossed the burning candle at Luderick and it caught his long feathered cloak, gaining both Luderick and Roshan’s attention.
“This woman! Was it necessary to intervene?” Roshan muttered under his breath and seeing as his uncle was distracted due to his burning cloak, he used the opportunity to slice off one of his uncle’s arms, ripping it from its flesh and Anna watched with horrid eyes as someone’s arm fell to the ground.
A gasp left Anna’s lips as she watched and she knew with no doubt Roshan would kill him with this much anger.
“My arm! You impudent rascal!” His uncle cursed.
“But I’m not even done uncle.” He said while taking a step towards the man who fell to his knee.
“You know how possessive I get with something that’s mine, you hurt what was mine!!”
He didn’t bother to hide his anger anymore, he wanted to stab him when his uncle suddenly picked the sword nearby and blocked the hit, using that opportunity to escape as he vanished out of thin air.
What!
“Get back here!!” He really wanted to kill that man, his hands were itching but seeing Anna’s condition at the moment, he couldn’t go after him and discarded the idea for another day. Afterall, that wasn’t the reason he came anyway.
Turning around, he saw Anna sitting beside the Ossuary while staring back at him, she looked as pale as a drifting blossom, tears swam in her eyes but they didn’t drop, she didn’t even know what to say. She never once expected Roshan to show up here and save her, she never did and now...
Seeing she wasn’t coming over and at the verge of tears, Roshan went up to meet her instead. He stared at her wounded wrist which hadn’t stopped bleeding and to Anna’s surprise, she watched him crouch before her, tearing up his cloak and using it to tie her wrist.
“Ro_ah!”
She winced at the pain, but his expression barely changed and remained neutral. She felt the pressure he applied to her wrist lessen a bit after she winced and he tied it more gently.
“Everything’s alright.” He said since he wasn’t the type who knew how best it was to console someone who nearly got used for ritual, but Anna shook her head in disagreement.
“Everything is not alright.” She sniffed, “but where did he go?”
“To find another body.” He told her through gritted teeth while keeping his annoyance under control, but she didn’t understand.
“What?”
He shook his head, “don’t worry about it, it’ll take him time to get a new body anyways, come on.”
“Roshan.” she called, her expression suddenly looked even more fragile than it already did as she lowered her head.
“Thank y_”
“If you dare to thank me for this, I’ll bury you in here myself.”
His interjection made her blink at him in disbelief and when she looked into his eyes, he looked somewhat offended.
Was he angry??
“But why?”
“Cause I don’t accept it.”
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