The Devil's Temptation!

179 The Envelope (I)

The style of the banqueting hall was filled with lights and elegance the moment Freya made her way in. The walls and ceilings were embellished with rosettes, palmettes and every other fine centerpiece that spoke of its allure, impulsively dragging Freya in.

Tiered crystal chandeliers glittered with soft lights, raining down on the murmuring guests who were neutrally conversing with one another. She could hear a small orchestra being played somewhere the farther she stepped into the banquet hall, half caring about the fact she might be caught.

She could see waiting staff circulating the crowd to offer them their finest wines. Every person present was looking extremely splendid and she couldn’t help but wonder which of the demoness his highness was meant to choose for a mate. If they were among the crowd or not and a tinsy little bit of jealousy made its way to her heart.

‘urgh! What are you doing Freya!’ she inwardly scolded herself while giving the back of her head a light slap. This wasn’t why she risked her life to come here where her presence wasn’t needed.

Thankfully, her powers were starting to get better since Luderick taught her a few spells on how to currently upgrade them, and instead of just daring to walk through the gate and be caught by those heavy guards, she transported herself in, knowing the safest place to appear in the building since she was still very much familiar with it.

And now she’s here, in the presence of the guests who fortunately, haven’t noticed her presence yet. Instantly, her alarmed gaze quickly searched for someone she could talk to, so she can warn them about Luderick’s plan but unfortunately, there was no one she could talk to that was downstairs.

“Where’s Anna?” She muttered to herself while trying to blend in with the crowd. She has never done anything like this but who knew that she’d one day dress up extravagantly only to ‘feel among’ as she made her way into the crowd.

“The wines are as always refreshing..” she heard a man say to Uncle Evan.

“Could it be a mixture of human blood?” He was indirectly making fun of them, but Uncle Evan just shook his head without putting up a fight, his expression already signified he wasn’t happy with that statement.

.....

“Are you trying to imply something, Mr Harold?” He pushed with one of his eyebrows raised, but the middle-aged-man he was talking to just chuckled deeply and said, “can’t take a little joke, Evan?”

“Joking about something as off-putting as that isn’t allowed, remember where you are and just enjoy the event like everyone else.”

“But that’s exactly what he’s doing.” Grayson walked up to the two men, turning his emerald green eyes to look at Evan who barely flinched at his presence.

“We’re meant to bond Uncle,” he stated, “not give low threats on such a special occasion.” He shrugged it off, but Evan said nothing since he was also a bit scared of Grayson, knowing who’s son he belonged to.

Freya quickly left their view of sight before anyone noticed her. Even the relatives are here, but sadly she doesn’t feel the family bond after listening to how rudely Grayson spoke to Evan. She could only wish not to run into such people on her quest to find Anna.

“Where is she?” Freya barely knew where to search as there were too many people present. If she doesn’t get to Anna before she receives the letter then, she won’t be able to do anything to help the situation.

Suddenly, Freya’s brows rose and her eyes widened when an idea popped into her head.

Why didn’t she think of this, Anna could only be in her room if she wasn’t here. She’ll just have to find Anna’s room and inform her about Luderick’s evil plan.

Yes!

Without wasting any more time, she went up the spiral stairs.

~

An hour passed by with Anna and Becca searching for Gemma everywhere in the building. They had even stood up the stairs to survey the crowd Incase Gemma was amongst them, but she wasn’t there, leaving a worried feeling to creep straight into Anna’s heart.

Where could she be??

“We still can’t find her!” Becca voiced out her fears the moment they were done searching and she was just as worried as Anna. They both liked Gemma personally and couldn’t understand where she could have gone out of the blue without telling either of them.

It was strange and there was no single thought that could explain the mystery of her disappearance.

“Maybe we’re missing something here.” Anna uttered her thoughts out loud before returning her gaze to Becca.

“Where did you say you left Gemma?” She questioned, leading Becca to take a deep breath before uttering.

“I left her in her chambers.”

“Then let’s go there, maybe there’s something that could explain her disappearance, or a clue that might lead us to where she is.”

“But she isn’t there, everyone must be wondering by now why Gemma hasn’t shown up yet, what will I tell them?? His highness Levi will not spare me.”

“We’ll find her,” Anna tried to keep herself positive about the matter, “let’s just go back to her chambers and see if there’s something that can lead us to her whereabouts.”

Nodding to Anna’s words and keeping the little hope in her heart alive, they hurried back up the stairs and into Gemma’s chamber.

Just like Becca had left it, she came to meet it exactly the same way it was. Silent and empty of anyone’s presence, except for Gemma’s sweet honey-like scent that still lingered in the room.

“She’s not here.” Becca enunciated as she watched Anna silently step into the room. Her eyes surveyed every corner until she was standing in the middle of the room, and Becca remained at the door.

If Gemma was really here, it’s impossible for her to have gone that far and even if she left the palace, almost everyone will be notified about it. So....

From the corner of her eyes, Anna wasn’t even done contemplating on what must have happened when she caught sight of the opened window that flapped from the breeze, gaining her attention and she instantly whipped her head to its direction.

For some strange reason, something didn’t feel right as Anna’s gaze remained fixed on the opened window, the breeze outside whistled mysteriously against the hinges of the window, as though telling a dark secret and that’s when Anna instantly called Becca’s attention to it.

“Becca, when you left Gemma here, where the windows opened?” Anna could barely tell why she was asking, she didn’t want to just conclude on the horrifying idea that had settled in her head, but it was obvious that Gemma’s disappearance wasn’t ordinary.

“No, I didn’t.” Becca responded while standing beside Anna, ” Gemma’s windows are never opened, she doesn’t like the cold and prefers to keep her windows shut.” She briefly explained, adding to Anna’s suspicion.

“Then how come that window is opened?” Anna pointed at the window, drawing Becca’s attention to it and she would be lying if she said she noticed the opened window.

“It’s opened?!”

Without wasting any more time, they both rushed to the edge of the window and glanced down, thinking Gemma must have played and fell from the edge but to their half relief, that wasn’t the case. It left them disoriented and confused.

“I don’t understand any of this, how is the window opened?? And why can’t we find Gemma??”

“Listen,” Anna turned to look at her, “can you do something for me?”

“What?”

“I need you to get his highness Roshan here, tell him it’s urgent and that his presence is needed in Gemma’s chamber.”

“But...”

“If there’s really a problem, then only His Highness is capable of helping us, hurry now and go tell him to come, I’ll be here waiting, in case I can find any more clues.”

“Okay.” With that, Becca left the room to go get Roshan like Anna had asked her to. Her mind was currently messed up that she was able to listen to anything as long as it brought Gemma back.

Meanwhile, Anna remained at the edge, trying to understand what must have really happened here and as she turned around, she headed for Gemma’s dressing table where the candle was still burning, almost reaching the end as the wax already melted to a solid form on the table.

And that’s when Anna spotted it. There was a white envelope that rested on the table, beside the burning candle. It was neatly kept there, as though whoever dropped it was sure that someone would walk into Gemma’s room and notice the white envelope.

“Who dropped this here?”

Curious, Anna picked the envelope and was surprised at how neat the person had handled it, and her mind didn’t need to tell her twice in order for her to classify the envelope as important.

But why was it in Gemma’s room??

Based on the sudden disappearance of Gemma, and now an envelope in her room, it finally dawned on her that the envelope might be a message Gemma has dropped about her whereabouts.

“This girl...” Anna didn’t know whether to inwardly scold her or wait for her to come back before scolding her. She quickly tore the top of the envelope, bringing out the pure white sheet that was left inside and surprisingly, it wasn’t only the little note that was left inside, there was something else and when Anna dared to look into the envelope, her eyes widened in horrifying disbelief.

Her expression turned grave and she instantly dropped the envelope to the tiled floor, taking a step back away from it while her palm instantly covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming.