Raziah was instantly on her feet. She gazed around the entire room to see if she could spot the source of the sudden noise, but she couldn’t find any clue. The most thrilling surprise of it all was that everyone around her was still going about their normal activity, which meant that she was the only person who heard that scream.
In a few seconds, she was with Fabia who had been talking with Maria. They were about to ask her how the evening was treating her, but the alertness in her eyes had them dropping their wine, "What happened?!" They asked in unison, standing upright to face her.
"There was a scream. Where is Caius?" She was already looking around them.
"He said Aletta was right outside the door and was going to meet her. I think I saw her leaving with the king’s brother, and I..." Fabia’s eyes shot open as she then realized Caius wasn’t with Aletta at that time, meaning he must have either wandered about on his own, or...
"I heard him screaming. We have to search for him!"
"Let me inform Malcolm," Maria said and walked away from them.
"Where did you hear the scream from?!" Fabia asked looking devastated.
Raziah turned around again and took another wide search of the hall with her eyes. She wished she could pinpoint the exact location of the scream, or she would hear anything that could indicate his location, but the noise was gone now.
"Tell Malcolm and Felix to search the hall thoroughly. I’ll be with you in a moment." Raziah told Fabia with an assuring pat before she stepped out of the hall. She wasn’t sure what or where she was going, but after Caius had bumped into Zoan, she saw him walking out of the room heading for the double doors. That means he must have either left the hall, but Fabia said Aletta had been standing right outside, but she didn’t see him leave.
Raziah stared up at the ceiling at first, before crouching to touch the floor. Closing her eyes, she shut out every other noise around her except what she wanted to feel. Slowly, the party noise turned into a completely silent room behind her, fading away in a distance while she concentrated on hearing even if it was a squeal of Caius’s voice.
Her fingers moved around the ground, tracing in a form of circular patterns. Then, she turned to the right...and saw it. With her eyes closed, the images in her head were in a form of ash blurs but she could make out the object, and standing right beside her was a small pillar supporting the roof of the hall. There were many situated at the very edges of the room, and no one usually came here. She stood up and moved closer to it, and far away voices began drifting around her ear...
Strangled tone. Yells, masculine voices, hissing...then a wince.
Caius. She was sure of it. Was someone hurting him?
Her eyes flew open, and every single noise she had thrown off came up to the surface again, reminding her that she was in the middle of the event. The people around her were in clear view again, but she was mostly interested in the pillar that was right in front of her. She had just taken her next step forward when she kicked something made of plastic, and there was the same plate she had handed over to Caius a while ago.
Dear lord... How did he get inside this pillar in the first place?
"He’s in there." She pointed at it when Felix approached her together with Malcolm.
"How did he get in there?" Malcolm was finding it hard to believe.
"They have a witch with them. This isn’t an ordinary pillar wall anymore. The witch must have made it into a gateway," Felix explained as he reached his hand out toward the pillar, and Raziah wasn’t so surprised when his hands passed through it like thin air, while Malcolm’s jaw almost dropped.
"Some group of Vampires were after him in the past too. We don’t have much time!" Raziah turned to Felix and stretched out her arm. They made eye contact, and he could see she wanted him to hand him any sharp object she could use to defend herself, "Anything will do. You should have a dagger with you, right?"
"No, your highness. We will take care of everything from now." Felix urged, denying her. It wasn’t just because she was Ill and needed to recover first. If the King hears that he allowed her to come with him again, he wouldn’t be spared for a second time.
"We will both go," Malcolm assured her.
"I don’t think I can sit and watch." She shook her head.
"Then lie down in your room instead. You’re not getting any blood in your hands tonight!" He suddenly grabbed both her shoulders, but not too hard, just enough for her to snap out of her panic and actually see that she could depend on someone else. His eyes bore into hers, "We will be back with Caius. You go make sure that the women are alright. That’s the least you can do now. We’ve already wasted enough time," He poured into her, releasing her shoulders with a small bow.
"But..."
"There won’t be a problem," Felix glanced at Malcolm, then back at the Princess. Then, both men walked into the pillar and disappeared.
As she strode back to the others, Raziah blamed herself. Someone out there was after Caius, and she was afraid it had something to do with his mysterious somnambulations. She had even spoken about it with Malcolm but hadn’t taken any measure to keep a firm eye on the boy. This event was the perfect place for him to get kidnapped without much noticing, and she was just glad that she had somehow heard him scream, or else Fabia would have kept thinking he was with Aletta.
Feeling that neck-prickling feeling of being watched, she glanced at the Dance floor and met her husband’s gaze on her. Thankfully, he was still dancing with Gwenore. The look in his eyes told her that he already knew what was up. One of the warriors must have somehow reported it to him already.
The double doors suddenly burst open, and a woman with rose-red curls and big dovey black eyes burst into the hall.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
