CHAPTER 445: RESPONSIBILITY

Her fingers wrapped so tightly around that quill, Arabella paid no attention to anything that surrounded her aside from the map and notepad before her eyes.

Even when the door to the map room cracked open, her eyes remained glued to what stood in front of them.

There were too many voices in her head to consider. They drowned every shred of peace or reason that might have lived in her.

"What happened?"

Even Silas’ voice managed to gather her heed for less than a second.

"I simply need to mark all of the territories that you’ve already covered and then-" her eyebrows did not stop furrowing as her irises were ahead of the ink that dried up on the paper.

"You’ve spoken to the prince," he cut her off.

At those words, her hand froze in place momentarily but then continued on scribbling furiously without giving him an answer.

"What happened?" Silas asked again, putting more weight on his words that time around.

It barely fazed her at all. Her eyes refused to move his way whereas her jaws clenched then relaxed under his very gaze.

Then there was her heart which got not a second of rest, hammering its cage to no end, rising higher to beat in her throat with every second that passed.

The vampire did not ask again and merely sighed. After a few seconds of complete quietness, his feet moved, taking him closer to her.

Only with the touch of his hand on her cheek did she finally stop her doings to breathe, shutting her eyes to bask in the newly coming warmth that embraced her.

Silas wasted no time and scooped her off the chair before sitting under her to support her weight.

Those soft actions had the merit to sever her from the world of internal screams that blared in her head, the constant cold and gray reality that had claimed her mind whole...

Sliding along her arm very slowly, his fingers reached her hand and pried the quill out of it which allowed her to relax, further melting onto his lap.

"Would you tell me what happened? What did he say to you?" he whispered close to her ear.

"Nothing too surprising; he complained a bunch about me leaving Lustris," her voice wasn’t particularly stronger than his right there.

"I was also told about the unannounced visit from the syndicate," he sighed, his breath feathering her hair, "I should have been here,"

In response, Arabella hummed at first, "I think I’ve done a fairly good job at handling things in your absence," a feeble smile crept across her features as her eyes stared into the void.

"Yes, but at what cost?" Silas cupped her face, making her look up at him, "You look so tired,"

"It has been a long day," it took everything in her to keep the smile on, "I would really prefer it if we didn’t talk about this... At least, not for now, please,"

"Fair enough," he nodded, "What would you like to talk about then?"

Without missing a single beat, Arabella’s eyes flashed a little wider and sharper, "Have you found anything about Allegra?"

While maintaining eye contact, Silas slowly shook his head, "Not the slightest trace of her despite all the efforts put together to,"

"Did Dragomir send help like he promised?" she asked.

"Yes, although...," he trailed off, his diamonds traveling on the maps sprawled over the desk.

"I know," her smile grew somewhat brighter, "I can’t shake the thought that Dragomir and my father are somehow involved in all of this. Perhaps as a means to distract us and divert our efforts onto it while the prince and my grandfather executed their part of the plan,"

"That... Does sound very sane when uttered out loud," he took the time to pronounce every word as though just realizing the true meaning of each in that very moment, "I must admit, it has crossed my mind but for some reason, I couldn’t get myself to think about it more intently,"

"Neither could I," a little chuckle escaped her, "Then I suppose their plan of deterring our attention has worked,"

As quickly as it had appeared, her bright beam fizzled out and very noticeably so.

"What is-" Silas started but she did not let him finish.

"He chopped their ears off," blank-faced she stated.

"What are you talking about?" his hands instinctively wrapped around her arms to steady her trembling body.

"I’ve never truly paid attention to it, but now that I’ve been given the time to just... Look at them... I’ve never realized just how different two ears can appear from each other," there was urgency in her tone. A rising tension that built up to her throat with every breath taken.

"Please, calm yourself," he pulled her to his chest, "You are safe,"

He asked for no more explanation, but Arabella began to spill it all out of fear that the information would eat her up from the inside.

"The maids that were supposed to prepare and escort me to the castle back then... He... He chopped off their ears and ordered their execution," she cried, her words coming muffled against his chest, "I keep asking myself, why does he have to be so monstrous? But then the question that kills me comes; don’t I carry responsibility for what happened to them as well? Don’t I have their blood on my hands?"

Arabella held out her hands and glared at them as the tears kept on flowing and rolling down her cheeks.

"You do not," Silas took her hands and brought them to his lips where he was able to kiss them very tenderly, "You carry not a shred of responsibility in their deaths," he shook his head, "Don’t you ever allow him to trick you like that,"

The crying did not stop. It simply turned muffled once more as the young woman found refuge in her husband’s chest.

"It is nearly dawn," he rubbed gentle circles on her back, "Please, never allow him to rob you of your sleep,"