The Devil's Temptation!

245 Suddenly Bold

~

Calista sat beside her brother on the bed, listening to what he had to say regarding the dark forest, and his wife was dutifully serving Archer some tea.

“My guess would be, what if the Demon wasn’t the only thing trapped in the forbidden temple?” Adrien questioned, shifting gazes from Calista to Archer who had their thoughts on the same thing.

“My first option was to ask your father some questions concerning the forbidden temple,” Archer said, sipping the warm tea and dropping it lightly on the table beside him.

“Father is not in a good condition to be questioned as of now Archer, you know this already,” Calista disagreed with that idea of his, and he nodded his head in understanding.

“Trust me princess, I know, and that is why the option got canceled, now my second option is to find someone brave enough to visit the forbidden temple.”

“But no one has survived visiting the temple except Anna.” Adrien said in reminder, already refusing the idea of sending someone into the forbidden temple when they could volunteer to go themselves.

“So what do we do then?” He folded his arms, relaxing back against his seat, “how do we know what’s going on if we can’t get proper insight of what’s in that temple?”

Calista remained quiet while the rest of them continuously cracked their brains. If there was a way to get Azazel to join the conversation, it would be very beneficial to the both of them.

.....

There are things he’s capable of knowing and they might not, if they joined heads together, they might be able to figure things out. But then again, she wasn’t ready to face the thousand questions thrown at her because of him.

Yulia sat at the edge of the bed with Calista, interrupting her thoughts and offering a smile that only made Calista grow suspicious of her. She wasn’t comfortable when Yulia smiled her way every time.

“Sister_in_law, it must have been pretty chilly on the balcony, would you like some hot tea as well?” She kindly offered to serve Calista some tea, but the princess refused her act of kindness.

“Save them for tomorrow, I’ll be paying a visit to Archer’s family so ask me this when I’m prepared to leave, but that is if you don’t mind taking the place of my maid.” She returned Yulia’s smile, but the one’s on Yulia’s lips were slowly starting to fade after registering Calista’s sly words.

Did she just refer to her as a maid???

“You’re quite funny there sister_in_law.” Even her laughter was fake, and it was obvious she was forcing herself not to display her annoyance, especially in front of her husband.

“I am not a joker but I appreciate that you find such comments about yourself appealing.” She sincerely uttered, and Yulia felt a part of her pride slip away.

Calista can be pretty good when it comes to having a silver tongue on her issue. She knew the princess wasn’t fond of her presence, and the feeling was actually mutual. Unfortunately, she’s stuck trying to win the trust of the princess. She wanted to earn Calista’s trust the same way that strange lady who visited the palace the other day did.

“Callie, stop pestering my wife.” Adrien intervened, but his tone wasn’t scolding or reprimanding like Calista expected, it felt like he took their bantering for a joke, even if it did sound like one.

“I was thinking_” Archer changed the subject, “the physician has lived longer in the castle hasn’t he? Shouldn’t he be able to give us the answers we seek if we ask him?”

“The physician is observing a prayer,” Calista said to him, “and that is not a bad idea as well, but I think I should be the one who gets to speak with him on the matter. He might open up more information if I showed up alone.”

Archer was already against the idea, but Adrien nodded his head in agreement, “you’re not wrong,” he saw the point she was trying to make, “he knows you better, so he might give in_depths on the matter.”

“See.” Calista returned her attention to Archer, “I have an even better idea, what if Anna and I speak with the physician? The physician was the closest to Anna, so she might know of a few ways to make him talk.”

“Who is Anna?” Yulia raised a question, feeling left out in the conversation they were having, and Adrien was the one to respond.

“She’s a friend.”

“A friend??” At the mention of ‘a friend’, Yulia’s memory ran back to the lady she crossed paths with at Adrien’s doorstep, and the lady made mention of being a friend.

Was her husband cheating on her with that weird lady???

“Yulia!”

“Hmm?” Her name being called so abruptly startled her very soul. She looked at Adrien who’s brows were knitted in silent inquiries.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes! Yes!” She quickly responded, smiling, “I just blacked out for a few seconds, but I am alright.”

She turned her attention to something else while the three people present found her reaction to be a bit strange, but since they had important things to deal with, they chose to leave her matter for another day.

~

The morning sun finally rose at Viscarrian, Roshan already made it back to his palace. He took a long time to get back home due to how the snows had blocked some of the road paths, so he had to change routes three times.

He was hoping for Anna to be in the training ground, and not in his room once he walked into his chamber, but to his surprise, the lady herself was sitting at her dressing table, giving him a bewitching smile like she knew he was going to step in any minute now.

“Anna, you’re awake?” He sounded surprised, “shouldn’t you be in practice with–”

“I was waiting for you.” She suddenly hugged him out of the blue, wrapping her slender hands around him while resting her head on his chest.

“I’ve missed you, you made me stay up all night waiting for you.” She mumbled childishly, to his surprise.

“But I told you I’d return this morning,” he reminded her, but she hugged him even tighter, “I know, but I just got scared and missed you beside me, that’s all.”

She looked into his hazel-green eyes, feeling bright as ever. Roshan was a bit taken aback. The only time Anna would take the initiative to get close to him was when he forced it on her, but right now, she appeared bold.

“Anna_” he had barely completed his words when he was pushed onto the bed. Anna crawled up to meet his dumbfounded stare.

“You’re cold, let me warm you up.”