The Devil's obsession with the Heiress

Panic and anger surged through Aliana in equal measure. Even as the dizziness worsened and her limbs began to feel heavier, she refused to stop fighting.

Her hand shot up and wrapped around Diana’s already injured wrist, and she drove her nails in deeper without mercy.

Diana hissed through clenched teeth as blood welled beneath Aliana’s nails and trickled down her wrist, staining Aliana’s palm.

Yet despite her resistance, Aliana could feel her body betraying her.

The darkness at the edges of her vision spread inward, her thoughts becoming slower and more difficult to grasp as whatever had been laced into the cloth began shutting her body down.

Her grip weakened.

The bathroom blurred before her eyes.

Her eyelids grew unbearably heavy, and no matter how hard she fought to keep them open, they continued to fall.

As consciousness slipped through her fingers, a final image surfaced within her mind.

Gavriel.

His face was the last thing she saw before the darkness finally swallowed her whole.

....

Back where the gala continued, Gavriel was surrounded by the men Alester had introduced him to.

As the conversation went on, it was mainly Alester who engaged them, while Gavriel remained mostly silent, his thoughts occupied by only one person... Aliana.

It hadn’t even been ten minutes, yet the restlessness inside him continued to grow, no matter how much he told himself that Reve and Cillian were already there to look after her should things go south.

But despite his own reassurances, he was unable to stay still.

"Mr. Valentine, will you be an active part of The Atlas Gateway project?" one man asked.

Gavriel’s icy blue eyes settled on him before he finally parted his lips to respond, "Yes." Then, without offering anything more, he turned his attention to Alester and added, "Father, if you would excuse me, I need to make a call."

Everyone was surprised by how at ease he was addressing Alester as father, but Alester didn’t mind this time. Instead, he gave him a short nod, and Gavriel took that as his cue to finally slip away.

His long, purposeful steps quickened as he distanced himself from the crowd, walking down the exact path where Aliana had disappeared earlier.

The heavy restlessness and unease refused to settle within him, grating on his nerves with every passing second.

He wasn’t used to feeling this way, and now that he did, he didn’t know how to deal with it. Without even realising it, darkness began leaking from him, causing the lights throughout the mansion to flicker.

The sudden fluctuation confused the gala guests, as this was the Vanderbilt Estate, and power outages were virtually unheard of here.

Just as Gavriel drew near the hallway leading to the ladies’ room, he froze upon hearing the sound of frantic, rushed footsteps echoing from the opposite direction.

His head snapped toward the sound, and a moment later, two figures burst into view. They looked as though they had just run an grueling marathon, coming to a sudden halt the exact moment they caught sight of his towering frame.

It was Cillian and Jade.

Huffing desperately for air, Jade leaned heavily against the wall for support.

Cillian, who looked comparatively less worn down, stared at Gavriel with a mix of surprise and caution. His eyes could clearly see the shadowy darkness rolling off him.

Keeping a safe distance from the volatile man, Cillian exhaled, "You’re here."

Gavriel’s brows drew together slightly as he looked at him and asked, "Where were you?"

The foreboding Cillian had been feeling gripped his heart tightly as he replied, "We... we were coming here when we saw..."

"Rose," Jade completed his sentence, taking a sharp, deep breath to regulate her ragged breathing.

Gavriel’s cold eyes shifted directly to Jade, his voice dropping to a low murmur. "Rose?"

Cillian nodded quickly. "We saw Rose out in the courtyard and followed her, only to be led straight into the forest section of the estate. The moment she disappeared completely, we came running back to find Aliana because it... it felt like..."

Cillian found it difficult to finish his sentence as he watched Gavriel’s expression darken to a terrifying degree.

Jade finished it for him, her voice trembling slightly. "...Bait."

The exact moment the word left her lips, Gavriel didn’t wait to hear another syllable.

He spun around, storming down the remainder of the hallway, and reached for the door to the ladies’ room.

But just as his fingers stretched out to grasp the handle, the door suddenly swung open from the inside, making his eyes widened slightly.

Cillian and Jade, who had followed close behind, also looked ahead, only to blink in surprise.

Standing before them was a woman in a beautiful red gown, looking perfectly unharmed and as breathtaking as ever.

"Gavriel?" she asked softly, confusion clouding her features. "What are you doing here?"

Gavriel stared at her silently, his cold gaze travelling slowly from her face down her body, meticulously checking for anything out of place.

When he failed to find any physical injury, the oppressive darkness leaking from him receded only slightly, though it did not vanish completely.

"You were taking too long," Gavriel finally spoke, his voice dropping to a much softer, gentler tone than he ever used with anyone else.

He took a step closer, raising his hand to cup her cheek, but she quickly stepped aside to evade his touch, walking a few paces ahead of him.

"Oh, sorry about that. Let’s head back, shall we?"

She glanced over her shoulder, meeting Gavriel’s eyes, and offered him a warm smile before turning away and continuing down the corridor, leaving the three figures standing there in stunned silence.

All three watched her quietly, trying to determine whether anything was amiss.

Yet the longer they observed her, the more they began to wonder if they had worried for nothing. Her gait remained proud and graceful, the same as it had always been, and she looked completely fine.

Gavriel, however, narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

He hadn’t missed the way she had avoided his touch only moments ago. Seeing her walk away as though nothing had happened made him wonder if he had rushed over for nothing.

With that thought, he shifted his attention to the two people beside him, both wearing equally confused expressions.

Breaking the silence, he asked, "So you both claim to have seen that spirit again?"

He refused to call the woman as rose, reserving it only for his little rose.

Cillian and Jade shifted their attention back to Gavriel and responded in unison, "Yes."

Cillian took the lead in explaining. "We followed Aliana when we saw her leaving the gala alone while you were held up. But while we were on our way here, we saw that apparition out in the courtyard. She..."

Cillian’s brows knit together, a deep frown settling on his face as he added, "...she ran away the moment she looked at us, so we pursued her. We trailed her all the way into the deep woods, where she suddenly vanished into thin air, as if she were nothing more than a figment of our imagination."

Jade chimed in, "That’s when it clicked that it might be a ploy to distract us. We hurried back as fast as our legs could carry us, fully expecting to find the worst, only to see Aliana..."

Her green eyes drifted back down the hallway, watching her best friend walk away. "But she seems completely fine."

Something simply didn’t add up.

Both of them had fully braced themselves to witness something terribly wrong, yet regardless of their dark expectations, the reality stood right in front of them... Aliana was completely unharmed.

Pushing her lingering doubts aside for the moment, Jade announced, "I’ll go catch up with her," and with that, she hurried down the path, leaving Gavriel and Cillian alone.