The Crown's Obsession

Away from the place where the two High House members were, in a house of the village, a man stood at the window with his arms crossed against his chest whilst another man in black robes at the table, stood there reading the parchments from the light of the candle which was on the table. The man murmured something under his breath as if he was trying to decipher something from the parchments.

"How much more time do you need, Fraunces?" asked the man, who stood at the window.

Apart from these two people, there were six more people in the room who had almost camouflaged themselves to the background, standing near the wall and waiting for the soothsayer to give them more information about what was going to be feasible for them.

"Just a little more time," replied the soothsayer, grabbing the four bones of an animal from the table that were of the size of a matchstick. He shuffled the bones in his hand before throwing it on the table.

"What does it say?" asked Walter, coming forward and looking at the design that the bones were showing.

"Tomorrow is the perfect day. You will be successful when it comes to getting hold of the girl, but make sure that you don't sacrifice her until the clock strikes three at midnight. That is the time when the moon will turn completely gold, recieving powers from heaven to shine brightly. It will be the perfect time to sacrifice the girl," stated the soothsayer.

"And what if we miss the time?" asked another man who was in the room, a demon.

"We won't," said the man named Greyson, "The time like tomorrow's night doesn't come often, and if we are going to make use of the dark angel, we better make use of her fully."

"They killed my sister!" said Luther, where his voice could barely contain the anger in it, "Calhoun killed her!"

"And you will get your revenge tomorrow," Greyson responded to Luther, "But I need you to keep a straight head tomorrow. We have lost Lilith, Declan and the others yesterday, something I didn't expect. They would have still been alive if one of you didn't try to get the dark angel who was in the village. If I am not wrong, the actions have only made the people alert, which is why all of us need to tread carefully tomorrow."

"What is the plan?" asked Samuel.

"Distract the King and the others, and get the girl alone before bringing her to our hideout. Make sure you don't do anything to her because we need her alive." Greyson stressed on the word alive because a dead angel was of no use. Walter chuckled, hearing this, and Greyson raised his eyebrows, "Something you find to be funny, Walter?"

"I think what you need to say is for everyone to be careful. She's not a dark angel just for namesake. It would be better to have her unconscious before she is being brought here. When she was a child, she was able to kill demons," said Walter.

Greyson's eyes lazily looked at Walter, "You have already enlightened us about it. We will be gathering here again tomorrow, before seven in the night so that we can proceed together. If you find more demons who are willing to participate in this, they are more than welcome. What we are interested in is, in creating as much distraction as possible. This will make the chances of us getting hold of the dark angel quickly. You can not leave now."

"I guess I will be staying in here, considering how the High House members decided to have my face drawn and put it everywhere," said Walter, pulling out the chair and sitting down. Some of the demons had left, including the soothsayer, and Samuel, who stood there couldn't help but be eager for tomorrow to arrive. He had scores to settle, and he would do it right.

Back in the Hawthrone's castle, Madeline saw Beth go back to sleep after eating and crying some more. Now standing outside Beth's room with Calhoun, she said, "If only I knew how to summon Paschar. I would have asked him how to escape from the eyes and hold of the Salavete Mortem."

"We still aren't sure if it came for you or Beth," replied Calhoun. It was because Madeline had seen the creature appear in their room earlier. "It might have come for anyone."

Madeline nodded her head. With the creature of death that had come to visit the castle, she had forgotten something Monique had said to her. "There's something I need to tell you. About the chain that was given to your mother. Monique said it was Rosamund who gave it to her."

Calhoun's eyes narrowed at Madeline's words. He knew Rosamund and his dear grandmother didn't like his mother, but he would have never guessed that they would go as far as to plan her death so that she would never appear at the castle. The cursed chain often took short time for the person to fall sick and die, but his mother's body had tried to fight it, keeping her alive before her body slowly started to succumb.

His mother had treasured it as a valuable gift, not knowing the gift held the illest intention from the giver. And all these years, Rosamund dared to step in the castle while speaking about his mother like she was of no good.

"Cal," whispered Madeline, and Calhoun noticed her looking at something behind him. Her lips moved, but no word came out from it. Turning around to see what she saw, he caught sight of the Salavette Mortem which walked towards him, keeping three steps distance from him before it stopped.

The creature held nothing in its hands, and it stared at Calhoun, who stared right back at it.

Madeline hoped it would walk past them, but instead, the creature raised its hand towards Calhoun and then dropped its hand back to its side. In a blink of an eye, the Salavette Mortem disappeared.