Chapter 319: Hurt
Even when Arabella had no idea what to expect, she was still shocked to learn what had happened down in the dungeons.
By the time she and Silas reached the place, Lady Persephone already stood there, completely rigid, face and features shut.
An untamed gasp escaped the young woman upon following the Lady’s gaze inside one of the cells.
It contained the senseless body of Edna who lay there, eyes wide open yet utterly dull, in a pool of her own blood.
From the darker shade of red it had; it was clear she’d already been left there for hours.
"Oh my!" Arabella could not stifle the words before clasping her hands over her lips.
Edna’s skin had long since turned gray, the only thing from life that lingered on her being the twisted frown of horror she must’ve displayed before leaving their world behind.
"What happened?" the young woman managed to articulate despite her gemstones refusing to leave the frigid figure of the blonde.
"Something less than Ideal," the Lady basically grunted.
The fact that she was far more than miffed was apparent on her, but that was all Persephone agreed to share for that time being.
"What was she doing in the dungeons?" Silas finally shared his first thought.
"That’ll be a question for another time, I am afraid," the Lady’s hand rose to nurse her brooding forehead.
"And which question is for now to answer then?" he insisted.
"Well, who done it, of course!"
Persephone finally unrooted her feet from their spot and made her way inside the cell, closer to the corpse.
Towering over Edna’s limp carcasse, the vampiress’ eyes flickered with something very momentarily before focusing all of her attention on Silas.
"If you had any hand in this...,"
Silas merely glared back at her, his eyebrows fighting to furrow and put his perplexity on display.
"If I may," Arabella interjected, "If you are to suspect him then you are to suspect me too and perhaps the rest of the manor as well, since most of us knew she was down here,"
One of the Lady’s eyebrows rose as her eyes studied Arabella as if doing so for the first time.
"I was not made aware of it," Silas looked between the two women.
"I wanted it that way but as it seems... My efforts were futile,"
"She was never the kindest," Arabella lost herself while gaping at Edna’s uncanny expression.
From the looks of it alone, her last moments mustn’t have been kind. She must have been made to suffer.
Whoever had done it, made sure she knew it was personal. As Arabella had said, many people there disliked Edna but she hoped very few actually despised her.
Silas would have been one of them, but he claimed to have been oblivious to her arrest altogether.
There was Katherine, but she was still under observation.
Grace and Allegra were next on the list, since they directly suffered the consequences of her recent actions if Arabella reached the right conclusion.
"It still is all a theory, my Lady? Or do you have concrete proof that Edna was involved in the recent events?" Arabella wouldn’t remove her eyes from the blonde.
"I have concrete proof," the Lady sighed, "She was never the brightest candle," she marked a pause before adding, "That is why I needed her alive. I needed her to guide me to whoever pulled the strings,"
The revelations weren’t the simplest, but the image of Edna’s body lying contorted on the ground occupied all of Arabella’s mind.
Sure, Edna wasn’t the most pleasant soul to be around. She was more than irritating, that was a given but... Did she truly deserve such an end?
Was it even truly her lying on the floor before their eyes? So much of her had changed... She looked like a completely different person.
Finally, Arabella’s eyes rose towards Silas who glared down at the body with his signature glacial stare.
Wondering whether he was being truthful ate at her sanity. Surely, he wouldn’t lie? To spare her any guilt or agony? He absolutely would!
The way he’d been so close to ending Katherine when it was no fault of hers to begin with stuck with the young woman...
Not to mention, with his advanced hearing, he could have caught wind of Edna’s incarceration at any moment. The news had spread like wild fire like their usual, leaving very little chance for him to remain in the dark.
Persephone seemed to share those thoughts as well considering the manner in which she eyed him.
"What happened?" he spoke, diamonds still on the corpse.
"Think of the worst scenario you can imagine," Persephone followed his gaze, "It is exactly that,"
"She caused it all to happen," he half asked.
"It seems like it," his mother confirmed.
"And I am guessing you have no clue as to who might have done this?" he did his very best to conceal his emotions, but Arabella patted herself on the back for noting the slight shift in his tone.
"Not yet,"
"You sure suspected me of it,"
The moment of silence that followed after that hurt Arabella’s ears. It was the kind that gritted one’s eardrums when experienced for too long.
Still, there seemed to be nothing to share between them and that... Despite the mountain of it all to discuss.
"Darling," Persephone turned to Arabella, "Would you be a dear and give us a moment here," her eyes went for the other vampire that stood to the side from the beginning, "Marie here will accompany you back to your room,"
Immediately, the young woman’s eyes darted towards Silas, but he said nothing and kept staring at the body.
After one last glance at Edna, Arabella allowed the so-called Marie to guide her out of the dungeons.
Her mind bustled with everything and anything remotely related to the blonde.
A grave in the human side of the graveyard was to be dug after all. Not for her but for the person she least expected to die that early on.
The smallest part of her wondered whether Silas was hurting to see his previous provider in such a state... It must hurt. It sure would have hurt Arabella. It hurt her either way. Regardless of the way Edna had treated her since day one.