Chapter 264: Allergic To Incompetence
They say fate has a twisted sense of humor when bringing people together, and this was a prime example of it.
The moment Jade and Cillian turned towards the narrow passage, both of them went rigid, convinced the guards had finally found them after they’d carelessly let their guard down.
But when a tall, imposing figure emerged from the shadows and came to a dead halt, it took them a solid three seconds of blinking to process the sheer absurdity of what they were staring at.
There, standing right in front of them was a very half-naked Gavriel, his hands firmly holding onto the thighs of the woman clinging to his back.
As their eyes slowly travelled upwards, they found Aliana wrapped around him like an oversized koala, looking as though this were a totally normal way to travel.
But they were not the only ones in shock.
Aliana, whose heart had leapt into her throat at the sight of two figures blocking the path, stared back with eyes wide as saucers.
From her vantage point, she had a front-row view of Cillian pinned against the wall with his arms wrapped tightly around Jade. Not only that, but her best friend was clutching the front of his shirt as though her life depended on it, while the two of them stood so close together that they looked as though they had been only seconds away from...
"Oh my!" Aliana gasped, instantly clapping a hand over her mouth.
Jade’s face flushed a fiery shade of red. Her eyes darted frantically between her best friend and a half-naked Gavriel as she squeaked, "A-Ali?!"
Only then did Cillian seem to realise exactly what they must have looked like.
His eyes flicked from Jade to Gavriel before settling on the amount of exposed skin the other man was currently showing.
Without a word, he swiftly slapped his broad palm right over Jade’s eyes to block her view.
"She doesn’t need to see that," he said flatly as he looked at Gavriel.
Gavriel, on the other hand, simply stared at their tangled bodies before raising a single amused eyebrow, as though silently asking, Am I interrupting something?
Cillian rolled his eyes. "Oh, don’t give me that look as if you’re not carrying your wife around like a backpack."
Hearing that, Aliana quickly recovered and cleared her throat. "Well, that would be because someone here refused to let me walk barefoot."
"Of course," Cillian replied.
Before he could make another sarcastic remark, his ears picked up the commotion drawing closer. His eyes narrowed at the couple before him as he asked, "Care to explain what chaos you two have managed to stir up this time?"
"Enough talking. We need to move now," Gavriel said, breaking his silence. He took two steps closer to them, but made no move to take the lead.
Cillian frowned. "What are you waiting fo-"
"You first," Gavriel replied in a tone that left no room for argument.
Cillian looked at him in confusion. His eyes flicked from Gavriel to Aliana, then down to the single shirt she was wearing.
Realisation dawned on him... the possessive devil refused to go ahead because he didn’t want him getting a view of his wife back.
Without another word, Cillian turned around, pulling Jade along with him as he muttered, "Right. I like my eyes right where they are. No need to give you an excuse to scoop them out."
With that, the two couples rushed off in different directions, led by Cillian, as their ears picked up footsteps echoing through the corridors, as though everyone had joined some kind of witch hunt.
Soon, they came to another dark passage that led to a heavy wooden door. As the footsteps drew closer, Cillian quietly opened it, and the four of them slipped inside before gently shutting it behind them without making a sound.
For a long moment, they stood frozen in total silence, holding their breath until the footsteps finally came to a stop right outside.
One of the men whispered, "Hey, why don’t you go in and check if everything’s clear?"
"What? Why don’t you do it?" another man argued.
"Because this room freaks me out," the first man admitted before suggesting, "Why don’t we both take a quick peek and leave? I highly doubt anyone slipped in here anyway."
"Fine."
The door creaked open, and the men poked their heads into the dark chamber without stepping inside. Detecting no movement in the dark, they quickly shut the door again.
"Let’s go somewhere else," one muttered. "I don’t think anyone is here."
As their footsteps gradually faded away, Cillian, Jade and Aliana collectively let out a small sigh of relief.
Had the guards bothered to search the room properly, they would have immediately spotted two of them standing on either side of the door. But with the door swung open, neither guard thought to check behind it, giving the room nothing more than a careless glance before hurrying away.
"Those idiots are shockingly bad at something so basic," Cillian remarked from his side of the door.
Aliana snorted from the opposite side. "I agree. Absolutely incompetent."
Jade blinked at the two of them in the dark. "Are you two serious right now? Isn’t it a good thing they didn’t catch us?"
"I’m allergic to incompetence," Aliana replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "Anyway, care to explain how the two of you ended up here?" she asked, peering at them while standing directly in front of Gavriel.
Her bare feet were resting comfortably on top of his shoes, his arms wrapped securely around her waist to keep her off the cold stone floor and prevent her from being pressed directly against the wall.
"Well, it’s all thanks to the storm that we ended up here in the first place," Cillian replied, shooting an accusing side-eye at an unbothered devil.
"Yeah, we had no idea we’d be walking straight into an actual horror movie," Jade added, shuddering.
This piqued the couple’s curiosity, and Aliana asked warily, "Why? What did you see?"
Cillian filled them in on the gruesome scene they had stumbled upon, describing the state of the prisoners they had found, leaving Aliana visibly shocked. Gavriel, on the other hand, remained stoic, silently processing every word.
After a long moment of silence, Aliana slowly looked up at Gavriel.
"Do you think they’re doing that to those prisoners... as it’s mentioned in this book?" she asked quietly, lifting the old book they had taken from the study.
Gavriel met her eyes and replied gravely, "Possibly."
Confusion washed over Cillian and Jade.
"Um... what are you two talking about?" Cillian asked.
Aliana took a slow breath before recounting everything that had happened to them, from discovering the book hidden away in the study to everything they had witnessed inside the eerie chamber Vance had called a temple.
"Does that mean they’re... controlling Cedric somehow?" Jade finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"That’s what it looks like," Aliana answered.
Jade’s fingers slowly curled into her palms. "Then... according to the book..." She swallowed hard, her voice trembling with every word. "D-do you mean... they intend to feed us... human flesh?"