To His Hell and Back-Chapter 411: A Murder In The Open-I

As the knife inched closer to her neck, Arabella raised her hand and without looking pushed Isabelle’s hands that were about to reach her neck. She frowned when she turned, finding the clinking of the silverware knife that had bounced under her feet and stared at it before turning to Isabelle who had fallen to the ground on her bottom while hissing at the pain of her broken wrist.

Assessing what happened, Arabella knitted her eyebrows, looking back at Isabelle with not surprise but disappointment.

She didn’t say a word, not knowing what to say when she looked at the knife and the fact that Isabelle would hurt her when things didn’t go her way. Realising that all this time she was just another pawn to Isabelle, Arabella sighed only to hear Isabelle who seemed still shaken by the entire ordeal, "I didn’t- I didn’t know what happened... I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m not," she broke her words and sucked her breath sharply, "I’m not like father."

Parting her lips, Arabella gave her the benefit of the doubt, "So you mean that you were forced by someone?"

"Forced, forced! I was forced!" Isabelle crawled toward her in the ground, still kneeling, "Trust me I didn’t... want to do it but there was a voice in my head.... Bracelet, the bracelet I wore also glow."

Arabella looked down to find that beside the knife was white colored pearls that had spread across the ground of the garden, broken from a thread that was tying it. "Who did you meet?"

Startled by the question, Isabelle shook her head.

"A woman but I don’t know. I try to remember the name which she introduced me as but I can’t remember it.. why can’t I remember it at all?! That’s not possible. I saw her before I entered the tea party and she introduced herself to me... her appearance- I can’t remember her face."

While Isabelle was frantic to explain that she would never hurt her, Arabella had bent down instead and dropped her hand to pick on one of the pearls, when she did, her eyes suddenly widen and she winced her fingers backward as it began to bled.

Another type of curse wasn’t it?

The reason why instead of being cursed she was now bleeding is due to the pendant she had worn around her neck, the one she had made using Cassius’s blood. It could save her from all curses and this one in particular, and it seems that the person who was behind this was also behind the curse that the demon inside her had found.

The pearls... they are laced with magic and when Arabella hovered her hands over it and tried to learn what was happening to it, she began to frown.

"It wasn’t me," Isabelle whispered, "right?" When she saw Arabella was hovering her hands over the pearls.

"It’s a suggestion magic. It suggest you to do things," said Arabella before looking back at her red eyes, "Bit as it sounds, it only suggest and enforces the person. Without their own will, it wouldn’t take place, ever."

Horror washes over Isabelle as she realized that from what Arabella had said that meant that all her action was the result of her own wish deep inside her heart which wanted to hurt Arabella herself. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Princess!" The boy who had called her was none other than Noah.

His face was wet with sweat, eyes wide with fear. Seeing such expression, Arabella rushed toward him and wiped his face with her sleeve, "What is the problem?"

"I heard," he pointed his hand towards Isabelle. "I heard that there was a sound of magic! Did that person hurt you?"

Following him was also Cassius. He had appeared with his arms crossed from behind Noah and although it looked as though he had came late, Arabella knew that the reason why Isabelle had fallen far on her bottom with a broken wrist was due to his demonic power. The shadow underneath him was still rumbling, angry as though it wasn’t satisfied by just crushing Isabelle’s wrists and flinging her backward, wanting something even deadlier.

"Bring the guards," ordered Cassius which startled Noah as he didn’t saw the king at all. He looked at Arabella again, worried and she eased him with a smile.

"Everything is under control here," after saying that only then Noah walked away, rushing toward demand the soldiers to come.

Cassius let out a sigh upon seeing Isabelle, his jaw clenched and from where she was standing she could see he wasn’t pleased that the only time she was allowed to be free from the castle’s wall, dangerous antics had began to happen. Inside the castle was dangerous, outside was as dangerous.

"Should I sew you close to me?" Cassius hummed, his words were like a joke but his expression was not. "A way to make sure you are close to me. Perhaps that’s the only way for this madness to stop."

Arabella turned and shook her head, "The lady who was named Wendy and kept in the castle."

"A wrong woman. She said she is Wendy her entire life but the guests who had seen her before she was imprisoned and now prior to it claim that their faces look different. A scapegoat."

"But she is still in the castle."

"That is why. If you don’t mind in sitting on my laps the entire day perhaps we could make this work," Cassius said with a serious expression on his face until she sighed and patted his back.

"Let’s try finding the source of the issue first won’t you?" Cassius saw Isabelle who was distraught and could only sigh with a heavy feeling in her stomach.

Cassius pushed her back and turned her body backward while the guards rushed to apprehend Isabelle.

"You still feel guilty for her."

Arabella smiled a thin smile, "Her hatred is what blinded her. If she was more aware of releasing the hatred from her heart..."

"Stop it." He whispered, "You shouldn’t feel pity to someone who doesn’t ever thought well of you. It breaks my heart that you have to always feel disappointed when people you trust betrays you this way."