Adrianna and Mrs. Tanaka jumped when the door opened unexpectedly. They became quiet instantly. There was no one on the outside. Shocked, Adrianna walked to the door clutching her wand tightly. She looked to her left and right but there was no one. Suspecting something foul, she quickly closed the door.
"Who was there?"
"I don't know," replied Adrianna with a shrug. Her anxiety rose.
They were about to start talking again when the door opened again. Mrs. Tanaka narrowed her eyes when she saw that it was Pryce who was standing on the doorway.
"There are some guests waiting for you," she said looking at Mrs. Tanaka. "You should probably come out and talk to them."
"You go. I'll be there in five minutes," said Mrs. Tanaka.
Pryce's gaze shifted from her to Adrianna and then after a pause she nodded and left, closing the door behind her.
Adrianna turned to Mrs. Tanaka, and said, "Will you be able to recognize that person if he is here today?"
"Yes, I can easily do that but for now I would advise you to leave the house immediately. In fact you should not come out of the Wizard Kingdom until you deliver the baby," she advised. "That is your safe haven." Saying that she got up from there, kissed Adrianna on her forehead and walked to the door.
Just before she opened the door, Adrianna said, "If that man is here, I would like to see him."
"That person has already gone," she replied and walked out leaving Adrianna in a bind. The only way for her to find out about that man would be to ask Inyanga to enter her cell or maybe she could enter and at least come to know about the face of the person. With that idea in mind she followed her to the main hall. She noticed that Niiya was talking to humans and Pryce was standing with him. They had held their hands tightly. Adrianna smiled. She was genuinely happy that Niiya had moved on but she was sure of one thing – she wouldn't let him be the Council Head anymore. She was planning to stake a claim to that. If the council members didn't take her as the head, she would get Dmitri but definitely not Niiya. It was time that he went out of the equation.
Adrianna noticed that Niiya's mother had gone to attend to guests. She entered her cell without her knowing about it. But she was surprised that there was not one person who was unfamiliar to her. All of them were people from the town. And she knew most of them. She saw a group of five girls talking to Haldir. They were acting as though they were his fans.
"Are you a model?" asked one of them. "You are handsome."
Haldir's face was as stiff as a stone. He didn't reply.
"Oh! I remember. You came in that movie in a cameo role," she exclaimed and even mentioned the name of the movie.
Haldir gritted his teeth. Dmitri was only too happy to come to his rescue. He sauntered to him with a plate of cheesecake and circled his shoulders with his arm. "I see you have taken fancy for my friend here," he gave a s.e.xy smile and look. A crumb was stuck on his lower lip.
And when the girls saw the two of them standing together, they swooned. "Are you guys related to each other?" asked the cutest one. She was so starry eyed that she went on to remove the crumb from Dmitri's lip.
"Ah! Thank you," he bowed slightly with a smile that made her heart skip a beat.
The other one was not able to resist the perfect bow-shaped lips of Haldir. She licked hers and said, "Would you like to take a walk outside?"
Adrianna had come out of Mrs. Tanaka's cell and her eyes shifted to her husband who was unnecessarily flirting. He was laughing softly while Haldir was standing with him with his arms across his chest, stiff as a ramrod. As she walked towards the two of them with narrowed eyes, she heard Dmitri say, "Well if you like, I can walk with you outside."
The girl rejected him, "But you are Adrianna's husband. I mean I wouldn't mind walking with you outside, but she might." The girl looked away from his crestfallen face and addressed Haldir. "I really love those long soft hair. You are the most beautiful person I've met. Please, can I just walk with you? Can we meet after this?" she begged.
Haldir pursed his lips. His pointy ears that were hidden beneath his hair twitched.
Suddenly he saw Inyanga walking inside the main hall. He was shocked and his eyes became wide. He so wanted to make those girls disappear.
Inyanga spotted Adrianna. She approached her and whispered, "You need to leave this place now."
"What happened?" asked Adrianna with a frown. She was just as surprised.
"I will explain to you later."
Inyanga went to Haldir and Dmitri. Haldir thought that Inyanga had heard that girl flirting with him.
"I am not going for a walk with her or meet her either," he addressed Inyanga all of a sudden with a serious expression. "She is clinging on to me. I have nothing to do with her."
Inyanga blushed heavily. He spoke so fast that except that girl who was highly embarrassed, none of them could even laugh properly. Adrianna suppressed her chuckle but it was Dmitri who couldn't control. He laughed and he actually guffawed. And everyone looked. And then Adrianna pulled him out. Haldir appeared like a fool. "I am sorry, my Queen," he muttered, his cheeks becoming red like an apple.
"Oh my God! You look so cute," exclaimed another girl seeing a flushed Haldir.
Haldir literally ran out from there after Inyanga, Adrianna and Dmitri.
Inyanga was unnaturally quiet. She kept her head low all the while until the four of them stepped in the royal palace. Haldir muttered under his breath when he caught up with her, "I don't know who that girl is."
"So?" she asked. "What can I do about it?"
Haldir stopped, his facial muscles were slack and he licked his lips.
Inyanga raised her eyebrow. "What?"
"N- nothing," he answered slowly with a knot in his stomach.
Adrianna had walked into the main hall. She turned to look at the two of them. Seeing Haldir in an unpleasant situation, she called out, "What was so important, Inyanga?"
Inyanga hurriedly left a stunned Haldir. She approached Adrianna with a caution in her eyes. "I have inspected the cells of all the prisoners we had taken in and there's only one thing that came up."
Adrianna looked at her, the yellow of her slit constricting.
"Two of them knew about your pregnancy and it is related to something in the human realm."
"How is it related?"
"These two wizard prisoners were part of your spying team in the human realm. They have a tattoo on the back of their neck, which is an inverted trident." Inyanga picked a cherry from the fruit tray and continued, "They had met two more people in human realm who also have trident tattoos but the difference is that their tattoos contain tridents that are on a beast's neck—it's like they are killing that beast."
None of them could understand the connection. "I think it's just a fancy to the tattoos," Adrianna said with a shrug.
"Or, it has something to do with a cult," said Inyanga looking past Adrianna.
"Cult?"