Chapter 361: A Premonition In The Dark

Deep into the night, amidst the silent luxury of the master suite, Aliana stirred restlessly against the sheets once again. Her breath hitched, her chest rose and fell in shallow pants until her eyes flew open.

"Gav!" The name tore from her lips in a panicked gasp as she sat upright.

Disoriented in the dark, she recognized the familiar contours of their bedroom and reached out with her trembling fingers to find the switch to the bedside lamp.

Soft, warm light chased away the darkness, and her eyes instantly darted to the other side of the mattress, desperate to see the one person who could erase the terror of her nightmare. The same horrifying vision of everyone dead, with a gaping wound torn through Gavriel’s chest.

Her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw the empty sheets.

Once again, Gavriel was gone.

He must have left after she had finally fallen asleep, exhausted from trying to push away the unpleasant thoughts that had plagued her since their conversation.

For one terrifying moment, the worst possible thought flashed through her mind, and she immediately began to push the covers aside.

But then she stopped, remembering what Gavriel had told her.

He often left during the night to collect the souls owed to him, souls that sustained his existence as the Devil.

Exhaling a shaky breath, Aliana closed her eyes, fighting for an ounce of mental stability.

Bending over her knees, she rested her clammy face against her hands, her voice came out like a breath in the silent room. "Why... did I have that terrible nightmare again?"

’What if... it was some kind of warning?’

The thought flickered quietly in her mind, but she shut it down immediately, remembering how Gavriel had told her that it was nothing more than a bad dream.

"That’s right. Stop overthinking, Aliana," she chided herself aloud. After all, this was only the second time she had seen that vision.

Yet no matter how much she tried to reason with herself, the heavy knot of dread in her gut refused to dissolve.

The sheer terror of that vision turning into reality paralyzed her.

To lose everyone she held dear in a single breath was horrific enough, but the nightmare had forced her to watch her husband commit the slaughter, his eyes cold, crimson, and completely hollow. And then came the sight that truly broke her heart... the gaping hole in Gavriel’s own chest.

"No!" Aliana shook her head, almost as if she could physically dislodge the thought. "That can never happen. He is the Devil, after all. Who could ever dare harm someone as powerful as him?"

Yet even as she told herself this, she couldn’t shake off the dark revelations exposed to her earlier that day....

Gavriel wielding only half his true strength.

The hidden laboratories.

The demon Mord, the shadowy master pulling his strings, and the mysterious artefact brought from the Underworld.

No one needed to tell Aliana that Mord was both dangerous and unhinged enough to target the Devil’s wife without a second thought for the consequences.

Even as a lower level demon, he had managed to evade Gavriel’s sight for months while orchestrating chaos from the dark. She would be a fool to underestimate him now.

Aliana’s thoughts drifted back to how their discussion had concluded...

"Let me guess," Cillian said, his brow furrowing. "She has no idea what the artefact actually is?"

"No," Gavriel replied flatly.

Everyone fell silent, each of them considering what their next course of action should be. It was then that Aliana, who had been deep in thought herself, spoke.

"Since we all suspect that whatever Mord is planning might have something to do with my powers and the origin of my soul... why don’t we start there?"

When both men looked at her, Aliana’s gaze shifted between them as she elaborated.

"Mord targeting the witch Sofia couldn’t have been purely to provoke Gavriel. I believe there was something specific he didn’t want us to discover, which is why he eliminated her before she could reveal anything to us. Furthermore, regarding his attacks on me... if he simply wanted my soul, a demon as reckless as you describe should have taken action himself rather than relying on others. Yet he hasn’t. It is almost as if he is holding back."

Cillian narrowed his eyes in intrigue. "Go on."

"Look, I may be wrong, but since almost all of our problems somehow lead back to my soul, I think..." She paused, meeting Gavriel’s intense gaze. "I think we should try the method I suggested to you yesterday."

Cillian raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two of them. "And what method might that be?"

Gavriel answered without breaking eye contact with his wife. "She wants us to summon the spirit of her ancestor, the one who performed the ritual binding their bloodline to me."

Cillian blinked in surprise.

Anticipating the question on the tip of Cillian’s tongue, Aliana explained, "I was thinking about that mysterious woman my ancestor encountered, the one who told her about the ritual and predicted that my soul would be born into the Vanderbilt family. I have a feeling that woman may hold the answers we’re looking for."

A slow smile spread across Cillian’s face as he listened.

"That actually sounds like a good direction. But are you expecting your ancestor to find this woman for you?"

"No." Aliana shook her head lightly. "At the very least, my ancestor might be able to give us her name, describe her, or tell us where they met. That would give us something to work with rather than leaving us with nothing."

"And if she knows none of those details?" Cillian asked.

"Then I still think it would be worth trying," Aliana replied firmly. "At least we can cross that off our list and move on to another."

In the end, they decided to summon the spirit the next evening, since Cillian needed to leave to deal with the damage control surrounding the accident at the Atlas Gateway Project.

Around that time, Jade, who had slept through the initial morning frenzy, woke up to the frantic headlines and hurried down to the living room. Aliana spent some time with her, filling her in on everything that had happened at the accident site.

However, she withheld any details regarding demons and other things she had found out. Given how strongly Jade had reacted to her own family’s cult-related history, Aliana decided it was best to wait until the timing was right before revealing the full truth.

The rest of the day dissolved into a blur of crisis management. Aliana coordinated with Nigel to quell the media storm and assess the structural damage at the site. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but several workers had suffered minor injuries from falling debris, prompting local authorities to launch a formal investigation.

The relentless demands of the crisis left her and Gavriel with barely a moment to address the deeply intimate matter she had been trying so hard not to think about.

The matter of bearing his child.