Chapter 44 Jealousy

She slowly walked through the hidden door, whisking her head both ways to make sure there was no danger. She peeped through the door just to make sure, then slowly stepped inside. She stepped into a very narrow corridor, covered in cobwebs and darkness. She tiptoed carefully, glancing behind her with every step.

Curiosity was the only thing pushing her forward as the entire atmosphere was eerie and scary. She reached the end of this corridor and met a small door at its end. She picked out her phone and switched on its flashlight. She'd forgotten she had a phone with her when she got into the corridor.

The door was a small brown one and it had just an iron bar pushed against it to keep it locked. She placed her phone in her pocket and removed the iron bar with great effort, as it was heavier than she'd expected.

She pushed open the door and she stepped into a darkroom that lit up as she stepped in it.

The room was a small one, just half the size of her room. It was neatly arranged. Not that there were a lot of things to arrange.

At its very center were four chairs arranged to surround a table, like it was a site for a small conference meeting. At the far end of the room was a small shelf containing books and at the other end was a small fridge. Regardless of these and files on the small table the room was practically empty.

"Why would my parents hide this from me?"she asked herself out loud.

She walked over to the table and checked the files on the table. The first few files contained nothing but some excel sheets of the entire royal castle expenditures. She separated all those files from each other. And all she found was just files upon files of excel sheet stuff. She was about to shrug the room off as a place his parents just had meetings to get away from her or other disturbance when an envelope fell out of the middle of the files.

She picked it up and opened it. There was a paper neatly folded it. Behind it was her name written in full and block letters including her middle name,which she had even forgotten was part of her name.

TO.

ERICA ASHDAY DUNHAM.

She tilted her face a bit, half afraid to open it. She unfolded it and was expecting a letter, but instead it was a list of names. Not just names, contacts in each and every wolf region. Each region had at least one ae. She didn't understand what they were for but she made a preliminary assessment. The obvious answer was that they were names of people her parents knew and probably wanted her to know but the problem was she couldn't understand why. It wasn't as if they knew they would die.

"Or did they?" she said to herself again. After meeting a witch that had the power to grant her audience with her dead family in the afterlife, she's been a bit lax about what is and what isn't possible.

She then started flipping through the files if she could get anything else but she didn't. She grunted frustrated. She decided to go check the small bookshelf when her phone rang. She rummaged through the files and finally found it. It was Loki.

"Hello," she said.

"I am supposed to be your bodyguard, that means no running off without me," he said.

"I didn't run off, shut it. I am in my parent's old room."

"Oh… are you okay?" he asked with a softer tone that made Erica blush.

"Yes…" she replied with a tinier tone. "I am okay. Where are you?" she asked.

"At your lock room." he said. "Apparently Vanessa and Candice get a key and I don't."

"Are you jealous?" she said walking out of the room and shutting the door behind her.

"Actually yes. They both think the keys are an appropriation to your level of trust and importance."

Erica broke out in laughter and stepped out through the shelf. Once she did, the shelf closed on itself.

"Just hurry up," he replied and hung up.

Erica walked out of the room and shut its door. On second thought, she opened it, snatched the key from behind it, closed it again and locked it up this time. She went on to do the same to her brother's room that was just a few meters away.

She headed back to her room but this time she wasn't able to avoid Ronald. She bumped into him and Catherine holding hands. The moment they saw her, they released each other.

"I heard you weren't in the castle." Ronald said, immediately they met.

"Is it straight to inquisition, not even a pretend greeting?" she replied.

"You haven't contacted me in four days, and you expect me to pretend?" he said. "I am just fed up."

"Of course, you will be." she said glaring indifferently at Catherine.

"My lady," she knelt.

"Is this all about jealousy?" he asked. "There is nothing going on between Catherine and I," he brushed his hair backwards.

"Never insinuated you had anything to do with her."

"You know what you have a royal meeting tomorrow. We will deal with this afterwards." he said.

"Deal with this… almost like I am a very clingy pet you can't wait to do away with?"

"What is wrong with you?" he said in annoyance.

The entire corridor acted like they were facing their business but they were just listening on. A perfect moment for her to really act.

"I don't want to see you near her again, that is all." she said.

"What…?" he turned to Catherine. "You do not dictate for me." he said. "Considering that little demon that has been following you around all week, I don't think you have the rights to bar me from speaking to a friend."

"Well then like you said. I have a meeting to attend tomorrow. I am going off to prepare," she said, walking off angrily.

"You are going to end up alone if you keep this up." he told her.

She didn't reply, she just kept on walking blindly until she bumped into a mass of body. She looked up to find the blank look of Loki staring at her. "Your majesty?"

She clicked her tongue when she discovered it was him. "I discovered something I want to show you," she told him. "But after tomorrow."

Loki smiled and nodded. She grabbed his hand happily as they both walked towards her room.