Problem

Blaire's Pov

From the moment Indrik had brought that woman into our pack, I had known that nothing could come of it except bad news. This became a reality when she suddenly started to shout in the middle of the night, shattering my face relaxation routine. I would have ignored her if not for the reference she made to Indrik. As it was, I cursed as I dashed to my room.

She continued to wail until I pushed the door open after which she stopped abruptly. She had been standing over Indrik in the dim glow of the oil lamp. She turned toward me with what seemed like a smirk on her lip.

"You are just in time." My eyebrows arched as I noticed that she was definitely smiling.

"What is going on?" I scowled, wondering what kind of craziness she was trying to work up.

"I don't know! Why don't you come and see?" She turned and the color drained from my face as I saw what lay on the bed behind her.

"No! No! No!" I muttered as I rushed toward the bed hoping with every fiber of my being that I was wrong about what I was seeing. Arriving at the bed, I found that things were even worse than I had thought. At first glance, Indrik seemed to be lying on the bed in deep sleep. I had almost turned to her with a hiss and a slap for disturbing my peace in the middle of the night. I mean, my face was still extra brown with the honey paste that I had applied on it. This thought soon faded away as I realized that all was not as it seemed. Indrik was pale, paler than he ought to look in the lighting. I frowned as I reached out to touch his forehead. I pulled away immediately with a hiss of pain as I stared down at him in shock. His temperature was searing hot. Hotter than a body should ever be. It might have been my imagination but I thought I could see rings of smoke curling off his body.

"What did you do to him?" I growled turning toward his maid, ready to pounce and rip her into a million tiny pieces.

Her smile unnerved me as she shrugged. "Not me! The poison."

The world around me took a violent spin and I collapsed to the bed to maintain my balance. "What are you talking about?" I asked weakly, my hand suddenly seeming to heat up more.

"Do you really think that is wise?" She questioned, gesturing toward Indrik who had awakened and was now squirming on the bed as he moaned in pain. "As you can see, he doesn't have much time. You can choose to stay here and question me, which I should say would not yield any result or you can go out there and get some help. Your choice!"

The way she said it enraged me but it also informed me that she wasn't joking. Indrik was going to die if I didn't do something. "You will pay for this!" I cried as I hurried past her.

"Whatever!" She laughed. "You had better hurry up though or there would be no Indrik to come back to."

My heart boiled with rage as I wished that I could beat her till she was in as much pain as Indrik was but something about the way Indrik started to spasm violently told me that he wouldn't care about vengeance if he was dead. My first port of call was the room of the two boys but for whatever reason, none of them were in. I should have realized this when none of them came running to the rescue when that woman called. That woman! My heart boiled with rage, fear and pain as I raced toward the main palace. What had Indrik done to himself? Why did he even bring her here? I had tried asking him a couple of times but he always found a way of evading my question.

"Help!" I cried, the moment I reached the huge doors. Two guards appeared before me, staring down at me as they waited to know what is wrong. "I need help!" I croaked, feeling useless as I wondered what she was doing to Indrik right now. Was she torturing him even more? "Indrik is dying. Please! Get help!" I muttered, pounding them on the chests without thinking.

Luckily, they got the message as one of them ran in and the other went with me. "Please! Go call the doctor. Tell him...poison...in danger...hurry!" I managed to say and watched him hurry off with brimming eyes before I returned to the room which seemed to be heavy with death.

The maid still stood over Indrik, watching him intently like she didn't want to miss the moment of his death. Bile rose to my throat as I moved over and shoved her as hard as I could, sending her stumbling to the ground.

"What kind of poison did you feed him?" I asked, hoping to have enough information about what had happened before the doctor arrived.

"Poison? What are you talking about?" She teased from her position on the ground. I clenched my fists as I took another look at Indrik. His skin was growing whiter by the second and his face seemed to have aged by twenty years. To even look at him felt like a hot iron rod placed on my chest that was puncturing my skin, slowly but surely burning a path to my heart.

"You!" I growled as I started to stomp toward her, ready to beat the truth out of her if need be.

"What is going on here? My heart soared as Beta Green and my mother showed up at the door. They were just in time because I was really starting to run out of ideas on how to deal with this problem of a maid.