UNLEASH | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 6)

[ 02 ]

The atmosphere in the drawing room was heavy and stifling, there weren't many words being uttered or spouted across the long ornate table that had stretched from one end of the room to the other. Everyone was either staring at the person opposite or beside them, engaging in a conversation spoken through their gaze or mind. 

The room was dimly lit even when the sun was setting. The only source of light and noise was from the roaring fire beneath a handsome marbled mantlepiece surrounded by a gilded mirror, the faint murmurings of the moving portraits on the wall and the occasional whimpers of a witch being levitated at the end of the room.

Only when the doors creak open did everyone in the drawing room rise from their seats, offering a light bow of their heads to the wizard that had strolled in. The silence looms heavier and even the pale-faced portraits of former hosts of the manor fell quiet, becoming nothing more than just a regular painting. 

The man who just walked in pierced every face with his icy cold blue eyes. His lips curled with satisfaction at the power he owned over his army of Deatheaters who wielded both fear and respect for him. A few of them with detestation hidden beneath their gaze.

"Good evening, my lord!" the witch with the thick and slightly matted wiry hair greeted him first among the rest, her voice full of excitement and her heavily hooded eyes glittering with admiration along with a hint of obsession. 

And almost after the witch had begun her greeting, the silence in the room was broken as every member present in the room muttered their greetings to their master. A handful of them were softer and more reluctant than the rest, but they managed to throw the words off their tongue.

The Dark Lord nodded at his army and he took the empty seat closest to him, sitting down in the middle of the two sides and opposite Pius Thicknesse, a wizard official who was the Head of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic. He locked his eyes on Pius who was grinning politely in his direction, gladdened to finally have successfully acquired another piece of a pawn he could use in this game.

He inhales deeply, taking in the brooding surroundings around him. He strokes his beloved serpent companion, Nagini, who was residing next to him and offers her his attention before he starts. "Good evening indeed, my loyal Deatheaters," Voldemort spoke as he leans back onto his throne. His eyes trailed at each of them and his smile faltered into a scowl when he noticed two seats were still empty. One being two seats down his left and the other in between the two youngest men in his army with light-coloured hair. "It seems that we still have others who have not yet arrived," he stated with displeasure.

"Would anyone care to enlight me about their whereabouts?" he questioned his people who dipped their heads.

"Severus should be arriving soon, my lord! You do not have to worry!" the witch who greeted him first earlier reassures him.

Voldemort tutted at the only response, "Well, at least one of you knows how to reply to me," he snarls at the incompetence of the rest. "Thank you, Bellatrix. Now, what of my heir? Where has she gone to?"

Once again, there wasn't much feedback regarding where his child was. Not even Bellatrix knew where the girl had gone, she couldn't be bothered to check on her, not after she was the one who tried to kill her just months ago in the cellar. She was still very much bitter about being humiliated by the girl's new profound behaviour. It didn't lessen the contempt she had for her. Rather, she only despised the girl even more now that she was apparently the daughter of her beloved master. 

Bellatrix rolls her eyes and glares at the girl's brother who sits near her nephew and Voldemort follows her gaze, landing on Aion Estoileon. 

However, the young man only looked down at the reflection of the polished wooden table. He knew his younger sister would be roaming somewhere around the estate, either in her room, her lover's or his, or the greenhouse. These days, ever since she had come back from Hogwarts, she had become colder and rarely smiled anymore. The only exception was whenever she was with the ones she could trust and that included him. Though if Aion were to compare before she had gone back to Hogwarts or after, she definitely smiled more often before.