When I awoke the next morning, I was surprised to find that Nicholas was not in the same spot I’d left him the prior night and the little sleeping pile he’d made had been tidied up. Part of me was glad that his face would not be the first I’d have to wake up to, especially after everything that had happened last night. Just thinking about it had my cheeks blushing. I couldn’t believe just how far my body was willing to go to betray me. But more importantly, I couldn’t believe how drastically Nicholas’ behaviour had changed. It was as though he’d changed into someone completely different− familiar, but different. After a while I decided to finally get myself out of bed. If I’d recalled correctly, today we’d be having that anxiously awaited family meeting where Aura would most likely decide my fate going forward. I gave out a long, miserable sigh and then made my way to the stack of suitcases at the side of the room, eager to get myself warm in the shower. Unfortunately, my clothing b
Aura’s servants worked silently as they practically escorted everyone to their seats. They all looked dead inside and eager to get breakfast over and done with. I suppose I fit right in with them.Aura was seated at the head of the table and right next to her was a man whose appearance, although exceptionally beautiful like the rest of his siblings, reminded me of a sculpture with his perfect, high cheekbones, sharp nose and unnaturally smooth and blemishless olive skin. Like his siblings, his most striking feature was his eyes. They were a bright and almost glossy shade of intense green, reminding me of emeralds. I assumed he was Griffen, the Carden sibling I’d not yet been acquainted with. He seemed awkward and very reserved… and tired. He yawned a lot and seemed to want this to be over sooner than the rest of us.“Ariya. I heard that you’ve met everyone here except for Griffen. He’s the youngest,” said Aura with an attempt of what seemed to be a smile.Griffen gazed up at me and sm
Silence seemed to follow Nicholas and I from the moment we left Lakspur and all the way back to Zestonia. Part of me didn’t mind. It gave me more time to peacefully work on my novel, which I desperately needed to do after everything that had happened. My thoughts were swarming around in my head, and I couldn’t quite find it in me to process what had just happened. I didn’t regret the decisions I’d made but facing them was harder than I’d anticipated. And so, I wrote about it.Nicholas, however, chose to deal with it by pretending as though it hadn’t even happened in the first place. I’ll admit, a part of me was upset that he hadn’t even said anything to Aura. He never fought against her decision or stood up for himself. Instead, he just sat there and did nothing. That’s all he seemed to do- nothing. I didn’t expect him to stand up for me, I was mouthy and stubborn and did a good job of standing up for myself. I did, however, expect him to stand up for himself. This was his life too. I
The sun had just set when Melissa decided to literally fetch me from my room to drag me down to the garden get-together. But the moment her eyes landed on my messy hair and my clothes− more suited for a daily dose of indoor writing than a fun outdoor occasion− she frowned and shook her head.“You’re not going looking like that.”I sighed and shrugged. “You’ve all seen me like this already. No one complained.”“Well, I’m complaining now! Let’s get you dressed, brushed and pretty.”I mouthed her words mockingly but didn’t protest any further. She rummaged through my closet and found a newish pair of blue jeans and an off-the-shoulder white blouse. Once I’d gotten myself into my clothes she got to work, brushing out my long, black hair and then tying it up and smoothing the front down.When she was done, she smiled and nodded to herself, proud that she’d made me look more presentable than I had before.When we made it to the gardens outside, I was surprised to find that it was decorated
The world was spinning, my head felt like it was being hit with a hammer and my body and skin ached under the weight of my clothing. “I fucking hate myself!” I sighed as I opened up my eyes, only to be overwhelmed by the light in the room. It didn’t take me long to become overwhelmed by the room itself. Gold walls upon which neat irises where painted, a large, wooden bookshelf in the corner, white rugs and that dreaded light blue sofa. And as my terror-filled eyes continued to scan the room, the memories of the prior night began to flood into my mind. I was beyond embarrassed, beyond annoyed with myself and needed to leave urgently. The last thing I needed was for the owner of the room to- “Hey.” Too late. Nicholas entered the room with a tray in hand, atop which stood a mug of coffee, a plate of eggs and toast. Immediately my stomach groaned at the glorious smell. He set the tray down on the bedside table and then sat down on the edge of the bed before glancing down at me, trying
While Nicholas was out, I decided to finally get out of the house as well, this time, to a place much further than the gardens. Dante had invited me out for the day to apologise for the previous night. Although Nicholas was hesitant to have me galivanting around without him, Dante suggested that Lovita and Floran come along with us. Their faces were as stoic as always and so I didn’t know whether they themselves were fond of the idea of babysitting me.“So, we’re definitely losing Lovita and Floran,” Dante said in a hushed tone. He’d taken me to the marketplace, and it was much larger than I’d ever anticipated. There were tons and tons of stalls. They were filled with fruit, food, trinkets, jewellery, gadgets and clothing. People filled the crowded streets and dirt paths, all huddling around all of the stalls. It was easy to see how we’d lose Lovita and Floran, I just didn’t understand why.“Where are we going without them?” I asked, matching his hushed tone.“You do trust me, don’t y
Kiyan’s eyes widened in urgency, and he quickly grabbed me and placed his hand over my mouth before whispering in my ear, “Sparrow.” What the hell was he on about? I bit at the palm of his hand, and he immediately let me go after mumbling a cuss. “What the fuck did you do that for!” he whispered. It was then that we were finally joined by Dante. Kiyan immediately rolled his eyes at him. “The fuck are you doing here Falcon?” Falcon? “Woah Sparrow, calm down. I was just showing my friend here one of our meetings. Don’t get your panties in a twist okay?” So, they were using codenames. Kiyan looked beyond furious, and I could see him clenching a fist. I was brought back to that day with Stacey. But unlike the Stacey incident, he took in a long, deep breath and then gazed around before lowering his voice. “You’re a fucking idiot. How could you bring Ariya here?” Dante raised a brown and then folded his arms against his chest. “So you know her and who she is to him.” Kiyan’s eyes wid
Jasper opened the doors for us the moment we got home and the moment he saw me, he had an almost relieved look on his face. He expressed his relief before enthusiastically attempting to announce our arrival. But I urged Jasper to stay silent and I advised Dante not to join us. He was reluctant at first, but I tried to rationalise it to him. I’d seen the way Nicholas had reacted to my bruised knuckles the first time I had arrived. There was no doubt that he’d end Dante within a second, no questions asked. And so, after we had decided not to tell Nicholas anything regarding Wolfsbane or Kiyan and Dante’s involvement in the organisation, he left. It didn’t take long for Nicholas to appear into the foyer. He had his car keys in his hand and a determined look in his eyes. But the moment he saw me, he paused briefly and almost instinctively tried to wear that calm mask again. It vanished almost as soon as he forced its appearance. His eyebrows then furrowed deeply, and he came right towards
“Dante… what have you done!” I yelled out as the flames began to engulf the outskirts of the house.He frowned and shook his head, “You don’t look nearly as impressed as I expected you to be. Did you want it grander?”“Grander… you’re a sick bastard!” I said before spitting on the floor next to him. Then, I attempted to near the house to head inside, grab Nicholas and drag him out. But just as I reached the door, Dante grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Immediately I retracted my free arm, ready to punch him in the face. But someone else beat me to it, smacking him in the side of the head and causing him to fall onto the ground.“K-Kiyan?” I gasped out.“No time for questions! Let’s get your fiancé out of there before the rest of them come!”The rest?But he dismissed my words and ran into the house immediately. I followed suit, rushing towards the bedroom.“Can you stand?” he asked Nicholas who seemed half asleep still.“Sort of… what the hell is going on… and what’s that smell?” he
I fell asleep in the warmth and comfort of Nicholas’ arms, but my sleep was a restless one. Something had begun to worry me. It rang over and over in my head, nudging me with extreme caution. It was the words that Daniel had said earlier on today, “You wouldn’t by any chance need a bandage, would you? I always keep some on me, in case anyone has bruised knuckles…” And along with these words came a memory of the first night a spent here. It was a memory of Dante who had bandaged up my bruised knuckles. And although some part of me wanted to pass it off as some kind of strange coincidence, my instincts were telling me differently. Although they were twins, Daniel was too much like Dante. And so, a glaringly obvious deduction began to swirl around in my mind. And as outrageous as it sounded, it was the only one clear thought I’d had these past few weeks.Suddenly I was awoken by the loud sound of tapping on the windowsill, coming from outside and the harsh whispers of “Ariya! Ariya!”I ga
I gasped, completely dumbstruck by what he’d said. I thought that I would be the only weakness that King Nicholas would have. I thought that they were all completely invincible. But I was wrong.“I thought that, perhaps she had made a mistake,” Nicholas continued to speak, “that she’d take it back and apologise. But when I turned around, all I saw in her eyes was pure hatred. It had poisoned her completely and she drew another blade and tried to stab me with it. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. She was too corrupted… that was when Lorenzo entered the front door, a gun in each hand. I realised then, that the whole thing was orchestrated by him. He tried to shoot me with one of his silver bullets, but I was too quick and evaded his aim. But he was careless with his shots and at one point he almost shot Portia. That fucking careless bastard. Each time he pulled the trigger and each time Portia tried to lunge for me, my hatred for Lorenzo only grew. Until I couldn’t ta
Daniel had left soon after he’d confided in me regarding his mother. But the cruel experiences of Portia Knight stayed with me. Part of me could not believe what Daniel had said, and the other part felt bad for denying what had happened to his mother. I’d never known Nicholas to be cruel or vindictive. Then again, he’d lived for centuries, and I’d arrived here a few months ago. What I knew about him was only a drop in the ocean of who he was. And as I walked to his room, I’d resigned myself to approach this in a very logical and very open-minded way.“How dare you, you cruel bastard!”Or not.“Excuse me?” Nicholas muttered, his eyes were wide in shock, and I could see confusion slowly creeping into his grey irises.There was a moment of hesitation on my side. I was fuelled up on anger and I knew that everything I would say now would stem from that anger.“What have I done Ariya? Why do you look so disgusted?”But I couldn’t keep in the information I’d now learned.“Portia Knight… you
It had been more than a day after Nicholas had fallen ill, and although he was slowly starting to get better, his body was still extremely exhausted, and he found it difficult to use his abilities. He’d spent most of his time asleep, filling the hallway with the sound of his snores. I found it so strange for him to be this weak and powerless as opposed to the formidable man that he usually was. Nonetheless, I tried as best as I could to look after him, putting my relatively mediocre cooking skills to the test. In fact, I’d been in the kitchen, making a toasted cheese sandwich for him when I heard the sound of knocking at the front door.“I’ll get it!” I yelled. And as I tried to shift the pan on the plate of the stove, it slipped from my fingers, and I burnt my thumb. I hissed in pain and quickly tried to run it under some cool water before I rushed to meet whoever was at the door.One of the guards, Arthur, stood there with Daniel next to him. After the incident with Melissa, where t
And so, Kiyan explained the origin of his hatred. Kiyan had always hated being cooped in and so he always managed to find a way to get out during the day. Ophelia so happened to need eggs from the store that day, and so Kiyan was eager to venture out and buy some for her. Kiyan took his time wandering the aisles, until he stumbled across the eggs on the shelf. He reached up and retrieved a carton, and as he did, one of the staff members came crashing into him, knocking the eggs out of his hands and spilling their contents on the floor. That’s when the lycan owner appeared, completely set on beating both Kiyan and the employee who’d bumped into him. But, as Kiyan explained, he was left untouched once the owner recognised him as ‘Ophelia’s boy’. Kiyan recalled the shame he felt as he watched the human employee being hit by his lycan master. And that was how his hatred developed. He didn’t want to be some human favoured because a lycan had taken him in and he couldn’t take another day in
“You know what,” Daniel said, “now that I think about it, there was a man that used to come to visit Melissa. I saw him once or twice.” “What did he look like?” I asked curiously. Daniel fell silent for a moment as he sat and thought hard. Then his eyes brightened, and he nodded to himself before saying, “I didn’t get a good look at his face. He wore a shroud of dark cloth that covered most of it. The only feature of his that I could see was a pair of dark brown eyes… Oh! And on the clothing he wore was a purple flower.” My hands shook and my skin became covered in goosebumps. My mind was brought back to an interaction I’d had a while ago with a man who matched that exact description. It was Hawk, the leader of Wolfsbane. I wondered now if Wolfsbane really was responsible for this, but for a completely different reason. Perhaps Melissa had been a part of Wolfsbane after all. Perhaps something had transpired between her and Hawk, and he needed to get rid of her. Theo watched my cont
When my eyes opened, I was met with a pair of dark brown ones. A sense of confusion crept up on me and I whispered out a soft, "Dante..." His eyes furrowed and his lips parted as he took in a sharp breath and gazed down at me. Then, his brown eyes filled with a conflicted look, as though he were contemplating something very deeply. That was when realisation dawned on me, and I shook my head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Daniel. You just... still remind me of your brother," I said softly. Daniel smiled and gave a soft and awkward chuckle, "It's alright, I'm glad I remind you of him. You always seem to speak of him so fondly." His smile was genuine and bright and the previous feeling I'd had of discomfort when he'd brought me to my room almost completely vanished. But I couldn't help but wonder why he was currently in my room. And so I questioned him. Daniel's face turned a little more serious and he let out a deep sigh. "Melissa... was poisoned. She's unable to wake up.”Immediat
Silence ensued and the both of us just stared at each other cautiously. I didn’t know what to say or what to think. I was in a state of disbelief, unable to comprehend that he could have killed his friend whom he loved. Perhaps, I thought to myself, it had been an accident, just like with me. But that didn’t make it any less eery. At least with me, Nicholas hadn’t actually killed me. My body had been in a state of in-between, drawn to death, but able to come back to life. And so, I wondered if Theo could still bring someone back if they’d completely crossed over. If they’d already been kissed by death and embraced it openly. Was that what had happened to Portia Knight, or was it something else, something more sinister… “Say something, please…” Nicholas said softly, breaking the silence between us. There was a sense of desperation in his voice and his eyes were ashamed and seemed to be eagerly searching my face. But I couldn’t find my words. “I… I−” Suddenly, there was a loud, despe