I stared at the window, at the man coming inside my chamber. I lay still, watching him. He was not so tall, but not short either. He was wearing a cloak, perhaps dark green or red. I could not tell in the dark. But I could see the outline of him as he came near the bed towards me.My heart was calm. It was not thundering inside my ribcage like it did when I was anxious.The man bent over my body. I felt his musky breath on my face. I felt his fingers wrap around my throat. It grew tighter with each moment.I raised my hand from my side and stabbed the man in the neck with a dagger. It all happened very fast. He let out a small groan, clutching the side of his neck where I stabbed him. I pulled the dagger out and let him bleed out.It was amusing watching him bleed out on the ground. I sat on the bed, my feet dangling from the side, and watching him. There was blood on my right arm, but I did not care.I watched the life go out of his eyes and thought, not for the first time, who I was
Sully was talking animatedly to my mother. She had gotten close to Mother. There was nothing common between her and Rosalia. Sully was everything Rosalia was not. The only thing common between them was the fact that both of them were beautiful. Mother liked her despite the differences.Sully giggled at something Mother said. Her eyes met mine for a second. She gave me a smile and returned her attention to Mother.I heard about the intruder that came into Sully’s room to kill her two nights ago. I did not have to hear about it to know the particulars.Because I sent that man.I wanted to see the real Sully. The one behind the veil. I wanted to see her being herself. For once, I wanted to glimpse at the person behind the face of the weak woman who was afraid of everything. I wanted to see the genius alchemist who made illegal potions, danced at brothels and was planning something dangerous behind everyone’s back.He was not supposed to kill her. He was going to frighten her a bit. If sh
Demian had been watching me in an odd way. He usually looked at me a lot. But now, he was blatantly staring at me regardless of the place we were in.“Who do you think it is?” I asked, not for the first time. “Is it Luke? But I don’t understand why he would do that. He might want to… you know, he might be attracted to my body, but I don’t see the point of his sending someone to kill me.”“I don’t know anything, Sully. I’m looking into it,” Demian said. He said the same thing every time I asked. It was getting tiresome. He was acting differently. I could barely recognize my husband.“What’s wrong?” I asked, placing my hand on his arm. His arm was strong and hard. “Did something happen?”He shook his head. “Nothing. I just have a lot of things on my mind.”I could not ask him what they were since he looked like he did not want to share.I lay my head on his lap. His whole body was like it was made with steel. It was not comfortable to lay on his lap, but I was in peace when I did it.“T
As usual, Theodore and I were at the library. Instead of his chamber, we spent our time at the library, reading books. Sometimes we both would read different books, sometimes he would listen and I read. I liked to read in silence, but Theodore sometimes insisted that I read to him. I did not want to disappoint him since he came to be library with me. I did not want to come to the library alone.In the afternoon most days, I would meet Rose. Rose said everything was going according to plan. She did not reveal the entire plan to me, although she acted like she did.“First, you need to gain the support of the wives,” Rose told me. “Dela and my mother already like you. Spend time with Clarissa. They live in three different part of the residence. In that way, no one will suspect anything if you go to that parts of the house.”She had a point. I had invited Clarissa to have tea with me and she accepted. I would have tea with her the next day. To be honest, I was rather nervous. How would we
The tea was nice. Not too sweet. Clarissa did not like sweet things, Rose told me. So, I had the maids prepare salty cookies and tea. Clarissa arrived just in time. She nodded at me when she arrived.Rose told me to treat Clarissa like I would treat a normal person, so that was what I tried to do.“I hope you are doing well, Lady Clarissa,” I said as I gave a small bow. It was a sign of respect to bow to elders.She nodded.Even at dinner tables, she only drank blood, wine and tea with a metal straw through a small gap between her lips. She drank tea the same way with me. I tried not to stare too hard. That would seem rude.I told her about my life with Demian. She nodded along, rather kindly. She communicated with me in sign language. Rose had not told me that she knew sign language. As it turned out, I knew sign language as well. I learned it at the academy.“You look like your mother,” she said in sign language.“I do,” I said. I tried to do sign language as well, but Clarissa said
My arms shook, the books almost falling down the stairs. I took a deep breath and steadied myself. It would be a disaster if I dropped the holy books.My head had not been working straight since coming back from home. Father showed me and other family members another package he received from House Silverclaw. It contained a light brown finger- a man’s middle finger. Jace’s finger.Mother had wailed over it while Father cursed House Silverclaw and every member of the family. I had checked the finger. I checked every part of it.“It has a message,” I said, holding the severed finger in my hand.“What?” Father walked over to where I was sitting. He bent over my shoulder to take a look.“Inside the finger. There is something written on the other side of the skin,” I said. “Look, you can see from the bottom here. It’s not a real finger.”Father took it from me. Indeed, there was a message engraved inside.“Third moon, it says,” Father said.“Tonight is a full moon,” I said. We prayed all n
Rose helped me send the message. On the third moon, we would send Jace back. I would go later.“I can’t go before Demian goes somewhere far,” I said. “He keeps an eye on me all the time. He knows about everywhere I go and everything I do. Sometimes he can tell word for word of the conversations I had with other people.”“Does he not have work? He keeps giving Father the reports. How does he do that?” Rose asked.I shook my head. “I don’t know.”“Is he watching us right now?” Rose looked around.“No. He is in our chamber, taking a bath,” I said. “It is more dangerous when he says he is out. Because those times, I never know when he is watching me.”“Are you sure he is not watching us right now?”“He is not,” I said, although it felt wrong somehow to be so sure about it. Because, what if he was watching us? Demian could be anywhere. He could walk alongside you without you knowing anything about it. You could not hear him. Demian walked silently. Sometimes it was like he did not even bre
Sully brushed her fingers on the wound and took them back just as quickly.“Does it hurt a lot?” she asked.To be honest, it did not hurt much. It was a small wound. But according to Sully, even a scratch mattered.“It can lead to infection if left untreated. A wound might be small, but you should treat it just the same way you would treat a serious wound,” she said knowingly. “I could make you a healing potion if I had the ingredients at hand.”“There is ointment in my chamber, Sully.”I told her where it was. While she went to get it, I relaxed in the hot water. The water was hotter than I preferred. Sully said it was perfect. I should have realized by now that the water she called perfect was scalding hot.Sully had the maids prepare the bath for herself. But when I came with a small injury from a knife on my arm, Sully told me to get in the tub instead.After brining the ointment, she first cleaned the wound with practiced hands. She dried the area, put a little ointment on it and
The fact that Sully had been pregnant knew only a few people. There had been a rumor going around. I questioned Jade Star about it and he was forced to admit it. He said Sully had a miscarriage and that she was not pregnant anymore.Now, he was planning to take revenge on the Silverclaws. I joined him because I also had a debt to settle with them. Alexander Silverclaw took my bride from me on our wedding day.They took the woman from me who I wanted all my life since the moment I saw her.I never wanted much things in my life. But Sully- she was the only thing I truly wanted. I set my eyes on her and knew I had to have her.When I met her, I thought she was the prettiest girl every with brown skin and ruby red eyes and long curly hair. She talked little, but watched everything with curious eyes. I remembered asking my father who that little girl was. When he told me, I knew I needed to have her. I wanted her.But then I heard that she ran away from
For some reason, I dreamed of Millie tonight. It was strange. I never even thought about her. At least, not much.I woke up and found Demian beside me. He was staring at me. Okay, it was a little uncomfortable to think that he watched me while I was sleeping.“What’s wrong?” he asked. “A nightmare?”“No… Just a dream,” I said. “About my half-sister.”“Millie Thorn.”“Ah yes, she is a Thorn now. I keep forgetting,” I said. “I wonder if she is happy there. I wonder if Rezef is treating her right.”“You said Rezef is a righteous and kind man. If he doesn’t treat his own wife right, won’t it defeat the purpose of his righteous and kind personality?” Demian did not like Rezef at all. He might be annoyed that I told him that Rezef was like the hero of a story.“Rezef is like that, but he… He can be harsh, you know, without even meaning to. For example, he can’t show care and love even if he wants to. I have noticed this a lot of times. For example, when he used to want to meet me, he would
Rezef’s father died this morning. It had been sudden. The maids woke me up and told me about it. Apparently, he fell from the roof.“How did he fall from the roof?” I asked Rezef.“I don’t know. It happened in the middle of the night,” he said. He was hastily changing his attire.“Why didn’t you wake me up?”“For what? It’s not like you can bring him back.”I did not talk back. It was not good if I talked back. What if Rezef sent me back?Now that Rezef’s father was dead, Rezef was the new Head of House Thorn. The problem was that Rezef did not have an heir and according to the tradition, the new Head must already have an heir.What would happen now?Rezef had an older sister and a younger brother. It did not make sense that someone else other than him could be the new Head. Well, his older sister could not be the Head anyway. So, his younger brother remained. It was not like Byron had any heir either. He was only sixteen.“What will happen now?” I asked.“What do you mean?” Rezef sou
We went to the top floor today. The strange things Shea talked about last night turned out to be something that I knew very well. All those things in glass jars- big and small- I knew them a little too well. It was in a room that was accessible from my bed chamber only.There was a big table there, a cauldron, many pots, spoons- long and short, small and big- knives in various sizes.“You made me a… workplace,” I murmured. “Gosh, Demian, you made me a lab!”I threw myself at Demian and he caught me casually as if I weighted nothing. I wrapped my legs around him and laughed. I could not believe he did this for me.“That’s so… Gosh, I love it, Demian! I love it a lot! I love you!”“I had a feeling you might like it,” he said.“You really did thought of everything, didn’t you?”He put me down and kissed me on the forehead.“I wanted to build you a lab for a while now. But I thought it would be better if it was not at the estate, since… Father might start to blame you for everything, like
Demian came back two hours later. His hair was damp and he was wearing a black robe. Shea bowed to him and me and then left since it appeared Demian made it clear that when he and I were together, Shea or any other maid could not stay.“You did not tell me about her before,” I said. “That she can talk.”“It was a good surprise,” Demian said.“I don’t like surprises.”“I know,” he said. “Actually, I did not think it was that important for you to know earlier.”I decided not to press on the matter farther. I was having a hard time coming in terms with the fact that I had to stay in a tower on the top floor.I still could not believe Demian did such a thing. How could he?“The water is cold here all the time,” Demian said. “I suggest never to take a bath in the water just like it is. Tell the maids to warm it first.”“You used the cold water, didn’t you?” Demian preferred cold water over warm or normal temperature water. In fact, I once found him soaking in an ice-cold water bath. There
We stayed on the first floor that night. Demian wanted to go up, but I refused to.There were only a handful of maids here. Five, if I was right. But there were a lot of guards. Most of them were Demian’s men who could keep an eye on you without you noticing them.Since I refused to move from the first floor, the guards brought a huge wooden tub for me that the maids filled with warm water. I took a bath in one of the other two rooms of the first floor. Demian went up to a proper bathroom since he always needed things to be perfect and orderly.In my opinion, he was a little psychotic about it. He nagged me a whole fifteen minutes to go and take a bath with him in a proper bathroom. When I refused, he refused to talk to me and went away.It was not my fault. I did not want to move with my sore back, hips and legs. I could barely move my legs. My legs trembled as if they were having a seizure. They were trembling like I had given birth to a child (women’s legs trembled sometimes becaus
We arrived in one piece. However, we were not unharmed. Well, you could not see any bruises. But I had a hard time straightening and getting down the carriage because of my back and legs. Demian did not look like he was struggling, but he told me that his legs hurt.It took us eight days to reach our destination. Honestly, I was not shocked. I expected that it would take a while. Demian would not keep me somewhere where anyone could find me easily.But something else shocked me. I could not stop staring at where Demian was going to keep me.“Are you okay?” Demian asked.“What is this?” I asked.“This is where you will be. I will stay with you for a few days and come to see you often.”“Demian, this is… This is not a villa. You said you would take me to a vacation villa.”“I don’t see the issue here. So what if it’s not a villa?”“Demian, it’s a damn tower! You are keeping me in a tower?”“It has got all the facilities. It’s a nice tower.”I rolled my eyes. Demian took my hand and led
One thing I noticed about Sully was that she liked a good conversation. The conversation did not always have to have a meaning. If it was entertaining, she would engage in it eagerly.I always thought that conversations needed to hold a meaning, or it was not needed at all. In fact, I never had that kind of meaningless conversation with anyone in my whole life.But now, with Sully, I engaged in some silly conversations and did not get bored. On the other hand, I quite enjoyed it. It was not like me. I acted like a different person with her. She saw a piece of me that I never showed anyone before. It made me feel vulnerable. I did not hate it though. Perhaps it was alright to feel vulnerable in front of her. Perhaps it was okay to let her see the bare part of me.Just a while ago, we had a conversation about what we liked about each other’s physical appearance the most. Honestly, I liked everything about her. I liked her hair that she hated so much; I liked her round face, her thick th
Demian made sure that the content of the conversation between Rosalia and Theodore reached Alexander’s ears. As I had expected, Rosalia and Theodore talked about Rose and me.Today, Demian and I set out for our vacation. We were going by a carriage with as little people as we could since we did not want to draw attention. Demian did not want to sit with me inside the carriage. He wanted to ride a horse.I forced him to stay with me. He said that it felt stuffy and he hated the way the carriage bumped every time the wheels ran over a stone of if the road was bumpy.“I am not going to be the only one with sore hips and back,” I said.Demian cursed under his breath as the carriage bumped roughly once again.“This is the most ridiculous form of transportation,” Demian said. “You basically arrive at your destination with a sore body and it can even hurt your back so much that you will feel it for the rest of your life.”“At least, it takes you to your destination,” I said. “That’s enough.