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The old woman scoffs. “You humans and all your silly notions of the other worlds. Celestials aren't exactly angels in the sense that you think of them as, but I suppose that is as near a likeness as I can explain it to you,” she concedes.
“Well, what does he want with me?” I ask her.
Again, she assesses me with a probing stare before she shakes her head and declines to answer.
I know she knows the reason. I can see it in her eyes, but she refuses to tell me. Instead, she says, “That is Julian's question to answer. It is not my place to disclose his reasons to you.”
“So, you do know them?” I challenge.
She doesn't answer. Instead, she looks at me with something akin to pride in her eyes, like she's pleasantly surprised that I have enough wit about me to put two and two together. Apparently, she thought I was just a stupid little human, and I proved myself to be more than that.
“Okay, so you can't tell me why he brought me here,” I try to bargain with her, “but can you at least tell me whyyou'rehere?”
“That Icantell you.” She shows me her snaggletooth smile again. “I'm here to watch over you while he's away. He doesn't want you left alone.”
My stomach does a strange flutter at those words. I don't know whether I'm upset or flattered. Does he not want me left alone because he thinks I might be scared and he doesn’t want me to be frightened, or does he not want me left alone because he's afraid I might try to escape?
“Are you hungry?” Glenda suddenly asks me.
“No,” I immediately answer. Food is the last thing on my mind. My stomach is all twisted up in knots, and I don't think I could eat even if I tried.
“You'll eat,” a smooth, velvety voice that causes a shiver to run up my spine interrupts us.
I jump when I suddenly see Julian appear right before my very eyes beside Glenda. His figure is just as beautiful and imposing as always. He towers over the tiny old lady, but his golden eyes don't even spare her a glance. They are trained on me.
“How did you—?” I sputter as I shake my head in disbelief. “You just appeared out of thin air!”
Julian's mouth quirks up into a smirk as he says softly, “There's so much for me to teach you, little rose.”
I blink, taken aback by this new nickname. First, he called me “child.” Now, he's calling me “little rose.”
“Would you like me to go get her some food?” Glenda interrupts us.
Julian never takes his eyes off me as he answers, “No, Glenda. You're dismissed. I will feed her.” Unlike Julian, who just popped into the room out of thin air, Glenda walks over to the door and exits the room like a normal person, though something tells me the old woman with the young woman's voice is anything but normal.
“What would you like to eat?” Julian asks me. “Waffles with strawberries and cream?”
He raises a brow up at me.
I'm startled when he names off my favorite dish, but I shouldn't be because he basically admitted to watching over me for who knows how long, so of course he probably knows lots of things about me. That knowledge is unsettling.
“I told you I'm not hungry,” I tell him stubbornly, even though my mouth waters at the thought of my favorite breakfast.
“You will eat,” he tells me firmly.
I cross my arms and stare back at him. I just turned eighteen. I am legally an adult now, and no one can make me do anything I don't want to do anymore. “I told you I'm not hungry,” I tell him just as firmly.
“You need your strength,” he growls out.
Okay, he's got a point there, but I'm not ready to concede defeat just yet, so I shake my head.
His jaw firms as he says my name in warning, “Amelia, you will eat.”
“You can't make me!” I snap at him.
His eyes light at the challenge. “You want to bet?”
I don't know what it is, but something about the look on his face sends my heart pattering away in my chest. It's like he likes the thought of the challenge, and I suddenly have no doubt that he could indeed find a way to make me do what he wants—and that infuriates me to no end.
