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"That's not how I remember it happening," Castor said slowly. "I asked you to marry me, and you burst into tears. I couldn’t tell if it was joy, fear, sadness, or some mixture of all three. And you never did give me an answer, Ianora. You just walked away, and the next day, you were gone.”
Ianora only shook her head in response.
“I know what you’re telling me isn’t how you felt,” he prodded gently. “I knew you were struggling with something back then, and it is a failing of mine that it’s only taken me until now to realize that. What aren’t you telling me, Ianora?”
He sighed in frustration and ran his hand through his hair. “Fine,” he said after a long moment of silence. “If you don’t want to tell me now, that’s fine. But know this: I’m not going anywhere this time. I’m here for good, whether you like it or not.”
He reached out for her, but she jerked away from him and stood up from the bed, wrapping the sheets around her body like a shield. “Don’t touch me,” she spat, her voice cracking on the words. “I never loved you. It was a delusion you built. You’ve always had an obsessive personality, Castor. I’m just the unfortunate one who grabbed your attention.”
“That’s not true at all.” He hid the flinch at her words and carefully peeled himself out of bed to rummage through the nightstand. From there, he produced the music box and the poetry book he’d given her decades ago. “If you never loved me, why would you keep these?”
Tears welled up in Ianora’s eyes as she stared at the faded book and music box, and all the simple memories both objects conjured for both of them. Moments of love and laughter, joy, and hope. There, in her eyes, he saw that hint of love he had longed for all these years, but it was gone as quick as it had come.
"What does it matter?" Ianora cried. "You have no idea what it's been like for me. Yes, I chose to leave you, Castor, but not because I wanted to. I loved you with all my heart! Iwantedto be with you. The only man who's ever truly loved me. I was scared and confused, but you made me feel safe."
"Then why, Ianora?" He asked more forcefully, grabbing her forearms to pull her closer to him. "Why did you leave? Why put us through all this pain and suffering?"
"Because it was too dangerous. You ... you aren't the only one who wants me, Castor. You never were."
"You think I'm blind to how other men look at you? You think I would let any of them touch you? You're mine, Ianora. You always have been.Mine. How could there have ever been any doubt of that?"
She shook her head frantically and pulled away. "This is different, Castor. I was so afraid, for both of us, that I had to. I had to."
Before he could gather any further explanation from him, she took off at a run, taking Castor's sheets with him.
His breath caught in his throat as he watched her leave. The memories swarming him were unbidden and unwelcome. Had he been so wrapped up in his own pain and anger before, he hadn't noticed how strangely she'd behaved in the days before she disappeared.
Castor stood in the middle of the room, alone and lost in thought. Ianora's words echoed in his head, and he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to her story than she was letting on. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he needed to find out.
Had something else truly been going on in the background that he hadn't fully grasped, and his proposal was what set her off, causing her to never speak to him again?
Without Ianora opening up to him, he would never know. And at this rate...he wasn't sure she ever would.
Chapter 13 - Ianora
Castor's castle was Ianora's home and prison, and it was only now that she had given in and married him that she could walk freely through the grounds. She explored the halls and rooms, wandering to escape the conflict warring in her heart after the night—and morning—she'd spent with him. She found as many open doors as locked ones, which she left alone, for now. However, most of the open ones weren't that interesting, and she carried on.
She walked over galleries overlooking the large grand room where they’d their wedding and the feast that followed, now empty and dark. A shiver ran down her spine as she thought of all the dancing and laughter that had filled the room just hours before. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and yet the lifetime she'd sworn to Castor had only just begun.
Ianora continued until she found a dead end, and then she swung around and walked back toward the hall she'd just come from, only to find herself in front of a door she hadn't noticed before. Unlike the others along the long hall, it was new, the wood still shining and unmarked. Intrigued, Ianora tried the handle, but it was locked. She rattled it impatiently, but it didn't budge.
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," a familiar voice came from behind.
Ianora swung around, vampiric fangs and claws engorged to attack the ghost hovering a few feet away. Mitron's youthful features seemed even paler than the last time Ianora had seen her. As far as Ianora was concerned, Mitron deserved far worse for tricking her into falling into Castor's grasp without any viable alternatives.
"You," Ianora hissed. "How dare you show your face to me again after what you did? Do you have no shame, remorse, or care at all for what you've done to me?"
Mitron wrung her hands and floated a little farther away. "I could apologize for a thousand years, and it wouldn't be enough, so I'm not here to apologize again."
"Then what do you want?"
"To explain myself. I know I betrayed your trust when I was already so lucky for you to give it to me in the first place—"
"Damn right, you were lucky. I'll never trust you again, explanation or not. I should have known better than to listen to a word you said! Was anything you told me even remotely true?"
Mitron hung her head. "Most of it was true, yes. My father and I were coffin craftsmen. He was a horrible man who would have done anything to accomplish his greatest desires. Including selling his daughter to a wicked man."
"And that's what he tried to do? Sell you to Castor, is that right?" Ianora scoffed. "Maybe that's the only part of your story that's true. Men always think they can use their daughters to strengthen their position."
