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I’ve always known that I was different, darker than those around me. I weaponized it and allowed it to lead me into a life that few others can follow.
And here, in the quiet of Neveah’s room, I feel that darkness wrap around me, whispering in my ear like a long-lost friend. The pieces of my obsession grow sharper, more jagged as they begin to fall together.
Her fate was sealed from the moment I saw her. She’s mine, now and always.
No other will touch her, taste her, see her as I will. Their lives will be forfeit if they even think about it. Tonight has done nothing but prove to me just how much she wants me, too. She doesn’t even know who I am, and yet I’ve invaded her, claimed her mind and her dreams for my own.
All that’s left is to claim her body and soul.
8
NEVEAH
Shafts of sunlight dance through the thin curtains on either side of my window, rousing me from the deepest sleep I’ve had in quite some time.
With that sunlight, however, comes a startling sense of clarity.
And shame.
I dress for the morning and try desperately to shove the events of last night out of my head – to shovehimout of my head. I’m so absorbed in my own thoughts that it doesn’t occur to me until I’m nearly out of the door of my room that Echo is nowhere to be found.
The thought stops me abruptly in my tracks, and I turn back around, surveying my room with a critical eye.
“Echo?” I call softly, bending down to peek under my bed. Nothing.
Maybe she’s burrowed in the blankets, and I was too preoccupied to notice.
“Echo?” I ask again, gently rifling through the tangled mountain of linens at the foot of my bed. I unfold them completely, and still, there’s no sign of her. Not even an iypinnit-sized warm spot.
I make my bed, deciding that I might as well since I’ve already untangled everything, but not even my busy hands seem to pull me out of my mind today. Echo hasn’t spent a night away from me in the gods know how long.
I’m the only person she even lets see her, much less touch her, and for all her sassing and snarling, I’m not convinced she’s made to be an outdoor animal anymore. I’ve spoiled her too much.
After the bed is made and I’m mere minutes away from being late to report for duty, I eventually leave my room, resolving to come back with all of Echo’s favorite treats to try and lure her back into my room. While I’m certainly glad I didn’t have an audience for last night, her sudden disappearance irks me, more than it usually would.
Likely because of all of the other upheaval that’s happened recently.
And just like that, my mind circles back tohim.Even through sweeping and scrubbing and cleaning, my thoughts never seem to stray far from the shadow of a stranger I encountered last night. I don’t even know the male, but his claws are already so deep in my mind that I feel like I could look over my shoulder at any second and see his dark eyes watching me from around a corner.
No matter how many times I look over my shoulder, however, he never appears.
I don’t know why that makes an icy finger of dread-tinged disappointment slide down my spine.
I’ve worked for the Ilnais family for long enough that I know every servant and zagfer by heart, and I recognize nearly everyone who’s been at this estate more than once. If it was that male’s first time at the estate, why would he be here in the middle of the night? Why in the kitchen, sharpening a blade?
None of it makes any sense, and I’m no closer to riddling any of it out when the day is halfway gone.
I’ve avoided the kitchen all day, but there’s hardly anything left to tend to. Sucking in a deep breath, I head that way, following the same familiar corridors and halls. Stepping over the threshold almost feels like a promise in some way, and I’m so absorbed in my own thoughts that I don’t notice Rhiucra until he steps in front of me, a boyish smile on his lips.
“Thinking about those books?” he asks with a knowing look. I merely blink at him, my mind struggling to process what he’s said before it clicks.
“Oh, I… I haven’t really gotten a chance to look at them yet,” I admit a bit sheepishly. He’d sent more of those fairytales as promised up to my room, and while I’d been chomping at the bit to get to them only a few days ago, they’ve been the furthest thing from my mind since.
Rhiucra seems completely oblivious to my internal monologue, merely raising an eyebrow at me as interest sparks in his eyes. “Really? Then whatareyou thinking about?”
“Nothing,” I respond a little too quickly, dropping my eyes from his as I step around him. “It’s just been a busy day, that’s all.”
Rhicura makes a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, and I find myself silently hoping he doesn’t press me further. Whatever god is listening obliges me, thankfully, and Rhiucra quickly falls into our usual habit, leaning against the kitchen table and chatting idly about whatever’s drawn his fancy recently.
