Apparently I was made of some form of extremely fragile glass that could break at any moment. At least—that was how Kael was treating me. In fact, the way he held me was as if he were doing the bare minimum. He looked akin to a dragon having to care for a mouse. It looked as if he had never held anyone like this before.

Which was hardly a surprise.

Still, when he had pulled me in close, my body had gone rigid. What was I meant to do?! Then, with my face literally right next to his, I couldn't help but look away. It was too much having him so close to me so suddenly. Without thinking, I voluntarily hung my head over his shoulder so he would have to cradle me without looking. It was a bold move, but it was a risk I was willing to take in order to avoid eye contact with him. It was unnerving being so close to him with my memories of our last encounter so vivid in my mind.

His voice right by my ear made me jump slightly.

Oh, so now you're worried about my health? How kind.

I rolled my eyes, thankful that he couldn't see my face right now. "They feed me."

We were literally having this whole conversation all over again. What was his point?

It began to strain my body, having to hold my head up in order to have the least physical contact with him that I could. But my body was tired, and it was sore.

My body seemed reluctant to have any physical contact with him, almost as if reliving the moments of immense pain before my blackout.

I stopped. Wait. My body hadn't hurt when he had picked me up, and when he was holding me now. Even when the maids bathed me, the pain was always so overwhelming that I felt as if I would pass out.

Yet right now, I felt nothing. It was strange. Was he using magic? I couldn't be sure. My senses felt dull after spending so long asleep.

Soon, my muscles had turned to jelly and I felt myself slump into his shoulder.

He didn't react.

This man was cunning. He didn't let his emotions surface easily. It made it hard to guess what he was thinking. Especially considering his actions were so completely contradictory when compared to our previous encounters.

I had had it in mind to refute anything he said. I didn't like this man. So naturally, I would try and make things difficult for him.

It was called being petty, and I liked it.

Strangely though, he didn't speak. I had also been expecting verbal abuse on his end, but he failed to deliver. Disappointing, really.

It was then that I found myself watching the scenery of the garden as he walked further and further away from when I had been sitting. This world never failed to surprise me. There was a point where we passed a pond, and as I saw a frog jump from a lily pad and into the water. The water droplets splashed up—as was to be expected, but what occurred after that left me completely speechless. The water droplets floated up and when I expected them to fall back down due to gravity, they didn't. After coming up, it seemed as if gravity suddenly decided to stop working properly and the droplets took their time floating in the air before slowly floating back down. A few of the larger drops separated into two, spinning midair and casting off beautiful beams of light. Was the water somehow less dense here? But I was sure that whenever I had been given water to drink in the mansion, it had just been plain water.

Unable to process this additional data, I began to stare more fixedly at everything around me.

After a few minutes, my eyes began to betray me like all the other muscles in my body. They became lazy and I began to feel my eyelids droop. The scenery around me had also changed to a point where I had no idea where I was.

Lettie is going to worry again. I thought with mild detachment from my sudden overwhelming need to sleep.

If I wasn't so tired, I knew I would have been more uncomfortable in this moment. But my body didn't seem to care about what I thought.

My muscles now completely refused to obey and I became floppy like a sack of potatoes in Kael's arms. How soon before he decided to toss me aside?

With my eyes now closed, I listened as Kael continued to walk through the mysterious garden that never seemed to end. Hopefully he knew his way back, I didn't fancy getting lost with him out here. The thought sent a small shiver down my spine.

Kael seemed to sense this, because I felt his grip tighten slightly. Did he think I was in pain?

There wasn't much time to ponder this before I felt my consciousness fade along with the wind.

**

When I woke up, I again faced a ceiling I did not recognise.

Did I die again? Did Kael really kill me this time?

It was hard to tell, but when I raised my hand, I recognised the small hand that greeted me. It was familiar.

Not dead.

Yet.

My body didn't seem to feel too keen on moving just yet. Judging from looking around this strange room and from the dim light that filtered in through large windows, it was the early hours of morning. This room was strangely simple, making me guess that I had somehow ended up in another room in the east wing.

The only thing unusual about this room was the stand alone structure right in the centre. It almost looked a like some form of metal basin. It was dark and dull. The dish/basin object on top was too high for me to see what was inside. It was obviously meant for an adult. I would have been tempted to see what was inside, if I hadn't been so short and there being no obvious way to climb it.

There was also some very large sheer curtains that stretch from the ceiling, all the way to the floor and billowed in the soft wind. The doors by the balcony were wide open, allowing a soft breeze to trickle into the room. The sound of the curtains sweeping softly across the marble floor made the tension leave my body.

After lying there for a few moments longer, I must have drifted off to sleep again, because I awoke to the sound of someone talking beside me. They seemed unaware that I had regained consciousness. Yet for some reason, I didn't feel like opening my eyes just yet.

They continued to speak. "Who is it?" The voice didn't quite sound like an adult's. A child? I wasn't too sure. From what I could tell, it sounded male.

"I don't know. You think he really personally did this?" Another boy, the voice was slightly softer than the other.

"You're right. He would never do this. A maid must have decided to pull off this prank. Should I chop off her hands?"

The voice spoke so lightheartedly about chopping off someone's hands, one could mistake the tone as someone talking about what to have for dinner.

I suddenly wasn't so keen to open my eyes. It was unnerving having the voice speaking almost directly above me. It took all my effort to not let my facial muscles betray the shock I felt inside.

"Look at her skin, so discoloured. Is she a wraith? I thought he hated those the most."

It's called bruises, idiot.

The other voice replied seriously. "He said they taste like smoke—bland."

Had my ears deceived me? Tasted?

Just who were these people?

"Is she alive? She hasn't moved at all. Perhaps he has already killed her?"

There was a pause. "I don't think he would leave the corpse in here like this. It would start to smell."

"Gross."

I could feel sweat forming on my brow. Just how long were they going to stay here like this?

They weren't normal. They talked about chopping people's hands off too easily.

I wanted out.

But escaping meant facing these people first, and I didn't feel confident enough to do that.

My pulse quickened. The voices around me also stopped.

There was more silence before the louder voice spoke up. "But we came to see you!"

There was the sound of movement beside me and it took all my willpower not to open my eyes.

"Who even is she? Is she a new maid? Why is she so young?"

Another sound, but I couldn't quite tell where it came from. It was the softer voice. "Father."

My eyes shot open. Father?! Did I just hear him correctly?

The soft voice continued. "We did not mean to intrude. I apologise."

My mind was in shock. This didn't make sense. Father could only mean one thing. There was no other way to interpret it. But I never recalled the novel mentioning anything about Edythe's family aside from her mother and Kael. This wasn't right. Everything was so completely different, I didn't know how to handle it—or this situation.

Why were they calling Kael father? Just who were these people?

I rose up into a sitting position before I realised what I was doing.

Kael looked at me with the same look he always gave me: nothing.

The two boys that I could now see, were both too focused on Kael to notice that I had risen. One of them had dark blue hair and the other had dark green hair. But they both had something that we all had in common.

Red eyes.

I swallowed.

"Well father?" It was the louder voice that came from the boy with dark green hair and tanner skin. "Is she a servant?"

Instead of replying, Kael slowly raised a hand, gesturing to me.

The boys then both turned their heads to me, and seemed surprised to see me awake. Their faces then turned to shock when they saw my red eyes.

"Impossible!"

Kael seemed to be enjoying the hostility in the room that was so obviously pointed at me. His red eyes seemed glow as he looked at me as if asking: so, what will you do?

Immediately, my body went into survival mode. Without hesitation, I did the only thing that seemed possible in this moment to save me from the three predators in the room. It was purely a survival instinct.

I smiled.

Please buy it. Please buy it. I could feel the hairs on the nape of my neck stand on end.

Kael's head tilted to the side, a slight smirk on his stupid face. His next words had me stupefied.