1444

~Tove

With Keo out of the house for a couple days to investigate Vail's death, I'm forced out to get supplies.

I've never been so grateful for my powers. With ease I'm able to transport myself from a ridge on the mountain to a village tucked in a valley nearby.

I keep a hood over my head, wandering around looking for enough food for me to take back with me. No one looks at me twice...no one suspects I am in contact with Keo.

And being that I'm an Angel-blood, no one here has a problem with me.

I manage to find a small grocery store where I purchase some dried meat, bread and other essentials before making my way back down the street, ready to transport myself back home.

Even though no one knows me, and no one has any reason to know me, I feel uncomfortable being in public.

I mean, at any second now, a Noble could turn the corner and grab me.

Turning a corner, a shoulder sharply bumps into me, knocking me to the side with enough force to send a packet of pasta falling from my shopping bag.

"My bad," I mumble, stooping down to grab the bag from the cobblestones.

However, the man I bumped into sweeps down and grabs it before my fingers can even brush the packaging.

"You dropped this." He holds it out to me.

I shudder at his ethereal voice before I raise my attention to his face, audibly gasping.

He wears a black mask that covers the lower half of his face. All I can see are his duel coloured eyes that stare down at me - one violet and one obsidian black - and a pair of dark eyebrows that match his hair.

"Oh...thanks," I breathe, tentatively taken the pasta back off him, shoving it into my bag.

I have no idea who this stranger is, and I don't want to stick around to find out. He doesn't exactly look friendly.

Before I can depart, his words stop me. "Keo around?"

My blood practically freezes in my veins.

"What?" My voice comes out all shaky.

"Keo. Is he around?" The man looks over my shoulder, and then over his, inspecting the streets for my Demon mate.

My mouth is bone dry as I gape at him. Is this man a friend of Keo's? No, he can't be, because Keo doesn't have any friends. The most plausible explanation is that he's Keo's enemy, but that doesn't explain how he knows who I am.

"I don't know who that is," I stutter, taking an uncomfortable step back.

Where is everyone? I swear these streets were crowded with people, but now that clouds shroud the sky, everyone seems to have retreated inside.

"Come on Tove. Let's not play around," he says. I can hear the smile in his voice, even if I can't see it.

"You need to leave me alone," I growl.

If I were smart, I would transport away without sticking around to hear how this man knows my name. But if he knows as much as he obviously does, he may just follow me back up the mountain.

"Why don't we have a little talk? I know about your powers..."

"I'm not an Angel-blood." I'm even sure why I said that. I'm on the defensive.

"You're going to lie to me. Really?" He doesn't seem angry, but he clearly wants to skip the denial part. He has a motivation to be here, speaking to me right now, and I'm not sure I want to uncover it.

"Your mask is incredibly creepy," I note, taking another step back from him.

It's a simple black mask that seems so dark it's as if it's sucking all other colour into it. People don't generally wear masks like that.

"I have a distinctive scar. Can't have anyone knowing who I am," he muses.

He has such a cool, bone chilling voice. His accent is impossible to place, which he's from somewhere I've never been before.

"First, that's awfully presumptuous," I mutter. He doesn't seem like he would be a celebrity...for any right reasons anyway. "Second, you have freakish eyes. People will recognise you if you're known to them."

There's no one around to see him if he did decide to reveal his identity anyway.

"Do you know who I am?" he questions.

He doesn't say it in a way that makes him seem arrogant. He's merely curious if I've somehow come to know of him, although if I had, I can't imagine I would ever forget his eyes.

"No, and I don't want to. Now I'm leaving," I growl.

I close my eyes, concentrating on transporting myself as far away from this freak as possible. His hand shoots out, grabbing my wrist.

His touch is ice cold, shocking me. Immediately any magic I've summoned dies away into nothing, as if he has the ability to control it.

A horrified sense of shock rattles through me. When I try to pull away, his grip remains tight.

"You need to stop using your powers. You need to get as far away from Keo as possible, and never touch them again," he murmurs in my ear.

His voice is like a soft, lethal caress. This isn't a normal man. He has magic, and not Angel-blood magic. Not even Demon magic, I don't think. I couldn't be too sure though...Keo will know, once I can get back in touch with him.

"Why?"

"It's dangerous. You're playing with forces beyond your control," he warns me.

It's impossible to tell whether he is warning me not to use my own powers for his benefit or for mine. Him knowing about them means there is something darker going on that I am unfortunately involved in.

"I have more control than you think," I snap back at him.

He shakes his head. "I doubt Keo has told you the entire truth of what he is asking you to do...the dangers of it on the people of this realm."

"He would tell me if anything is wrong," I say, although I don't sound as sure as I would like.

Keo is my mate, but how much truth has he actually given me? Since he told me his plans, he has been awfully vague about anything about them.

"Would he? Do you really trust him?" The man pushes.

Do I trust Keo? Admittedly no, which is why I've avoided anything romantic with him. I'm just waiting for him to betray me, to tell me he has no use for me any longer. I'll be discarded, thrown to the side for his ultimate plan.

"More than I trust some creepy stranger on the street," I decide angrily. I don't know who this man is, and what exactly he knows, but I can't have this conversation anymore.

"I'm not a stranger. I know all about you and Keo," he says, as if that is meant to comfort me in some way.

"How?"

A dark and devious smile plays at his lips suddenly. "I know everything."

Something in the way he says that, in the way he looks at me makes me believe him. Still, I've been deceived before. No one like him can be trusted.

"If you're not going to be honest with me, you need to get out of my way." I attempt to wrestle out of his grip, but it's impossible. He is far stronger than I anticipated.

"It's not my honesty you should be worried about, Tove," he murmurs.

"Leave me alone." My voice echoes loudly through the streets. If anyone were around, they may have been brave enough to come help me. But once they took one look at me, they would likely decide not to intervene.

Finally he lets me go, taking a healthy step back as he tugs his hands behind his back.

"I hope you heed my warning. I don't want to see you again," he exclaims sternly. If I cared about what he thinks of me, I would probably be offended.

"Likewise," I snap back.

He watches me grimly. "Goodbye Tove. Be careful."

I say nothing more. Closing my eyes, I'm comforted by the feeling of my magic that I am able to grasp now. I take hold of it, and let it transport me away.

Whoever that man was, he can stay as far away from me as possible...

I never want to see him again.

🧡••🧡

~Midika 💜🐼