Chapter Two: What He Is

Mira could not move because her feet felt stuck to the floor.

The man in front of her was not the man who had rolled into the study minutes ago. He stood tall now, taller than she expected and his eyes still looked strange. It faded slowly like a fire dying down, until his eyes looked dark and human again.

"Sir," Helena said again. "The car is ready."

"Get her upstairs and lock her in her room," he said, not looking at Mira. His voice had changed too. It was sharper now, colder, like a different person spoke through him.

"Wait," Mira said. "What is happening? What are you?"

He turned to her for one second, then something almost gentle crossed his face. Then it was gone.

"Ask me later, if there is any later," he said. "Right now my sister is missing and there is blood on my balcony. Go with Helena."

"I am not a child. Tell me what is going on." Mira curiously asked.

"You married into a world you do not understand yet," he said, with a low and quiet voice. "Tonight you will see none of it. Go with Helena, lock your door and do not open it for anyone but me."

"And what if something happens to you?"

He almost smiled at that, asking, "Are you worried about me already?"

Before she could answer, he was gone, moving fast through the door, the wheelchair left empty and forgotten.

Helena took Mira by the arm. "Come, Miss Voss. This is not the time for questions."

"That chair," Mira said as they climbed the stairs. "He does not need it at all." Helena replied.

Helena's face stayed calm, but her eyes were tight. "There are things in this house you will learn slowly, for your own safety. Tonight is not one of those nights."

Mira wanted to argue but the fear in Helena's voice was real and it silenced her.

Her room was large, with a bed bigger than anything she had slept in before, Helena left her there and told her, "Lock the door," before disappearing back down the sitting room.

Mira did not lock the door right away. She stood by the window instead, watching the gardens below. She pressed her hand to the glass and told herself it was nothing.

She backed away from the window and finally locked the door, her hands were shaking as she turned the key.

She did not remember falling asleep, but she woke to the sound of raised voices somewhere below her window. She checked the small clock on the nightstand. It was almost four in the morning.

Mira crept to the window and cracked it open just enough to hear.

"You cannot keep hiding this from her," a woman's voice said. It did not sound like Helena. "She is your wife now. If the Draven pack finds out what you married her into without warning her, they will use it against you."

"She will learn when I decide she is ready," the man's voice answered. Mira's stomach tightened at the sound of it, colder than before. "Tonight was not the night." the man added.

"Adrian, your sister is still missing." The woman's voice cracked with worry. "This is not about timing anymore. This is about survival; yours, hers and now possibly the girl's upstairs."

“Adrian, so that was his name.” Mira whispered.

"I know what is at stake," Adrian said. "I do not need you to remind me."

"Then act like it. Tell her what she married. Tell her before someone else does it for you, in a way that gets her killed."

Silence followed and Mira held her breath, straining her ears to hear more, but the voices moved further away.

She stayed by the window a long time after that, wrapped her hands around herself, staring at the dark gardens where the fast shadow shapes had disappeared. Whatever Adrian Ashfeld was, it was bigger and more dangerous than a hidden fortune or a fake illness. People were watching this house and people wanted to use her against him.

And somewhere out there, his sister was missing, and there was blood where she should have been standing.

Mira climbed back into the large, cold bed but she did not sleep again. She lay awake running through everything she had seen since arriving. The wheelchair that was a lie, the gold in his eyes, the impossible speed when he stood and even the words spoken like it meant something much bigger.

A soft knock came at her door in the morning. She sat up with her heart pounding fast.

"Mira." Adrian called her with a low, tired and human voice. "Open the door." He said.

She hesitated for a second before turning the key.

He stood in the doorway, his shirt was torn, and a dark stain of blood soaked through the fabric near his collarbone. His eyes were dark now and no gold in them at all, but they looked hollow, like something inside him had been carved out overnight.

"Your sister," Mira said. "Did you find her?"

"I found her," he said quietly. "She is alive, barely."

Mira was relieved as it was obvious in her face. It surprised her as much as it seemed to surprise him.

"You care," he said, almost like an accusation.

"She is your sister. Of course I care."

He studied her for a long moment, something unreadable were in his dark eyes. Then he stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind him.

"I promised Helena you would learn things slowly," he said. "But after tonight, slow is a luxury we no longer have."

He held out his hand to her and said, "Come with me, it is time you saw exactly what you married.”