MasukDORIAN'S POV "You think your mother is alive? Ezra..." "Listen, I know how it sounds but please, don't tell me I'm being irrational. Don't look at me like I'm building something from nothing. I know what Caelen and I just can't help but feel that she might be alive." He explained, his eyes full of hope as he expressed his feelings. "Okay, first of all, I don't think you're irrational. You have every right to feel what you are feeling now so I can't condemn you. But this might just be a feeling, right?" I massaged his palm gently while speaking. "I don't know. If her body wasn't found, wouldn't that mean someone else could have taken her?" "If someone else could have taken her, do you think they would have kept her alive for twenty years? Why would they do that especially if she might have posed a threat to them?" I asked. At this point, I was treading carefully because I didn't want him to distance himself from telling me what he was doing. Ezra was that kind o
DORIAN'S POVThe company had taken most of my day and gave back very little time. Since we came back from Voss City, Father got us back into running businesses as things were expanding fast. According to him, "Even as we are searching for something mysterious, that doesn't mean we should let the business suffer."I hated going to the company. There were periods where the work was interesting and periods where it was simply unnecessary and today just happened to have been the day — meetings that could have been fucking documents and conversations that covered areas that were already covered. According to the Secretary, "We just wanted to ensure you are on board once again and that you understand what is happening and has happened in your absence."Who do you take me for? A dullard?I sighed and entered the mansion, handing my coat to the staff member nearest the door and looked for Ana.She appeared from the corridor to the left. "Is Ezra back?" "Not yet, my dear. H
EZRA'S POVOh, he caught himself fast. His expression settled back into something neutral and he turned to the group. He picked up exactly where he had left off. I stepped back to the edge of the group with a complicated heart and mixed emotions as I stared at the painting on the wall. Based on his earlier reaction, he knew exactly who I was. I waited patiently. The group asked questions and he answered them patiently, smiling and making jokes in the process. Pfft. Cole appeared at my elbow sometime during the second question. He looked at the painting and then at Matthew and then at the painting. "I don't know...but I feel completely weird seeing that. It resembles the imagery I created in my head when you explained that night." He rambled on and then paused. His head snapped towards me, his eyes simultaneously asking several things without using words. I gave him a small nod and he looked at the painting again, covering his mouth, probably due to shock. Matthew finished w
EZRA'S POV "I am going out today." I announced at the table while having breakfast. "It will be later this morning." The table turned to look at me, their eyes silently begging for more information as to where I was going and who I wanted to meet but I was not interested in giving that information out at all. "Where?" Lucien asked me. "Just around Caldenmoor." I reached for my coffee. "I have lived here my whole life and barely seen any of it. I want to look around." "Alone?" Dorian pushed. "Cole is coming." I answered sharply. Cole, beside me, looked up from his plate, mouth full but still managed to bop his head and reply with food in his mouth. "I am." He confirmed. "I am not accompanying him halfway so he can end up walking away. I am very responsible when it comes to my duties as his best friend." He made a connection with his fingers to show them that it was okay. I peeked at both father and sons from under my lashes as I waited for their responses.
AUTHOR'S POVCaelen was waiting in Aldric's clinic. He looked around the simple aesthetic setting of the clinic. There was no unnecessary furniture or even any art on the walls. He was mostly not concerned about this. The surfaces were clean and the faint antiseptic smell clung to medical spaces regardless of how long ago anything had actually been treated there. Caelen was sitting in the chair by the window and looking at the city outside, just waiting for his friend to be back. He was pretty good at that as long as he would get what he was looking for. The door at the end of the corridor opened and footsteps came through it with an unhurried pace of someone finishing one thing before starting another. Aldric appeared in the doorway still pulling his white coat off one shoulder, his eyes finding Caelan immediately. He was younger-looking than Caelan. He looked somewhere in his early thirties if calculating from the human angle. He had a sharp jaw and was dark eyed. His attractiven
AUTHOR'S POV "Big sister, you are stronger than me." Cole immediately shifted to putting on a piteous character. "I am nothing but an orphan who wants to survive. Today is my birthday and in just a few more hours, it will be over. I don't have money to celebrate. I am living a miserable lifestyle here, big sis. Please, don't push me out or report me." "Relax, I won't do anything like that..."Cole smiled, "Thank you." "...if you promise to do one thing for me tonight " "Huh?"She pressed a small velvet mask into his hands with a smirk. "Here." "What am I supposed to do?" "Step in for my sister and be someone's meal for tonight." Cole should have walked away but instead, he asked, "is there money involved?"Her smile sharpened. "Now, you're interesting. Of course, there is a right price for everything." She went ahead to explain in hurried fragments while Cole tried to keep along with what she was saying. A guest needed a companion for a private midnight arra







