Chapter 18

That night, Alcina stays up late once more, organizing the genuinely astounding number of parcels she now has in her room.

And wonders had she indeed purchased this many things.

She's halfway through organizing some of the items on her dressing table when she hears it.

This time, that quiet, muffled whimper all the louder for how acutely her sense is attuned to the sound.

This time, she wastes little time in letting herself through the door.

And she realized, then, that while she can lock her side, Lord Brendan cannot.

She starts wondering what the implications are that the man had prepared an acknowledged cage for himself to be locked into.

When she sees the floors and walls, once more, covered in that endless blackness, again, she can't help the fear that rushes up inside of her as if a dam had broken. 

But she cannot leave Lord Brendan as he is, in whatever pained hell he has trapped himself into-