They were in the forest. All the slaves. Twelve of them in total. Jace was among them.Rose had left too, at some point. No one noticed when she slipped away.There was a silver flag deep inside the forest, hidden. One of them had to come out with that and that would be the winner.I tried to think of the good times. It was hard. I could not help being worried sick about my brother. My hands were shaking, I noticed, the way they always did whenever I was too agitated about something. Sometimes, it happened before an exam at the academy. Even during the exam, no matter how easy the question was or even if I knew the answers to all of them, my hands would shake like the hands of an old person.“He will be okay,” Rosalia whispered as she sat beside me. Dela was talking loudly to Clarissa; it was a one-way conversation since Clarissa could not talk.“I hope so,” I said.Rosalia touched my hand and took it in hers. “Do you know I’m your aunt?”I gave a nod. “I heard about you. And I saw yo
My heart was pounding inside my ribcage. It had been two hours. No one had come out of the forest yet.Rosalia held my hand the whole time to comfort me. But it was making me even more nervous since my hand was all sweaty. I could not even pull it away.I could feel Luke’s eyes on me. And then, he advanced. I had been expecting it.“So, you are the Star my brother married,” Luke said. Rosalia moved me a little towards her. It was like she felt protective of me.“It is a pleasure to finally meet you,” I said, “Luke Silverclaw.”Luke was younger than me. Demian said I should not show respect to someone who was younger than me. I made that mistake with Theodore.That said, Theodore was not present today. He said he would be here, but I did not see him. I was so focused on Demian and worried about Jace that I barely noticed anyone else.“You have a nice voice,” he said. “And you are rather…” He looked down at my body. If he thought this would intimidate me, he was wrong. I was used to men
I had no idea how Jace had gotten hold of a sword even though slaves were not to have any weapons when fighting each other. But I could guess. It was Rose, wanting to have her slave win the fight, who gave Jace a sword.Sully jumped into my arms as soon as she entered our chamber. She hugged me tightly, as if I was one thing she cared about the most in the world. Even if it was a lie, I discovered it indeed made me feel better to think about it.“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for saving him.”I hugged her back, just as tightly if not tighter.“I gave you my word, didn’t I?”In fact, it was not that hard. At least, not as hard as I thought it would be. Jace was not dumb. Just when he discovered someone was aiding him and not targeting him, he lured them in front of him so it was easier for me to shot at them.I pulled her back from the hug and checked her from head to toe. Her hands were not shaking anymore. I had noticed, whenever she was overly worried, or feeling an emotion stron
I sat with Theodore, drinking tea. I could not help thinking about what happened yesterday at bath. I was happy to use my mouth and hands. I would have done whatever Demian wanted me to do. He had kept his words and that was all that mattered.He said that Alexander would never know what he did, since Rose took care of the bodies of the slaves. Since Rose also helped Jace, she would never tell him.“What are you thinking?” Theodore asked and I felt my face burn. What was I even doing, thinking about what I did with my husband in the presence of his little brother?“Nothing. Just the hunt,” I lied.“Ah, it must have been your first time attending the hunt,” he said.“Why weren’t you there?” I asked.“I was sick. I fell from the stairs,” he said.“Fell?” It felt such a coincidence that he fell right before the hunt.“Did you see my limp? It’s more profound than before. It’s because of the fall,” Theodore explained.I did notice his limp and it was true that it was more profound. There w
I stared at the ceiling. The chamber seemed something between brown and golden as always. I had not opened the curtains. The only light was from the fire in the fireplace.I was not pregnant. Not yet. Once again, Rezef was disappointed, as he should be. Something was wrong with me. I should have been pregnant by now, but I was not.Rezef wanted a baby with me and then abandon me. He never said it, but I knew he would do it. After all, the one person he loved was Sully.I did not know how Sully felt about Rezef. At first, I thought she liked him. But then, I saw her slapping Rezef’s hand away when he touched her waist on the balcony at a dinner party at our home. They did not notice me, or at least, Rezef did not. At that time, I could almost swear that Sully placed her crimson gaze on me for a moment.Thinking about Sully was hard. She was the one I liked the most among my half-siblings. She never said anything bad about me. She was the one who taught me how to read and write since I w
I wrapped the cardigan around me more tightly. It was chilly tonight. Even in the prayer room which did not have any window, it felt cold.I had prayed for Sully and Jace today like every other day. I prayed so God would keep them safe from the Silverclaws.But to be honest, I did not have much hope. If it were any other family, I would not worry about them so much, or at least, would not lose hope. However, it was the Silverclaws. If they would kill them, I would thank God. I worried they would keep them alive for too long and would torture them so much that they would wish they were dead.Among my siblings, I was closer to Sully than anyone else. I admired her. Although no one ever said it out loud, she was actually the bravest one among all of us. When we were kids, she would go down the dark stairs of basement with just a candle and retrieve the dolls Mother kept there because according to Father, we were wasting too much time on nonsense. Even as we grew older, there were not many
There were times I thought about my family. Most of the time, I wondered whether they thought of me too. Selina would think of me, since we were close. Mother would as well, for she loved me intensely. Kyle would not care. Father would only care about his reputation and honor, for if my purity were to be tainted, it would affect his so-called honor. Sierra was with child, so she might not care about anything else. I noticed, not without a sense of anger, that mothers or to-be mothers cared only about their children, whether they were yet to come to the world or not; they forgot previous relations and never thought for a second that someone dear to them might require a bit of their love and attention as well.Rose sat opposite to me, sipping wine. She was in a white attire again, with her pin-straight silver hair falling free onto her back. Her lips were blood-red, as if she had painted them with blood.“Have you decided?” she asked.I nodded. “You tried to help Jace, for which I am gr
Leo was someone that made me feel better about myself. Maxi was like that too. But it was mostly Leo, with his nonchalant attitude (though he was caring deep down) and his blatant truth, that sometimes sounded rude.Once I wore a light pink dress which belonged to Maxi. Maxi wore pants mostly at the academy. The pink dress was a gift from the orphanage on her birthday. She never wore it. I tried it on to see how it would look.“It looks weird, Sully. Light pink doesn’t suit you at all,” Leo commented openly. Although it hurt me a little, I soon realized he was right. There were some colors that suited some people and did not suit others.I had tried to act normal during dinner time. I could not let Alexander be suspicious. There was a possibility that he had no idea about my friendship with Leo.I had not seen Leo again, but he was surely at the estate. Probably in a different house nearby. I had not seen any carriage leave after all.I wondered if I could sneak out. Demian would be b
I did not want to imagine the things that Sully and that damn Silverclaw did. It hurt to even imagine such things. It angered me that Sully let another man do the things to her than I had wanted to do for a long time.Yet, I forced myself to listen to Demian Silverclaw. I wanted to understand what Sully saw in him. I wanted to know why Sully loved him.“Sully and I became close. We talked a lot. She told me all about her childhood, her time at the academy and about her friends. She told me about Leo and Maxi.”“Leo and Maxi,” I muttered. He and Sully killed Kyle. They tortured him. Leo explained everything to me, but I still could not believe that Sully could do that to someone. She always seemed headstrong, but I never could imagine that she could be cruel as well.“She told me about what her brother did to Maxi which led that girl to commit suicide. I actually felt the need to kill Kyle myself, but the way Sully explained everything made it obvious that she wanted to do it herself.
I was obsessed with Sully. I noticed everything about her. No matter where we were, my eyes always founds her and I could never help staring at her. I also liked everything about her. Something about the way she smiled, she talked, she laughed made me want her even more. I never knew it was possible to want someone this much until I married her.Now, I could not imagine living without her.I was always looking into the future. One of the things that I did every single day was predicting the future, imagining what would happen. In every single one of those imaginations, Sully was there with me, by my side. And she was happy. Her happiness mattered. Everything about her mattered.In the future that I imagined, I got what I wanted. Since childhood, I wanted a lot of things, but never got them. Sully could say proudly that she got what she always wanted, but I could not say the same; I wanted to though.At this moment, I wanted my wife to stay by my side forever. And I so desperately wish
I was suspicious regarding Demian’s actions. He was acting very sweet to me as if nothing happened. I knew he was still angry about what I did, although he did not show it.Now, he said he would meet Rezef Thorn. Rezef sent Demian a letter via Leo and wanted to talk to him, not as enemies, but as normal men. And Demian agreed.“You will not hurt him, will you?” I asked Demian.“Why would I hurt him?” Demian asked, tilting his head to one side. He was not being serious; it was one of those rarest times. I did not know what to make of that. Would he truly not hurt Rezef or not?“Demian, please. Be serious,” I said.“I never thought I would hear someone say that to me.”“I never thought I would have to say this to you either. But here we are.”Demian started combing his hair.“Give me that,” I said, taking the comb from him. Demian sat on a stool and I started combing his hair. “I don’t understand what you are doing. First, you are being very nice to me.”“Is it wrong to be nice to my ow
Leo had stayed with Rezef to make sure he was safe. Demian had put Rezef somewhere else while Leo and I were doing our work in the tent. We had to do our work a little quicker because of the fire.Kyle also died too quickly. He died before we could have our fun fully.I watched as Demian washed the blood of my body. He worked methodically. Now he was scrabbing my arm. His eyes were focused even though the task was a simple one.“Are you angry at me?” I asked.“I don’t like anyone defying me,” Demian said. “I don’t like when someone does the exact opposite thing of what I told them. I also don’t like it when my plan does not go properly.”“Plan?”“Everything is a plan. I determine everything beforehand. You being in that tower was a plan as well. I do not do anything without a plan,” he said. “You got my men killed.”“A few of them. It was inevitable, Demian. A war is going on,” I said. “But you also thought of this possibility, didn’t you?”His silver eyes met mine.Demian thought of
Cutting off my brother’s penis had not been on my mind when I was little. But after what happened to Maxi, it was obvious that I had to do it.I looked down at my blood-stained dress. The room where Demian and I were staying was small, but clean. Cleanliness was first thing; the size did not matter.After Leo and I were done, Demian brought me here and I followed without a word of defiance. Why would I defy him? He had not stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. Well, he had chained me before. But when he found out I escaped, he actually aided me.“You have many things to answer for,” Demian said upon entering the room. He had went out to do something (I did not know what).“I know,” I murmured.I turned to face him. His arms were crossed over his chest. His hair was tied loosely on the behind.“You want to know how I managed to let Rezef know about where I was?” I asked.“If you know what I want to know, then tell me,” he said.“Well… You see, Rezef used to give me a lot of gifts
I had been imagining this for so long. I had imagined doing so many things when I would meet Kyle again under the circumstances when I could finally take my revenge.Kyle was inside the tent, his men said. They stopped short when they noticed me. Well, they had not seen me in a while. A little surprise was bound to show on their faces.“Is anyone else inside?” I asked.“Yes. It is an alchemist. His name is…”“Leo,” I said. “I know him. Tell Kyle that I want to talk to him. The alchemist can stay though.”My brother’s personal guard bowed to me and went inside the tent. I knew that man. His name was Ezra Walsh. He had been my brother’s personal guard for the last five years. He was bald and tough looking with a scar on his right eye. I had the suspicion that he was blind in that eye, but never knew the truth.“What do you want to talk about with him?” Rezef asked.“Many things. Do you want to see?” I asked.“If you want me to.”“No, it depends on you. You can watch if you want to. But
There were no ships here. Not a single one. I could not even take a carriage either. The roads were blocked.I was out of the estate of House Star, at least. Currently, I was staying at a brothel. I gave some money and some of my pieces of jewelry to the brothel owner and she gave me a place to stay.It was nasty here and I felt disgusted the whole time, but at least, it was safe. Not for long though. At some point, the brothel owner might want to sell me to his nasty customers. I needed to leave soon.I did not know what was going on with the war. I could not care less about that. What I hated about it was the fact that I could not stay at House Star anymore, if there remained a House Star after this in the first place.I hated everything and everyone now at this point. I did not deserve this. I did not deserve any of this.I did not want to born in that family where I had to do things that I did not want to do. I had to learn how to seduce people at a very young age. It was called t
Sully escaped. Once again. I did not know exactly how she let Rezef Thorn know about her location, but she did do it somehow and that was without my knowledge.That woman was too cunning. She even fooled me.I was pretty sure she was going to use Rezef Thorn to get to Kyle.I had been gone for a long time because of a complication. I needed to defend the estate because part of Jade Star’s men somehow got inside the estate. It had been bloody.My left eye still hurt. There was a cut right under it. One of the men of House Star almost took my eye out.And now Sully was gone. This woman was driving me crazy in all the ways possible.She was now at the camp of Rezef Star. I could not just go there. It was hard to sneak in there. I could get as near as possible, but it would be hard to meet her there.I did not doubt Sully’s loyalty. It lay with me. She did not care about Rezef Thorn romantically. She was just using him to gain her objective.I just hated that she escaped from me again aft
“How is Millie?” I asked.Rezef was mostly ignoring me at this point. Well, at least, he was pretending to.“She is okay.”“Treat her nicely, okay? She is a nice girl,” I said. “Do you know Father used to beat her?”Rezef’s face suggested that he had no idea of this incident. Millie did not tell him for sure. It was not like I expected Millie to tell him either. Millie had always acted like she did not deserve anything and kept her thoughts to herself all the time.Their marriage life was not going okay. I knew that from the look on his face. Millie and he were not okay. If they just ended their marriage, then it would be for the best. At least, both of them could find someone new. It would be hard for Millie, but she would get over it. There was no point in suffering when you could get rid of that suffering.Both of them were unhappy in that marriage, I could tell.“Whenever Father was angry, he would take it out on her. We… We always saw but never did anything. I regret it, but what