LOGINDaisy Thursday.I'd repeated that word to myself so many times over the last two days that it no longer sounded like a day of the week.It sounded like hope.I stood beside my bedroom window long before sunrise, watching the first hints of morning spill across the estate.Today,it had to be today.I rested both hands over my stomach, taking a slow, careful breath. "We're going to be alright."Whether I believed those words or not didn't matter anymore, because I needed them more than ever now. With each passing second, the household slowly came to life around me. Doors opened, footsteps echoed through distant corridors and servants moved from one wing to another as breakfast preparations began.Everything unfolded exactly the way I'd watched it unfold every morning, exactly the way I'd hoped it would. It was probably routine for the others, but for me, it was the best thing I could get this morning. Despite how smoothly things seemed to be going, I waited and that turned out to
Caspian The note arrived just after breakfast.It wasn't delivered through the usual correspondence tray or handed to one of the household staff. Instead, one of Professor Hawthorne's assistants appeared at the front entrance asking specifically for me.The moment I saw the familiar seal pressed into the folded paper, I dismissed everyone else from the room before breaking it open.There were only four words written across the page.Bring the sample personally.There wasn't any greeting or explanation and no signature beyond the professor's unmistakable initials at the bottom.I read it twice before folding it carefully again.Octavian, who had been watching me from across the study, frowned."That's it?" He asked and I handed him the note.He scanned it quickly before looking back at me."He couldn't have written anything less." He mumbled. "He could have written nothing." I shrugged. “Actually…” Octavian parted his lips to speak, but decided against it last minute. "Fair point
Daisy I barely slept, because every time exhaustion finally dragged me under, I woke again only minutes later, my heart racing as though it already knew something was wrong.By the time the first pale light crept through the curtains, I gave up completely.I sat on the edge of the bed and pressed trembling fingers against my temples."You have to think." The words sounded far steadier than I felt. “Think of what to do next.” The words had barely settled at the back of my mind before another wave of nausea rolled through me. I barely made it to the bathroom before I dropped to my knees.My entire body shook as I emptied what little remained in my stomach. When it finally passed, I stayed exactly where I was, one hand braced against the floor while the other rested instinctively over my abdomen.Tears burned behind my eyes, but I didn't let them fall. "Please..." My voice cracked. "Please be alright."Right now, I hated that I didn't know whether this was ordinary morning sickness
Daisy Sleep refused to come.No matter how tightly I closed my eyes or how many times I rolled from one side of the bed to the other, my mind refused to quiet itself.The room was dark save for the thin ribbon of moonlight spilling through the curtains. Shadows stretched across the floor, shifting whenever the branches outside stirred in the wind.Usually, I found the silence comforting, but tonight, it felt unbearable. With a frustrated sigh, I threw the blankets aside and sat upright."Wonderful," I muttered into the darkness. "Now I'm talking to myself."The words earned the smallest smile, but even that disappeared almost immediately. I wasn't thinking about the food from dinner, or Lady Zara. I wasn't even thinking about Yvie and her poisonous little visit earlier.I was thinking about Caspian.Again.I rested my elbows on my knees and buried my face in my hands.Why? Why had he done that? He'd looked at me but not with disgust or anger. There wasn't so much as a hint of disa
Caspian I stared at the tiny shard of porcelain resting against my fingertips. It looked insignificant, ridiculously so, but I knew better. A fragment no larger than my thumbnail had somehow become the most important thing in the room.“So.”Octavian remained standing near the doorway, his eyes fixed on it. "You really think that's what made us lose consciousness?""I don't know." The answer frustrated me as much as it frustrated him. "But I know it wasn't tea."I rubbed the pale residue carefully between my fingers again. The powder had almost no scent. It wasn't sticky, nor did it resemble dried leaves or sugar.It was something else. “So what do we do with this?” Octavian crossed the room, stopping just short of me. "Can anyone even test something this old?"“They can.” I looked down at the shard. “But not here."Silence settled between us as I turned the fragment over once more before another face appeared in my mind.Professor Hawthorne. He could help, not because he was a p
Caspian Two days, that was how long I waited, not because I wanted to, but because I had to.The physician had insisted Octavian spend the first day resting. Whatever had happened to him had left him with blinding headaches, spells of dizziness and an exhaustion that refused to lift.Pushing him before he had recovered would accomplish nothing, so I waited.It was the longest two days of my life, because not once during that time did I go near Daisy.More than once I found myself standing halfway down the corridor that led to her room before forcing myself to turn around.I wanted to see her, I wanted to hear her voice and I wanted to ask her a hundred questions. Instead, I needed facts first.Emotion had already nearly cost me once, and I refused to let it happen again.By the third morning, Octavian looked more like himself, not completely, but enough.He was already waiting when I entered his study, standing beside the window with a mug of black coffee cradled between both hands
Octavian Daisy eventually fell asleep, but not all at once. It happened in pieces.First her breathing steadied against my chest, the sharp pain in the bond dulling little by little beneath my hands. Then the tension slowly drained from her body until her grip on my shirt loosened completely an
Caspian The second Daisy’s pain spiked through the bond, I knew something was wrong. It wasn't anger, nor was it the usual heat and chaos that always erupted between us whenever we got too close.This was different, this felt like something breaking.I straightened abruptly from the desk in my
Caspian The second Daisy stepped into the study, everything changed, and the women noticed immediately.The one perched against the edge of my desk pulled her hand away from my chest like she’d suddenly realized she was touching something dangerous. Another straightened slowly beside me, her ex
Daisy I couldn’t stop thinking about the kitchen.No matter how hard I tried, the memory kept replaying itself in pieces that refused to leave me alone.I remembered the tea, the tension and the look on Caspian’s face when he asked me if Octavian made me feel safer.That was the part haunting m







