تسجيل الدخولCaspian The heavy glass vial in my coat pocket felt like an anvil pressing against my chest.Luckily for me, Professor Hawthorne’s expert hadn't taken long. Two hours in a sterile lab on the edge of the city, and the verdict was rendered in plain, damning black ink. The residue scraped from the shattered porcelain tea set wasn't some harmless herbal compound or a natural byproduct of floral leaves.It was an artificial sedative. Synthesized, lethal in high doses, and completely tasteless.It hadn't been formulated to kill, but had been designed to do one specific, devastating thing: render Daisy and Octavian completely unconscious, stripping them of their thought processes and leaving them completely defenseless.As I drove back down to the estate, a terrifying blend of emotions clawed at my throat. I recognized the first one as relief. Daisy hadn't been lying all along. She hadn't been delusional, and she hadn't given herself to my brother out of some sudden, erratic desire. S
Daisy My heart plummeted straight into my stomach, the sweet, fragile relief I’d been carrying all the way from the clinic turning into ice in a single heartbeat.I stood frozen in the doorway, my fingers still locked around the cold metal of the handle. My mind scrambled, frantically searching for an excuse, a lie, anything to cover up where I had been, but my thoughts came back blank “Scarlet,” I managed to say, forcing my voice to stay even, though my throat felt bone-dry. “I was just... out in the gardens. Taking some fresh air.”Scarlet didn't jump up. She didn't raise her voice, and she didn't look angry either. She simply sat there, dark eyes watching me with a calm, unreadable intensity that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.She tilted her head, her gaze dropping briefly to the handbag tucked tightly under my arm before returning to my face.“Did the doctor reassure you?” her words were almost as sharp as a physical slap and the silence that crashed over the
Daisy 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
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







