Chapter 12

Lucianus

I felt the slightest disturbance at the edge of my territory, or maybe it was somewhere in the castle, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. Whatever it was would have to wait, and it was likely just the girl trying to find a portal to the human world.

I was tempted to have the castle drop her back into the dungeons just to teach her a lesson.

My gaze traced the familiar planes of my wife’s face in the portrait that had returned to my desk. For years, it had been too painful to look upon her face, yet it seemed that I could not go a day without seeing her in her portraits or walking around in her old gowns that still had the faintest trace of her perfume lingering on them.

My wife had been so beautiful and bright. Her name felt lost to time and too sacred to be uttered, yet I felt it trembling on my lips. Her presence was long gone, yet my heart ached as I stared at the small portrait of her. I remembered when she sat for it. I could almost hear her complaining about it, a