جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 49

Callum was in the sofa in the smaller library. It was the one Oliver occasionally found him in the evening, and not in his study. The Lord had said studies made him feel anxious for no reason and "Something that Liam prefers." Oliver had laughed then, but seeing him now, he thought the room indeed was more fitting to him.  Callum was lying down on the small sofa, drowsing. He'd rested his head on his outstretched hand and it was dangling over the armrest. Oliver wanted to kiss the inside of his wrist, but he knew he can’t. Callum looked almost peaceful.  Somehow warmer. Oliver walked in with a candle, but put it off when he saw the fire was still burning, its light drawing dancing shadows over Cal's face. Cian had curled in a ball close to the fire and the animal was most likely asleep too. At Oliver's approach, the dog only opened one eye and closed it back again. Oliver knelt in front of the ch

Oliver was standing in front of the shelves in the family library.  He sometimes thought it was enough to just spend time there, surrounded by some of the rarest editions of books. He was trying not to think about what had happened last night, so he'd come here.  He hadn’t seen Callum in a day. Again. He turned his attention back to the rows in front of him. Oliver had begun understanding why Callum preferred it here.  It was different from the one Tennyson had in his study not only by size.  The collections here were much more different and wondered how many years it had taken to gather them, how many generations of noblemen had held them in their hands. A great number of them were on political topics, but Oliver found with a surprise the collection contained various other types of stories in other genres.  The books were prevailingly in English, but some were in German and French. 

Oliver’s hand shot immediately to the  knife lying next to the letters. He grabbed it and jammed it into the wooden table."What next time?"Nathaniel didn't even flinch and Oliver hissed, tightening his hold around the handle. “You know perfectly well what I mean.” The man said, hit tone borderline sympathetic. That made Oliver’s blood boil even more and he said, all emotion gone from his voice."You said this will be my last mission,""What did you exactly think- that you'd leave everything and start a normal life?"Oliver’s mind went blank.“No…”“Oliver, look...”"No…You were never actually planning on letting me go, did you?" He said, surrendering whatever plans he’d been holding on to.  Nathaniel placed his palms on the table and began speaking.Oliver knew what was following, his boss always did that when he was about

This takes place after Xiao and Henriette’s first meeting in chapter 37     The smoke is lazily curling in a spiral around his long, gentle fingers. Then it’s wrapping them in its blue cloud only to dissolve into the air a few seconds later when he exhales and his breath destroys the dancing shapes. It vanishes. The way he always does, always coming and going. He looks troubled and fails to conceal it this time. I can’t tell why. And normally I’m very good at telling what’s going on in someone’s head. He looks at me and it’s like he wants to ask me something, but doesn’t know how to turn his thoughts into words and voice them. One of Ella’s girls sits next to Xiao and runs her hand over his back. He ignores her and looks back at the table. Albert and him have been playing for the past half an hour in silence and it’s one of the rare cases they seem to be completely lost to just everyth