Bound to the Dark King
I blurted out before I could stop myself.
Malik's eyebrows drew together in a puzzled frown. "Well, Azalea only emerges when she bears a message from the goddess. She asked for solitude in the north hills; I granted her the entire area, but she is never there. "But why do you suddenly want to speak with her?" he inquired, turning his gaze to fix on me, searching, questioning.
Caught off guard, I scrambled for a plausible excuse, not ready to reveal my true motives. "It's nothing specific… I just thought she might help us understand more, maybe even break the curse," I fibbed. I will eventually tell him everything someday, but I wasn't just ready.