"Was it a prank or she might have heard wrong?" Mirable was still finding it difficult as a young master."Please forgive me, young master. Please, I promise that I am going to do anything." She kept on pleading and the act got him even more confused than he was already.His eyes were farrowed and he muttered under his breath."Is there any way to do it apart from what I just did?" He inquired.Ms. Anna turned around towards him and said. "Sir Vincent, are you serious about this?" She inquired equally confused as well.Everyone expected him to change his stance and reveal his true intentions but it didn't seem as though he had any apart from what he just said.He nodded his head and her eyes bulged out from her eye sockets."But why young master? After everything that they had done?" She could not help it but inquired, still baffled at the words."She was only acting ignorant. There is no need to exert so much strength on taking revenge. It's so not Worth.""There are only three peopl
His eyes paired down and he noticed that it was the stunning lady that had been standing right before Vincent, Jane.She brought down his hand and collected the glass of wine from him, putting it back on the table.“How dare you speak to the heir in such a manner? Have you no respect?” “You could’ve been put behind bars if you you had spilled as little as a drop of that drink on his suit” Jane said calmly with a very serious look on her face“By the way that suit you just called fake, is worth all the cars in your Father’s garage combined”“How da…Do not interfere!” Elizabeth was about to speak before she was aburptly interrupted by Jane.Suddenly Richard burst out into an uncontrollably loud laughter as everyone else followed suit.He continued to laugh out loud for a while, holding his belly until the effect of Jane’s words slowly died down.“Being the heir to the janitor's closet is certainly not a position you should be flaunting around in such vicinity” he said sarcastically.“An
He let it ring the first time thinking that the caller might have made a mistake and would not resend the call.After a short while, it rang again and this time he picked it up furiously wondering who it might have been that was bent on disturbing his sleep that very early in the morning.As soon as he got a hold of his phone, he hissed and rolled his eyes upon realising that it was just his alarm.A few days before Anna rescued him from being crippled by Richard’s bodyguards, his routine for the past few years had required him to wake up very early in the mornings for deliveries.He took up the mid-morning shift and the day shift at the delivery services due to the fact that he was desperate to make ends meet.He dismissed the alarm and sat up, realising that he couldn't fall asleep anymore.“Man, this delivery job has really messed up my sleeping routine” He thought to himself as he scratched the back of his head, yawning with his mouth wide open.Now that he was fully awake and he
This brought her back to her senses upon realising that it was her phone’s ringtone.As she picked up her phone while staring at the screen, the look on her face suddenly changed into a serious one.Before picking the call, she composed himself and cleared her throat.“Good morn…. There's absolutely nothing good about the morning, keep that to yourself because you're fired!”Ms. Jefferson froze with her eyes widened in shock as she began to sweat profusely in the air condition filled room.Immediately she realised what she had done to herself, she was so furious that she had stabbed herself with her own knife as all her actions backfired.Without thinking twice, she got down on both knees and began pleading with Vincent, not minding her ego or her reputation if anyone were to mistakenly walk in.After she had genuinely apologised and pleaded for a while, he took pity on her and placed a call across to the boss asking him to give her back her job.She eventually retrieved her job but s
"Vincent" The voice called out as he slowly turned back thinking of where he might have heard this voice before.Upon realising who it turned out to be, Vincent’s face suddenly became puzzled with surprise.“Jane, what are you doing here?” Vincent asked, still seeming surprised at their coincidental meeting.“Nothing much, I came to have coffee at my favourite place” Looking away in the direction of The Coffee House right across the street Jane responded trying to avoid gazing off into his eyes.Jane’s mother had always wanted her and Vincent to be together because of the grand life she had imagined for her daughter.In the past, Jane didn’t seem to notice anything intriguing or fascinating about him but she didn’t complain either because all her life she had only ever been taught to follow her mothers others. She was made to believe that her mother knew what was best for her; maybe she actually did this time.Over the past few days she realised that she had slowly started to fall for
“Hey man, come on in'' Richard said to Alex as he gave him a one sided bro hug and locked the door behind them.“What took you forever to answer the door '' Alex hissed with his brows knitted in anger.“I was having a really good time” Turning around with the glass of wine in his right hand, Richard replied smiling devilishly.Alex immediately understood the message that Richard was trying to convey as he was putting on nothing but a bathrobe. He definitely had someone entertaining him in his room.“What's up? Why the sour look on your face?” Richard asked as he dropped his glass of wine on the table and sat on the chair opposite Alex.Alex heaved a heavy sigh of frustration before he replied “The worst has happened!”Hearing that, Richard’s face twisted with confusion written all over it as both his brows knitted into a curious frown while he unconsciously leaned forward towards Alex.Alex went ahead to narrate every single thing that had transpired in detail. From Vincebt’s disrespec
“Why did you let that Bastard get away, am I not paying you more than enough?” They shifted feeling so uneasy as they tried to prevent his gaze He thundered at the leader, as the rest of the gang had their heads hanging low, with their eyes fixed to the ground. Richard’s blood boiled hard as he confronted the gang with so much fury in his voice. He stood right in front of them with bloodshot eyes, demanding answers as to how the mission failed “I didn’t ask for too much, how could you all fail such a simple tasK”.He said loudly as he squeezed his palms into tight fists.“Answer me!” Richard yelled knowing fully well that the consequences of their failure to successfully implement their initial plan could land them in real trouble.He finally dismissed them after instructing them to lay low for a while in order to avoid being tracked or monitored, he knew fully well that Vincent would stop at nothing until all evidence eventually led to him.A shiver ran down his spine while he lis
“Hello” Vincent said immediately the person picked the call.“Mr. Vincenzo, what a pleasant surprise” The man on the other end answered with hints of cheer in his voice.“I suppose” Vincent replied “I really need your help” “What seems to be disturbing you?” The man asked.“It’s something I would like to discuss in person,” Vincent replied with desperation in his voice.“Okay, come by my place at 5:30 on Friday”Vincent agreed before he cut the call.The next day was a Friday and the last working day of the week.Lectures ended earlier on fridays and the lecturers didn’t do much either.As soon as the day’s lectures came to an end, Vincent hopped into his car and drove off to meet the man he had agreed to meet with the previous day.When he got to his destination, he was met with a giant building almost as big and tall as his. When Vincent arrived at Mr. Issac’s mansion, the gatekeeper instantly opened the big gates for his car to dive in. He had been informed beforehand about the a
Closing her eyes, Irene unspooled her magic into a gentle, probing thread, and laid a palm on that splattered star atop his spine.The cold slammed into her, spikes of it firing through her blood and bones.Irene reeled back as if she’d been given a physical blow.Cold and dark and anger and agony—She clenched her jaw, fighting past this echo in the bone, sending that thread-thin probe of power a little farther into the dark.The pain would have been unbearable when it hit him.Irene pushed back against the cold—the cold and the lack and the oily, unworldly wrongness of it.No magic of this world, some part of her whispered. Nothing that was natural or good. Nothing she knew, nothing she had ever dealt with.Her magic screamed to draw back that probe, move away—“Irene .” His words were far away while the wind and blackness and emptiness of it roared around her—And then that echo of nothingness … it seemed to awaken.Cold filled her, burned along her limbs, creeping wider, encirc
“Will it be hours every day that you work on him?” Nesryn’s words were steady, almost flat, and yet … The woman was not a creature who took well to a cage. Even a gilded one such as this.“I would recommend,” Irene said to Nesryn over a shoulder, “that if you have other duties or tasks to attend to, Captain, these hours would be a good time for that. I shall send word if you are needed.”“What about moving him around?”The lord’s eyes flashed at that.And though Irene was predisposed to chuck them both to the ruks, she noted the lord’s simmering outrage and self-loathing at the words and found herself saying, “I can handle most of it, but I believe Lord Westfall is more than capable of transporting himself.”Something like wary gratitude shot across his face. But he just said to Nesryn, “And I can ask my own damn questions.”Guilt flashed across Nesryn’s face, even as she stiffened. But she nodded, biting her lip, before she murmured to Vincent , “I had some invitations yesterday.”
Vincent shot Irene back an equally displeased look the moment Kashin paused to sip his wine, and then launched question after question to the prince regarding his life. Helpful information, he realized, about their army.He was not the only one who realized it. Arghun cut in while his brother was midsentence about the forges they had constructed near their northern climes, “Let us not discuss business at dinner, brother.”Kashin shut his mouth, ever the trained soldier.And somehow Vincent knew—that fast—that Kashin was not being considered for the throne. Not when he obeyed his eldest brother like any common warrior. He seemed decent, though. A better alternative than the sneering, aloof Arghun, or the wolflike Hasar.It did not entirely explain Irene ’s utter need to distance herself from Kashin. Not that it was any of his business, or of any interest to him. Certainly not when Irene ’s mouth tightened if she so much as turned her head in Vincent ’s direction.He might have calle
Vincent waited until Nesryn had been gone for a good thirty minutes before he summoned Kadja. She’d been waiting in the exterior hallway and slipped inside his suite mere moments after he’d called her name. Lingering in the foyer, he watched the serving girl approach, her steps light and swift, her eyes downcast as she awaited his order.“I have a favor to ask you,” he said slowly and clearly, cursing himself for not learning Halha during the years Levi had studied it.A dip of the chin was her only answer.“I need you to go down to the docks, to wherever information comes in, to see if there’s any news about the attack on Rifthold.” Kadja had been in the throne room yesterday—she’d undoubtedly heard about it. And he’d debated asking Nesryn to do some searching while she was out, but if the news was grimhe didn’t want her learning it alone. Bearing it alone, all the way back up to the palace. “Do you think you could do that?”Kadja lifted her eyes at last, though she kept her head
She’d known his age, but Irene had still not expected the former captain to look so … young.She hadn’t done the math until she’d walked into that room and seen his handsome face, a mix of caution and hope written across the hardened, broad features.It was that hope that had made her see red. Had made her ache to give him a matching scar to the slender one slicing across his cheek.She’d been unprofessional in the most horrific sense. Never—never had she been so rude and unkind toward any of her patients.Mercifully, Hasar had arrived, cooling her head slightly. But touching the man, thinking of ways to help him …She had not meant to write the list of the last four generations of Towers women. Had not meant to write her mother’s name over and over while pretending to record his information. It had not helped with the overwhelming roaring in her head.Sweating and dusty, Irene burst into Hadiza ’s office nearly an hour later, the trek from the palace through the clogged, narrow str
He tried not to flinch. Even Nesryn blinked at the frank question.“Yes,” he said tightly, fighting the heat rising in his cheeks.She looked between them, assessing. “Have you used it to completion?”He clenched his jaw. “How is that relevant?” And how had she gleaned what was between them?Irene only wrote something down.“What are you writing?” he demanded, cursing the damned chair for keeping him from storming to rip the paper out of her hands.“I’m writing a giant no.”Which she then underlined.He growled, “I suppose you’ll ask about my bathroom habits now?” “It was next on my list.”“They are unchanged,” he bit out. “Unless you need Nesryn to confirm.” Irene merely turned to Nesryn, unruffled. “Have you seen him struggle withit?”“Do not answer that,” he snarled at Nesryn.Nesryn had the good wits to sink into a chair and remain quiet.Irene rose, setting down the pen, and came around the desk. The morning sunlight caught in her hair, bouncing off her head in a corona.She
So Vincent had, half paying attention to the meal unfolding before him, half monitoring every word and glance and breath of those around him.Despite their youngest sister’s death, the heirs made the meal lively, conversation flowing, mostly in languages Vincent did not know or recognize. Such a wealth of kingdoms in that hall, represented by viziers and servants and companions—the now-youngest princess, Duva, herself wedded to a dark-haired, sad-eyed prince from a faraway land who kept close to his pregnant wifeand spoke little to anyone around him. But whenever Duva smiled softly at himVincent did not think the light that filled the prince’s face was feigned. And wondered if the man’s silence was not from reticence but perhaps not yet knowing enough of his wife’s language to keep up.Nesryn, however, had no such excuse. She’d been silent and haunted at dinner. He’d only learned that she’d bathed before it thanks to the shout and slamming door in her chambers, followed by a huff
Hadiza ’s face darkened. Not with ire, but memory. “I was once asked to heal a man who was injured while evading capture. After he had committed a crime so unspeakable … The guards told me what he’d done before I walked into his cell. They wanted him patched up so he could live to be put on trial. He’d undoubtedly be executed—they had victims willing to testify and proof aplenty. Eretia herself saw the latest victim. His last one. Gathered all the evidence she needed and stood in that court and condemned him with what she had seen.”Hadiza ’s throat bobbed. “They chained him down in that cell, and he was hurt enough that I knew … I knew I could use my combat to make the internal bleeding worse. They’d never know. He’d be dead by morning, and no one would dare question me.” She studied the vial of blue tonic. “It was the closest I have ever come to killing. I wanted to kill him for what he had done. The world would be better for it. I had my hands on his chest—I was ready to do it. Bu
Of all the rooms in the Torre Cesme, Irene Towers loved this one best.Perhaps it was because the room, located at the very pinnacle of the pale-stoned tower and its sprawling complex below, had unparalleled views of the sunset over Antica.Perhaps it was because this was the place where she’d felt the first shred of safety in nearly ten years. The place she had first looked upon the ancient woman now sitting across the paper- and book-strewn desk, and heard the words that changed everything: You are welcome here, Irene Towers.It had been over two years since then.Two years of working here, living here, in this tower and in this city of so many peoples, so many foods and caches of knowledge.It had been all she’d dreamed it would be—and she had seized every opportunity, every challenge, with both hands. Had studied and listened and practiced and saved lives, changed them, until she had climbed to the very top of her class. Until an unknown healer’s daughter from Benjamin was appr