Vincent was in his study room, trying to read critical books that would be helpful to himself, when the door opened and Jane stepped in. He didn’t want to be disturbed and upon seeing her presence, he sighed in exasperation.“What do you want?” He asked, his back still faced towards her.“I made us a good meal and I think you should try it yourself to see that I am certainly right.” Indeed, Jane had gone extra-miles to prepare the dishes. They were supposed to be in their honey moon, but Jane doubted if Vincent had a clue about that.“The library is where I would eat. Bring it here.” Vincent declared.“I cannot bring the food to the library, it would totally be inappropriate. I think eating the meal at the dinning would be better.” Vincent looked up at Jane. She was looking totally stunning before his eyes. Vincent stood up from the study room and made his way to the dinning table.Fred had been taken to Lord Douglas Vernon’s mansion to spend time with his grandfather. The excite
“You need to cheer up sometimes Vincent , having this stiff face would make you look and grow old eventually.” Vincent ’s mind was bugged with things other than a simple countenance and Jane observed it as well.“What is the problem?” Jane asked, as she watched Vincent walk to the couch and slump down on it, with no words yet from him.“Vincent , what is the problem.” Jane enquired as she walked up to take her seat by his side, while he stared into space.Jane remained in that position for a while, till she heard him sigh and spoke out eventually. “Indeed, your father has been librated” Jane looked up at Vincent and wondered was curious to know what he was talking about. “What are you talking about?” Jane asked.“Jeff Devon isn’t the one who murdered my parents.” Jane rose her head from his laps to stare at Vincent . “I got to see the proper footage of the bastard who have done the act today and what I realized, was the fact that it was someone much closer to the family.” Vincent
As the blond approached Jane, she rudely asked, "Can you dance at all?"The way she spoke made it clear that she saw Jane as nothing more than a piece of trash. Despite this insult, Jane remained calm and collected. She knew that in this underground world, filled with heartless and cruel people, rebellion could have dire consequences. With a soft sniffle, she avoided making eye contact with the blond and responded firmly, "I will show you when it's time."Jane's ability to stand up for herself in the face of disrespect was admirable. It seemed as though she had been thrown from one difficult situation into an even worse one but she refused to let it break her spirit. Her determination to prove herself as a dancer despite the harsh environment surrounding her was something to be admired. "I will show you when it's time," Jane declared with a determined glint in her eyes."Hmm!" She smirked, her confidence evident as she appointed Cara to assist her through the intricate routi
"How dare you? " Vincent roared like a lion as the champagne got emptied on his dress and flowed freely down his pants. Jane shook terribly, looking for napkins to clean Vincent's suits and shoes. She just emptied a glass of champagne. "I'm terribly sorry! I wa---sss" Jane stuttered trying to complete her words when Vincent dragged her hair and pull her up "You are here to pay your brother's debt but it's obvious you're not capable!. " Vincent said with a very intimidating voice let out goosebumps on maris neck. "Please, I feel weak! '' Jane begged amidst her tears . She had never felt this way in her entire life looking for means of survival. She felt her strength leaving her and let her body fall on Damien's hold. Everyone in the vip room's eyes widened. "This babe is indeed grounded! " One of them commented and signaled Vincent to take Jane's body away from him. Before they could move Vincent gave them a shock. He carried Jane himself to his closet not carin
Jane was taken out of the underground in silence to live in Vincent's mansion and resume underground at night when she's well rested.Her room was beside Damien's room and well furnished equally as his own with luxurious closets enough to open a boutique.Jane could not stop exclaiming and thought of exactly what was going on.It was the third day she was taking Vincent's house after the night she passed out without seeing Vincent's himself. She was left alone in the room only to be taken care of by maids attending to her needs. She needs fresh air at least but at the same time she was scared of confining the rules.That morning she had just showered up early and was creaming her body before Vincent walked into her half nakedness.It was nothing to Vincentas he has seen her that way several times but the amusing part is the fact Jane was covering her body and not throwing herself at him "Out of your clothes! Like right now put it off" Vincent demanded coldly in a low killing voice
Vincent stared at the document, unable to believe what he was reading. This couldn't be real! He thought. There was no way this was real. He didn't want to believe that it was actually real in any way or formHe re-read the document again, his hands shaking in the process and he hadn't been mistaken. These were divorce papers and Jane had filed for it."You are home early."Jane's voice took him by surprise.He glanced up to find her staring at him, a resigned look on her face.She was holding a laundry basket in one hand with only a few clothes in it."What is the meaning this?" Vincent asked, his voice strained as he put up the divorce papers for her to see.Jane let out a sigh and dropped the basket of clothes close to the entrance of the kitchen."They are divorce papers, Vincent , isn't it obvious from what you read.""I don't understand…" Vincent confessed."Is this some kind of a joke? One of your silly pranks?" He said as he took a step closer to her.Jane was known for p
Why was Jane breaking Jim like this? Why on earth was this happening? How on earth had he let it happen? These were the thoughts that plagued his mind as he tried to make sense of the situation.The more he looked into Jane's eyes, the more he realized just how far gone she was. The spark that used to be in her eyes whenever she was with him was no longer there and it was all because of that stupid man. He felt humiliated in his own home. Jane had brought in another man into their home and possibly bed.He hated to admit it but it was what it looked like. The strange man had not only been half naked but he'd also been staring at her as if he wanted to devour her right there and there but was restraining himself.He wanted to kill him,wanted to beat the man to a bloody pulp for daring to touch his wife in his presence. "Is that why you've been so distant lately? Why you barely want to cuddle or be around me?" He asked. He was aware of how pathetic he sounded but he didn't care. His
Getting fired barely hours after his wife had left him by a man that wanted his wife had to be the most ironic circumstances Vincent had ever been a part of. The tears he had been holding back for so long came crawling out of his eyes of their own volition.His life had gone from not so good to terribly unfortunate in a matter of hours.First, his wife had decided to leave him and then his mother and now he'd lost his job.Without thinking, Vincent picked himself up from the ground where he'd been dumped and began to walk down the road with tears streaming down his face.How on earth was he going to cough up ten grand from? He had nobody to call, not Jane, not his boss. His father had died before he was even born or at least that was what his mother told him.He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't bear to see his mother die. He just couldn't. He'd been through too much…The universe had to be playing a prank on him, a very sadistic one and he didn't think he could take anym
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