He paced back and forth on the top and highest balcony of the building which graced his eyes with a magnificent overview of The Vincenzo mansion.It really was a work of art!The evening got darker by every passing minute, the day transitioned into night as the sun gradually got replaced by the moon and swallowed by the darkness of the clouds.Clouds that seemed like they were stagnant and fixed in a particular position but were actually moving at an extremely slow pace.The cold evening wind hit his face softly while he slowly walked back and forth with the fingers of both palms, loosely entwined in each other behind his back.Suddenly, he paused.Taking in a very deep breath of the cold gust that tingled his nostrils, Vincent let it all out by heaving out a deep sigh.He turned back and walked over to the brown-coloured, round table that sat right in the middle of the room, which was surrounded by an expensive set of chairs with a similar colour and design; The Rattan Bistro set.Up
Immediately after Vincent finished his breakfast, he went to meet Jane who was seated peacefully in the garden, engrossed in whatever book she was reading.It was the same book she had been reading since the last time she left her mother’s residence with Vincent.“What was it about anyway?” Vincent thought to himself as he ploddingly walked over to where Jane was seated, crossing her legs while she leaned her back on the swing bench.Jane didn’t see Vincent walking up towards her because she was not only engrossed with the contents of the book she was reading. She held up the book which covered her entire face, preventing her from seeing whatever was ahead of her.“Hey!” The moment Jane heard the familiar male voice, she lowered the book that she had held up to her face.“Hey, I didn’t notice you”“I can clearly see why” Vincent replied, indirectly referring to the book as he went over to sit beside her at the other end of the swing bench.“What’s the book about anyways?”“Nothing mu
As he walked out of the garden, Vincent thought of ways to contact Samuel.He wasn’t picking up his calls nor replying to his texts.It was official, Samuel had obviously started to slip into a state of depression and this was all because of Elizabeth who probably didn’t even value Samuel the way he held her in high esteem.Knowing her intentions from the very beginning, Vincent couldn’t help but think that she had been toying with Samuel’s emotions right from the very beginning.It was so easy for her to fake the entire act of affection just so that she could acquire what she had bargained for.Unfortunately for Elizabeth, fate decided to play a fast one on her……..But not for long because in order to make things right with Samuel, Vincent would eventually have to give in to Elizabeth’s unsaid demands.It was quite sad that in the end, Vincent didn’t get his revenge nor required apology from Elizabeth but looking at things from the bright side, Samuel didn’t have to pay the price for
Jane couldn’t believe that she had fallen into her own trap this time and now, her own words have been twisted against her.She immediately changed the subject of their discussion and diverted it towards the pending issue at hand, Samuel and Elizabeth.“Let’s not get carried away by such mere distractions now” Jane said as she pulled out her phone from a small purse beside her.Raising a brow, she slightly waved it in the air “Shall we?”Nodding his head Vincent occupied a sitting position on the other end of the bench before Jane handed his phone over to him.Jane requested for Samuel’s contact which he immediately sent to her.“Should I also send Elizabeth’s, we might be needing it too”“Don’t bother, I already have it”Vincent stared at Jane with a questioning look on his face as he had both his brows raised.Noticing this, Jane became curious, wondering what she might have possibly said or done to warrant such a look.“What?” Looking away from her phone’s screen, she questioned Vi
“The call”“What call?”Amazed by her sudden forgetfulness, Vincent stared at Jane in disbelief with his lips slightly parted. “Are you for real?”“Ohh, Samuel”All that talk about Elizabeth had made Jane to suddenly forget what they were initially supposed to do a short while ago.“Why are you staring at me like that?”“You forget your phone every single day yet I don’t react that way…..Jeez”Vincent wanted to say something to defend himself but he held back instead, it was only going to prolong the issue further and Vincent wasn’t prepared to take that route at the moment.And he certainly wasn’t prepared for another round of Jane’s banters, at least not until a few issues had been resolved with Samuel and Elizabeth.Jane went ahead to copy Samuel's number from the text that Vincent had sent her before proceeding to paste it on her dialer.One tap away from hitting the call button, she paused
The dimming of the sun and the slow darkening of the day was obvious enough to announce the gradual approach of the evening to anyone who looked up in the sky.Due to the presence of ashy looking clouds in the sky, she could already tell there was a slight tendency it might rain that day.Or maybe it was just an exaggerated indication of the evening’s approach.Still sitting on the swing bench in the garden with her left ear occupied by an active earbud, she had a book in her hand.The book she had sat there reading all morning.A soft cold wind blew Jane and sent chilly shivers down her spine.Because of this, the hairs on her arms began to stand, causing goosebumps to appear all over her body.This gave her a tingling sensation as she shivered and began rubbing both her arms with her palms, trying to warm up a little.It was almost as if nature was suspending her activity on the bench, sending her back into th
Jane sat in front of her large, door-sized window staring into oblivion when her moment of silence was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.The moment she heard this knock on the door, she discarded her thoughts, diverting her attention towards the knock coming from her door.“Who could that possibly be?“ She wondered to herself as she stayed put without moving an inch, thinking that the person would probably assume that she was asleep and eventually go away.For some reason, she was just not in the mood that evening.It felt as though her emotions were playing out in unison with the weather.Dark, cloudy, foggy…… She just wanted to relax.From the rhythm of the knock, Jane figured that the person at the door could only be Vincent.There were only three people who lived in that house; herself, Marie and Vincent.Ms. Marie had already dropped off her tea and obviously had no business with her until her ne
Vincent was right about one thing, the rain wasn’t much but Jane was more than certain about the other, Samuel wouldn’t make it to the Vincenzo mansion that evening. Jane turned on her phone and set up a timer that would count down from that moment till the evening had finally passed.She shut her eyes for a while hoping to fall asleep when she suddenly began to feel a repetitive vibration.It was her phone.She was very reluctant to pick the call but at the same time, she knew that she had to.Rolling over to the other side of her bed, she reached for her bedside table and took the phone from the table.“Hello?” Jane froze as a deep male voice resounded from the other end of the phone.The evening went by very quickly and there were still no calls nor signs of Samuel.“I guess he wasn’t coming afterall” Vincent thought to himself as walked into the kitchen.Feeling a slight wave of defeat, he knew tha
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