Unleashed

Chapter Twelve: Armillary Sphere

Mila

"I went to see him again," I whispered in Lir's ear over lunch. My uncle and Rebecca were talking about politics, so they weren't paying attention to us.

"To see Felix?" Lir asked with a smile.

"No, not Felix," I answered. "Connor."

My friend almost choked on his bite of porridge. "What? How? Why?" he asked before he cleaned his face, using a napkin.

I took a deep breath. My stomach felt strange just thinking about Connor, so talking about him made my whole body tremble. "I can't explain why, but—" My breath hitched. "I-I just felt the urge to visit him, so I did, in the middle of the night." I bit my lip, looking at my friend's reaction.

Lir accidentally let his spoon drop, and it clattered on the table, drawing Darius's and Rebecca's attention. "Sorry," he mumbled to them, and they went on with their talk. "In the middle of the night? You went to visit the ludus again, in the middle of the night? By yourself?!" he asked, hissing into my ear. "How did you distract the guard without me?"

"I didn't go inside. I only went to stand in front of his window. There isn't any glass set into the frame yet after he broke it the other day."

"Ah, yes, you mean when he went all berserk because he spotted you and Felix together?"

"I don't know what the reason was for him to do what he did." Lir had decided that it was because of me, but I didn't believe that.

"I hate to say this, but I agree with your uncle in this matter. You need to stop this. It's of no use, and I don't want you to get hurt!" he whispered harshly.

"I won't get hurt. I didn't even go near the window."

Who was I fooling here? I knew it had been a crazy thing to do. What if a guard caught me? That would really have brought me into trouble. Darius could have sent me away, forever forbidden to visit Liandro again.

"I don't understand what you want with this creature, Mila. You—you don't really like him, do you?"

I opened my mouth to respond but was cut off by Rebecca. "Are you two youngsters talking about cute girls and boys? You two are very secretive this morning..."

I guess they were done talking about politics.

"Actually we were, aunty Rebecca," Lir answered. He knew exactly how to distract her.

"Oh, don't call me aunty! You know I feel old when you do," she whined.

"You look beautiful and much younger than your actual age, Rebecca," I said like a suck-up.

"My actual age?"

"Which is still very young," I quickly added.

"No. You ruined it, Mila." She sighed.

Lir and I laughed. Even Darius did before he stood up to leave us and tend to business. "Ah, my girl." He turned around before he walked through the door, looking at me.

"Yes?"

"When you're done eating breakfast, come to my office, please. Alone."

Oh, shit. Could it be that he knew what I'd done? Sweat dripped from my pores within seconds.

"Of course, uncle."

***

I sat down as Darius ordered me to.

My uncle usually was generally a very tidy person, but his desk was always a mess: rolls of papyrus lay scattered everywhere; maps of Liandro and beyond were on every corner; and the wooden tabletop of the lion-legged desk was covered in ink spots and scribbles.