The Allure of Darkness

28

Azia

I really try to get away from Alden. I even try to hide behind a wall. But when there are no ledges or crooks in the hallways you tend to get found very easily.

Her red hair comes around the corner.

"Where did you come from? Why haven't I seen you before?" Her voice is harsh and brutal like she has been yelling for years.

"I am here for the ball. You know that the King and Queen are hosting."

Her hair looks like fire. If hair could burn hers would.

"You can't be here. The upper part should be concealed. I guess the wards are down." She looks at me and smiles. Her teeth are all straight. "Let's get you to your room."

She is headed towards the hallway I came up. I don't want to see Loki or Emrys.

"I'm room 87, by the way."

She looks at me but not really, it's the look when someone is thinking about something that is more important than what you are saying. She's walking and then abruptly stops. She realized something so important that she had to stop to say.

"Why would you come up here? Through a servant door?" Her voice is skeptical. She has a right to be skeptical.

I don't have time to react before I'm thrown against the white walls. What the fuck.

"Get off of me." I try to shove her off of me but she is built strong, like she has been training her whole life just to hold people against walls.

"Why were you up here?" Her voice gets dangerously low.

"I swear I was just lost. I was trying to find my guards who took off to carry my luggage to my room." Half hearted truth right? Technically I left to get away from them but in some way I did get lost.

She doesn't respond. She just stares at me. Waiting for a better answer from me. Her gray eyes have a tint of blue to them.

Her hands still squeeze around my arms, cutting the circulation off. So many scars on her arms. Covered them like layers of clothes that don't fit right.

She pulls away from me.

"I don't trust you." She walks quickly towards the door and pulls the gold door open with ease.

Wow, she doesn't trust me. I don't trust anyone I'm here with. I only trust one person who is in a different kingdom.

"I don't trust you." I say back. I sound childish repeating it back. But it makes me feel better.

The walk down the wood stairs is long and unpleasant. She walks behind me, stairs creaking under each step.

Alden

She is lying. There is no way the ward is down when I had to put it down when we were walking in the hallway. To even get past a ward in this kingdom you need a marking. Which those live here have. Different wards for different ranks. For someone who is coming here for a ball would not have access to any.

We reach the bottom of these horrid stairs and she just keeps going. Out the servant door but she stops when she sees two men, standing outside the door. They look like they have been waiting here. Just for her.

One looks at her with anger and the other with determination.

One of them has piercing blue eyes and hair that is brownish red.

The other one has brown hair and very subtle green eyes.

They barely look old enough to look after themselves.

"Azia, where have you been? And who is this?" The one with blue eyes talks with a stern voice.

She frowns.

"I got lost when you guys went ahead to put my luggage in my room." She walks over to them with visible tension. She looks over to me and says. "This is Alden, who found me walking the halls."

I smile and nod. This is an odd group.

The one with green eyes is carrying luggage. Is it her luggage? Another lie?

She catches my gaze at the luggage.

"I had so much luggage, poor Emrys had to do a second trip for his stuff." She laughs and he just grips the luggage tighter.

"These are my bags." Emrys says proving Azia is right.

"Well it has been a long trip for us coming all the way from the village, right Loki and Emrys?" She looks to them with the need of agreement. It's pathetic really.

"Thank you Alden for keeping her safe." Emrys says with no emotion.

I know balls gather a lot of outside attention but this dynamic just does not seem right. Their story matches but it is all so suspicious.

Azia finds and enters an area protected by wards and her guards leave her unattended.
Wherever they are from is somewhere I never want to be.

"There is a curfew for the guests here for the ball." I say leaving them behind. I don't tell them when the the curfew goes in effect because it doesn't exist. I just don't want them roaming the halls.

I go through the servant door and up the old creaky wood stairs all the way to Atlas's room.

Emrys

She knows. I guess this kingdom has not mastered the way to close your mind off. The royal family definitely has to know how to, but their guards don't or maybe just Alden doesn't know.

Women should not even be allowed to fight. Maybe that's why her mind is open because they let women fight but they don't care enough to give them information on how to keep their thoughts to themselves.

I could hear all her thoughts running through her head. I could see her mind forming each question she wanted to ask.

"Azia follow us."

I'm not a dog.

I smirk knowing she can see me.

"Who picked out your glamour?" She asks.

"Our father and mother." Loki says with each word being heavier then the next.

I happen to like my glamoured self better then my usual self. It's enlightening to look different, for no one to know who you are.