The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Dix

I was sitting with my pen poised against stationary, not even knowing why I was sitting here, not even knowing why I thought I needed to do this. I hated myself for wanting to do this.

Kaius had told me to go to the library days after the show, when I was itching for him to show me again, to take me somewhere new. "Have you read a book?" he teased with me. "They'll take you someplace new with less energy wasted."

I had read a book before, the ratbag, but I understood the words he didn't speak aloud. He couldn't take us anywhere so soon. His energy had been depleted and he needed time to recharge. Thus me sitting alone in the library, trying to write a stupid letter.

When I'd asked Kaius what he meant about stealing the stake, the only thing he said was all in due time. That was it. He only repeated those words, as if a doll's string being pulled and it only had one saying. He eventually escorted me back to my room, hours ago, telling me to get some sleep.

Now it was several days later, and I was in the study whilst he was off somewhere in Gossington, hiding from me. That seemed to be something he did often, and when he resurfaced—hours later—it'd only be for dinner, or to say goodnight. Never for any substantial amount of time. It was as if ever since he mentioned the stake he'd been avoiding me. And I had no idea why.

I wanted to ask him what kind of friend shut people out? But whenever I saw him I always got so tongue-tied. It was his fault. He wasn't allowed to go showing me amazing things, comforting me when I was at my weakest, embracing me, holding my hand.

His fault.

"Stupid," I told the paper, shaking my head. "Men are stupid."

I wondered what Anna was doing now that I was gone. She was my personal handmaid—I wondered if, not that I was gone, she was reassigned to the kitchen or laundry. Or reassigned at all.

I ran my hands through my long hair, hating it. Father never let me cut it—he always said there was beauty and purity in long hair. Prince Grimond, once he'd seen it loose, said the same thing. "I cannot wait until I can run my hands through it," he'd once said, and thinking back on it now, it made my skin crawl.

My toes grazed the floor as I swung them back and forth, thinking. Kaius and Gossington had been a godsend—stepping into the Wildwood had been a godsend—but I wondered about when I would have to eventually go back. I had time—probably lots of time, assuming the Wildwood's time acted the same as the kingdoms, and didn't speed up or slow down—to think, to rest easy in the knowledge that Prince Grimond and my father couldn't touch me, but I knew. Every day I was sitting here I was giving father more time to find a loophole. And I knew there were enough warlocks and witches out there—Kaius had proved so, by showing me Dane—that it was only a matter of time.

There was a knock on the door to the study, soft. I quickly threw a book on top of the stationary, setting the pen down a good ways away from my fingertips. "Come in."

The door opened slowly, and Kaius peeked his head in. I nearly stood from my chair at the sight of his eyes—they were still their wicked color, but there was a redness around them that was new, a deep tone living underneath his lids. For a moment I wondered if he only had paint underneath his eyes, but as he came closer, I could see that they were shadows. But when he looked at me, the light in his eyes came on. "You're still in here."

"I just got so...caught up in this book." I gestured to the text in front of me, still not looking away from his eyes.

Kaius read the spine that was pointed in his direction. "The Sound of the Hill. That's my favorite. How is it so far?"