{A Wattpad Featured Book}
***
Her heart or her people. Only she can decide.
Hated, cursed, outcasted. It was Eleena Asterin's life ever since she was blamed to have betrayed her village. So when she is offered a task to earn back her honour and prid...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Tucked away in one of the many dark and unused guest rooms of the manor, I crouched in the shadow behind the door and frowned. Flicking open the pocket watch I had brought along for the third time, I stole a glance at it before peering through the small crack I'd left open. It was around a quarter past eleven, seventeen past to be exact. Yet the guards have not swapped their posts.
There had been nothing interesting happening in the dim hallway so far, and I hadn't learnt anything particularly useful other than the duration it takes for their shift. There were nights where I had observed and counted—counted each second as they swapped posts before the hallway was filled with prying eyes once again. Ten minutes. I had ten minutes to complete the mission and leave.
I'd used the same trick I employed on Oberon earlier on to gain another piece of information: I'd merely asked the servants in the kitchen why Phoebus had been leaving for bed earlier nowadays. And when they answered, it was without hesitation. Faeries can't lie. But they can spin truths. I was blessed to be able to dig subtly for things I needed answers for and who knew it would've worked so easily? A little pressing and I learnt Phoebus's late schedule and had even bought myself an opportunity to use the faevenom.
They hadn't dared to oppose me as I was their lord's friend and perhaps that was something which fed my exhaustion—my emptiness.
I adjusted the position of my legs and rolled my neck. The sun had long since set, and the temperature dropped with each passing minute.
Unless I could find some way to distract the guards for a moment, I didn't know how long more I would have to wait for that right moment. Though there weren't many, it would still be troublesome if I was to be caught by one. They were faeries after all and I was just...human. And given the likelihood that Phoebus may be a light sleeper due to his poisoning, waking him isn't an option. Better to just pick a moment, a quick decision, rather than waiting here until my chance passed.
It had been so long since I'd done something like this—since I'd waited and hidden in nooks and crannies and learned what I could about my prey. It was different than when I was being chased by creatures that should've only existed in legends and fables. Here, now, in a shadowed corner of this estate, it felt like...
It felt like I'd never left home. As if I might look down and see the powdered snow carpeting the forest floor, and not the coldness of the smooth marble tiles seeping past my clothes.
A hot exhale rose into the air as I watched, tucking my hands under my arms to keep them warm and agile.
It had been over half a year since the night I'd last seen my family and Aslan, over half a year since I'd last interacted with my kind. And somewhere, in this prosperous land ruled by faeries, were the answers for why I was truly brought here. I wasn't stupid to the point where I'd believed their half-truths about just crossing the border. There was another reason to why they needed me but it was too late for answers now. If I dared look, I knew I would find them. The vision the Dreamweavers had shared had been my first lead. But maybe I was too afraid, too hesitant to dare fall deeper into the faeries' ways and traditions as it would tarnish my roots. So I hadn't done anything. And I knew this would come to haunt me one day.
