The Dark Warlock: The Nox Haven Series

Chapter 8: We Meet Again

**Bob in the picture above**

CADDIE's POV:

A sea of young women drowning in their dresses and men drowning in cheap gin, filled the dining hall. They all seemed to be having a blissful afternoon. Laughter filled the room, it was like music to my ears. Their smiles were so bright, only the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling could match their radiance. I felt more like an outside observer, as if I were watching a movie, than actually experiencing lunch in 1816. Most of their conversations faded into an inconsistent buzzing noise in the background but I picked up on a few topics that made their way to the lunch table in the twenty-first century.

A group of girls giggled behind their lace fans as they pointed their jeweled fingers at a table filled with less fortunate people. Gossip girls. Their lips were moving at such a fast pace, at first I thought they were vampires but the tinge of pink on their cheeks and sheen of perspiration on their foreheads proved- they were just as imperfect as everyone else. Sitting at a table no more more than five feet away from the gossip girls, was a group young men in old Fire elemental uniforms. The uniform was similar to a Roman gladiator's but the colors were strictly black. Their eyes were glossy from the smuggled gin and they could barely form a proper sentence but that didn't stop them from trying to hit on any girl that walked by. In the back corner of the dining hall, a boy and a girl sat hunched over colossal leather bound books with fraying pages. They seemed like the perfect nerdy pair, but their social anxiety crippled them from moving an inch closer.

It was strange. If the people of 1816 switched their trousers and dresses for jeans and t-shirts, I wouldn't have thought any time passed.

I continued to scan every person in the dining room until I found him. It wasn't hard. There was a crown mounted on his head, his fingers were glittering with jewels the color of his future eyes. His current eyes, however, reminded me of my aunt's. They were coal black, it was impossible to distinguish the pupil from the iris. Many admiring looks were casted towards the heirs, but everyone avoided looking at him. He radiated danger, that hadn't changed in two hundred years.

His intimidating presence, sent unwanted shivers of fear down my spine. My lips formed his name, as if I was calling out In a silent plea. Aleksander, who was standing close to my side, whipped his head around and stared at me with wide eyes. He only held my stare for a fraction of a second before he looked back at Bob. Recognition flashed before his eyes.

"Oh no," Aleksander muttered under his breath.

Oh no indeed, I thought to myself.

I wanted to keep Aleksander from discovering that Prince Roberto was Bob in the future. But I should have known better. Even if Aleksander didn't recognize Bob's face, he would have slowly pieced it together. He knew there was only a very short list of people that could elicit a feeling of fear within me. Once he went through the list, it would have taken him a millisecond to remember that Bob was a nickname for Roberto.

Aleksander's shock turned to rage as he continued to stare at Bob. Most of the anger was directed to Bob for being a traitorous, evil asshole but a sliver of his anger was also meant for me. Alek hated it when I kept things from him. But I couldn't help it, it was a force of habit. I was so used to hiding my fears from him, not because I didn't trust him anymore, but because I knew he had enough on his plate. Everybody thought of him as the perfect heir. He was personable and charming and surprisingly very intelligent. He knew when to smile, shake hands and kiss cheeks but behind the charade of being the 'perfect heir' he was struggling with his PTSD. Fear was a common emotion that everyone felt from time to time but Aleksander would have to live with it and fight it every waking moment of his life. I never wanted to add to the problem.