Silence

Chapter 24

Adalina was completely on edge for weeks since some of her memories had returned. How had she lived in the same house as a demon all this time? Why hadn't he just stolen her soul already?

Her heart hammered in her chest when she recalled the feeling of someone being in her room not too long ago. It had to have been Sebastian. No one else could move fast enough to get out of the room before she awoke.

He must have been coming in to steal her soul while she was asleep!

How could she possibly protect herself against that?

But then...if that was true...why did she feel so comforted by his presence all this time? Even the presence that lingered in her room when he had snuck in?

It just didn't make any sense...

She had spent a lot of time with Baldroy in the past few weeks. For the most part, if she was with him, Sebastian left her alone.

Of course, the reason Sebastian had to leave them alone was because each time he saw Baldroy and Adalina together, whether it was them cooking meals or they were simply casually talking as she gave him one of her small smiles, he had to keep himself from ripping the cook's arms and legs from his body.

The same went for whenever he saw her with Finnian out in the gardens.

Adalina liked being outside amongst all the flowers and away from Sebastian. And Finnian was such a bundle of joy and happiness that it was impossible for her to feel afraid when around him.

Sebastian wanted nothing more at the moment than to go to the Grim Reaper Dispatch and personally injure Lukas to the point where it would be centuries before he would even be able to walk again, much less go out and reap souls.

But it was nearly impossible for even him to secretly get inside the Dispatch. The Reapers had highly acute senses of smell, and it wouldn't take long for them to figure out a demon had infiltrated their headquarters. He could admit that he wouldn't fare so well against that many Reapers and Death Scythes.

After Lukas's infractions, the young Reaper was going to be kept under strict watch which meant that it would be even more impossible for Sebastian to get to him.

The fact that the Reaper was going physically unpunished for his crimes was not helping Sebastian's mood.

Ever since Adalina remembered he was a demon, he had had to exhibit more control than usual, and pretty much everyone noticed. The servants treaded on eggshells around him, and even Ciel was a bit wary around him despite knowing that Sebastian could not hurt him per their contract.

The only way Sebastian knew how to make it so that Adalina wasn't afraid of him anymore was if she either regained more of her memories or he saved her from something like last time. Normally, he wouldn't have any problem organizing some kind of kidnapping or something of the like for him to save her from so she would trust him again. But now it was different. He couldn't bring himself to willingly put her in any danger. If anything went wrong (unlikely, but possible), he would never be able to forgive himself.

Adalina was heading to Ciel's study when she heard her name called. She turned around to see Finnian approaching her.

A part of her prepared for the worst. Had he messed something else up yet again that she would have to fix?

Instead of any of that, Finnian looked down at the ground and held out a deep red rose for her. She noticed that he had already removed all of the thorns from the stem. "I know you've been kind of nervous lately since you lost your memories and I know that's probably kind of scary, so I thought I'd give you this, 'cause, you know, it's pretty, like you."