The Priestess' Affair [Books 1 &2]

𝐗𝐕. 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞

-HER-

"What do you want?" I demanded, standing in that deserted alley, glowering at the silhouette with soft luminous eyes. My heart was digging against my sternum, and my breaths were uneven.

In response to my question, the silhouette unhurriedly but in a preying manner stalked towards me. He stopped after eating away all the significant distance between us. I could see his glowing eyes with more clarity from up this close. There was something eerily bestial about them that should make anyone run for the hills, but oddly I felt more drawn to them... to him.

"What do you want?" I reiterated when a ghostly silence plunged us two.

"Why did you run when you saw me?" Instead, he asked with an authoritativeness undertone as if I owed him an explanation.

"I didn't run when I saw you," I fibbed.

I ran because she'd have my head if Vittoria saw us together.

"Either way, you don't seem pleased to see me," He noted while he examined me ruminatively. 

"Why do you think I should be pleased to see you?" I asked, crossing my arms on my chest and giving him a barbed stare. This intensified the pensiveness with which his inquisitive eyes studied me. They ephemerally scanned me from head to toe before looking me back in the eyes.

"Because I helped you twice and offered you a good employment opportunity," He pointed.

"I repaid the favour by saving your friend. Thanks for the opportunity, but I would have to decline politely," I responded, taking a step back whilst I was thinking of ways I could ditch him in the back of my head.

"The way you left wasn't precisely polite,"

"Ah, I apologise for that. I had to leave early in the morning because I had somewhere else to be. Thanks either way and goodbye," I said and turned away, hoping he would leave me alone, but he shattered my hopes by stepping beside me and, matching my steps, hinting at anything but leaving me alone.

"Where are you headed this time?" He asked, glimpsing down at my attire again, "Doesn't look like you're a healer anymore," He remarked while I felt his eyes burning at the side of my face. "Did you switch jobs again?"

"I might have," I muttered, taking a turn, and he followed me, "and seems like I'm not the only one to have switched jobs again," I pointed out. He dressed like someone from the guilds instead of a merchant this time. 

He halted abruptly before looking down at his attire. He seemed to have been reminded of something suddenly, which made him snap and straighten up.

"Ah yes," His voice carried a tonality of uncertainty, but his cockiness soon masked it, "I had to switch jobs as well," He spoke as if reminding myself. I found it quite odd.

"I don't blame you. The job market is screwed these days," I played along.

"I agree," He nodded, "Somirean economy isn't doing well these days. The king is spending more on his army," He commented with this strange animosity in his tone that made me glance up at him again from the side of my eyes. His foreign traits screamed at me again.

"You seem to take too much interest in Somierea for being someone from a faraway land," I commented. I felt the air around us thicken with tension, but he quickly brushed this off, "I have someone dear in Somirea; hence I know,"

Someone dear. I wonder who it could be. Before I could ask, he asked, "What about you?"

"Ah, I work in the Royal household now," I fibbed.