Page 82 of Dark Captivation

“Just a kind gesture of affection, my Lady. Nothing more.” They graciously bowed before leaving the gifts on the bed and sliding out the door.

I’ve never been overly materialistic. But what all the gifts showed me was that Malek cared about me and though he was rough around the edges at times, he did whatever he thought would make me happy and comfortable.

Just knowing how much he thought about me made my heart swell.

“Knock, knock,” Ferina purred from the open doorway, letting herself in.

“Ohh, are those the new blouses Malek sent? How cute. Mind if I try them on?” She held her perfectly manicured nails to her red lips.

“Of course, you can. When did you get out of the infirmary? I was about to come and visit you. Are you feeling better?” I checked her for bandages, of which there were none.

“I got discharged this morning. Not that I could sleep in the infirmary anyway. It’s too close to Malek's room. The banging kept me up all night,” she yawned, peaking at me through the corner of her eye, knowing.

“Must have been the thunder.” My mouth slackened, thoughts of last night replayed in my head. Last night’s encounter was more than a romp in the sheets. He claimed my body, his essence imprinted on my skin so thoroughly that I still felt him on me.

“Thunder, huh? If we have a few more thunderstorms like that, the whole palace might fall to rubble and we’ll have to erect a tent on the ruins.” Her lip curled up into a cheeky smirk.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you have a wild imagination? You should channel it into art.” I snapped my fingers. “I know. You should write a book. I’d be your test reader.”

“Mhmm?” Her squinting eyes lit with a glint of mischief.

“Excuse me, Lady Sunny. Princess Ferina. Is now a good time?” Two beautiful demonesses waltzed into my room, both with two adorable, young children accompanying each of them.

“Mrs. Pennington, Mrs. Jennings. What are you doing here?” Ferina welcomed them warmly.

“We’ve come to officially welcome Lady Sunny to the city. I’m Devina. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” One of the ladies curtseyed, taking a perfect white rose from her handbag and handing it to me.

“Thank you. And who is this cute little guy?” I knelt down to shake the hand of the little boy next to her. He refused my hand, to his mother’ s visible chagrin.

“This is my son. Shake the nice lady’s hand, Justin.” His mother instructed and the boy nervously obeyed.

“I’m Scarlette and these are my daughters.” The other woman stepped closer, delivering me a handful of daffodils. “Today is the first time the king's allowed so many outsiders into the palace in ages. You must be having quite the effect on him.” She said as if inviting me to gossip, but I wasn’t sure if I liked her tone.

Seeming to notice my discomfort, Ferina cleared her throat.

“Yes, my brother has been in a much more social mood of late. I think it’s the economic boom the city’s been enjoying.” She ended with a counterfeit laugh.

I played with the children for a few minutes as Ferina hobnobbed with their mothers. It was interesting to see how demon society worked. These two demons were from the upper class, looking to elevate themselves in any way they could.

There were a few social climbing wolves like this in the Prometheus Pack, I never had any interest in befriending them and I wasn’t interested in that now.

However, watching Ferina taking on the role of hostess, eager to please her guests made me think I at least needed to be as polite as possible and not undermine her.

Ferina and I entertained the demonesses and their children over tea and sandwiches in the dining room for an hour. They left a little bit after 10 am and we saw them out at the front door.

Teams of demons in buses up and down the driveway, carried heavy equipment into the palace. They had hammers, screwdrivers, brooms and some had vacuum cleaners.

I asked Ferina what was going on and she was just as clueless as I was. So, we followed the workers to see where they were going. They funneled up the stairs, across the palace and over to the library. Inside, a large-scale clearing and rebuilding operation was underway.

Like a finely tuned engine, some workers swept, others erected fallen shelves, and many removed heavy debris, ushering it out of the library.

“Mally sure didn’t waste any time. I didn’t think he’d call in the cleaning crew this quickly.” Ferina stepped out of the way of a demon pushing a broom.

I loved libraries and books. It made me sad to see this once beautiful place looking so disheveled. I thought while watching the librarian help the crew remove a destroyed shelf. She greeted me as they took the shelf out the door and I returned her greeting.

“I want to pitch in and help them clean up, but you don’t have to. You’re still recovering.”

“Girl, it takes more than a few tussles with mages to keep me down. We can both help out. Besides, I need to do more to shed my spoiled princess reputation with the public.” She rubbed her hands together and grabbed a broom.

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