Page 8 of The Hunchback

They gave me a sheepish look and reluctantly flew over to settle on my own shoulders.

“I didn’t mind,” Esmeralda said, clasping her delicate hands in front of her.

“You should mind,” I said in a harsher tone than I’d intended. “You’re an Anointed. Your purity shouldn’t be tainted by exposure to a Fallen and his familiars.”

She raised a surprised eyebrow at me, then tilting her head to the side, the Vestal studied my features as if they could reveal some hidden mystery.

“Are you all suffering from some kind of contagious disease that could ‘taint’ my purity?” she asked in teasing tone that made my desire go up another notch.

“No, but the Praetor would be livid to know you are here,” I countered, confused by her apparent desire to stay and converse with me.

To my shock, Esmeralda’s face closed off, taking on a stern edge. “The Praetor doesn’t own me. He doesn’t get to dictate where I go or who I speak to.”

“He intends to make you his bride,” I said, jealousy and possessive anger seeping into my voice.

“Whatever his intentions, any such plans would be premature. I’ve only been here a day,” she replied with a dismissive shrug. “Anyway, whether I marry him or another, I will be no man’s property. If I choose to speak to someone, including a Fallen,” she added with a meaningful look towards me, “it will be my choice and no one else’s… Well, assuming said Fallen is okay to speak with me.”

Do I ever want to!

Until now, besides my vague memory of an older human female who had raised me in my early childhood, Frollo and my imps were the only ones I had ever spoken with.

And Frollo will skin me alive if he catches me with her.

“You are the Blessed Esmeralda,” I said mockingly, trying to hide how hungry I was for her presence and companionship. “Who wouldn’t want to speak with you?”

She waved a dismissive hand. “That title is as much a burden as it is an honor. But right now, I’m simply Mera, freshly landed on the First Circle, and curious about its citizens;allof them.”

“Then the first thing you should know,Mera, is that the humans of the First Circle, and especially on the outskirts of Paris, hate the Fallen with a passion,” I said with a stern voice, in a final attempt to drive her away. “Aiding one to enter any human city, harboring one within their walls, or merely fraternizing with one could be considered as treason, a crime punishable by death. So, once again, for your own sake, you shouldn’t be here.”

“Is that what you want then? For me to leave?” she asked after a beat.

I flinched, biting my tongue not to shout for her to stay and never leave. Averting my eyes, I bent down to pick up the load-bearing beam for the roof of the outdoor forge I was building. The imps flew off my shoulders, and Esmeralda gasped when I lifted it above my head in one swift movement.

“Careful!” she exclaimed. “That’s too heavy!”

My eyes snapped down to meet hers, a sliver of anger rising within me. “I am a hunchback, not an invalid,” I snarled.

Extending my arms as far up as possible, I carefully settled the load-bearing beam on top of the two vertical support beams that I had previously erected. Once secured, my gaze reconnected with Mera’s, challenging her to doubt my abilities again. Being seen as less—seeingmyselfas less—because of my hump had always been my greatest weakness. However, I didn’t so much mind being half-Fallen; no one controlled their genetics. But being a hunchback, even though I had no control over that, irrationally felt like a personal failure.

Instead of the embarrassed look I’d expected from her, Esmeralda merely bowed her head in concession, a glimmer of admiration in her stunning green eyes.

“I never considered you an invalid,” she said in a soft voice with a hint of friendly mockery. “But I most certainly stand corrected regarding my assumptions about your strength. It is quite phenomenal.”

My face heated, and I once more averted my eyes, not knowing how to handle a compliment—especially one coming from her. The teasing smile stretching her lips did strange things to me, and another wave of desire washed over me.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, feeling too self-conscious to continue working. Yet, I wanted to keep going to both hide how overwhelmed I felt in her presence, and to keep my hands occupied so that they wouldn’t reach out and grab her as they ached to do.

“You’re welcome,” she said, taking a few steps closer to the house, an unreadable look in her eyes. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

“Why would you even want to stay here to speak with me?” I asked with a frown, genuinely confused by her persistence.

Esmeralda didn’t answer right away, pondering the response she would give. “Honestly,” she said at last, “because you intrigue me. Because I’m feeling a strange connection with you that I do not understand. And because, somehow, you enhance my power.”

I gaped at her, taken aback by such candor, but also by the fact that she, too, felt the connection. The possessiveness she stirred within me grew another notch. It had to be a sign. But a sign of what? I could never have her. Had Esmeralda been a commoner, I could have absconded with her into the woods, beyond human and Fallen territories. However, she wasn’t just a Vestal, which already made her untouchable, she was also Anointed.

“Last night, it was you on the balcony, right?” the Vestal asked, advancing by another step.

Fearing my voice would betray my emotions, I simply nodded in response.

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