Page 195 of The Wishing Game

Thea is left staring at the spot he's just vacated, her expression one of sorrow.

"Who's Aethon?" I ask, curious why she reacted like that to the mention of his name.

She takes a deep breath.

"He's Cer's best friend." She gives me a sad smile.

"I'm sorry," I try to comfort her.

"I'm sure he's fine. He's one of the most powerful deities I know. There's no way some demons could hurt him." She closes her eyes, her lips trembling. "Anyway." She blinks as she smiles forcefully. "Cer is right. My parents can't see me like this. Let's go inside and wash up."

I follow her as she opens a back door and leads me inside her home. We follow a narrow hallway, going up some stairs before we reach the ground floor. Yet what I failed to realize while being in the small yet beautiful foyer was that the main house would be so striking and so grand.

It must be the size of a football field. Or maybe two. Hell, the ceiling alone must be over fifty meters tall.

Everything is white and clean. While we are decidedlynot.

The floors are polished to perfection, so much so I can see my grimy reflection in them—not to mention the fact that we're both dripping blood onto the ground. With everything so spotless, I have this unnatural urge to get down and scrub the stains away.

"Thea..." I whisper as I stop to simply stare at my surroundings.

Raising my gaze, I note a dome made out of diaphanous glass. The center is clear, allowing the unadulterated light from the sun to come down into the hallway, but surrounding it are stained glass windows of different colors containing artistic depictions. In fact, I'm shocked that they aren't too different from the church stained glass from my world.

I slowly take in the other features of the hallway—how is thisjustthe hallway? The most similar comparison I can think of is the Greco-Roman exhibit at the Met, but even that pales in comparison to the beauty of this place. There's a level of detail that's as close to perfection as I've ever seen.

Surrounding us are five marble busts, while in the center of the room, there's a statue that's about three times as tall as me.

There are more white marble columns to the right and left, all situated in a circle around the hallway. At the back, there's a double staircase leading up to the second floor. The stairs are wide and long, the balustrade containing battle scenes etched in marble. From the bottom up, the scenes feed into each other almost like a movie that tells the story of a historic event.

"That's Alithea, the first Supreme from our family. The busts are the subsequent ones." She points to the statues.

"I think this would be the best time to tell me if you're a princess or something," I mumble, utterly in awe of the beauty before me.

I might have been to some luxurious places on Earth, but this? Nothing I've seen compares.

"Not a princess." She laughs. "My father is just a duke."

I swivel to stare at her.

"Justa duke?"

"Well, there are also archdukes and princes, and then there's the king. So we're not anywhere in the top three." She chuckles.

"If this is not even top three, I can't imagine what that would look like," I mutter.

An army of servants descends upon the hallway, all getting into a well-rehearsed formation as they surround us.

"Welcome home, my lady," they all say in chorus, not even daring to look at Thea.

"Are my parents home?"

"Their graces are away," one servant answers.

"What about Arwyn?"

"Her ladyship is with them as well. They are scheduled to return late afternoon."

Thea clicks her tongue against her teeth.

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