Page 9 of Bound in Violet Ink
Victoria,
I wonder if it’s even worth telling you to stay away again.
Do you feel lost? Is that why you write me?
What do you hope to gain by contacting me? I am quite an unreachable man, and yet you have done so, even within these walls.
Perhaps you should question why an Unseelie like me would want to speak with the daughter of a Seelie High Lord. Why I ignore nearly all those who seek me out, but I spend the time to write you.
Tell me of your guesses, little flower.
I am not aware for how long I stare at this letter.
Many things course through my body, and yet I keep looking at ‘little flower’.
What does that mean?
Sliding into my chair to write him back, a thousand feelings collide in my chest in a complicated maelstrom, and I let my response flow freely, consequences be damned. Once finished, I fold the note and rub it along my neck—three times, for good measure. I know he must have done the same to his.
For what reason? I don’t know.
I simply do not know.
And yet, I recklessly indulge before crying until the sun crests behind the trees to beckon the night.
Drip.
Drip.
“Tell it to me again,” I state, my cavernous cellar nearly pitch black. If it weren’t for the morning sun that has yet to fully rise, not a shadow would exist. It wouldallbe darkness.
Just as my instincts prefer it.
Osman leans his head down, our sight, as Unseelies, able to penetrate this darkness better than others, his eyes even slightlyglowing like how an animal’s might within a forest.Mysenses are even stronger.
How I grow tired of these walls.
“I know you are exchanging letters withher,” he states, knowing not to say her name for her own protection. “So when I heard that Lord Faust is planning what I told you?—”
“Repeat the exact words, Osman.”
“Why does it matter?”
He lowers his head in submission when I glare at him without forgiveness—he will not disobey any orders related to her. I repeat, “Say it.”
“Lord Faust is planning to buy Silas and his men. Throughher. Through marriage.”
The fucker called Faust has no idea who resides in Lady Victoria’s shadows, and if he did, he’d wouldn’t evenbreathenear her. Not once he knew the obligations I have to Victoria.
It’s time to leave this place. Time for the world to be reminded of who I am.
Another note in another book,which lies on the tattered fabric of my bed. The little flower wrote back, despite the dangers.
How very good of her to write again. She is doing well, even if I question her judgment. She knows to answer the call of her mate, despite having no idea that’s what’s happening.
Kane,
Little flower is quite a unique name to call me… what does that mean?
