Page 37 of The Dancer and the Masks (Their Obsession 1)

Handing her the towelling robe, I put on the dress, wondering how these men seem to know my size given it fits perfectly, then step into the ballet pointes and wind the ribbon around my ankle, securing it with a bow.

Nala’s eyes widen. “You look beautiful.”

“Shall we go?” I respond tightly.

She chews on her lip, not moving. “They saved me, you know,” she whispers.

“Sorry?” I ask, not sure I heard her correctly.

“They saved me from dying.”

“I don’t understand.”

Nala covers her face with her hands and sobs quietly, her thin shoulders shaking as she cries. I sigh, wanting so badly to hate her, to lump her in with The Masks and Renard, but I can’t. She’s a child. I go to her, placing my arm around her shoulder and guide her to the bed. We sit and I let her cry until her tears dry up.

“You don’t have to tell me your story if it’s too painful,” I say.

“I do. Maybe it’ll make you see them differently. They’re not all bad. At least they weren’t always bad,” she adds quietly.

“The Masks?”

“Yes. Renard isn’t my blood family, but he took care of me and called me his granddaughter when Jakub, Leon, and Konrad asked him to.”

“Why would they do that? How did you come to be here, Nala?”

She turns to face me, grasping my hands in hers. “Jakub found me in the forest as a baby. I was abandoned, left for dead in the roots of one of the trees wearing just a thin babygrow. They can’t be certain, but they think I was five or six weeks old. Jakub brought me back to the castle. He was only eight at the time. Konrad and Leon were thirteen, I think.”

“Nala, I’m so sorry.” I squeeze her hands, urging her to continue.

“For a whole six months they kept me hidden. They looked after me, kept me safe, warm, and fed. They cared for me until one night their father found me in their quarters…” She swallows hard, her eyes brimming with tears. “He wasn’t a good man. Not to them, not to anyone.”

“What happened?” I ask gently.

“Their father was furious. Renard walked in on him trying to take me from Jakub’s arms whilst Leon and Konrad tried to stop him. Renard knew that their father would likely kill me and punish the three of them severely, so he took the blame. He said that I was his granddaughter and that he’d asked the three of them to watch over me. He took the beating from their father, but was allowed to keep me on the proviso that Jakub, Konrad and Leon had nothing more to do with me and I was set to work the moment I could be useful around the castle. I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve seen many things, and very few of them are good,” she says, swiping at the tears falling from her eyes. “But I’m telling you, they weren’t always this way. They weregoodand kind. Their father beat the kindness from them. Just like his father before him.”

“I don’t know what to say…”

“I know you hate me for not helping you last night. I know you hate them.”

“I don’t hate you. You’re just a child.”

“But you hate them?”

“How can I like men who treat people the way they do? I'm sorry they’ve had bad upbringings, and whilst that might be the reason why they act the way they do today, it doesn’t excuse them for it.”

“I understand. It’s just…”

“Just what?” I ask.

“They’ve never let anyone aside from me and Renard into their quarters, and they’ve never revealed their true faces toanyonebefore. I've even forgotten what they look like.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m safe around them. It just means that I’ll never be able to leave here because I know their true identities. It’s another form of control. That’s all it is, Nala.”

“No. I mean, I guess it could be, but I think it’s more than that. You’re special,different,even if they don’t realise that yet. Even if you don’t.”

My skin covers in goosebumps. She doesn’t realise just how different I am. Yet again, I find myself wondering why my path has been crossed with theirs. Why me? Why them?

“What about Thirteen, isn’t she special too? You said she was family.”

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