Chapter Five
I don’t tell Ava about any of it, and the next day the royal limousine picks me up and takes me to the palace. This time I’m wearing a high-necked wool sweater over my gray blouse. And despite the warm spring weather, I’ve opted for thick tights under my long gray skirt, plus my gloves. I want to give Caden Nox as little opportunity to touch me as possible. Not that he did last time. But he’s a sin mage. At some point, he’s bound to cross that line.
Ophelia greets me at the gates and a short time later leads me to a different part of the palace than where she led me last time. Her steps are quick, as if she can’t wait to get this whole thing over with. Not that she has anything to fear. She’s not the one who is about to face the King of the Underworld.
We enter a huge room with a glass dome for a ceiling. The air in here is muggy. There are beds of strange flowers, cacti, and shrubs everywhere. Palm trees reach up into the glass dome, their large leaves shining bright green in the blazing sunlight. The middle of the room is taken up by a pond with lily pads floating on its surface.
“The conservatory was created for study purposes,” Ophelia explains, as if to justify the beauty of the place. “Botanists from all over the Empire come here to study the rare plants.”
Today there’s no one in the conservatory but us. Well, us and Caden, of course. His cloak made of black brocade lies on the border of grass surrounding the pond. I don’t see the man himself until I follow the princess down a narrow gravel path to where he’s lounging on a bench hidden behind some palm trees. One leg is crossed over the other and he’s engrossed in a book propped up on his lap.
Ophelia clears her throat. “Mr.Nox? I brought Kaya Ashton with me.”
The sin mage seems to have more respect for the princess than for her father because he sits up, closes the book, and places it next to him on the bench.
“What a pleasant surprise, Your Royal Highness.”
My eyes fall on the title of the book: Macbeth . Can’t say I’m surprised by his choice of reading material. Whenever I have to censor a work by Shakespeare, I run out of ink—so much anger, lust, and greed can be found on those pages.
Caden’s gaze slides from Ophelia to me, lingering on my turtleneck which is sticking to my neck now, drenched in sweat. This is definitely the wrong outfit for this room.
I make a show of crossing my arms, giving Caden a challenging look. The last time we met, he fazed me so badly that I threw my wine in his face. This time I won’t let myself be provoked. And there’s something else I’ve decided as well. I will no longer be a pawn between the sin mage and the royal family. If Caden Nox wishes to continue to have these little get-togethers, he has to agree to make a deal with me as well.
“I’ll leave you to it then. Are you going to be okay, Kaya?” asks Ophelia. Doubt rings in her voice, and I grimace wryly.
“It’s not like he’s going to eat me.”
“Interesting choice of words,” Caden comments as the princess leaves the conservatory. He gets to his feet and circles me once, stopping behind me. Then he leans toward me. “But I can’t promise that.”
I hear the smirk in his voice as his breath brushes over the top of my ear. Instinctively, I take a step forward, feeling the bench against my knee preventing me from fleeing any farther.
“What do you want this time?” I ask, glad that the tremor in my voice isn’t noticeable.
Caden turns away from me and shrugs.
“A little idleness, a good meal, a little pleasure. Whatever you feel like doing.”
“And if I feel like leaving?”
“That wouldn’t make the royal family very happy now, would it? I guess Princess Ophelia told you what was at stake.”
“Why should I care about that?” I reply.
I stroll along the path and stop to stroke a palm leaf with my gloved finger. I pretend I’m indifferent to the whole idea even though inside I’m seething.
Caden follows me. I no longer feel like the lamb before the wolf. I’m one predator squaring off with another.
“What if I want to make a deal of my own with you?” I ask as I turn to the sin mage.
That was a mistake. He knows I’m bluffing, that I couldn’t bear having those deaths on my conscience. I can see it in the corners of his mouth, which twitch in amusement.
It completely throws me off my game. I take a step backward, promptly stumbling over a tree root. The only reason I don’t fall is because he grabs my wrist. Gently, he pulls me toward him. Despite my thick wool sweater and blouse, I can feel every single one of his long, slender fingers and my racing pulse underneath them.
“I’m all ears, Kaya,” he says softly. “What kind of deal did you have in mind?”
He will refuse, of that I am suddenly sure. He’ll say no and my wish will have revealed something about myself that he really shouldn’t know. But there’s no going back now. Not if I don’t want to make a complete fool of myself.
“My mother,” I begin. I decided what I would say last night when I made up my mind that I didn’t want to be a pawn any longer. But now I’m struggling to get the words out. “She… she was killed by sin mages when I was a baby. I want to find the ones responsible.”
It’s the first time I’ve said that out loud. I’ve never told anyone about my past. Ava knows I was raised by a foster mother in the country outside of Virtue. She knows about my hard life on the farm, about my six foster siblings, how we barely had enough to eat. But I never told her about my mother’s death.
Sin mages are said to have driven her mad. I was only a few months old at the time, so I have little to no memory of her. Only a lock of her brown hair, a photograph of her holding me in her arms, and a small card on which was written the words: Never lose sight of the path of virtue.
She did. Lose sight of the path of virtue, I mean. And it seems I will have to follow her example and do the same.
It breaks my heart to ignore the only advice I ever received from my mother. But even if I try to refuse Caden, the crown won’t let me. One look into the king’s eyes was enough for me to know that I have no choice in this matter. At least this way, I may still have a chance to solve my mother’s murder.
Caden doesn’t seem nearly as surprised as I thought he would be. He’s probably heard stories like this countless times before—children who’ve lost their parents to sin magic, married couples cruelly separated … the news is full of them.
“Your mother, then,” he says, as if he knows I’m still grieving the loss. “Well, I could help you investigate her death ...” His voice trails off.
“But?”
There’s always a but . I suppress a frustrated sigh. Caden brings his thumb to his lips as if needing to think.
“But if I agree to this, you have to come to the East End with me.”
“To the East End?” I can’t stop my voice from sounding shrill. “Are you allowed to leave the palace?”
I thought the Royal Guard arrested Caden. Not that he looks like a prisoner, and this room is certainly not a prison.
Caden smirks. “Of course I’m allowed to leave the palace. I’m a guest who comes and goes as he pleases.”
Then he must have even more power over the king than I previously thought. I worry my lower lip some more.
“Well, what do you say? Will you accompany me to the East End?”
Caden tilts his head, looking at me under half-closed lids, waiting. He’s expecting me to say no . I can see it clearly on his face. But I’ve gotten this far, and I’m certainly not going to back down now.
“All right,” I say.
A little twitch of his eyebrows betrays his surprise. Once again, his gaze glides over my outfit.
“You’ll have to wear something else though. In that innocent getup, you’d be easy prey.”
I remember the woman at the party whose skirt only came down to her knees. Do I really want to go through with this? Go to Hell with the Devil himself at my side?
“When do we leave?” I hear myself ask to my own surprise.
Caden lets his head tilt back and laughs. The sound is warm and gentle. It envelops me, brings a smile to my lips, even though I don’t want it to.
“You sure seem to be in a hurry. I knew there was more to you than this.” He tugs at the sleeve of my sweater, drawing my attention to his hand still holding my wrist. I hurriedly pull away from him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask indignantly.
Caden winks at me.
“It means you’re nowhere near as boring as your drab attire suggests.”
I hesitate to take off my sweater, but at some point, it becomes so oppressively hot in the conservatory that I can’t take it any longer. I’d also like to get rid of my thick tights, but that’s impossible as long as I’m with Caden.
We walk side by side through the conservatory. I should be uncomfortable being this close to him, but I’m not. He seems to know quite a bit about plants. He tells me about the places of origin of some of the flowers and trees. Some of them come from such exotic lands that I can’t help but marvel.
Eventually we reach the lily pond again. Caden dips his fingers into the water, tracing a semicircle across the surface. I watch furtively as the droplets bead on his skin.
“You should give it a try,” he says.
I raise my gloved hands to indicate it’s impossible. A teasing smile tugs at the corner of Caden’s mouth.
“If we go to the East End together, I’ll get to see a lot more of you than just your bare hands, love. So come on, no false modesty.”
My heart pounds as he plucks the gloves from my fingers. I could fight back, tell him to stop right now, but I don’t. Part of me enjoys the soft tingle his nearness causes.
I expect Caden to take my hand and intertwine his fingers with mine. But after taking off my gloves, he merely lets go of my hands and drops the gloves on the ground before turning back to the water.
“Go ahead.”
I roll my eyes because he sounds so smug about it, as if the pond belongs to him and he’s just decided to share it with me. Nevertheless, I bend over and dip my fingers into the deliciously cool water.
Never before have I been so aware of how water feels as it gently washes over my hands, or how drops fall from my fingers onto the surface and create ever-widening circles. The sun shines through the glass dome and glistens on the pond. Little colorful fish swim in the water.
I allow myself to tilt my head back and close my eyes for a moment. The sun’s rays dance across my face, tickling my skin.
When I open my eyes again, I look into Caden’s blue-gray thundercloud ones, which seem to examine me with some fascination. He reaches out his hand as if to touch my face but then pulls it back at the last second.
I feel dizzy all over. Must be the heat, I tell myself and stand up quickly.
“What now?” I ask hastily because Caden’s gaze makes me uncomfortable.
“Whatever you want, love.”
As if we are meeting here at my request. I cross my arms and feel my damp hands soak the fabric of my blouse.
“You’re the one who wants to feed on me,” I remind him.
He smirks. “Don’t worry, I got what I came here for.”
What does he mean by that? In my head I go through all seven sins, trying to guess which one he might have been feeding on. Laziness? Could you really call what we’ve been doing laziness? We just went for a walk.
“I can practically see the wheels turning in your head.” Caden laughs. “Just in case you were wondering, I don’t need to feed on you to enjoy your company.”
His words make me blush. I turn back toward the pond.
“So you like Shakespeare?” I ask, trying to steer our conversation to safer waters.
As if a conversation about Macbeth is any less dangerous. I’ve read the verses myself. They’re full of anger, violence, and obscenities.
Caden looks up and thinks.
“I like uncensored literature,” he finally says. “Literature that shows mankind’s true nature. Not this shells that all of you are trying to crawl into.”
Snorting, I reach for my gloves. “This shells as you call it is our only protection against your kind.”
“My kind?”
Before I can react, he’s grabbed the gloves out of my hand and thrown them into the pond. Suddenly I feel his fingers on my skin. They are soft and warm and still a little damp from the water. My hand trembles in his.
“In fear of a few, you shy away from what makes life worth living. A touch, a good meal, the right to sometimes be angry.”
I am angry. Angry because he thinks it’s as simple as that. He doesn’t have to be afraid of losing his temper. His mother wasn’t driven mad by sin mages.
“Let go of me!”
I try to keep my voice as composed as possible, but tears burn my eyes. When he notices, he immediately drops my hand. He almost looks a little disappointed, like he expected his words or his touch to change anything. I glance at my gloves, which are floating on the surface of the water among the lily pads, just out of reach.
“You can trust me, Kaya,” Caden says softly.
My laugh rings hollow. “How could I?”
He lowers his head and presses his lips together. I wonder if he’s just pretending to be hurt by my question or if he actually cares about my opinion of him. I clasp my hands together.
For a moment we just stand there. Then Caden suddenly nods.
“All right then.”
He doesn’t even take off his boots first. Fully clad, he climbs into the pond and wades through the water. It reaches up to his waist. Stunned, I watch as he retrieves my gloves and comes back out of the water. He holds my gloves out to me. Water drips off him and collects around his boots, forming a puddle.
“Here. Wear them if that makes you feel safer. But you won’t be able to avoid showing a little skin in the East End.”
Accepting the gloves, I nod and slip the wet fabric over my hands. I feel safer already. Not because I’m wearing the gloves again, but because he brought them back to me.