Chapter 1
“Enya, get moving! Arry is coming.” Mila’s nervous whisper pulled me from my thoughts.
We were on our hands and knees in the main corridor, scrubbing the stone floor for the second time that day. Arry was obsessed with cleanliness. Or maybe that was just the excuse he used, because he was a mean, power-hungry asshole of a wolf. In this manor, anything could earn you a punishment if Arry was in the mood. Arry was always in the mood.
The corridor was already sparkling. I could practically see my reflection in the polished stone. That wouldn’t stop him from finding fault if he wanted to.
He walked in, his gaze sweeping across the corridor. For one horrible second, I thought he might actually stop and inspect our work. Instead, he continued walking.
“Good.” His voice sounded like a nail dragged across a chalkboard. “When you’re done, do it a third time.”
“Yes, sir,” we answered in unison, like some rehearsed chant.
As soon as he disappeared around the corner, I shot Mila a dramatic eye roll.
“Yeah, because we wouldn’t want a single fly to leave a footprint, would we?”
A snort escaped Mila before she quickly covered her mouth.
“Enya!”
“What?” I grinned, though the humor didn’t reach past my teeth.
We spent another two hours scrubbing a floor that was already spotless. By the time Arry finally deemed it acceptable, my shoulders burned and my fingers felt permanently curled around the bristles of the brush. Mila and I slumped against the stone wall, utterly exhausted. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, knowing I was probably just smearing dirt around.
The heavy front door creaked open, and Lewis poked his head inside, jokingly hovering a muddy boot over our clean floor.
“Oh no, you better not!” I warned, flinging my wet rag straight at his head.
He caught it easily, grinning. “It looks good, girls.”
“It looked good five hours ago,” I replied dryly.
His grin didn’t falter. “Enya, are you off now? I’ve got half an hour before my next shift.”
I pushed myself upright, my joints cracking from hours in the same position. “We’re just putting the stuff away. I’ll meet you outside.”
Turning to my room mate, I grabbed her bucket.
“Mila, I’ll take the supplies down to the kitchens. Go rest.”
She gave me a grateful smile before I headed down to the kitchen to return the supplies.
Lewis and I had a meeting spot just outside — not exactly secret, but hidden enough that no one inside could see us. We’d used it through every season, a small pocket of quiet in a place that rarely offered any.
“You look exhausted,” he said when I joined him.
“My whole body aches. Arry’s been worse than usual these past days.”
“I heard rumors the guests are royals.”
I shrugged.
“That explains it.”
He studied me for a moment.
“Too tired to wait up for me?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said, though the slight drop in his voice betrayed his disappointment. “I get it.”
He stepped closer, hands coming up to frame my face as he pulled me in for a deep kiss. I let him. Lewis wasn’t my boyfriend, no matter what rumors floated around. He was kind and gentle, and his bed was warm in the late evenings. In another time and place, I would have dreamt of marriage and children with him. But not in this lifetime. I appreciated him deeply, and that’s all it would ever be. I had spent years stitching myself back together, piece by fragile piece, and I would never let someone get so close to me that I couldn’t bear to lose them.
“I promise I’ll come by tomorrow. Even if I had to crawl, okay?” I added, feeling bad that I had gone straight to bed, the past two days.
“Okay. Get some rest, then,” he murmured, his smile a little tight but genuine. “I’ll see you in the morning, Enya.”
“Goodnight, Lewis.”
My feet dragged as I made my way down the narrow corridor toward the stairs. My body was screaming for sleep. I reached my small, cramped room at the end of the lower hall, pushed the door open, and collapsed face-first onto the thin mattress.
Mila was already sound asleep.
