Series: Charmaine Pauls
Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
She stares up at me with shock, her cheeks pale and her pink lips parted.
Unable to stand the clear message of revulsion that’s written all over her face, I leave her with that promise.
In ten and four nights, I’ll pin her beneath me, and before I’m done with her, she’ll beg on her knees for me to fuck her like an animal in heat.
Chapter 14
Elsie
Conflict is new to me. My parents never got angry with me. They were too busy feeling sorry for me and grieving my slow demise. So needless to say, Aruan’s out-of-nowhere explosion has left me shaken.
A week passes during which we hardly speak, unless you count “good morning” and a stiff “good evening” as conversation. I sleep in his bed, but he doesn’t join me there.
Thankfully.
I have no idea where he’s sleeping and I have no intention of asking him.
He does try to keep me entertained. I can’t fault him for that. He had paints made from colorful sands. Together with brushes and some kind of bleached hides to serve as canvasses, he had them delivered to his quarters.
The materials are stacked in the corner, untouched. I’ve never been an artist. My talent in that domain is nonexistent. Not even boredom can drive me to paint stick men, even though the brushes are interesting. Fabricated with the tube-like stigmas of flowers, they move and wiggle, almost seeming to paint on their own. Judging by the size of them, those flowers must be enormous—at least the size of my head.
When coaxing me into painting didn’t work, he tried to tempt me with a game played with colorful seeds that hop all by themselves over a patterned board. The aim is to flick the seeds into holes carved into the wood that trap them so they’re unable to continue their hopping. Each seed color carries a certain value. The person who gets the most seeds of the highest value into the holes wins. I guess he summoned Gaia to play with me, who reported diligently for board game duty. She quickly gave up when she ended up playing the game by herself.
Aruan has even brought flowers and treats. At each mealtime, he delivers my favorite dishes, which he claims to make himself to protect me from further poisoning attempts.
For exercise, he takes me to an inner courtyard with a garden and a fountain in the center. Sparkly purple and red flowers turn their heads toward any movement, and trees with rubbery black trunks and white ropey vines draped over their branches give off a sweet, spicy smell that reminds me of aniseed. We stroll along the paths that cut through the exotic plants without saying a word to each other. Neither of us mentions our mating again.
Although it’s hanging like a prison sentence over my head, we refrain from discussing that subject at all costs. We’re both avoiding the inevitable fight and the uncomfortable strain that, as I’ve recently discovered, apparently goes hand-in-hand with conflict.
Sadly, that avoidance also prevents me from asking him questions about Zerra. I’m eager to solve the mystery of this world. Not knowing drives me nuts. But I can’t bring myself to give in first and break our silent war. My pride and self-preservation are at stake.
When Aruan can’t escort me to the interior garden himself, he sends Gaia or Vitai to do it. Sometimes, Kian accompanies me when neither Gaia nor Vitai are available.
Gaia and I have become friendly. I like her straightforwardness that never lacks tact or kindness. She takes me on a tour of the palace, showing me the majestic Great Hall and the Sky Bridge.
The Great Hall boasts life-size statues of all the Alit kings and queens that have ruled over Lona. They stand in circle upon circle around the hall, their stony faces stern and serious.
The Sky Bridge is the bridge I saw from Aruan’s balcony, the one that connects to a platform in the center and a smaller cliff on the other end. The drop below is impressive enough to give me vertigo. From what I’ve seen, I thought there was only one set of stairs carved into the cliff, but as it turns out, there are two. On one side, the steps lead to the sea, and on the other, they go down to a hill.
Just as I get excited about going outside, she tells me that the waterfall can only be opened by authorized Alit, which is just another way of telling me how trapped I truly am.
I don’t hesitate to pepper her with my questions, but she can only tell me the things I’ve worked out for myself already, namely that the Alit are a humanoid species who somehow ended up sharing their world with dinosaurs and other species, like the Phaelix. She seems clueless as to how their powers work from a scientific perspective, or how it is that she’s able to open portals—though she does say that she’s practiced portal work since she was a child.