Word Count: 1782

¬Aven

The air in the room goes ice cold.

"He's here already?" mother whispers. For someone she is telling me to trust, her face loses all it's colour awfully quickly at the mention of this man's name. My heart flutters in my chest as I grip Lei's hand, glancing at her. She doesn't look as petrified as me, but I suppose this man isn't here to see her, but me.

Eryk's hand slips off the door knob as he faces my mother, looking grim. "Yes, and he is going to want to see Aven right away."

"She's not ready to see him right this instant," mother claims, sounding frantic all of a sudden. I don't know what to say, whether I should back mother up with that, so I just look between them both. "He is going to overwhelm her."

Despite my fear, there is a burning curiosity rising up within me to meet this man. Whoever he is, I can sense that he is here, that he is powerful. His power seeps through the walls, skating up my skin, tugging at something within me, like I'm destined to meet him.

"You know he isn't going to do anything to intentionally hurt her," Eryk murmurs.

I bristle, my head whipping to my mother. What does he mean by intentionally? I can tell by the magic in the air that he would be capable of hurting absolutely anyone, but is there a risk of our meeting turning fatal?

Mother doesn't even look at me. "That's not what I worry about..."

"Mother, I want to see him," I assure her. "I need to speak to whoever is behind all of this."

It's time to push away my fear, to meet the man who dragged me all the way from my home realm to here, where I expected to stay for my safety. The only reason I'm trusting Eryk right now is because of my mother, because I know she loves me and would never do anything that would put me in a bad situation.

Eryk finally opens the door. "I will get him."

The moment the door closes, I turn to my friend, trying to ignore the feeling in my stomach that is making me nauseous with fear."Are you okay, Lei?"

"I'm okay. Just trying to make sense of this," she murmurs quietly, looking down at her hands.

I turn to my mother, who stares at the door, waiting for this Stace man to walk in at any moment. "Mother...Should I be scared of him?"

"No, you have no reason to fear him," she responds a little too quickly, shaking her head. I shiver, wondering if that's truthful or not, or if she is having doubts.

It's too late for any of us to back out though, as the door opens and Eryk walks in, followed up by a surprisingly familiar man. My heart stops.

I've seen him before, I realise. He's not easy to forget, his features causing me to flinch back, as if they are so physically devastating it almost hurts to look at. He has to bow his head to enter through the door frame, so tall it could be considered an aspect of his power in itself. From head to toe, he is dressed in a ruggish, all black outfit that frames his impressive figure faultlessly, contrasting against his refined features.

It's his tattoos, his markings that take me back to when I first saw him. They creep out from the neckline of his tunic, an intricate pattern of darkness that stops right at his jawline. His name is suddenly familiar, a dark, forgotten part of my mind remembering the last time I heard it uttered. He was at mother's ball, in my room at one point.

But only for a moment...Before he had seemed to vanish, leaving me to wonder if I actually saw him or not.

His eyes sweep to me, dark like shadows, like night. "Aven...."

His voice is soft, concerned. The accent is similar to Eryk's, albeit thicker, hanging off the end of my name, making it sound like nothing that has ever been uttered before. I blink once, feeling his full force of his power glide into the room, surrounding him, hitting me in the chest as realisation sinks in, a deep, misty memory remerging.

"I know you," I whisper. "I've seen you before."

His jaw tightens, gaze never straying from mine. "Yes, you have."

"You are the one who saved me from the waterfall all those years ago," I breathe.

I've spent the better part of the last three years wondering who saved me that day, who delivered me to help before disappearing, not making themselves known to me, despite having saved my life. I knew deep down that what happened that day wasn't something worth forgetting.

"That would be correct," he responds, taking another step forward, the door flickering shut. The entire room is tense, watching our interaction, careful of my reaction to his presence.

"And you were at my mother's party. I hadn't even realised..." I break off, unsure of how to continue.

"It seems you were distracted, at the time." Maybe he is right, maybe I was distracted by Eryk, by everything going on that I didn't realise the man in the corner of the ballroom was the one who saved my life at the river that day. Would it have mattered if I had realised?

My eyes rove over him, over the dark curls atop his head that drape down partially over his forehead, to the sweeping lines of his cheekbones, the rigid edge to his jawline. "Who are you?"

"I know you will be disoriented and frightened right now, so I think it would be best if we don't get into all the details at this exact moment," he responds warily, looking toward Eryk, who stands by, arms folded over his chest. Moment's ago, Eryk was the most terrifying looking man I had ever seen, and now he looks practically immortal next to Stace.

I shake my head, afraid of being plunged back into the darkness of not knowing again. "No, I want to know everything right now."

"Why don't you and your mother and friend join me at my estate," he offers kindly, although his words are strained. "There you can stay comfortably, and I can tell you everything you want to know."

Joining him in his own home? My stomach flutters at the thought.

I get to my feet, although I hardly match his height. "How can I trust you?"

"You trust your mother, and your mother trusts me," he murmurs, motioning behind me. I'm not sure how my mother came to know a man like him, but whatever the explanation is, I imagine it's going to be astounding.

"I want to trust my mother, but she lied to me. The only person who I trust right now is Lei, and she has no idea what is going on," I retort. I can feel my mother flinch from behind me. I know she would never want bad for me, but what if she is being coerced by Stace? He's a powerful man.

"You have as much a reason to come with me than to stay here," Stace notes, motioning at the small home that he can almost hardly stand up straight in.

Eryk steps forward, my gaze shifting to him. "I've done nothing but save your life Aven. You have nothing to lose anymore."

"Fine, then I shall return with you," I decide. Eryk has proven himself to be more trustworthy than Stace, even if he is hired by him. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I don't want to admit that winding my fingers through Stace's gloved one's is making my heart beat reach an explosive rate.

"Why don't you take my hand," Stace murmurs, a sensual undertone hinting at his voice.

I shake my head, going to step back, but the backs of my legs hit the couch behind me. If there is a chance he will grab me and transport me to another faraway place without my mother or Lei, I'm not going to so much as take another step toward him.

"I feel more comfortable with Eryk right now, than you," I say quietly, although sternly.

Stace's eyebrow raises, sensing a challenge. He glances over his shoulder at Eryk, who lowers his gaze to the floor, knitting his brows together. I seem to have created a conflict of interest, hitting a spot of tension between the two.

"Hmm, interesting," he muses, before looking back at me. "Alright, then I shall see you there."

He doesn't wait for my response, vanishing. I blink, collapsing back onto the couch behind me, gasping in a big breath of air. With Stace out of the room, his power has let me go from it's grasp, giving me a chance to relax, even if my senses are still on high alert, knowing I haven't fully escaped him yet.

"He doesn't seem that frightening," Lei mutters meekly from behind me, her sarcasm drenching the space between us, trying to lighten the mood.

"He is," Eryk sighs, ignoring the fact that she is, in fact, terrified by him. "He just happens to like you." He doesn't once look at Lei, although I already sensed he was directing that at me, more than her.

"That's not going to make me trust him," I respond.

"He has done more than you can imagine to secure your safety," Eryk assures me, stepping forward to offer me his hand. I take it reluctantly, knowing that any more protest is just going to tire me out, and not actually get me anywhere.

I eye him. "Like hiring you?"

"Yes, exactly," he breathes, reaching out to Lei. She looks at Eryk like he's going to eat her alive, but slowly glides her hand into his. "And I can assure you, I very much want you alive."

"Why?"

His sentiment seems to run deeper than just a generous paycheck. I've gotten the feeling he doesn't like my defiance, that he is perpetually irritated by every word out of my mouth. I may trust him more than Stace, but that isn't saying much at all. I'm still going to keep Eryk at an arm's length.

"You'll see," he says quietly in my ear.

I grasp my mother's hand, just in time for the world to start dissolving around us, taking us right into an unknown fate.

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