I was surprised that my Angel did not wake me up the next morning, but apparently he had decided I needed some rest. And I certainly did. So much had happened as of late that when I had fallen asleep that night, I had not had any dreams at all – my body simply had needed some time to regenerate so when I woke up, I felt much better. Of course, it took me a while to wrap my mind around the reality. What at first seemed to be just a wonderful dream was in fact what had truly happened, and that thought filled my heart with so much happiness.

When I got up, I noticed that once again there was a new dress placed on my bed. Smiling gently, I touched it – and what surprised me most was the fact that it was probably made of silk. Never before had I touched anything as soft as this gown, and it made me pretty curious. Where had he got it from? Had he sewn it by himself or had he bought it somewhere – and if so, how and when had he got away from his kingdom without me noticing?

This time, the dress was light pink and it made me think of some kind of a beautiful yet innocent rose. It was very simple, without any ornaments, and probably that fact made it so amazing.

Without a second thought, I took off my nightgown (another gift from my Angel) and began getting dressed. It felt like putting on some air, or maybe a cloud. I knew it was there, and yet, I could hardly feel anything, so soft it was.

It was pretty amusing that until now I had not paid much attention to my looks, and yet... yes, I wanted to be pretty. Or even more, I wanted to be beautiful – because my Angel deserved it. I knew it was quite absurd, but I could not fight it. I simply wanted him to have all the best – and I wanted to improve in every way possible.

Now, as I thought of those times when I had called him monster... I felt ashamed of myself. Never had he deserved such a treating from me. He had always wanted the best for me – from the very beginning; I just could not appreciate it as I had not understood it. Now, I knew that he had been aware of what would be best for me; I had made a good choice when I had decided to trust him anyways.

After all, had there ever been a reason for me to trust him?

I still hardly knew him – the majority of what I knew, I had heard from Madame, and she had warned me that he could be cruel and impulsive. For now, I had not seen his cruelty – however, it might have been just a matter of time. I hoped not... but I was aware of the fact that despite me loving him, I needed to be careful.

And yet, I could not help but smile at the thought. Yes, I loved him, and everytime I repeated that to myself, I felt a wonderful tickling in my heart. It was foolish of me, but I did not pay enough attention to this dark side of him. What I had seen made me believe he was truly an unhappy Angel, and my only intention was to make him as happy as he made me.

Because, whether I wanted it or not, he did make me happy. And nothing could change that, even that he could once become brutal.

Once I was ready, I left my room and entered the main hall. I had not expected to see him there, so I was surprised to notice him sitting at the desk, writing something. My heart began beating much faster than it was supposed to, so I took a deep breath to calm myself down before approaching him.

It took him a while to realise I was there, right next to him – there were many pages written all over tossed around him. Never before had I seen him in such a state. Apparently he had been sitting there all night, composing. It surprised me that he had not used his harpsichord for that, but maybe this music played so loudly in his head that he did not require any instrument but his own hands and mind.

But it still was not the strangest thing about it all.

What shocked me most was the fact that he did not have his mask on his face. I blinked, not quite sure whether it was not my imagination playing tricks with my head, but no, it was not – once again, I could see his real face. A sudden pinch of pain pierced right through my heart; I hated the fact that his face had destroyed the majority of his life, but at the same time, I did not hate him for his looks.

"Master," I started slowly, tilting my head slightly to the side, glancing curiously at the score underneath his hand. "Angel..."

That was when he moved a bit and looked up at me. When our eyes met, I smiled gently, and once I saw his own smile, I knew everything would be alright.

"Arlette," he murmured, and his deep voice echoed in my ears. I loved the way he spoke my name since I had first met him. Since I had first heard him say it out loud. At that moment, I thought that maybe I had fallen in love with him when he had first called me.

His hand reached up and he caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. My eyelids once again became strangely heavy, and I let out a soft sigh, leaning my face closer to his touch, as if it could make him feel it better.

"You look like an angel," he added, putting his quill aside and standing up. Once he did that, he cupped my cheeks in his hands and kissed my forehead, what made my heart beat much faster. "I am glad you liked the dress enough to put it on. I thought it would suit you just right... and I was not wrong."

"It's perfect," I admitted honestly, placing my hand on the back of his own as I glanced up at him, making our eyes meet.

Now, I could see well that he had not slept at all that night: he was tired and definitely sleepy, but it did not look like he was going to rest now, as he took my hand and pulled me closer to the desk he had been working at.

"I created some pieces especially for you," he added, gesturing to the pages he had tossed around. "And I want us to practice at least a part of them today... and tomorrow. And I won't let you out before we're finished with all of them."

The corner of his lips twitched slightly, and I was not quite sure whether it meant that he was joking or not.

On the other hand, though, did it really make so much of a difference to me? I would not mean it if I had to stay with him forever, even if I would never leave that place for the shortest of whiles. What had once had such a great meaning to me, did not matter anymore, or at least I did not think of that as much as I had used to.

"Let us start the lesson, then," I answered with a soft smile, but at the same time, I could not help but feel pretty worried about him. He definitely had not slept the previous night, and he seemed to be quite tired. I did not want him to get hurt, so I would rather practice by myself than let him grow even weaker.

As he nodded his head, he gently touched my cheek and once he took the paper, he led me to the harpsichord.

"Are you sure, though, that you do not want to rest a bit, my Angel?" I asked with worry in my voice, and he glanced at me, a bit surprised. "You seem to have been working all night," I added quickly, "and although I would love to continue with this lesson... I am not quite sure whether you should not go to sleep."

"There is no need to worry about me, my child," he responded, giving my hand a little squeeze, apparently to calm me down, but it did not work. However, I could not force myself to argue with him, although I thought I should have. Still, I was afraid of making him angry, so I decided not to risk it.

Not mentioning it anymore, I started my excercises. At first, I did not sing any of the melodies he had written for me, just did a little warm-up, one of many he had taught me. He stayed there, making sure I did it all right.

After an hour or so, my Angel handed me one of the scores, and I quickly looked through the notes. It did not seem to be difficult – the melody was gentle, besides, it was not fast. What was the hardest thing to me now was to learn how to make the fast pieces sound melodious, how to make the words sound understandable.

He started gently with me, apparently, so I was supposed to sing a tune that I would soon turn out to love.

And I indeed started loving it with the very first note. It was all pretty high, but it was not a hard thing to me. After those weeks spent in this kingdom, I had learnt to reach the notes I had never thought I would reach – moreover, they were now an easy thing to me, what surprised me even more.

The melodies he had composed for me that night were the only ones I did not begin to hate after all oll of those excercises. Usually, when we were finished, I could no longer listen to the melody I had been singing. But it did not happen that time. What was more, my heart seemed to be soaring as I repeated every for the millionth time.

However, I could see him getting weaker and weaker with every next song, and at last I took a deep breath and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Please, monsieur," I spoke before he had managed to touch the keys of the harpsichord. "I cannot look at you so tired... I can practice by myself today, and I shall share my achievements with you tomorrow... but I know you haven't slept for a longer while, and I do not want you to get hurt because of that."

I could see him getting serious, and for a while, I was afraid he would get angry, so I stepped back a little, but did not take my hand off of his shoulder. However, he did not start yelling at me; instead, he took my hand from his shoulder and gently kissed it before nuzzling into it. I thought it was amazing that he had managed not to put his mask on all this time. The feeling of his skin right against mine was so sweet...

"I hate to see sadness in your heavenly eyes, my sweet," he whispered, but I would have sworn he sang it, and my heart fluttered lightly. "If it were not for you, I would never agree... but I cannot let you worry about such a demon."

I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could, he stood up and placed another kiss, this time upon my shoulder.

"Practice well, my child, and I shall listen to you tomorrow," he answered, tucking a lose strand of my hair behind my ear. I thought I could see a smile on his face, but before I made sure about that, he turned back to leave. He stopped only for a while to lean down to pick up his mask before he left.

With a sigh, I took one of the pages and sat down at the harpsichord to start playing the melody. I wanted to learn it all by heart before I started singing it. Now, as he was not there, I could try this method for the first time; this way, I could put more emotion into my singing, focus only on that instead of reading the melody.

Therefore, when I began singing, it felt so much better than before. I imagined so many things the melody depicted. Nothing in that world mattered as much as music at that moment – it was almost as if the song had possessed me, cast the very same spell upon me my Angel had mastered... or maybe was it because he had created it...?

Yet out of sudden, I was cruelly pulled out of that sweet world of music and back into the dark dungeons. At first, I could not understand what was happening, so I looked around, quite confused, not able to recognise the sound.

It was simply too prosaic for me to recognise at such a moment, when the magic of this music filled me, but after a while, I understood what it was, and my eyes widened in terror. Once again, I turned around, but saw nothing.

It had definitely been a woman's scream. And I was afraid I could recognise the voice. That was what scared me most.

"Meg!" I called into the nothingness, running towards the source of the scream, but I did not manage to leave the hall when I saw him.

My Angel. His face distorted with fury. There was a cord in his hands, and it was definitely wrapped around someone's neck. And it was not just a someone. My fears actually turned out to be true.

Right before him, there was Meg, looking at me with horror in her eyes, trying to free herself from the grasp of death.

"You! You little demon!" My Angel's voice was so changed I could hardly recognise it. I found it difficult even to look at him, and although I wanted to help my friend, I understood I was stepping back. "You little succubus! You brought her here, didn't you?!"