“And I appreciate it so much, Lady Clara,” Ella gushed, smiling back at her in delight. “I missed scones! And tea!”
“Yes, the Darkwalker cuisine takes some getting used to,” Lady Clara said with a gentle smile. “A bit of an acquired taste.”
As Ella continued to enjoy her bread—whoever their cook was, they’d outdone themselves, the scones were as good as something she could make herself—Lady Clara turned to her son.
“Oh, Ryu-kun, your father will be back tomorrow,” Lady Clara said, looking at Ryu over her own cup of tea. “I’m sure he will be interested to meet Ella.”
Ryu’s expression turned more forbidding, if it was even possible, and Ella ignored him to turn back to her breakfast. A pang of discomfort gripped her, making her frown. She rubbed her stomach, wondering if she’d overdone it with the scones after missing them for so long.
“The High King’s Council has come to an end?” he asked, his deep voice going hard. “So soon? It isn’t even winter yet.”
Ella looked up, intrigued. The human kingdoms had only heard rumors of the High King of the Elves, who ruled over the various Elven courts from his high seat. He’d never left the Ellem Isles, no human had ever lain eyes on him, he was a mystery.
Ryu seemed aware of her interest, because his gaze found hers, his eyes sharp and assessing. His mother was talking about the Twilight Prince’s meeting with their High King, but Ella couldn’t pay attention, she was caught in his gaze. He looked away, and she felt like she could breathe again.
As their talk drifted to other matters, Ella quickly finished her meal, and decided to excuse herself. Maybe she would go for a walk and clear her head. Now that she had the freedom to come and go as she wanted, she would make the most of it.
As she made her way through the ornate halls, Ella couldn’t help but feel the weight of judgment bearing down on her.
The Darkwalker Elves regarded her with narrowed eyes and hushed whispers, their gazes filled with a mix of curiosity and contempt. She was an outsider, an intruder in their world, and their hostility cut deep.
News of her arrival had spread through the Elven community like wildfire, and the reaction had been exactly what she had dreaded. She hadn’t expected to be welcomed, but she’d hoped to be treated with a benign indifference, at least. Instead, she was met with suspicion and disdain.
Ella kept her head high, her resentment towards Ryu deepening with each step down the hall full of Elves who parted for her like she was ridden with the plague.
Ryu had brought her here for his own reasons, hoping to break the bond between them that tormented them both, but even here, she was being treated as an outcast. It seemed she had traded one form of isolation for another.
If she thought about it, Ella knew why the Elves avoided her. They prided themselves on their traditions and their ancient customs, and to them, she represented a threat to that way of life.
The human ward of the Twilight Prince. She didn't possess their grace or their magic, but here she was, with a place in their Court, making her mere presence an affront to their sense of superiority.
Well, she didn’t need their acceptance. The Elves could keep their damned court and all its beauty. She didn’t need to contend with their false sense of superiority. Everyone in the Four Kingdoms remembered how the Elves had been driven from the human kingdoms by the people they had colonized for years. The Elves didn’t seem so superior to anyone who knew their history.
Her rage peaking, Ella stomped down the halls to her chambers and slammed open the door. The maid inside her room jumped, and Ella winced in guilt.
“Sorry,” she muttered, but the damage was done. The maid quickly withdrew with a few muttered apologies and many bows. In a worse mood than ever, Ella took to looking through the things that Ryu had arranged for her in her new room.
If she was lucky, she would find some books in here. When she found none, her anger boiled over, and Ella ground her teeth in frustration. Her anger demanded an outlet, and she started pacing, her thoughts racing.
She should’ve taken that walk. Ever since she’d been brought to the Twilight Court, she’d been on edge—understandably so—but now, she sensed that she was in danger of having her emotions run away with her. Never before had she felt so unbalanced before.
Something was wrong with her. Ryu’s strange Elven magic was making her as unbalanced as he was. Ella remembered how the Elf was capable of showing great gentleness to his dragon, Ember, and then turning around the next moment and snarling at her over what he perceived to be her ‘strange’ human failings.
It was the only explanation for what she was feeling now.
Ella paced in her room, tightening her hands into fists behind her back. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She’d already lost her home, and whatever was left of her family. Now, she was losing her mind, too.
There was a perfunctory knock at her door, and then it opened. Ryu strode into the room like he owned it, and her anger ticked higher when Ella realized that it was indeed true that hedid.
Ryu came to a halt before the little armchair that he’d had brought in for her. He sniffed as he looked down at it, and Ella noticed how he didn’t let his robes touch it, as if he was afraid the humanity would rub off her chair and onto him.
Good, she thought savagely. Let him be as uncomfortable as he makesme.
Ryu looked at her as she continued to pace, and Ella turned her face resolutely away when he stayed silent. If he wasn’t going to break the silence, she wasn’t going to do it for him.
It was another shot fired in this invisible war that went on between them every day—any way she could use to make her captor’s life difficult, she would take it. Every time he acknowledged it, she counted it as another point in her tally.
“Stop that infernal pacing,” he hissed, and Ella hid her smile. Chalk that up to one more point for her.
