The rain pounds on the rooftops of neighboring buildings, sounding like an energetic roll of drums.
“Miss Haven!” I call out finally into the wrath of the elements. “I’m here to take you back.”
Haven’s head turns, and she looks over her shoulder at me. I can fully see her expression now—eyes half-closed but swollen with tears and lips parted. Her dark curls stick to her cheeks.
“Leave me alone,” she says in a weak whisper.
I fight the immense pity pulling at me once again. I still don’t understand why I’m feeling anything at all.
“Please, Miss Haven,” I continue, “you are safer atGreystone with—”Me?That thought surprises me. “Lord Henri,” I finish instead, and clear my throat.
With the mention of the lord’s name, Haven walks to me. Gone is the sorrow that had clung to her before. Now, I’m only faced with anger as she glares at me through thick, dark lashes.
“I will go with you,” she snaps, “if you promise to continue to leave my father alone.”
I pause, unsure what she means. “Your father?” I glance back at the window. I had assumed she’d been orphaned like me. Lord Henri hadn’t mentioned that her father is still alive.
The defeated drop of her shoulders tells me she’s not lying. Even her tone softens, filling with regret. “I’ll go with you. I’m sorry for leaving.”
Then, she pushes past me, head down.
Leaving me no other choice, I curse under my breath and follow after her. If she has a parent, why would Lord Henri choose to bring her to Greystone? It doesn’t make sense. There has to be a reason I don’t know about, something more to it. I will have to ask Henri about it when I see him later.
When we reach the main street, I catch up to stroll beside her. I’m itching to know more about her, her father, and the life she lived before Lord Henri. She’s the only other person he’s brought to the manor since me. I want to know why. Why her? What does Henri see in her that no one else can?
“I knew very little of my father,” I blurt out, and regret it instantly.
She peers at me through the blur of rain.
Not sure how to recover, I let the words continue to tumble out. “He died of consumption when I was a young child, and left me and my younger brother to run the family farm. My mother became too fragile after that for laborious work.”
Her brows rise, but she says nothing.
I keep going. “He was not in my life for long, but I did have great love for my mother and brother. A year ago, I lost them to a fire.”
Still, Haven says nothing, and her silence pinches at my chest. Is thatsympathyI catch in her stare? It’s hard to tell. But my fingers twitch at my sides. I want to reach out, to touch her, to offer her some kind of comfort, but I know that wouldn’t go over well.
Still, I wonder what her skin would feel like under my fingertips…
“Do you miss them?”
Her question surprises me. After so much silence between us, I hadn’t expected her to respond at all to my blabbering.
With this new immortal life, I’d always expected the pain that came with my family’s loss to alleviate somewhat, but it hasn’t. There’s still the clench of grief in my chest whenever I think of my mother and brother. Sometimes I think it’ll never go away.
“Yes, more than anything in the world,” I say.
“Would you do anything, give anything, to see them again?” she asks, her voice soft but her gaze fierce.
“Y-Yes. Of course.”
Haven sighs, her arms wrapping around herself, but doesn’t say anything else about it.
A purple streak of lightning slices through the sky before us, stealing the rest of the conversation. Not knowing what else to do, I walk alongside her in silence.
The moment my feet meet with the wood floors of the manor’s empty foyer, the tension in my muscles eases. Home again, safe. From the thunderous sounds of music and laughter echoing throughout the walls, it’s clear the party is still at its peak.
As Haven comes to my side, her soaked hair clinging to her cheeks and forehead, my heart freezes behind my ribs. Being this close to her now, I can really see just how beautiful she is. Even disheveled and wet. My eyes fall to the swell of her breasts, where water droplets glisten in the foyer’s gold light. Little bumps rise all over her skin from the cold.
