“Asking for helpissolving the problem.”
“Asking for help before you’ve tried at all to do it yourself istaking advantageof the blessing that you have those willing to help you.”
She huffs. “Actually, it’s saving time.”
“It’s forfeiting a chance at self-sufficiency, which won’t save time later if you want to do something when Danielle is absent and you must spend time to find help. Help is always a luxury, and if you depend on it too completely, it is a weakness.” Castor takes one bite out of his own toast; it is now half gone. “I will not help you. I will not allow her to help you. Figure it out.”
Frelsi, a tiny being of pure spite, tries first to lift the butter knife. Castor saves her from being crushed by it. She tries—and fails—to bite him. Stomping, she next fights to tear a manageable piece off a slice of bread. Once she has, she marches it to the butter, drags it across the soft stick, and gasps once she realizes that she has succeeded in her goal.
Plopping, she flitters her wings and munches.
“Atta girl,” Castor murmurs, low voice tender in a way that makes my heartbeat skip a pace.
I freeze, glance at my chest, and petition the organ for an explanation.
Alas, the foolish thing provides none.
Instead, it figuratively shrugs, offering little more than a pathetic commentary about how praise has been otherwise quite absent from its dreadful little life.
The boding well, this does not.
Or, at least, it does not bode well for maintaining autonomy and a sense of independence. It bodes swimmingly for thesurvive through complacencyplan.
After all the time I spent gathering the courage to flee my mother’s chains, going back tosubmitandsurvivehurts.
Positive thinking, though.
At least I’m good at it.
Chapter 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mi palacio, su palacio.
Castor
She. Is.Heavenly.
Danielle is majestic. A princess. I bet she sleeps with her hands tucked preciously beneath her chin.
Last night, I tossed and turned, fighting myself as I grew drunk on her aroma flooding my bedroom. The desire to see her consumed me, which made me grateful two sets of bars stood between us. Waking myself up enough to unwind the enchantments on the cage around my own bed would have stopped me in my insanity.
And I need those precious moments of clarity to separate us until I can figure out a cure for this blasted affliction.
Until I’m cured, I cannot bring myself to take the chance that I’ll become hypnotized by the shape of my soulmate while her eyes are closed in rest. It is not by any means unlikely I’d lose track of time tracing every strand of her hair, and if dawn wakes her before I pull myself away, if she opens her eyes and meets mine…
No.
No.
Absolutely not.
I’d sooner gouge them out—again—than suffer the smallest chance I might lose her to my own errors.
She’s so quiet and careful right now, but I can sense the fire in her. I await, with baited breath, for it to devour me. To that end, she must become comfortable here. And the first step to becoming comfortable in a new place is for that new placeto become familiar…and the first step to becoming comfortable with a stranger is for that stranger to become familiar.
So, last night, I determined that we would spend every moment together. After I made her breakfast this morning, I began showing her everything that is hers.
