“Oh, but itis,though. I’ve been afraid to say it out loud for years.” She sighed. “I know what I want doesn’t really matter. Sadly, nobility talk of nothing but theirlineages.”
It must have been a trick of the light, but his eyes looked brighter. Caspian appeared to be hanging on to her every word, with a focus that unnerved her.
“I—it will be fine,” she said dismissively, forcing a smile to her lips. “Someone told me once that when it’s your own, you see things differently. I hope—I hope that will be the case for me.” She paused, uneasy by the intensity with which he was listening. “Enough about me, though,” she said quickly. To put him on the spot instead of her, she asked, “Tell me about you. Did you ever have a family?”
“I did once.”
She smiled. “Any brothers or sisters?”
“A sister.”
“Were you close?”
“No.” His voice was hard.
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear. I’ve always wanted siblings.”
Caspian was quiet for a moment, his gaze lost on the horizon. After a while, he said, “In my first life, before I was changed and awoke as a demon, I lived in a small farm town in Israr. A sickness took my mother, and a year later, it came back for my sister. We couldn’t afford a Healer. But a Healer could have saved them. A year later, my father died as well.”
“Oh. Did he catch the same sickness?” she asked delicately. The horrors he had endured, she could not begin to imagine.
“No. He was executed … for something that was not his fault.”
She was burning with questions, but she bit her tongue. For Caspian to share such a tidbit of his life was a feat of its own. Slowly, she said, “That’s awful. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“And did you ever want children?” she asked, attempting to bring the conversation back to the lighthearted banter they had shared only moments before.
“Never.” His voice was cold as ice.
They sat in silence, staring at the last dregs of sun slowly slipping below the horizon, dragging the colour of the sky with it.
Without prompting, Caspian surprised her when he shared, “The ballroom is unused because I do not care to pander to boring, selfish people. I enjoy my life here, and I have riches aplenty, with no need to prove it to anyone. Balls are a needless show of nobility peacocking, and a place for them to revel in feeling superior.” He spoke through clenched teeth, his voice cold and harsh. “Nobles are awful people, all of them, and I could live my entire life happy without ever having to play host to the very worst type of humans.”
She eyed him for a long moment and said tartly, “The only reason I won’t take that as an insult is that I can see your anger at the nobility isn’t directed at me. So, I’ll ask, who was she?”
“Who was who?”
“The woman who made you hate the nobility. She was a noble, was she not?” she asked. “Or perhaps it was a man, a lord who wronged you at one point in time.”
“No one.”
Elizabeth smiled. “And … who was this no one, and what happened between the two of you?”
He scowled. “She married someone else, and then she died,” he said curtly. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but his eyes looked almost green.
She leaned towards him, her gaze softening. “But … forgive me. If you cared for each other, why did this woman choose to marry someone else?”
“Because at the time I was a poor farmer,” he snapped. “And she was not.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It wasn’t your doing. She made her choices, and I made mine. I’ve since gained a family that would die for me, who obeys my every whim,” he said, haughtily.
She hugged him, hoping to resuscitate the vulnerable man she had glimpsed a moment before. He melted into her arms for a moment, then stiffened as if realizing what he was doing.
