But it seemed I shouldn’t have worried. He was here. And he had apparently lost his damn mind.
“He can’t honestly expect me to dine with him,” I said.
“Why not?” Callista asked. “You both need to eat.”
“I’m his prisoner.”
She tsked. “Not in the strictest sense. You’re our esteemed guest, albeit one who cannot leave the castle.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m only ‘esteemed’ as you put it because you all think I’m going to end up being your savior.”
“Well…yes,” she said matter-of-factly. “But I don’t see why that should offend you. We look after you, and you look after us. If I’m not mistaken, that’s often how friendships work. You don’t need to hate us, Aradia.”
I snorted and whirled on my feet to face her. Callista might be from Pira, but nothing about her resembled Yuto. Where the Lord Master was tall, as hard as a rock, and chiseled with muscles, Callista was short and reedy. Where he was harsh, she was kind.
“What I have with your Lord Master is not a friendship,” I said. “It’s mutual hatred.”
“Ah,” Callista said with a smile as she pushed up from the velvet sofa. “There is only one soul in all the realms who the Lord Master hates, and that is not you. Now, shall I tell him you’ll join him for dinner?”
I scowled. “No.”
“There will be pie,” she said in a singsong.
Dammit.
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “But make sure you tell him I’m only doing it for the pie.”
“The Lord Master will be informed.” Callista gave a slight bow, and then bustled out of the room.
* * *
The Great Hall was lit up by a thousand tiny firelights suspended mid-air above a long oak table that sat squarely in the center of the room. The ceiling arched high above. Stained glass windows lined each wall, illustrating dragons in flight, each one red or blue or golden. I trailed across the smooth stone floor with my black gown trailing behind me. A gift from the Lord Master, or so I’d been told. At first I’d refused to wear it, but I was getting tired of my dirtied, torn clothes, and I had nothing else with me.
So, the gown it was. It dipped low between my breasts, golden strands weaving together to form twisting flames along each edge of the fabric. Even though there were no sleeves to speak of, I wasn’t cold. The castle was surprisingly warm. Soothing in a way I hadn’t expected.
Yuto stood at the head of the table, donned in a simple yet refined tunic dyed black, along with a matching pair of trousers that highlighted the sculpted muscles of his legs. A belt cinched his waist with a silver buckle stamped with the shape of a dragon.
His red eyes flashed across me. “Good evening, Aradia. I’m glad you could join me for dinner.”
I gave him a look. “You speak as though I had something else to do instead.”
“There are many things you could do to pass your time here,” he said easily, crossing the space between us to pull out the chair at the opposite end of the table.
“Oh yeah? Like what?” I plopped into the seat, not even bothering with manners and niceties. I wasn’t here to be nice. I just wanted some pie.
“You mentioned you came here through a library,” he said. “So, I think it’s safe to assume you enjoy reading.”
I sat a little straighter in my chair. “You have some books here?”
His smile stretched wide. “Better than that, Aradia. We have our own library.”
My heart nearly stopped. “An entire library?”
Looking very pleased with himself, Yuto settled into the high-backed chair across from me and nodded toward the piles of food that dotted the table. Potatoes, meat pie, honey-glazed carrots, and more. “Help yourself to as much as you’d like. We don’t have servants here, I’m afraid, so you will need to serve yourself.”
Well, that was the second shocking thing he’d said in less than a minute, and I didn’t know how to cope. The Lord Master didn’t have servants? It seemed almost impossible to believe. His world was so much different than mine. Men in power always expected to be served.
“Is that just here?” I couldn’t help but ask, my curiosity getting the better of me. “Or do you survive without servants back home, too? And who cooked the food? Don’t tell me it was you.”
