>>Enya
For the most part, there wasn’t much to do
Ahin would just follow around when I went around the mansion while Rika stayed with Einar.
If nothing else Einar and Rika found each other to be good company and beca friends. And honestly, I was happy for them.
Ahin would just follow around when I went through the halls of the mansion—silent, unreadable, a shadow in a guard’s uniform. He never complained, never questioned, just walked a step behind , watching everything like it was a threat.
At first, I hated the weight of it.
I didn’t like being watched. It was a weird feeling. But Ahin... he never made feel weak. His presence wasn’t suffocating. It was just there. Like a steady breeze behind my back.
It was strange how quickly I got used to it.
He never spoke unless spoken to, but over ti, he started reacting. The slight lift of a brow when I made a sarcastic comnt. The faintest twitch of his lips when Einar said sothing ridiculous at breakfast. The way his eyes lingered when I paused to look at the sky outside the upper hall window.
He was paying attention.
And for soone who had lived most of her life surrounded by people pretending not to see her—Enya, the mistake, the halfblood, the ornantal heir that wasn’t worth marrying off—that ant sothing.
We were still strangers. But I was starting to understand the shape of him. The way he thought before he moved. The things he noticed.
And I started talking to him.
In fact, all four of us began to get close. We ate together. We took walks together. No one would disturb us since our rooms were on the isolated side of the manor.
Things started out slow.
About little things, at first. "The east wing slls like vinegar, doesn’t it?" or "These halls used to be lined with blue glass before the Duke shattered them in one of his rages."
He wouldn’t say much.
Just a nod.
A quiet "Hmm."
But then, one morning, things changed.
We were walking down the corridor leading toward the greenhouse. Einar had gone ahead to fetch so imported elven seeds for , and I was alone with Ahin, the silence between us comfortable. Rika was asleep in Einar’s room. The mansion was still. Cold light spilled in through the stained glass.
And then we passed one of the servants.
A guard, actually. Low rank. Drunk on borrowed power.
He looked at Ahin like sothing on the bottom of his boot.
"You lost, mutt?" he sneered. "Didn’t know we were keeping kennel dogs in the palace now." It was no surprise he knew Ahin was a wolf. Everyone in the mansion knew I was asked to ta him.
I stopped walking.
Ahin didn’t react.
He just stood there, gaze forward, like the words didn’t touch him. Like he’d heard worse.
Maybe he had.
But I hadn’t.
I turned on my heel, anger rising to my head as I felt way more offended that Ahin himself.
"Say that again," I said.
The man looked at , startled. "What?" He looked at with a strange look.
"Say it again." I yelled at him.
He flinched at my tone.
"I’ll have you flogged," I said coldly, voice like a blade.
The guard laughed, "You?" He pointed at , "Have flogged?"
I knew the reaction all too well, "Not ," I told him. I knew all the servants here took for sothing more of a decoration piece and never really listened to , "But Emrys will." So I used the na that was going to make him wet his pants.
He was going to say sothing when suddenly his face paled.
And for a mont, I wished I could hit him. I wasn’t sure if it was for Ahin, or for myself. For all the years I’d been silent while people spat at . But I didn’t have to.
The guard stumbled backward, stamring, "Forgive , Lady Enya. I didn’t— I wasn’t thinking—"
I guess using Emrys’s na really worked well. He was losing his shit
"No. You weren’t." I decided to act tough.
"I-" He wanted to say sothing, but then turned around and ran.
He vanished down the hall like a kicked rat. I stood there for a breath, heart pounding, fists clenched.
"Hmph!" Coward. I was very proud of myself.
But then I turned and felt my stomach drop.
!!!
Emrys was standing there.
By the door. Leaning casually against the fra like he had all the ti in the world. His arms were folded across his chest, and his green eyes were fixed on , unreadable as ever.
My breath caught. "Since when have you been standing there?"
He didn’t move, didn’t even blink. "From the start."
The words hit like a slap. From the start? That ant he had seen everything
My heart beat painfully fast. My first instinct was to defend myself, to speak before he could twist this into sothing I didn’t an.
"I—It’s not what you think—"
"You did good." He cut off.
I stared at him. "What?"
His gaze flicked toward Ahin—calm, but assessing—before returning to .
"You handled that well," he said, voice smooth, but with sothing strangely warm beneath it. "I won’t mind if you use my na. Anywhere."
!??!?!
His words left utterly speechless
And with that, he turned around and walked out. No further words. No cruel remarks. Just... that.
The door clicked shut.
I stood frozen, my mouth slightly parted, confused, startled, and—more than anything—thrown off-balance. For a long mont, I just stared at the spot he had been standing in.
Emrys. He praised .
And not just that—he said I could use his na.
His na.
He didn’t mind that I used his na?!?!?
In this house, his na ant power. And Emrys—Father’s favorite, Father’s heir—his na carried more weight than anyone else’s in the entire mansion. He knew that. He wasn’t stupid.
So why?
Why would he give sothing like that?
My thoughts spinning like falling leaves in a storm. I spared a glance to Ahin and he offered a quite smile
?!?!?
Which was even more confusing. He never offered a smile before. I stared at him.
Did my action cause this change?
I looked away.
Maybe... maybe Emrys wasn’t as cold as I thought. Maybe the strange monts—like when he stood in front of my cell door all those months ago, like when he brought food without saying a word—ant sothing after all. Maybe, in his own twisted way, he was trying.
I bit my lip.
Einar always says Emrys isn’t a bad person....
Hmmm
I folded my arms.
Where else could I use his na?
To stop the guards from touching Ahin?
To walk through the main halls again?
To get into the East Wing, where all the locked records were?
The possibilities stirred sothing in .
Hope? No. Not hope.
Control.
A sliver of it, yes—but still. Sothing I could use. Sothing I could hold.
For the first ti in a long while, I felt like I had more than just blood in my veins.
I had options.
"Let’s go," I said and began to walk again. But I noticed sothing now.
When we started walking again, I noticed Ahin was closer.
!!
Just a little. He always followed quietly and was at a distance but not now. Now he was closer.
For so reason that made feel good.
That wasn’t the end of it though. I didn’t let the opportunity given by Emrys slide.
It was a breaking point
I began to use Emrys’s na in many things, but especially to assert dominance on the servants and other guards. That way, I was able to keep Ahin and Rika safe as well.
***
The snow in the garden had long lted—thanks to a few well-placed fire wards and the duke’s patient magic. The sun hung high overhead, rare and golden, scattering warmth like a whispered promise across the grass. Patches of green peeked through where snow used to blanket the earth, and the faint scent of thawed soil filled the air.
I sat beside Einar on the edge of the stone fountain. The water had started to run again, soft trickles breaking the silence as if the garden itself had begun to breathe.
It was quiet. Peaceful.
Einar leaned back, his hands braced behind him, head tilted toward the sky as he soaked in the warmth. His red hair shimred beneath the light, and I noticed he looked more relaxed than he usually allowed himself to be indoors.
I broke the silence. "Emrys said I could use his na... anywhere."
Einar’s head lolled to the side, his brows arching slightly. "Did he?"
I nodded, arms hugging my knees to my chest. "Said I handled sothing well. I didn’t expect it. He saw talking to a guard."
Einar chuckled under his breath, the kind of knowing sound that made scowl.
He turned his gaze toward the trees. "He’s not a bad person, Enya."
I groaned. "You’ve been telling that for years."
"And you never listen to ."
"What is there to listen to?" I snapped. "He’s always gotten in trouble."
"That’s his bad luck..." Einar said with a shrug. Then he paused. "I can’t deny that his attempts have been... catastrophically bad. But all he actually wants is our attention."
I snorted. "Why would he want our attention? He has Father’s."
Einar’s expression turned faintly wistful. "And no one else’s."
His voice was so soft I almost didn’t catch the words.
"A dying father," he continued, "and siblings who hate him."
"You don’t hate him," I muttered, folding my arms.
He smiled. That gentle, maddening smile. "No... He’s quite adorable, if you understand him."
I glared. "Understand what?"
"That he’s simply afraid."
I frowned. "Afraid? Of what?" My voice rose, frustration crackling behind it. "Afraid of all the inheritance he’s going to get? The insane power? The authority? All the servants? The strength that makes people back away when he walks in a room—?"
"Of solitude." Einar answered softly, "Loneliness."
Einar’s voice cut clean through my tirade—quiet but absolute. Like a final note in a song.
And it shut up.
I sat back, chest rising and falling as the words settled deep in like snow that didn’t lt.
Of solitude...
I hated how it made sense.
Einar didn’t lie. He never had. And I knew when he ant what he said.
But it didn’t make it easier to believe—not when it ca to Emrys.
Not when all I’d known of him was power wrapped in silence, orders wrapped in cruelty, and every ti I stepped out of line, his gaze had been there—sharp and cutting.
Still.
Still, there was that mont—when he told I did well.
And that he didn’t mind if I used his na.
I looked down at my hands.
Maybe Einar was right.
Maybe.
But I wasn’t ready to admit it yet.
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