9 Chapter 8

There are no windows in her room. But she can't ever remember feeling the same suffocation she felt in the airy cage of the Master when she was sixteen. In this windowless room, the walls basked in half a light and the light was breaking in from the only lone lamp that shone in the corner of the room. The flame doesn't flicker or move due to the lack of ventilation in the room. But the room has never felt airier than before.

Sorine laid flat and immobile on the rumpled sheets of her bed and she stared blankly at the wall opposite to her bed. There was once a moment, a moment of belief in life for a skeptic like her. She had allowed herself to think that maybe he was it for her. Her ending. Her salvation. Salvation from exactly what? She didn't know what but she didn't bother to think much about it other than the fact that he said that he loved her and she did it too. She loved him back just as well

But now she began to doubt the ideology of love that she had for years. She had thought that when a man loves a woman, they are loyal to each other. She grew up with stories that depicted and glorified the sort of fidelity that existed in the love between two human beings— regardless of their genders. But at the moment, she began to think truly if that all were just simply stories, plain woven lies that people loved to tell each other. Maybe it wasn't it. Maybe people committed infidel crimes and other acts to prove their love. Maybe it fell along the line of doing something heinous for the sake of the greater good. She had lived most of her life in the maid's quarter and the other half of it by Eric's side but she knew that she probably didn't even account for half of Eric's lifetime and it was okay. Until now.

The sense of betrayal that fell onto her when she found out that Eric had gone to bed with another woman made her think that all their love must have been all superficial after all.

She didn't know. She didn't have education apart from what she had sneaked in during Eric's tuitions and classes before it became a little too confusing for her. She didn't know what was right and wrong. Maybe she was meant to just accept Eric's excuses and reasonings but yet at the same time, she found her senses refusing to do so. She was too scared to ask Mary. She didn't want to open up her wounds and flesh it out with words ever again.

She moved up, sitting upon her bed and her messy brown hair flopped down by her shoulders when she moved and she sighed heavily. She had not gone out in days and nobody had summoned her, not Ila, not Eric. Ila didn't even bother to reprimand her for her absence in catering to the week-long birthday banquet that was still going on in the framework of events. She hadn't even stepped foot in Eric's room in three days since she left it on the morning of his birthday. But she knew that she couldn't stay like this any longer. Pondering can only stretch so far and she can only gauge the concepts of human behaviors only so much.

She let out yet another sigh, swiping down her matted brown hair. She was sure that she looked horrible, clad in only a simple black dress. Absolutely depressing, she murmured to herself as she looked down to her form. There was not a proper mirror to look at her own reflection but she just knew it.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

She sat up straighter, peering in alert at the sound on the door.

"Yes." She replied, standing up to open the door.

The door peeked open and Mary's bright eyes appeared at the crack of the door. Sorine relaxed, slumping her shoulders upon seeing that it was only Mary.

"Erm Sorine."

"Yes?"

"You look awful."

"Tell me something I don't know.", Sorine deadpanned, tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear.

"You don't seem like you would like what I am about to say."

"What is it?"

"You have been summoned."

Sorine looked away, huffing.

"That's useless, I have been barred from the— what?" She paused, catching the look that Mary was shooting at her.

"He's here."

The next thing she knew, Sorine was hurriedly dashing out into the hallway walking towards the lobby of the Workers' Quarters. It was only four am in the morning and Mary had just returned from her night shift in lighting up all the lamps along the hallways. There weren't any people strolling around in the wake of the dawn and the hallways were deserted. Her heart was hammering against her chest as she ran past the locked door to the lobby, a large clearing in the hallway, extended out as a large rectangular space. She rounded a turn and came to a slow stop, sewing a familiar broad back standing near the windows and staring outside of it. A long deep exhale left her body and she slowly approached the familiar man.

"What are you doing here?" She half-gasped, too scared to reach out and touch him. Something inside her feared that he might disappear. He moved his head to the side and slowly maneuvered his body around. There was movement behind her and when he looked up in alert, he relaxed. It was only a maid making her rounds in the hallways. She quickly bowed and ran past them. He looked away then, seemingly immaculate paired to her weariness and he looked particularly handsome in the dim sky of dawn, complete darkness canvassing across and dripping from the edges of the sky and the warm glow of the re-lit candles pulsating in the dark. He looked into her eyes and searched, probing for something. Something that she didn't know of

"I had to see you."

"You are not allowed here, Eric. This is the Workers' Quarters. What are you thinking?"

"I needed to know if you are mad at me."

"What?"

"Are you mad at me? Why haven't you come to me as you should?"

"Eric, of course, I am mad at you," It came out with restrained force as she was holding herself back. She continued, "Do you expect me to throw myself at you after what you did? What your fiancée did? She's a royal, Eric and I am a mere maid. You expect me to override her rules? You know better than what you expect me to do."

"But you won't be. You won't be a mere maid for long, I would take you in officially soon. You know how anxious I am without you. I can't take in a morsel without having you taste it first, that's how helpless I am without you. She doesn't dare to visit my chambers so please stay in my room and be with me."

"Eric, she is going to be your Queen and she has ordered me to stay away from you. I could get whipped, beheaded even for defying her orders. I can't risk all that. How reckless of you to come here knowing that the princess is still in the castle."

"I am sorry. I am sorry. I shouldn't have slept with her."

"Don't bring that up." She warned, "don't you dare."

"I am sorry. I'll do better. Come stay with me. I'll do better, I'll get rid of her. I'll dispose of her." He whispered again but this time, even softer.

"Eric, what—" She gasped in shock

He looked around behind her and moved closer to her until their breaths mingled with each other and their foreheads touched. He slowly brought up his hand to cup her cheek and she closed her eyes, feeling the warmth emanating from his palm. He was crazy. How could he say that? Yet, she felt calm, assured even strangely.

"Eric…" She whispered before his lips came over her and they moved together. It didn't quell her at all. His touch swirled up a deep seethed anger inside of her, sprinkled with drops of confusion. What were they now? He belonged not to her but to someone else now. The thought rang loud and clear in her head and she pushed him away immediately. She can no longer go on with this.

"Stop this, Eric. I don't want this with you."

He didn't reply, only taking a staggering step back away from her. He looked gutted by her rejection and too shameful to face her. He swallowed, the movement of his throat constricted and forced.

"Come visit my room tomorrow, my Sinne." He murmured, taking another step back. A maid scurried over in the background and he turns around, walking away into the glow of darkness leaving Sorine to stare at his diminishing back all alone. Sorine sighed and paused, looking over her shoulder. She could sense movements there for a while now.

"Who's there?" She demanded, taking a step in the dark cover of the hallway. She could see something nondescript move in the layer of darkness. The hairs on her body stood and adrenaline spiked the back of her head, pulse thundering there and blinding her ears. This thing was right in front of her. Just a few steps away.

"Who are you?" Her tone quivered,

The sharp dark burgundy eyes glinted under the cover of the shadow cast by the yellow lamp and the eyes flicker like another flame along the darkness. This man just witnessed an intimate exchange between a maid and the Crown Prince.

The man stepped out of the darkness and she gasped quietly. It was no normal man but the younger son of the King, and brother to her lover— Prince Demian. Better known as the Demon Prince for his tumultuous temper among the golden walls of the castle.

"Don't mind me, darling" He ran a rugged hand through his hair, casting light along the black markings that ran along his left side.

His eyes glinted when he continued,

"I am just a good ol' voyeur spying on my brother's sins."

"How callous of you to admit that." Her voice was still trembling.

She gulped, taking steps back from the terrifyingly attractive man but much to her chagrin, she could do little to get away from him. He took wide steps and suddenly, he was right in front of her, towering over her with his height.

"I have heard some amusing things." He comments, tapping a finger on her cheek.

The touch spread and spanned out, casting a spark along her skin and her eyes glowered as visions played out in her head. She gasped and staggered back, looking up at him with fearful wonder,

"What are you?"