71 Chapter 71 - past demons

Faun had chosen to stay in the next day, he had already told Ash and Cade that he would be taking a break. He wished he could make preparations for his rendezvous the day after but there was nothing that could be done from the prison that was his room.

The day he would leave finally came and by then, Faun's sleep schedule had become completely nonexistent. He tried not to pay attention to the fact that he hadn't heard Declan come into his room for over a day but that just made him hyperfocus on it all the more. And he couldn't ask the bodyguards who brought him his meals or work up the moxie to check up on Declan.

So when he left his room to go to the kitchen in the company of Ash, he took the chance to look around Declan's room. Declan's scent was faint, Faun hadn't been making things up, Declan hadn't actually been in his room for over a day now.

It made him falter slightly, was something wrong? Had something happened to hi-

"Faun?" Ash's voice interrupted his thoughts, making him drag his eyes away from Declan's perfectly made bed.

"Sorry," He mumbled, picking up the pace so he could catch up with the werewolf.

Ash simply led the way out without addressing this, walking straight to the kitchen with a telltale frown on his face intercepted by frequent glances into his phone.

Faun quickly picked up on the bodyguard's distracted state and immediately thought of ways to capitalize on it. "Cade isn't here today?" He asked tentatively.

Ash looked up from his phone for the umpteenth time, his lips going taut as he reached out to open the door for Faun. "No, he is, he just had to be somewhere shortly."

Faun nodded and stepped in but he made no move to get started on baking, instead, he racked his head to come up with a plan that would not only let him get to meet up with Allan but also buy him some time.

Fortunately, Cade wasn't around this time… it was almost like fate was offering a helping hand. Ash also looked very distracted, it would be easy to get past him.

Maybe he could say that he felt a bit woozy and he wanted to spend the rest of the day sleeping it off without being bothered, then he would offer to go back himself. Even if Ash insisted on taking him back to his room, he could always sneak out because the bodyguards didn't keep a lookout when he was in Declan's room.

With his sloppily made plans in place, he walked up to the door and put on a strained expression before knocking. He opened the door to find Ash staring at him with a frown which quickly changed to a look of concern.

"Is something wrong, Faun?" 

Faun ignored how that question made the bruises on his heart hurt, "I-I just don't feel so great," He said in a small voice, needing to force out his lie. "I think I'll lie down for a bit, I can just head back to my room, myself."

A notification on Ash's phone went off at that exact moment, making him glance at it so quickly that he nearly dropped it, only to have disappointment bloom on his face. "Um, sure," He absently agreed, "Do you need me to get you anything though?"

"No, no, I just need to sleep it off, I'll be fine, just don't bother me for a while, okay?" He quickly replied, already walking off in the direction of Declan's room.

He got to a turn in the hallway and ducked so he could peek at Ash and his mouth nearly dropped open when he couldn't see the bodyguard again, Ash was already long gone.

It made Faun start to worry if something was actually wrong with Cade or if something terrible had happened to put Ash in such a disordered state of mind. But that was beyond his sphere of worries, for now, he just had to get to Allan as quickly as possible.

-*-

Ash had no idea why he was this worked up, there was no reason to be… there was no reason to be?

Who was the maid that had come searching for Cade a few minutes ago? His curiosity was eating away at him.

In all the years he had known Cade, even since they were teenagers, he had never heard or seen Cade get involved with anyone else, much more a woman. The maid had seemed very nervous and Cade was visibly shaken.

Ash would have written it off as one of the slew of women who confessed their love for Cade only to get turned down if Cade hadn't had such a visceral reaction to the sight of her. The premise was already ridiculous and there was no reason for Ash to be so affected by something like that but yet, here he was.

He had been half expecting to get a text from Cade saying that the maid was a distant cousin but his phone had remained blank, the one time he got a notification, it was from a dumb puzzle game.

Cade didn't owe him an explanation but Ash would pay good money to hear an explanation for why he was acting like a jilted lover. Why was he slinking around searching for Cade so he could spy on them?

"... I still love you, I even found a job in the castle just to get closer to you, please stop running from me…"

An earnest but soft voice filtered into Ash's ears, making him skid to a stop. It was coming from a nearby balcony, the doors were closed so he couldn't see the people on it but he knew immediately that they were who he had been on the search for.

"Andra… you shouldn't be here," Cade said in a tone that was very unlike him, it was awash in raw unfiltered pain, it made Ash suck in a breath from the catch in his chest.

What could have happened to make Cade sound like that? And just who was this Andra, Ash had never heard of her before and he used to think that he knew everything about the other.