Madeline continued to look at the rain that was pouring since the time of the evening. As it was breezy, some of the flame from the torches had been blown out, leaving the corridors dark. Until now, all she had known was that people craved for life in the castle because it was beautiful, rich in colours and with merriment. But that was all from the outside. The inside, Madeline came to know how rotten the place was or used to be.
A King’s debauchery was always overlooked, in the name of wanting to have an offspring, an heir to his throne, and it was strange how Calhoun turned out to be the last standing person. Turning around, she looked back at the paintings of the Hawthrone family. There was Sophie, her mother and brother whom she had met. There was no portrait of Calhoun’s mother, not that Madeline knew how she looked, but she couldn’t see any woman who resembled him in the portraits that hung on the wall. The paintings were encased in a glass so that no dust or water, or air would dull the colours on the portraits.
Madeline was watching the portraits when she noticed a person’s reflection from the glass. She quickly turned to see that there was no one there. She was sure she had seen one of the maids, because of the clothes that were worn but she didn’t know who had been standing there, watching her.
When she took a step forward, the thunder and lightning struck from the sky, making her pause walking further. Was someone spying on her? Asked Madeline to herself. She knew that many of the servants were curious about who she was, what she did as she was the girl to be wed to the King.
She turned back to look at the portraits, to find there was no reflection of the maid she had seen.
Madeline frowned.
There was a person in the portrait she had not taken note of earlier. It was a woman, dark-haired, her clothes light in colour. Just when Madeline touched the surface of the glass, the glass broke into a million pieces under her touch.
She gasped, taking a couple of steps away from the portrait as she hadn’t used too much force when she touched the encased glass to shatter.
Madeline who had been standing in the corridor moved away from the portraits, her feet stepped into the open where the water from the sky fell on her, one drop after another. The glass shattered loud enough that got the servants who were walking nearby along with two ministers who were with Theodore to step close. They came to see what happened, noticing the shards of glasses that now was on the floor.
The people came near, seeing it was from the portraits and then they noticed the human girl, Lady Madeline, who stood out in the rain, her expression filled with shock.
As the King was not here, the maids and the servants couldn’t stop themselves from questioning what happened here.
“Why did the glass break?” whispered a maid as quietly as she could. Because of the rain, the whispers lowered down further.
The other maid who stood next to her nudged the maid’s side who questioned before, “Look at her hands.”
“Oh my God…!” came the whisper from the maid, “Why would she do it?”
Theodore stepped forward with the ministers who closely followed him, “Who broke the glass of the royal portrait?” demanded Theodore, his eyebrows furrowed together. Seeing the maids who were looking outside, he turned his head to notice Lady Madeline standing outside, too stunned to speak and only stared at the portrait. His eyes then fell on the lady’s hand, which was now dripping down with blood.
“I heard that she had tried to kill herself, maybe she’s trying to rebel against the King?” the maid coughed when Theodore turned his eyes at her, and she bowed her head.
“Get this cleaned,” Theodore ordered to the maids who bowed their head again and turned away to walk towards the other end so that they could get the mop and other things to collect the glass pieces.
The two ministers were waiting for the King to return when they heard the glass break over the sound of the rain. They looked at the girl curiously who stood outside with her hands covered in blood. Having overheard the maid’s words, the ministers were curious if the girl was still rebelling on not staying here.
“You should be grateful, milady,” said one of the ministers, taking the liberty to speak in the absence of the Crown. Madeline’s trance state broke, and her eyes moved to notice people standing in the corridor, “The King has been very kind to you. Bringing a weak human, you should be grateful to his majesty than throw unneeded tantrums. Many girls and women pray, hoping his majesty will spare a glance.”
“If Mr. Fitzwilliam would be kind enough to take himself along with Mr. Heckles to the courtroom now?” asked Theodore politely.
Mr. Fitzwilliam watched the girl who looked nowhere suitable to be Queen. She might have been pretty, but it was useful only in bed and showcase as a beautiful wife in front of others. The King could have anyone, someone better than this girl. He had also proposed the neighbouring King’s daughter to the King, that was fruitful when it came to building relationships.
“You should propose to the King to keep her locked in the room. This would avoid her trying to create a scene. We are only lucky that she hasn’t done anything like this in front of others to spoil the King’s reputation,” Mr. Fitzwilliam continued to speak even though Theodore had suggested for the men to go to the court. The man was a vampire who disliked humans, they were not up to his status and their poverty made his skin crawl.
“Why don’t we go to the courtroom, Fitzwilliam. I am sure Theodore needs to take the lady back to her room,” said Mr. Heckles, who didn’t want to take part in commenting anything. The day when the lady had first stepped into the court, Mr. Heckles was right there when the King beheaded one of the ministers named Benedict for condescending her.
When the two ministers finally left, Theodore looked back at the girl who was getting drenched in the rain. It didn’t look like she was going to come inside anytime soon, “Lady Madeline?” he called, catching her attention, “Please step back inside.”
Madeline finally stepped back in. The corridor here was built in a fashion where one side had the walls, while the other side had pillars where one could step out in the open space.
Theodore noticed how the palms of her hand were red.
“I thought I heard some commotion in here,” came a voice behind Madeline and her head snapped around to see Calhoun making his way towards her. His eyes took note of Madeline, who was drenched in the rain.
Madeline felt somewhat relieved to see Calhoun. One person who didn’t look down at her as if she was trying to draw attention to her. She was still slightly worried at the sight of what he had done to his grandmother. Madeline had to tell herself that he had done it for a reason so that she wouldn’t be scared. Calhoun had his reasoning when he had killed the people who had wronged him and his mother. Madeline didn’t know if he was like this from the very beginning or if he had turned to something he wasn’t before. Without knowing the entire story, it was still intimidating to her.
Her heart ached for the injustice that had happened to his mother, but at the same time, she was scared.
When Calhoun heard something clutter near his feet, he caught sight of the glass pieces that were on the ground, his eyes turned to look at Madeline’s hand from where the smell of blood was wafting in the air.
“Were you mad at what happened and decided to break it?” asked Calhoun in a teasing tone, his eyes meeting Madeline’s eyes, “You can leave, Theo. I will take it from here.” Theodore didn’t have to be told twice, and he bowed before leaving them.
Calhoun took both of her hands in his, looking at the red lines that appeared on her palms, “We should get it wrapped,” he said, not questioning what happened and at that instant, Madeline felt tears form in her eyes. His head cocked to the side when he noticed her eyes,
“I left only for two hours. I didn’t know you would miss me so much that it would make you cry.”
Hearing Calhoun’s words, Madeline blinked back the tears quickly because that was not the reason for her to cry and Calhoun was only teasing her. She didn’t know what exactly was going on with her, she felt even more lost than usual. She caught sight of his clothes that were far worse than hers drenched in the rain.
“You’re wet,” came the innocent words from Madeline and Calhoun’s lips twitched.
“So are you,” not the way he wanted but with her clothes sticking on to her skin, he could see the outline of her body. An emotion of annoyance passed in his mind that someone else had seen her like this when she was only for his sight, “Let’s get this bandaged.”
They started to leave when he heard Madeline yelp in pain.
Madeline had forgotten that she had walked bare feet from her room, forgetting her shoes as she wanted to take a look at the portraits. With the glass pieces scattered on the white floor, it seemed that she had stepped right on a sharp piece. She pulled up the front of her dress, that absorbed the blood that was on her palms to find the glass piece stuck in the sole of her foot.
Madeline had never stepped on a piece of glass before, and it felt like her soul was being torn as she hopped to be caught by Calhoun who looked annoyed now, “Why are you not wearing your shoes?”
“I didn’t know I would come to wander this far and step on the glass piece,” came the small voice of Madeline who was in pain. Calhoun could smell fresh blood wafting up to his nose, and it took all his strength not to take a bite to drink her blood. He closed his eyes. His teeth gritted, trying to put his self-control on a tighter leash which was close to slipping away from him.
Madeline who was in pain heard Calhoun take a deep breath. Was he angry because she broke the glass and didn’t wear shoes?
“I am sorry,” she apologized. Calhoun’s closed eyes opened for her to see how dark they looked, almost black.
“What are you apologizing for?” he asked her, bending down, he picked her in his arms and carried her back to her room.
Placing her down on the bed, he got on his knee, and he placed the heel of her foot on his lap.
Madeline wondered where Calhoun had left after speaking to her. She had not seen the carriage leave from the castle, which meant he had gone by foot before she remembered he didn’t need to walk when he could fly.
“You didn’t step too hard on the glass, so it hasn’t gone too deep,” she heard Calhoun say as he raised her feet in front of his face. When he tried to pull out the glass piece, Madeline flinched in pain, taking her feet back which he didn’t allow.
“Stop! I will take it out myself!” she gasped in fear of the pain to come as she felt at the sole of her foot.
“If you stop moving I will take it out within a second,” stated Calhoun whose eyes narrowed at her. Seeing her struggle, Calhoun said, “Alright. Let me push the shard of glass back to how it was earlier,” hearing this, Madeline’s heart slipped from her chest.
“W-why would you do that?!” Madeline asked when his thumb touched the surface of the glass that was sticking out.
They stared at each other with intensity when Calhoun’s expression turned devious, and he said,
“I like to see you cry.”
