~Alaya
I woke up a little dazed the next morning.
My sheets are pooled at my feet, my shirt hiked up above my stomach. Clearly I slept well last night, and despite my lack of covering, I’m pleasantly warm. Sitting up, I stretch before wandering over to the dresser, pulling out some comfortable clothes before entering the bathroom.
Even the showers here are different. The water is as silky soft as the soap left for me to wash myself down. It smells like jasmine, which makes me shiver.
Once I was done, I walked back into my room to see my bed made and the clothes I had discarded were folded and placed upon the dresser. I stare at the clear space, trying to fathom what angels came down to clean my room. Or rather, servants with light steps that managed to get this clean before I go done.
My stomach growls in protest, considering I haven’t eaten since yesterday. So, not bothering to wait to see if someone was going to come get me, I try my best to remember where Asher showed me the dining room.
I pad down to corridor. Everything is eerily quiet, as I pass by the glass windows that show the garden, doused in darkness. It’s odd seeing night outside, considering it should be early morning. I keep walking, right through the main foyer and through the hallway with the pool next to it.
I make a mental note to use it when I can.
The dining room is empty. Everything is. No one is anywhere, as I walk past the dark oak table, my fingers touching the backs of the chairs as I walk. The adjacent room is a kitchen, so I wander in there, opening cupboards. No one is anywhere to be found, and I’m hungry, so I don’t see why not.
I eat on my own for a while, buttering bread and drinking the sweetest orange juice I have ever had. After rinsing my plate, I sit back at the table and think about what is happening.
Where is Asher? Where is Sinful?
I part of me is tempted to wander into their personal quarters to find them, but I shake my head at myself. Asher gave me strict instructions not to go in there, and I know for a fact that going against his demands will not end well for me. So instead, I decide I’m going to go for a swim in that pool until someone wants to show themselves around here.
Rushing upstairs, I’m not surprised to see a swimsuit ready for me in the top draw. Who is doing this for me? I slip it on without a second thought, and wrap a spare towel around me from the bathroom.
It doesn’t take me as long as I thought to get into the pool area. I simply slipped through an unlocked door from the hallway.
I expected the room to smell typically like how a pool does, with the chlorine and chemicals. Instead, there is a fresh smell the mixes in with the heat wafting off the clear water. Tentatively, I dip my toes into the water, the silkiness of it sliding up my foot to my ankle.
Glancing over my shoulder, I check if anyone is watching, before I drop my towel.
I kneel down, sliding my legs into the water, before I take a breath and let the rest of my body fall under the surface. The water is deliciously warm, as I erupt back to the surface, sucking in a breath. With a brilliant smile on my face, I fall back onto my back, letting the the water catch me.
I’m not sure how much time I spent swimming. It was no real established strokes, just me drifting around thinking about how I managed to get here. All because of a single party. Well, three.
Ducking under the surface, I swam until my lungs burned and my eyes stung, coming to the surface.
Sinful sat in a bench on the side of the pool, watching me.
He didn’t look threatening, but I’m still taken aback by him. Not just by his presence, but by the colour of his eyes. Remembering back to yesterday, his eyes were the gentlest lavender colour. Today, they are completely different, taking on a colour similar to the water I swim in. A brilliant turquoise blue that instantly draws your attention in, having you wonder how something like that could be so blue.
He motions me over with has hand, and I immediately oblige, wading to the edge of the pool. Heaving myself out of the water, I keep my eyes on Sinful, as he hands me the towel he was holding. The towel I had brought down with me.
“I see you discovered the pool,” he exclaims, as I sit in front of him, making myself seem busy by drying my legs off.
“It’s beautiful,” I tell him honestly. “Warm, too.”
He nods in agreement, watching the movements of the towel on my legs, which I then move up to wrap around my shoulders, covering my torso. I must have been under the water when he came in, as I didn’t hear a single step.
“No one was here when I woke up. Not a single person,” I tell him, hoping he would understand it is an explanation of why I decided to busy myself with his pool.
“My workers were here, most probably cleaning,” Sinful tells me.
I frown at that. My mind wanders back to this morning, when I first woke. The immaculately cleaned room done in seconds. The wander down to the kitchen. I had seen no one anywhere, as far as I’m aware. Either they are all deceptively quick and light footed, or they didn’t really exist.
Sinful seems to notice my confused expression. “I assume you can’t see them.”
“Sorry?”
“Mortals can’t typically see immortals who don’t wish them to. It’s there way of exploring your own world without risk of being exposed. It’s a clever trick that I’m not surprised my workers used,” Sinful tells me nonchalantly.
I flinch. Suddenly, I feel violated, as if someone had seen me while I was showering, watched me eat or found my private swimming in this pool very entertaining.
Again, Sinful takes note of my reactions. “Don’t be wary. They are all very conservative and would have done their work before heading straight back to their quarters. I doubt they would have found you very interesting.”
Still, it didn’t make me feel any less watched.
“Apologies, I must add. Asher and I were out this morning. Sometimes I join him when he does that Werewolf shifting thing. I enjoy watching, since I clearly I can’t relate,” Sinful explains. So that’s where they were. A part of me wishes I could have joined them, but I don’t say anything to Sinful.
“That’s fine, my swim was lovely,” I admit, wrapping the towel around me tighter, as I start to cool down.
Sinful stands from his seat swiftly, and offers a hand to me. I take it, standing also. “Would you like to join Asher and I for lunch? You may not be interested in what we discuss, but I have a chef here who makes some delicious food.”
“Thank you,” I murmur.
We leave the pool area, Sinful right behind me. When he takes my side, he looks down at me. He is almost a different person to who I was talking to yesterday, with his changing eye colour. I want to question him about it, but I decide to leave it, as he speaks up first.
“You know, you are not obliged to stay here if you don’t wish. I can send you back to your family with a single word, even before we find your betrayer,” Sinful offers. I keep a smirk hidden at the use to the word betrayer.
“I think I want to stay,” I say quickly. “I want to ask him why he left me before I go home.”
Sinful nods. “Fair choice.”
We continue down the hallway. I hope he will let me go back upstairs to change, since I’m dripping all over the floor as we walk. Sinful doesn’t seem to mind at all. I decide to bring up his eyes.
“What happened to your eye colour?” I question, before correcting myself, “I mean, how did it change like that? Overnight?”
“I have a terrible job that must be done fortnightly. You may not be aware, but Death takes the lives of mortals that have lost theres, and turn them into immortals, so they can live another life. I take the souls of mortals who have done horrific things, and I crush them. My eyes are ever changing to signify the last fourteen lives lost, that pass through my own soul and to the Moon, where they will suffer for eternity,” he explains.
I shiver at that, fine hairs on my arms sticking up in response. That was unexpected. I had an idea that his job was terrible, but he made it seem like a walk in a park. Like the idea of it is a harmless fluffy bunny.
“Does it hurt you?” I question. “Does it affect you in any way?”
Sinful looks wary for a moment. “Not exactly in the way you may think. I did draw the short end of the straw with Death, yes, but I cope. My soul was broken before time even mattered, and now, I have found ways to live without one.”
My thoughts are such a jumbled mess, I don’t even realise when we have made it to the foot of the corridor that leads to my quarters.
“You should go change. We will be waiting for you in the dining room,” Sinful tells me, before he turns and walks away. I watch him go, until his back is out of sight. Then I turn around, and almost scream.
Asher is standing right behind me.
“Do you mind?” I gasp, placing my hand over my chest. “I just spent over ten minutes with Sinful. I don’t think I need anymore time having a heart attack.”
Asher raises an eyebrow at me, and shrugs in a very tame movement for someone like him. “Calm down, would you. We have something to discuss about your time with Sinful.”
I was tempted to bring up their outing today, but decide against it.
“The first part of our plan is commencing,” Asher explains. “I need you to distract Sinful even more, as it requires getting Fate in and out of his territory.”
“How?” I question.
“It might be difficult,” he says uneasily. “It involves sneaking into his room.