Zezi shifted uncomfortably in her seat, clearing her throat awkwardly as Delice stood away from her, with her usual gentle smile on her face.
“I heard you were supposed to get married to him.”
At that question, Delice’s grip tightened around her wrist slightly.
“Gwen sure loves to talk.”
“Ouch, you are hurting me.”
Delice quickly let go of Zezi’s hand go with an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Zezi nodded, rubbing her wrists, not because of the pain because that had now faded away, but she just felt the need to keep herself slightly distracted.
“Does it hurt?” Zezi asked, looking up at her.
“It doesn’t matter.”
It was hard to read Delice’s facial expression. It was ever gentle but the way her grip had tightened around Zezi’s wrists earlier had given it all away.
She certainly had feelings for the King. Whatever it was, he was important to her. She wondered if the King considered Delice to be important to him too.
A not so pleasant feeling settled at the base of her stomach and she pushed it away immediately.
Jealousy? No way!
George was right.
This forceful bond was really messing with her.
She couldn’t wait to finally get rid of it by getting away from here. She just hoped that George’s plan would work. The last time they had visited, he had told her that he was making progress, and that soon, being here would be nothing but a mere memory.
She honestly couldn’t wait.
“Your heart has a nice rhythm.” Delice voice snapped her out of her train of thoughts and she instinctively crawled up her hand to her chest, where her heart was beating beneath, in a protective manner, like as if Delice was out to steal it from her.
Delice’s gaze burned at the back of her hand, a gentle smile still playing on her lips, before she finally spoke once again.
“It has been so long since I heard one beat.”
“How old are you?”
It wasn’t obvious, but Zezi had observed that Delice’s eyes had brightened with interest.
“Just a little over hundred.”
“Then why haven’t you gotten married to him a long time ago? You could have, you had the time.”
It took Zezi every strength in her not to be yelling right now.
Somehow, she felt like it was Delice’s fault that she was stuck in this Moon Goddess forsaken situation. If she had been married to the King, then he would have been bounded to someone else. By the time he would finally find her, just as he had done now, the situation would have been all too complicated. So complicated that he would have thought that it all wasn’t worth the complications of doing things any other way, asides from the way it already was.
This was all her fault!
Delice chuckled lightly. It was like the first real she had e er given since they had met.
“I hope we talk like this some other time. I know you think we are monsters but…”
Zezi didn’t let her finish.
“Gauva was my home.”
“Oh.”
“I hope you understand now. I can never see you as anything, but monsters.”
***
A couple of days had passed after Zezi’s conversation with Delice yet she still had this weird feeling, something she couldn’t really describe.
As much as her thoughts were powerful enough to distract her, what she found more distracting was George’s restlessness.
He stepped out of her room’s door for the fifth time in 30 minutes before returning back to her.
It was once again a visiting day.
Of all visiting days, this one was the one that made her feel scared for George the most. She didn’t even know why.
“What are you doing?” She whispered, even though there was no other person in the room except for her daughter, who was playing with Teddy on the bed.
“The hallways are clear as I calculated.”
He stoped in front of her. She was seating on the dressing chair and he rested his hand on the dressing table, leaning down towards her face.
“Quick,” he said, hurrying over to Mira and carrying her in his arms. “Let’s go.”
“What?”
Despite her confusion, Zezi stood up from the dressing chair she had been seated in a moment ago and followed him.
In no time, they were outside, running down the hallway to the Moon Goddess knew where!
“What is going on, George?” Zezi asked, looking around.
The hallway seemed slightly empty, Zezi wondered why.
It was all so strange.
Suddenly George stopped and put Mira down. Zezi quickly picked her up, looking around like as if they could be caught at any moment, while George moved along the wall, pressing his ear to it.
Her heart raced as she took in what he was doing.
Was this really happening?
She brushed her daughter’s hair, hugging her firmly.
“I have my car by the cave,” George said quietly.
“And how do you supposed we get out?”
She pulled Mira closer protectively.
Had George gone mad? They could easily be caught like this.
George moved back at that moment, a smile on his face before he started moving some things on the wall.
“If I’m right, they are having a dumb ritual ceremony thing at the moment. We have an hour to get out of here.” He looked up at her with a smile on his face. “For two skilled werewolves like us, that is more than enough.”
“How did you know that? About the ritual.”
Zezi could hear little clicks, like things were falling right in place. Her heart raced.
It was indeed happening.
“I found it out.” He winked at her, going on one kneel, and pressing his ear to the wall, listening. “All we have to do is get out this castle, blend into the crowd in the street and we will be here in a heartbeat.”
It was official. George was crazy!
“You think they will not hear our heartbeats?”
He sighed, raising to his feet, to look up at her.
“This ritual thing they are doing, makes them kind of high and their senses are slightly altered at this moment, making them just like us.” He raised his hand, brushing Mira’s hair lightly.
“We would have to wait forever to get an opportunity like this again.” His eyes darted to the mark on her neck and he frowned. “You know we don’t have forever.”
He was right. This was a risk they had to take.
Her gaze followed him, as he fell to his kneels and his moving things around to unlock the passageway they had luckily found.
But she had one more question.
“What about the Weres back at home? What will the King do to them when he realizes I’m gone?”
“Nothing,” George shrugged, “he won’t think they planned this.”
“What if he does? Didn’t you say the ritual thing will alter their senses? What if he can’t think straight and he goes right ahead to ambush them?”
George looked up at her.
His face screaming ‘you ain’t helping’.
She knew, she really wanted to just agree with him and follow his plan. In fact, she had no idea why she was being so stubborn.
“My love,” he whispered intimately, holding her gaze. “We should only worry about us. You, me and Mira. We are all that matters.”
“George–” she started, wanting to disagree.
“Whatever doubt you are having right now is not you. It is the bond you share with him. It’s trying to mess with your brain, his presence here is strong and it’s affecting you.”
Zezi blinked, remembering how strong the bond was.
Was it really the bond?
A click snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked sideways at the opened circular passage door came open.
She could hear a distant echo and she turned to the dark passageway, gulping as Mira held tighter upto her.
“Once you get far away from him, you will be you again.”
Two warm hands cupped her face and George pressed his lips against hers.
She pulled away from him immediately, her eyes wild, her skin crawling with disgust.
George flinched, like as if burned.
Zezi’s lips parted from surprise.
Oh, no.
The bond was really getting to her.
“I need to get out of here,” she whispered, scared as she headed straight to the passage way.