Chapter 117: Chapter 117: RUN LIKE A COWARD

VALORIA WILDEROSE

“How are you, Sister?”

It’s Lyra Wilderose, the eldest of all my six sisters and the most indifferent of all, but it doesn’t mean she never played a role in my torment.

She overlooked everything—the bullying, the abuse, the suffering I’ve endured—saying nothing, acting like none of it was ever her concern even though we are sisters.

The only thing she’d ever show interest in since childhood was her devotion to the goddess and desire to dedicate her life to the deity.

And that’s why as young as nine years old she was already apprenticing under the high priestess Celestina.

Her days were divided between home and the temples.

Family came second to her dreams, and by her twentieth birthday she had renounced the family to be a full priestess in training under her beloved mentor.

And for the past ten years she’s been one of them, occasionally dropping by home on important occasions so no one ever forgets her ever-present influence in the family, until Azrael tore that apart.

Why did I never consider that she’d be chosen to hold the solstice festival in the castle, with how shitty my luck has always been?

Probably because I’ve been busy.

Distracted with Azrael and getting him out of my thoughts to see any of this coming. I’ve let him distract me from my mission and now this. His influence continues to ruin everything.

But it’s all my fault.

“Valoria?”

I blink again, suddenly coming back to the present once more, staring at her like a deer caught in headlights, taking a breath after seconds of choking.

“Valoria, are you okay?” Calliope holds my arm, watching me with worry.

I shrug her hand off, hating myself the second her face tinges with pain and worry, feeling more horrible, but I can’t be here right now.

I can’t stand here like this and look at her and be reminded of everything I thought was behind me all over again.

“I’m sorry, excuse me.”

So I run away like a coward, brushing past Calliope and everyone else, past the trail of servants watching out of sheer entertainment, their countless judging eyes and the voices in my head screaming at me that I haven’t changed.

I might have found my voice and become capable of speaking without a stutter, but I’m still the terrified child trapped under the stairwell, beaten and starved, abandoned by her family.

I run faster with tears blurring in my eyes, terrified that they might catch up to me and find me, and once they see my tears it will solidify everything.

So I run into the first room I see that isn’t locked, crashing in and locking the door behind me.

I hold my breath for a second, making sure they don’t follow, before I breathe again, hyperventilating before I begin to sob.

Quietly, with my hands clasped around my lips like I used to.

Clasping my eyes shut and hating how I’m still affected and that the trauma’s hold over me is still this terrifying.

They must think I’m an idiot. Why did I run like that? Why am I even hiding? They’re all gone, every one of them.

Azrael made sure I’d never see them, and yet the scars left on me still sting.

“Lady Valoria?”

I stiffen for the second time today hearing a voice behind me, swerving around only to realize I haven’t run into some old random storage space or an empty room but an office.

Eros’s office.

He slowly rises from his desk, looking at me with confusion, and if he was alone it would have been less mortifying running in here and crying like a baby.

No, my luck isn’t that good.

He’s with someone. A familiar face, hardened and cold, watching me with something between disinterest and disgust.

His five o’clock shadow and bulky build trigger a distant memory of a time when I had just gotten here newly.

“I suppose that triggers the end of our discussion.” He grumbles, returning his attention back to Eros.

His gruff voice is the final cherry to me realizing his identity.

Kieran Midnight, Azrael’s gamma.

He was the one who brought me here from my family with obvious displeasure. That day he seemed like he’d rather do anything else in the world.

Eros looks at him, frowning with great displeasure.

“I’m not going to agree with this, and I’m sure His Majesty won’t either.”

“The sooner our king comes to terms with the facts, the quicker this unnecessary issue can be buried.” Kieran grunts again, turning to leave without another word, walking past me to the door.

For the split second he passes me, I feel his gaze—fiery, laced with disgust like a predator watching prey about to be devoured.

I shiver from it just before the door is shut behind him and silence follows.

Eros sighs, running his hands through his face.

“I apologize for his rudeness. Kieran doesn’t do well with strangers.”

“We’ve met before.” I blurt out, recalling the burning dislike in his brown eyes just now.

Subtly I get the feeling that he too recognizes me.

“He was grumpy even then.”

“Kieran is a complicated individual.” Eros comments, but then I can clearly understand that it’s not about the complexity of his personality.

Rather, his reaction is perfectly normal.

There’s always been the silent hatred between the Lycan and werewolf races, the scorn for being different than the other.

At home I had felt it more with every wicked rumor spun about the higher creatures that had seized our world from us and plunged it into chaos.

I guess coming here and meeting an abnormality like Eros, who oddly couldn’t care less about differences in race or status, made me forget just how brash and ugly it typically is.

“So… to what do I owe this sudden drop-in?”

I’m instantly reminded that merely seconds ago I had run in here sobbing like a child, inadvertently interrupting what felt like an important meeting.

The embarrassment I had forgotten comes rushing back in torrents all of a sudden.

“Actually, I was just about to leave.”

I turn around, avoiding his gaze, grabbing the door handle and pulling, but then he’s suddenly behind me.

His hand pushes the door shut again, exerting an impossible force that I definitely cannot overcome to get the door open.

“Will you stay for some tea and snacks?” he asks with a tight-lipped smile.

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