Chapter 23: Caleb
Rose Novak was everything that I wasn’t.
Innocent. Vibrant. Untouched.
She was like a patch of fresh snow among the black ice that was the rest of my life.
I didn’t want anything or anyone to make a mark on it. Least of all myself.
So when she’d tried to touch me with her soft warm hand, I’d recoiled.
When she’d tried to dance with me, I’d rejected her.
Whenever she’d pressed for answers about me and this castle, I’d brushed her off.
I wasn’t refusing to answer her because I wanted to keep her in the dark. I wanted to keep her out of the dark.
I’d just wanted to lock her away. Away from me. Away from Annora.
I didn’t want to tarnish her mind with the things that went on in my shadowy world.
But that night, I didn’t know why I was in such a good mood. Perhaps it was because Annora had told me she was leaving to visit Stellan’s island for a while. Whatever the reason, after I was sure that Rose had fallen asleep, I allowed myself to climb down onto her balcony.
As I caught a glimpse of her peaceful face through the curtains, her expression brought out an ache in me. An ache that both disturbed me and made me feel alive.
I recalled the time I had first laid eyes on her beauty, her face sweaty, her hair disheveled, breath smelling of champagne. She’d behaved like any other teenage girl looking for a night out.
Then she’d told me her name.
And I’d dropped her faster than a hot iron.
I’d heard rumors about the princess of The Shade—not just her beauty, but her innocence, her purity, her light. She was like her mother, they said.
I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining that.
I was responsible for enough evil already.
And now that she was on the island, since I couldn’t allow her to leave—at least for the time being—I swore that I would do my best to shield her from her surroundings.
The truth was, I wasn’t so much afraid of Derek Novak as I was of breaking his daughter.