Chapter 133 - 0133
Lorelei POV
With that, he walked over to the food cart and lifted the lids off the plates. The food had gone a little cold by now, but it was still perfectly edible. Returning to the bed, he sat beside me on the edge of the mattress, picked up the utensils, and began feeding me himself.
He was unbelievably gentle with every bite, slowing down whenever I did and patiently waiting until I had finished chewing before offering me another, which felt completely out of character for a man like him. As I chewed, one thought kept circling through my mind.
There was no way this man was involved in the trafficking of innocent women.
If he really was, then he had to be the most twisted, heartless monster alive to pull off an act this convincing.
Once he noticed I had stopped opening my mouth for the next bite, Kaelen quietly set the utensils down and reached for the tall glass of milk on the tray.
"Drink this," he said softly as he brought the rim of the glass to my lips.
My eyes stayed fixed on his amber ones as I leaned forward and took a slow sip, but almost immediately, my brows furrowed.
The taste was... different.
There was a faint bitterness beneath the usual creamy sweetness, subtle enough that I almost questioned whether I had imagined it. Then again, maybe it was simply because the milk had gone cold after sitting out for so long.
When I leaned back to show I was done, Kaelen gently shook his head without lowering the glass.
"This is good for you," he murmured, his voice calm but firm. "Especially after almost having another episode. Drink it all, Ella."
His explanation made enough sense. After everything that had happened earlier, after how violently my body had trembled, it wasn’t unreasonable to think I needed it.
So I closed my eyes and forced myself to finish the entire glass, swallowing every last drop until it was empty.
Only then did he finally set it back on the cart before gently brushing his thumb across the corner of my mouth, wiping away the small drop of milk that had been left behind.
****
"I’m... I’m sorry, but I can’t go with you to the nightclub," I said softly to Princess Nala.
She was lounging across a plush silk daybed, looking every bit like the spoiled royalty she was.
The sun had just begun sinking below the horizon, washing the sky in deep shades of orange and violet. One of her guards stood faithfully beside her, lazily fanning her.
In front of her rested a low table overflowing with vibrant exotic fruits. Another guard knelt beside it, holding a golden fork while Nala reclined with her head tilted back, her eyes closed as she idly twirled one of her long braids around her finger.
This was so much harder than I had expected.
I had rehearsed this exact conversation a thousand times on my way here, yet now that I was actually standing in front of her, the words felt like jagged blades scraping their way up my throat.
"That does not sound very fair to me now, does it?" Nala finally said after a few agonizing seconds of silence.
She slowly opened her shimmering golden eyes before lifting a perfectly arched brow in my direction.
"Why?"
My first instinct was to lie.
To tell her Kaelen hadn’t given me permission to leave the estate.
But I quickly abandoned that idea.
Princess Nala was, after all, terrifyingly observant, and getting caught lying to her would only make this situation worse.
I didn’t have much of a choice.
"I saw someone from my past outside the estate today," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. "And..."
"And now your feet hesitate to leave the estate because you fear crossing their path once more," she finished for me, sounding almost bored as her golden eyes studied me calmly. "Am I speaking true?"
I swallowed before giving her a stiff, reluctant nod.
Nala let out a quiet hum and lazily flicked two fingers through the air.
Immediately, the guard kneeling beside the table lifted a neatly sliced piece of dragon fruit with a fork and brought it to her lips.
I watched silently as she chewed at an unhurried pace, allowing the guard to gently dab a single stray drop of juice from the corner of her mouth with a silk cloth before retreating to his position beside the platter.
It was an odd, almost absurdly luxurious sight, but who was I to question their... well... customs?
"Ella."
The sharp way she said my name startled me so badly that my entire body flinched.
"Yes?" I answered, my voice trembling slightly, as though I expected her to unleash her wrath on me at any second.
Instead, she simply asked, "How much longer do you believe you can outrun it?"
My brows furrowed.
"What?"
Slowly, Nala pushed herself upright on the daybed, her golden eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made it impossible to look away.
"How much longer do you believe you can outrun your past?"
The question sent a cold shiver crawling down my spine.
Forever.
The answer echoed inside my head, hollow and desperate. Who in their right mind would willingly face a past as physically and mentally devastating as mine?
"When I was still a small child," Nala began as she rose gracefully to her feet, "a wild hound wandered into my father’s court."
She strolled toward the open balcony, her hands clasped loosely behind her back as though she were simply recalling an old memory.
"To speak truth, I carried a great fear of that creature. My eyes saw only fangs, tangled fur, and danger. So I ran."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"I fled through the grand hall screaming at the height of my voice. I hid behind pillars. I searched for corners. I begged my feet to carry me faster."
Her golden eyes drifted toward the horizon.
"Yet the more I surrendered myself to fear, the more eagerly the beast followed. It chased me through the court, through the gardens, and all the way to the gates, where it finally buried its teeth in my ankle."
She fell silent for a moment before turning back to me.
Then she walked over until only a few inches separated us.
"Do you know what happened after the guards pulled it away?" she asked, her voice dropping into a low murmur, but I remained silent.
"My father looked upon my bleeding leg and asked why I had run." She took a slow step closer as she spoke. "When I told him I was afraid, he laughed."
Another step.
"Then he said something I have never forgotten."
By now we were only inches apart.
"He said, ’Daughter, a hound is still a beast. Had you stood your ground and spoken a witch’s command, it would have lowered its tail and bowed its head.’"
Her golden eyes never left mine.
"Because beasts chase what runs."
A chill settled over me.
"No matter how far your feet carry you or how deeply you bury yourself from sight, the past knows where your heart has hidden it. Sooner or later, every road circles back to what was left behind."
She held my gaze for another long moment before asking quietly,
"So tell me... how much longer do you believe your feet can carry you away from it?"