Chapter 3
For the next few days, I played the role of a "well-behaved" prince's wife without a hitch.
During the day, I stayed in my little flower parlor, reading and embroidering like a proper noble lady.
But when night came, I had more important matters to do.
I required a detailed map of the castle, particularly the route to the secret underground chamber.
Only one person could help with that.
It was Adrian, a demon disguised as a church bishop.
Each week, I visited the church under the guise of confessing my sins.
In the dim confessional, separated from my "priest" by a thin wooden partition, I shared my "distress." "Father, I married a man who doesn't love me.
"I'm trapped in a gilded cage, overwhelmed by loneliness and fear."
My voice was soft and plaintive, full of helplessness.
From the other side of the partition came a low, seductive chuckle with a devilish undertone. "Oh, my dear little lamb, what does your soul weep for?
"Is it love uncherished, or freedom forever out of reach?"
Adrian's voice could always easily stir the deepest desire within people.
Known for his saintly facade, he was, in reality, wicked and twisted. He loved collecting the anguished cries of pure souls as they fell into darkness.
I was his favorite kind of soul, the opposite of what it appeared to be on the surface.
I said, "I want to be free, Father.
"I want to escape this castle.
"Will you help me?"
"Of course, my child," Adrian replied, his voice dripping with temptation. "As long as you're willing to pay a small price.
"For example, let me savor what fascinating soul lies beneath your fake, innocent mask."
Our exchanges were never physical.
It was a kind of intellectual collusion and confrontation, more thrilling to me than any physical contact.
I described Seth's indifference and my own solitude to Adrian, indulging his urge to probe my soul.
In return, during our next "confession," he quietly tucked a hand-drawn map of the castle's secret passages into my Bible.
"May the Lord bless you, my lost little lamb," Adrian teased from behind the partition, his voice laced with playful sarcasm.
With the map in hand, the next step was to remove any obstacles in my way.
According to Adrian's intel, the corridor to the underground chamber was guarded around the clock by twelve of the prince's personal guards, and their captain, Ricky, was particularly wary.
I needed someone who could deal with him silently.
*****
That night, while soaking alone in the huge bath, I was gripped by an unfamiliar restlessness.
Seth's instant reaction was too complicated. It was more than mere disgust.
Then the water rippled as a black shadow emerged, transforming into two icy hands that began to knead the tension from my shoulders.
It was Ian. "Master, is something troubling you?"
"That man is more troublesome than I expected," I replied, closing my eyes and enjoying Ian's service.
His cold, ethereal touch always managed to soothe my nerves with uncanny precision.
"Should I kill him?" Ian asked, as blunt as ever.
"Not yet," I said, opening my eyes to my beautiful yet icy reflection in the water. "Prey is always more fun when it starts to lose control."
I needed to blow off steam after all those days of playing the innocent damsel.
I reached toward my reflection, and the shadow got the point immediately.
More shadows surged from the water, morphing into soft tentacles that enveloped my limbs, exploring every inch of my skin.
Cold and heat intertwined, creating a dizzying mix of the unreal and the real.
Ian was a half-human, half-shadow fiend I had bought from the slave market.
I kept him for ten years, shaping him into my sharpest dagger and most invisible weapon.
He was easily overlooked, but he had been with me the longest, and no one understood how to please me better than him.
This secret sexual pleasure felt bizarre, intimate, and bore a sense of taboo and decadent corruption.
After our passion faded, I handed Ian a portrait of Ricky. "Make him disappear.
"Then find a chance to slip inside and find out where the Primogenitor's Heart is."
"Yes, master." Ian took the portrait and melted back into the shadows, vanishing without a trace.
He never questioned me. He only followed orders.
*****
The next day, news spread through the castle that Ricky, the captain of the guards, had "accidentally" fallen to his death from the tower during patrol.
Seth flew into a rage, and security increased significantly right away.
He spent the entire day investigating the incident in his study.
When I walked in with a cup of black tea, he was rubbing his temples, clearly frustrated.
"Your Highness, have some black tea," I said softly, placing the cup on his desk with a crisp clink.
He snapped his head up, his eyes piercing, cutting into me like blades. "Who let you in here?"
Startled, I took a step back, looking as if I might cry. "I-I thought you looked tired."
He fixed his gaze on me, searching for any weakness in my expression.
Right then, I "accidentally" stumbled and fell towards him.
The tray slipped from my hands, and hot black tea spilled all over the security map laid out on his desk.
I gasped, frantically trying to clean it up.
Seth suddenly seized my wrist.
His hand was cold as iron. His grip was so fierce that it felt as if he could crush my bones.
"Get out," he spat through gritted teeth. His face twisted with restrained disgust.
It was the first time he had ever touched me on his own.
For a brief moment, I saw something flicker in his eyes. It was disgust, but a deeper, more tangled emotion.
In that moment of fluster, did he catch that flicker of calm that I failed to hide in my eyes?
I didn't dare dwell on it. I yanked my hand free quickly and hurried out of the study.
As I closed the door behind me, I leaned against it, my heart racing.
It wasn't because I was scared.
It was because I was excited.
This game was getting more and more interesting.