chapter 3

Chapter 3

The wind whispered through the mansion’s courtyard as the sky darkened into a gold-flecked dusk. The world fell still—as if holding its breath—for the arrival of the man no one dared to displease.

She straightened slowly, pressing her back against a column, broom in hand, trying to make herself invisible. The black carriage pulled to a smooth halt. Its crest—a coiling serpent strangling a sword—gleamed ominously in the twilight.

Tall, broad-shouldered, and utterly unreadable. His dark-lined coat swayed behind him like a shadow made flesh. Cold eyes, too calm—briefly scanned the courtyard before dismissing it all, including her.

But someone didn’t want to be dismissed.

“My Lord!” an angelic voice called out.

Lady Aurora descended the stairs with a trained grace, a vision of golden curls and crimson satin. Her smile was painted on, lips red like blood, her blue eyes brimming with performative warmth.

She rushed forward, the hem of her gown whispering across the stones as she reached for his arm. He didn’t even flinch as he stared blankly at her. Zain brushed past her without a glance, continuing up the stairs with the weight of an empire behind his every footstep.

The great doors opened, and he entered the mansion—alone with clicking footsteps of heels following behind.

Aurora caught up to him, not yet willing to surrender to his unfazed attitude he gave her earlier.

“My Duke,” she tried again, breathless but composed. “You must be weary from travel. Allow me to make you comfortable. Lily has prepared your suite. And if I may… perhaps you would enjoy being served by someone tonight?”

He stopped, the moonlight casting his shadow in long, sharp lines across the checkered floor.

“And who could that be?” He asked as he turned towards her direction to meet her gaze.

“Me! My Lord”.

Then a chuckled followed, as those words came out of her mouth, “Aurora I'm tired now, I need silence”. He coldly muttered to her face, then he walked away, his cloak brushing against her as if she didn’t exist.

“Why does he always act like this?” Lily whispered once he had disappeared up the stairs.

The young maid stood cautiously beside her mistress, holding a folded robe she knew wouldn’t be needed anymore. Her wide eyes flicked toward Aurora, hesitant. Aurora’s fingers clenched into the fabric of her gown, then slightly lift her chin to respond to her.

“You foolish little thing,” she hissed through a tight smile. “That is love, that silence, that disdain and that distance.” She turned to Lily, her expression perfectly composed but her eyes burning. “The more he ignores me, the more I matter to him. That’s how he shows his love—through dominance. Coldness is intimacy to us you could never understand ”.

Lily said nothing more, She bowed her head and quietly stepped back.

From behind the carved pillar, Ciana watched—unseen, but listening. Every word pierced her like quiet darts. Aurora’s words unsettled her and she wondered «if truly he also treats her coldly outside this mansion».

Her eyes flicked toward the stairs the Duke had taken. There was no warmth in his eyes earlier, no kindness and not even cruelty, Just… void of darkness. And yet, something about him stirred the same hollow space in her chest she’d locked away since the day she had became his property.

………..

The shift finally ended.

Ciana moved through the servant quarters, her shoulders aching, her feet blistered, and her mind… occupied with thought she couldn't even understand. She entered her shared room to find Lea already curled in bed, brushing her long brown hair in silence.

The warmth of the room was a welcome change to her once shady life. A small fire crackled gently, casting golden flickers on the stone wall, she gently got changed and untie her hair.

“You’re late.. wait let me help you,” Lea murmured while slowly brushing Ciana's hair.

“I had to polish the second corridor,” Ciana replied softly.

Lea smirked. “That place shines more than Aurora’s pride.”

They both laughed—briefly. Then silence returned, comfortable and tired.

As Ciana slowly drifted her thoughts somewhere else, she turned to face the ceiling, then spoke calmly. “Lea…”

“Hm?”

“Do you know anything about him?”

“The Duke?”

“Yes. They say he made a pact with darkness, that he drinks blood, that he murdered his own family. But no one says it to his face.”

“Wait are you serious?”. Ciana asked in utterly dismay, not quite understanding, if it was true.

“Ciana! I'm just kidding..gosh you are really not funny“. Lea sweetly scoffed off, she gently kept the brush and returned to her bed and cuddle in. She turned to Ciana's direction.

Then, softly, she replied, “Those stories... they're all lies. Or maybe half-truths, depends on who you ask. But the one I heard was different, They say he was the ninth son of the king,and wasn't really liked by his brothers, also it's said because he possessed unique qualities that the others couldn't have at his age that made him more of the outcast.

”What happened next?”, she mummered softly like wanting to know more.

“Then there's that one rumor, that's stuck with him for ever I guess, he was only 16 when he was given the task to lead 1000men to the battle fleid as their commander, to fight against 50,000men. According to the rumors he fought half of those men alone only using a sword to slaughter everyone of them. Some say that day he wasn't human but looked like a «Demon».

Ciana’s breath caught.

«Was that the real Duke Zain? Or just another illusion painted over a monster?»

Lea looked up the ceiling “Anyway, those are all just rumors, but I know he is a good man under, his cold attitude that he shows to everyone, but let me ask, Ciana why did you suddenly ask me about him huh?”

“Lea to be frank…I was jaut curious that's all” she smiled softly as she cuddles into her bedsheets.

“I hope so Ciana, because I really don't want you to start having a rough time here, when you just arrive. I want this place to be your new home…. okay?” Lea mummered softly as she doze off to sleep.

“It’s already my new home” Ciana said, she turned off the lights and told herself to stop thinking about it but this feeling she couldn't shake of all—why did she want to understand him?

The room fell quiet as sleep took hold of the servants. Outside, the night deepened, and the wind moaned gently through the tall windows of the eastern wing. Ciana’s chest slowly rose and fell under her thin blanket as she drifted into slumber.

But peace did not last long. Darkness swirled behind her closed lids, and then—She was there again ,That forest…

Twisted trees reached for the sky like broken fingers, their branches black against a blood-red moon. The ground pulsed with shadow as if the earth itself were breathing. In the distance, something called her name—but not in a voice. In a pull, a force. Ciana began to run, faster, deeper into the woods.

Her bare feet sank into damp soil. The cold wind whispered secrets she couldn’t understand, then the scene shifted, like it always did. The trees parted….And there he was.

A little boy tood beneath the dead tree at the heart of the dream. Cloaked in black ,his back was turned, but she knew the feeling well—it was him, the same figure from her dreams as a child. And behind him, the tree began to burn—crimson flames licking upward like a shadow crown.

Suddenly, everything turned to ash. The sky, the trees, her skin—and she woke up gasping.

Ciana at upright in bed, her hands trembling, her throat was dry, her heart thundered. Across the room, Lea snored softly, unaware of what had just happened. She looked down at her hands, they were cold.

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