A Slave to Love

Chapter 66: Invited

I swallowed my panic and swiped my hand across the clouded surface, wiping away the message hurriedly. I got dressed, attempting to keep myself covered as much as possible, just in case.

There had to be a reason why they kept targeting me, not Blade. There just had to be. It was too strange that they'd pick me over him unless they had a good enough reason too.

I all but flew from my bathroom, my eyes exploring my room, searching for a shadow or something that was misplaced. My eyes landed on the balcony doors. I squared my jaw, straightened my back and walked swiftly to the door. I grasped the handle tightly in my hand, the cool metal feeling good in my clammy palm. I counted to three in my head before I whipped the door open.

Nothing happened.

I allowed myself a brief moment to breathe, but I still didn't drop my guard. My eyes dipped down, noticing the footsteps in the snow. Unlike the craters of past footprints, these were fresh. Last night's snow fall had sanded our prints down, but these were recent.

Very recent. A few minutes old, if even. And they were left here on purpose. They wouldn't go through the whole trouble of scaring me to leave evidence of having been there behind.

I followed the tracks to the left side of the balcony, keeping my back against the wall as I crabbed walked my way across. No way was I turning my back on any opening, I'd seen too many horror movies. I made it to the edge, looked around once and took the briefest glance over the railing that I could. But there was no one and no marks. Not even on the ground down below.

I wasn't satisfied. At all. But the longer I stayed outside, the more anxious I felt. I had a sinking feeling whoever had been in my room was watching me, but they weren't going to hurt me. Not yet. They were scaring me first.

I went back to my room as calmly as I could, closed the door and locked it for added measure. There was a knock on my door and I froze, checking mentally but it wasn't Blade. I opened the door cautiously, but it was only Leo.

"Good morning," he said, smiling warmly at me. "There's a letter here for you, from your mother."

"Oh!" I blinked, taking the slim white envelop from his hands. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Breakfast is soon by the way," he reminded me before he left again.

I nodded absentmindedly and was just about to close the door when Blade appeared, hand catching the door before it closed against the frame.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, eyebrows pulled together in a frown.

"I'm fine," I said, still distracted. I put the envelope down on my night table and pushed Blade out of my room when he started to come in. "Come on, let's go eat breakfast."

He didn't protest, but he did glance over me with worry. We went down to breakfast, taking our time. I was quiet for the most part; I was still thinking. What was going to happen? What did they want? I hadn't done a thing to anybody. Blade was more likely, but he hadn't done a thing in all the months I'd known him.

"Knock, knock," Blade said, rapping his knuckles on my head. "Anyone home?"

"Huh?" I blinked up at him dazedly. "Sorry."

"You're so distracted this morning. Is something wrong?" he asked as we headed back upstairs after breakfast.

"I'm fine," I insisted even though we both knew it was a lie. But he knew not to push me, so he left it at that, even if he wasn't happy about it at all.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked me instead.

I shrugged. "I don't really feel like doing anything."