Heavens Whisper | K.TH

Touch of Pain

WHITE

I wake up breathing soft sunlight.

Then a clink of metal against wood resounds next to me, and I blink dazedly at the girl setting a tray of food down on the table.

"I hope you don't mind I've changed your clothes from— the dress." She says with a cough, and I look down to find myself in a soft nightgown. "I've already set out a bath for you."

"Who—"

My fingers tingle, and I close my hands into a fist at the sharp memory of V and his Blessing of pain.

"Your maid." She curtsies, and I just sit there stunned as she waves at the envelopes on the tray of food. "Empress Amber ordered specifically you read those first."

There are two.

The first one I pick up is cream-colored, plain except for the intricate Empress' seal. What I find inside is closer to a note than a letter.

V will be your mentor in bettering your Blessing and Siren for your manners. Expect to perform at the Trials in three months' time.

Empress Amber

I don't stop to wonder what even in the heck were the Trials supposed to be before I stand still, my fingers hovering over the next envelope.

V?

The same V as yesterday?

Chaos and confusion finally snaps me awake from my daze, and I turn to the maid still standing next to the bed I'm lying on.

"Where am I?"

"Amber Palace, of course." She replies, waving at the lush forests outside the wide windows.

So that wasn't all a dream?

Groaning softly into my hands, I drag my finger through the other envelope, thinking the best. At least I hadn't been captured and have my head put on a spike.

The scent of bittersweet reaches me before anything else. I already have an idea who had written this dark-tinged letter, who had fewer words than the one from the Empress.

Winter wing. Eleven.

V

I find myself staring at the elegant script, my brows raised as I flip the paper front and back. But there's nothing else, and I toss both back onto the tray.

I needed a bath first.

________________________

With my hair up in a loose ponytail, I walk around the Palace like a lost roaming sheep.

The cool linen dress felt comfortable, worth arguing and pleading with Mira for a straight hour. The lightweight fabric danced between my legs as I wandered the halls, searching for Winter Wing.

Which I had no idea where it was.

After what seemed to be like forever walking aimlessly through the empty halls, I stop in the middle of a large corridor.

Frustration bubbles through my throat, but the curse breaks out in surprise with a sudden tapping on my shoulder.

"Dammit!"

Then I clap my hands over my lips, and whip around to stare at the stunned face of a hazel-eyed man. His hair is a soft black, and my eyes widen as his thin lips part.