It was the most beautiful place she'd ever seen.
Whatever building they were in had been perched atop one of the gray-stoned mountains. The hall around Eva was open to the elements, with no windows to be found, just towering pillars and gossamer curtains, swaying in that jasmine-scented breeze.
It must be some magic, she thought, to keep the air warm in the dead of winter. Not to mention the altitude, or the snow coating the mountains, mighty winds sending veils of it drifting off the peaks like wandering mist.
Little seating, dining, and work areas dotted the hall, sectioned off with those curtains or luxuriant plants or thick rugs scattered over the moonstone floor. A few balls of light bobbed on the breeze, along with colored-glass lanterns dangling from the arches of the ceiling.
Not a scream, not a shout, not a plea to be heard. Only peaceful silence that made her breathe out in comfort.
This wasn't Xandria, this was his sanctuary.
Eva turned around and saw a wall of white marble arise, broken occasionally by open doorways leading into dim stairwells. She wondered where the passage led and twisted her head around to see Theodore watching her intently.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"My court."
"No, I mean I know." she stumbled over her words and saw his lips curve up slightly though a huge frown was still plastered across his forehead, hidden only by his midnight black hair. "What is this place called?"
Theo stalked closer, his movements feline, those violet eyes turning subdued—lethal. "And why are your eyes violet?" she mumbled in a whisper.
"Are you okay?" he asked, cupping her face and Eva smiled, her tears blurring her vision.
"I am now," she spoke and closed her eyes, feeling his warmth on her cheeks.
When she opened her eyes, Eva could see the way Theo was gazing at her. At the black eye bags and her bones which prodded out from her collarbone and arms.
"I'm fine," she whispered and he scoffed, his eyes filling with the familiar rage that she had noticed back in the hall.
"I'll kill them all," he muttered to himself, and Eva shook her head, placing her hands over his.
"You mean you're going to leave me again?" she asked and let a tear fall. It might persuade him not to go away and leave her again in an unfamiliar place.
"I'm not going anywhere unless with you, okay?" he caressed her cheek lightly with his forefinger, and Eva breathed out.
"Maybe I'd have to."
Eva raised her head and narrowed her eyes, glaring at him in full force as her lips formed a pout.
"I certainly missed that look on your face," he commented as his expression once again turned lethal. "I promise I won't kill anyone, but just let me give them a warning?"
Seeing her silence, he interpreted it as a yes and smiled, as he backed away and in Eva's perspective, it looked as if he was about to teleport away.
Just as he was starting to walk away, red exploded in her vision, and suddenly she couldn't breathe fast enough, couldn't think above the roar in her head. One heartbeat, Eva was staring after him—the next, she had her shoe in a hand.
She hurled it at him with all her strength.
All her considerable, mortal strength.
After all she had just gone through, he was leaving her just like that!?
Eva barely saw her silk slipper as it flew through the air, fast as a shooting star, so fast that even a powerful King like him couldn't detect it as it neared—
And slammed into his head.
Theo whirled, a hand rising to the back of his head, his eyes wide.
She already had the other shoe in her hand.
Theo's lip pulled back from his teeth. "I dare you." Temper—he had to be in some mood today to let his temper show this much.
Good, Eva thought to herself, that made two of us.
She flung her other shoe right at his head, as swift and hard as the first one.
His hand snatched up, grabbing the shoe mere inches from his face.
Theo hissed and lowered the shoe, his eyes meeting hers as the silk dissolved to glittering black dust in his fist. His fingers unfurled, the last of the sparkling ashes blowing into oblivion, and he surveyed her hand, her body, her face.
"What was that for?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest, and that was when Eva realized what she had done.
All her tiredness and exhaustion she had felt for many days had just faded off into nothing. She still felt as if someone was blocking her lung canal, but the anger and rage that she had just displayed showed that she was not as damaged as she had thought herself to be.
It made her want to laugh out in relief.
They didn't manage to break her.
"If you leave me here all alone, that shoe will be getting thrown again."
He chuckled as he lowered his face and peeked up, to observe her stance and expression. "You know you are safe here," he spoke in a more serious tone, but Eva only tilted her head to a side.
"Are we still in Xandria?"
"Unfortunately," he muttered, but she heard him.
"Do you have other places to stay too?" she questioned in shock and wondered what else she didn't have a clue about.
Another chuckle. "As for where you are … " He gestured to the house behind us. "I'll tell you tomorrow at breakfast. For now, clean yourself up. Rest." That rage flickered in his eyes again at the dress, the hair. "Take the stairs on the right, one level down. Your room is the first door."
Eva nodded, feeling extremely weak all of a sudden. The adrenaline from before was fading away to be replaced with exhaustion which made her shoulders slouch.
As she turned around, Eva abruptly took on a pale look, as if she'd been painted with whitewash — even her lips were barely there. Then with one step backward she crumpled like a puppet suddenly released from its strings.
Theo caught her before her head could hit the hard marble floors. Eva knew she would faint when her stomach gave out. It felt like her innards were being replaced by some kind of black hole. Then nausea crept from her abdomen to her head and the world suddenly went black.