After breakfast, Calix left for work but not before telling Astra to take some rest. That was what she had also decided as well until she accidentally passed by the door of a library. Like everything else in this place, the library was enormous, but what truly took her breath away was that it spread across two floors, filled wall-to-wall with books.
For Astra, this place was nothing short of heaven. She spent the first hour just wandering through the aisles. Eventually, she selected a thick volume and settled down on a sofa to read.
She was halfway through the book when the library doors burst open with a bang and entered a disheveled-looking Rowan.
"Oh, thank god," he sighed, visibly relaxing. "I thought you had gone missing."
Astra glanced up from her book, her brow slightly raised. "Is everything alright?"
Rowan poured some water for himself in a glass water dispenser that was installed in the library.
"Oh everything is fine," he replied, downing the entire glass in one go before collapsing onto the empty space beside her on the sofa. "Except for the part where I could not find you and had the entire estate searching for you for the past twenty minutes."
"Oh," Astra responded and turned her attention back to the book as if this information was not of her concern at all.
"What are you reading?" he asked, leaning forward to see the cover of the book in her hand. His forehead creased in confusion when he saw the text was in some foreign language he could not understand.
"A documentary of a serial killer," she responded flatly.
Rowan blinked, taken aback. "Eh? You are into those kinds of books?"
"I am into anything I find interesting," she replied, her gaze never leaving the page.
"And what is interesting about this book?" he asked, genuinely curious. Though if he was being honest with himself, his curiosity was less about the book and more about the person who was reading it. He wanted to understand her and figure out what kind of person she was.
"It is about a girl who fell in love with a man and manipulated him into luring people so she could watch him kill them. The book explores how they redefined 'love' and expressed it in—""
"Nope! I do not think I want to hear anymore," Rowan interrupted, holding up a hand to stop her.
Astra finally looked up at him, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly when she noticed the fear practically radiating off him in waves.
He turned to face her stiffly, his face notably paler than before. "You... you are completely insane to read stuff like this."
"Not really," Astra replied, her tone matter-of-fact. "I am just fascinated by humans. The human psyche is complex. It is intriguing to see how love can twist into something so dark, how emotions can drive people to extremes."
"Most people just read romance novels when they want to understand love," Rowan muttered, running a hand through his already messy hair. Then, as if a sudden thought struck him, he turned to her with widened eyes. "You are not secretly a psychopath planning to murder anyone, right?"
"No," Astra responded simply, turning another page. "Murder is messy and requires too much effort."
"That is...reassuring," Rowan shifted away from her slightly, though he remained on the sofa.
Astra caught his movement from the corner of her eye but chose not to comment. The silence between them stretched on, broken only by the soft whisper of pages turning, until she finally closed the book and rose to her feet.
"So why were you searching for me?" she asked, walking over to return the book to its proper place on the shelf.
"Nothing too serious," Rowan said with a casual shrug. "I just wondered if you wanted to join me later. I am meeting up with some friends and they have been asking to meet you."
"Your friends?" She raised an eyebrow.
Immediately, the face of the person she had met on the balcony flashed in her mind.
Normally, Astra would not even consider saying yes. She was the type to decline without even sparing a second to think. But for some reason, she could not stop herself from asking if she wanted to go.
"Yeah, we are going horse riding." Rowan explained before he added, "No pressure, though. I just thought it might be a good opportunity for you to meet some of the people you would be seeing in your new school."
Right, her new school. Aside from moving across the country to live in this estate, she also had to start a new school. It was a good thing the school had two weeks break before the new year could begin so she still had time to mentally prepare herself for that.
"Alright, just tell me when we are leaving," Astra told him.
She did not agree because she wanted to but because she knew Rowan had a point. The school she was going to join was nothing compared to the school she went to in that small town. She needed to prepare herself for the changes that were coming, whether she liked it or not.
She was not someone who was going to deny that her life had changed drastically because of her mother's marriage. Hiding in her room and pretending everything would magically sort itself out was not an option for her. If she was going to survive here, she needed to actively adapt to these changes.
Besides, she liked horse riding.