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130


ARIADNE

Callan straightened himself like nothing had happened, like he'd been pretending the whole time but I knew he wasn't.

The pain I'd seen in his face was enough to tell me hadn't been pretending. It was real. He got up slowly at first, like it took effort but then his shoulders lifted and his face started to clear.

Standing upright again, he took slow breaths. And for a second, I almost believed he was really fine. Almost. That's when he looked down at me and gave me a small smile. But even the blind could see that that smile wasn't a real one.

He was trying to hide something from me. He was trying to hide the reason why he'd been bent over just a moment ago, on the verge of passing out until I thought about calling for help.

"I'm okay," he said quietly. "Everything's fine."

I frowned. "Are you sure? Because that didn't look fine, Callan. You almost fell."

He chuckled a little and shook his head. "It was just a slight unease. Not a big deal. It happens sometimes. This is not the first time."

He sounded calm now, too calm for someone I thought was going to faint. But I was worried about that.

"What do you mean it happens sometimes?"

He shrugged, forcing out another clearly fake smile. "It's normal for me. Really. I just stood up top fast and felt lightheaded. Doesn't it happen to you?"

"It does, but not enough to make me so lightheaded I want to faint." I crossed my arms and shot him a pointed look. "You didn't stand up too fast."

He waved a hand, realising he'd been caught. "Ariadne, I'm fine. Really."

I stared at his face as if that would give me the answer to the question that I had. He looked right at me steadily, as if daring me to argue.

Was he telling the truth?

Or was he trying to protect me from worrying?

A lot was going through my head. Was it from the cake? Did we mess up something? Had the cake made him feel sick?

"Callan," I asked slowly, "Are you sure it wasn't the cake? Or maybe something you drank?"

He shook his head with another small laugh. "No. It's not the cake. Don't worry about that. I swear."

The way he said don't worry made me worry even more. Men say it like a magic spell, but it never worked on me.

In fact, most times it did the opposite of what it was intended to do.

Before I could say any other thing, I heard footsteps behind us. I turned sharply and saw three maids and a guard standing there, together with Lydia whose brows were pulled tight, like she had been watching us for a while.

They all looked tense. Worried. Like they had walked in on something bad. Callan straightened even more and raised a hand in a casual wave.

"It's all good," be called out to them. "I just needed some air." The maids quickly nodded, all carrying nervous smiles on their faces.

Lydia gave me one sharp, uneasy look but I shot her back one. She didn't say anything.

"Come on," Callan said softly beside me. "Let's go back."

We walked slowly back to the party, hoping we hadn't weirded out everyone else and acting like nothing had happened.

But every time I looked at him, I kept seeing that image- his eyes rolling back, his hand on his chest like something inside him was breaking.

By the time we returned to the room, the laughter was back with the maids now talking amongst the selves. I glanced around. "Where's Sera?"

Callan looked confused. "She was right in here when we left, wasn't she?"

Fear tickled the back of my throat even though there was no reason for us to be worried at all.

"Sera?" I called her name.

Her voice came from the bathroom just down the hall. "Here! I'll be back in a minute."

I let out a breath I didn't even realise I'd been holding.

Callan put a reassuring hand on my back before walking away to talk to one of the guards. I stayed close to the table, my eyes stuck on the bathroom door.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Sera stepped out.

The second I saw her face, my heart froze. She looked pale. Pale was an understatement. Something about her expression just told me she looked drained and empty.

What the hell had happened to her? Something had scared her.

"Sera?" I whispered, stepping towards her slowly. "Is everything okay?"

She blinked fast, like she was trying to focus.

"Yeah." She said quickly. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Her voice was shaky. And that intensified my worries. I stared at her. She wasn't looking at me.

She was looking behind me. I glanced back to see what she was staring at but it was just the cluster of the guests we'd invited.

Callan was talking to Vylia. I turned to look at her. She swallowed hard. I grabbed her wrist gently.

"Sera. What happened?"

"Nothing," she said again, forcing a small smile. "Just... tired."

But I knew her face. I knew every little expression she made. And right now, her eyes looked like they had shadows in them.

Before I could push more, she walked away. An hour later after the party ended, we finally left the kitchen. I made my way back to my room with her.

She was holding a gift bag that Vylia had given her, against her chest. She sat on the bed, but her hands shook slightly as she played with the ribbons on the bag.

She kept staring at the corner of the room like she expected someone to jump out. I sat beside her, slowly.

"Sera," that's when I finally brought it up again. "Talk to me. Tell me what happened back there at the party. You looked like you'd seen a ghost."

She blinked again and forced a weak laugh. "No. Its nothing. I was just thinking."

"That's bullshit." I whispered. "You look shaken. You look like you sas something and I won't be happy if you don't tell me what it was. Talk to me."

Her lips pressed together hard. "I'm just thinking about how we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

I froze for a moment, because as much as that sounded like a good reason, something told me she was lying and this was just a way to cover up the real reason.

Tonight was going to be a long one.