I must've passed out from the cold because I'm opening my eyes to Deiya standing over me.
Her beautiful face is frowning softly in worry as her long lush green hair curtains her face and body.
"Sorry about that. I keep telling him to do something about the cold in this place but he refuses to. Are you alright now?"
I nod, my head feeling light. With such proximity, Deiya's beauty mesmerizes me and I can't tell her apart from some kind of goddess. Weird considering how the boyish features blends so well with it all.
Strands of her hair fall close to me and I resist the urge to reach out and touch it.
I bet it's soft. I bet it's like clouds.
Her voice rings in my ears like a beautiful song and I swear I see butterflies fly around her head in a circle.
"You had such a bad fall, anything broken?"
I shake my head, not trusting my mouth to work. Not sure my voice should interrupt such wonderful sound.
"Good." She smiles and it's like the sun is over the bed, illuminating her smile, her eyes, the blue flowers growing around her ears.
"Any Headaches?"
The back of her hand presses against my forehead. And I feel my body melt at the warmth, like a calm river was flowing down my chest.
The previous throbbing pain in my head seems to have stopped, nothing seems to be hurting.
Good, because I don't want things to hurt anymore. I just want to sleep.
I nestle deeper into the bed with a tired sigh. Trying to remember the last time I felt so safe, so calm and so war—
Nobody leaves the Master's Tower…
I blink at the distant thought. "Wait…what did you say?"
Deiya's bright smile shines down on me, her hand moving from my forehead to stroke my hair. "Nothing. Just get some rest. We'll talk later."
"Okay…" I trail off and my mind sinks back into the warm bliss, the words drifting away.
From somewhere there's a distant feeling of wrongness but I'm sure it can wait for later.
Deiya continues stroking my hair, humming a lovely tune that I've heard before.
A blurry memory tries to rise above the haze but is washed away by her voice.
"Relax, Arielle. You're safe."
"I'm safe."
My eyes begin to flutter close, the warmth spreading over me pulling me deeper.
Nobody leaves the Master's Tower…
The voice floats by and sinks away. Sleep calls for me and my eyes flutter shut, a content smile over my face.
If you get the chance, you'd better run… they break pretty little things like you."
Another distant voice echoes by.
Those men outside will tear you to pieces.
Now we run and don't look back…
WAKE UP, ARIELLE!
The cold unknown voice blasts like a cannon in my head, cutting the heavy haze and jerking me awake.
My eyes fly open. Clarity suddenly dawning on me, the room sharp and real.
"Get away from me," I hiss.
In one swift motion I slap Deiya's hand away and toss the blanket off me, jumping off the bed and putting good distance between us.
With a dramatic eye roll, Deiya's smile fades, the butterflies vanish and the glow in the room disappears leaving everything back in its normal gray.
"Alright. Fine. I tried."
I blink at her, wanting to be so furious but only managing another slightly angry hiss.
"You tried to hypnotize me!"
Deiya sighs, waving a hand with disinterest. "It's a little sleep trick. I just wanted you to calm down because you looked about to faint when I told you you couldn't leave."
I stare at her in horror.
"Oh come on. It's not a death sentence. It's for sleep. Obviously it didn't work but at least you're much calmer now." She shrugs flicking her hair that's reaching her ankles. "So you're welcome."
I open my mouth to tell her exactly what I think of her little stunt but she speaks up before I do.
"I'm harmless, I swear." Silver eyes sparkling with amusement and mischief wink at me.
With her distraction out of the way, my mind immediately zeroes back on the question that was on my mind before I passed out.
"Who is your master and what does he want with me?"
Deiya wags a finger at me, her voice taking on that grave tone again. "I am not at liberty to say. He wants to do introductions himself."
"Why can't I leave?"
"That I also can't tell you."
"Well where's your master then?"
"Hunting."
"Is he…a werewolf?"
"Ugh, no." Deiya wrinkles her nose in distaste.
"What is he then?"
"I can't say."
I blink at her, the calm feeling fading with the ticking up of my annoyance.
"What can you tell me?"
"Anything else besides that."
"Where am I then?"
"In the Master's Tower. Like I said."
Frustration bubbles inside me. I squint at the unnaturally beautiful face in front of me trying to decipher if she's purposefully being vague or misunderstanding me.
But her mouth twitches and the glint of mischief flashes briefly in her eyes.
"The Master will tell you everything. I'm just here to offer my riveting company. I'm pretty funny. Do you want to hear a joke?"
"No." I blink momentarily confused.
"Wait. I promise it's good." Deiya bounces over to the bed and sits, spreading her hair. "Okay so, a bird, a dog and a snake walk into a bar."
"I don't want to hear a joke. I want to leave!"
"Just wait. It's good. So the bird says to the snake—"
Her voice cuts off abruptly and her face falls slack.
Her eyes glaze for a second before she blinks and all the sparkling playfulness disappear.
That's when I feel the cold. A different kind of cold like in a graveyard and goosebumps litter my skin.
"What's going on?" I back away, looking around for the source of the unsettling change in the air.
Deiya stands, fixing her gaze on the door.
"The Master has returned."