Cleo knew this exact bone. She forces herself to not lash onto Mira for holding onto something that truly came from the bone man. How the hell did she possibly get this? Did she know what Cleo did?

She looks past the withering girl and down to her dirty boots. Cleo sniffs hard. Her boots were all sandy and broken. Obviously one of the reasons  why Cleo didn't wear shoes, as they get all broken and disgusting like they look now.

Cleo directs her gaze to Mira studiously. She looked pale and cold even though she was only clad in a sleeveless shirt and tight black pants. There were remnants of sweat on her forehead which ran directly down her chest to fall beneath the V of her cleavage. Cleo wondered whether it was the man picking on her or if it was something else that made her look so frightened.

Cleo did feel proud that she stepped up and helped Mira however, besides the fact that she wasn't too fond of her or the way she stood so close to Jezio. She have herself credit for saving Mira at this moment, till she brings her thoughts to Jezio. There was obviously something going on between them. The fight she witnessed between them was clearly her being jealous that Jezio kissed another girl.

Cleo clenches teeth. Jezio really has abandoned her for other women. More than one that is.

After Cleo took her last glance to Mira and Jezio who has never taken his eyes off of her, she saw how something white and long fell from her bag. Cleo ignored it at first, but then she remembered how familiar that specific thing looked. Like a bone. So she just had to turn back and grab it before following the little sheep named Mira all around the village who ran from, hell knows what to here; only to find another sheep trying his luck.

"Thank you." Her voice is scratchy and lacks warmth.

Cleo nods her head. It was awfully strange witnessing everyone out in the open without having to cower herself in the village. She felt so free to acknowledge the villagers and their eyes clearly. Cleo was awestruck. She didn't feel the creeping feeling of being watched and judged when she came here unknowingly. She didn't feel afraid or anxious about getting caught, because this was real. She had a reason to be here without having to cover up.

Another advantage was how well she knew her place around the village from the start to the finish. It is something to celebrate with Jezio for teaching her all these niches.

Mira gently takes the bone from her and slips it into her bag all the while Cleo watched her.

She tilts her head to the side watching the side view of Mira.

Mira clears her throat and scratches the back of her neck. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Cleo brings her head back straight fast. "Aye. I wish I could say the same about you."

Mira frowns at her looking down at her lips in a split second before meeting her eyes again.

Cleo knew that look, it was a look of familiarity. Mira could be remembering her, her voice, the way she keeps herself, maybe even her face and body structure. It was her cue to leave. Now. Before things got worse with Mira finding out who she was.

"Thank you again." This time Mira bows down low. Cleo awkwardly grimaces at her and wished she could stab that bone in one of her eyes.

Cleo nods again not wanting to say too much and revealing herself or giving hints. She turns to leave quickly. She sees her guards in the distance waiting for her after she called for a bathroom break right after seeing that bone fall.

"Wait!"

Cleo rolls her eyes and groans. Now she feels the lighting sense of deja' vu. She really couldn't get enough of Cleo could she?

Cleo switches herself around already glancing around, reading the knowledge in them about what she was thinking.

"Why did you do this for me?" Mira motions to her bag. Her colour seemed to be coming back to her face and chest.

Cleo curls her toes in the delicious hot sand wishing to soak herself in it. She ignores Mira and scans the buildings for Jezio or a demon. After seeing clear skies and bare roofs she meets Mira's eyes again.

"Weapons is something you need with you all the time. You never know when you'll need it."

Cleo said that in a low tone. She didn't want a another question of wait! I saw you before. Oh damn you're Cary aren't you?

Well in all honesty she really wasn't Cary. Cleo could lie straight to her face and say it without feeling an etch of guilt.

"But-"

Cleo was already walking away. She had no more time for Mira. She was here for the Village's medicines and this is what she'll get before going back to Court. The Court was quickly running out meds, Cleo was perplexed that it happened. Especially with the cold and other sicknesses taking over. She already saw the looks of hopelessness and defeat on many courtesans faces— suggesting to her that the same thing is happening with her like it did in the past.

They were failing.

Cleo holds her breathe in to hear for any footsteps or so behind her, but luckily the curious Mira let her be. Cleo knows this is something Mira won't forget that happened to her, she'll even tell Jezio and he'll be even more mad at Cleo than she was at herself for letting herself get involved with Mira.

She just had to know it was a bone from bone man which she already knew it was. There was another mystery, How Mira came to be with such an item. Cleo wanted to ask, but she didn't want to spend so much time with Mira and then the girl knows who she is. She'd be blowing her entire identity and bring the Court to shame for her wrong doings here.

Cleo had no choice but to keep her own unsolved mysteries to herself and to piece them together one by one.

Cleo didn't know that her feet led to bone man's aisle but it did, and that's at least without many villagers following her around like fucking ducks.

Bone man looks at her with an aghast expression. He halts his doings which looked like freshly killed meat in his blood stained hands to look at her.

Without any word or look Cleo was gone.

At the infirmary here in the village, Cleo was quick to grasp the necessary meds demanded from the Court for Thane and Kaleb especially. And then after that  she walked her way back beside the palanquain, to Court.

They reached Helhard until Cleo felt a set eyes on her from the right. When she turned to the right — which was also the niche where Cleo and Jez regularly met up before going about their day; she found it bare. There was nothing but villagers gawking at her. Cleo finds herself at ease of not finding any of them half naked this time.

She shakes away the shivery feeling and  faces the front where Helhard stood open with the guards through near to the fields of fiery; waiting for her to join them. Before she did, something clicked in her head. She swivels her head to the side — running her gaze over the tops of the roofs with suddenly plenty windows open depicting faces looking through. They even lifted their dogs and chickens up to see her.

It was there when she spotted him. He was crouching down low on his feet with a hood covering his mouth and head. It was hard to know whether it was really him, but Cleo knew that style from anywhere.

She turns to her guards. "I want to do something first."

                                                   °°°

Cleo excused herself to use the privy once again. She was all too aware that her guards were giving her rather questioning gazes about needing to head back urgently to deliver the desired medicines to the ones needing it at Court. She was all too aware about it being an absolute necessity at this point; and her heart physically pinched as she thought of both Kaleb and Thane laying unmoving in their rooms; but she wanted to speak to Jezio.

Speaking to him wasn't her first priority whence her arrival here from Court. She insisted to collect the specific herbs and elixirs, but it was mainly to check up the old man. But before she did her mission got jagged by Mira. Not that she was too bothered about her having a bone weapon at that, she really didn't care. Cleo was more conscious about Mira meeting him.

Obviously Mirabella knew that his tongue was gone, but that should be all. That specific line should remain uncrossed. However if it didn't, Cleo supposes she'll have another tongue to burn off.

She meets Jezio's eyes across from her from where they were seated on the roof hiding behind a chimney, obscured from her guards where she dissappeared behind a corner with Jezio catching her before lifting her up against the wall of the residence, and also obscured from the villagers view of them.

His face is cold and etched from stone. He removed his hood so it lay hanging from around his neck but he left a part of it on his head. He sat, as well as her, cross-legged across from each other with their knees digging together the way he liked it doing. He always liked being touched.

Cleo feels different being unveiled to him in just her dress and nothing else. Her hair blew all around her face making her wish she didn't have any, as well as the heat from the sun on the roof scorching her bottom. Cleo could picture it as pink and raw from it. It felt heavenly however, very peculiar than having the heat pass through simple breeches which was thicker than her current silk dress. It was like having a thin cloth between her and a piping hot furnace.

Cleo blinks slowly, trying to tame her long hair. Her fringe is long, falling almost directly into her eyesight. She had to blink it away often. It really was close to the time for her to trim it. She takes the heavy load of hair and twists it around her wrist before roughly tugging it into the neck of her dress leaving it to lay on her bare back covering her skin from the parching sun.

She groans as the load of hair starts unwinding from her dress and back into her face. This fucking wind.

Jezio's silence made her even more pissed. She practically scowls at him. "So you're just not going to say anything?"

She meets his brilliant blue eyes then she runs her gaze to his low bun. She feels jealous that she didn't think of tying her hair too.

"I was waiting for you." He says quietly.

Cleo rolls her eyes. "Talk Jezio. I don't have all day. I have to leave soon."

He sighs out loud and looks down to her lap completely bathed in her silk dress leaving none of her legs to view. He looks up again running his eyes over her neck. "What happened to your neck?"

"Demon." She snaps. She really didn't have time for any of this. She was already bored of him.

"Again?" His jaws were clenching.

She swats away a strand coming her way like a damn fly. "Jez, I'm going to do something about it. Are we really having this conversation? For what? The tenth time? It's getting tedious."

He says nothing to that instead he says. "Why are you here?"

She shakes her fringe out of her eyes. "The question you should be asking yourself is why weren't you there after you said you would be."

She knows that he knew what she was referring to. He looks away in shame to the horizon full of trees and a very distant sparkling sea. "I was worried about you. I've been searching the entire village for you. That fisherman wasn't anywhere in sight." He takes a deep breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth. "I thought something happened to you. I was so close to swimming after you."

Cleo watches him amazed that he could possibly make her feel bad for this situation, even though his face looked genuine and really worried for her, hell what was she talking about? He was deeply concerned about her. He just says things and does the complete opposite making her look like a damn puppet running after him expecting her to be the most important thing in his eyes.

"Right of course you were. Right after I saw you sucking face with someone else."

He meets her eyes with alarm. "It's not what you're thinking."

"Oh really? Because from what I understand was that  you promised you'd be there for me waiting till I returned and if I didn't you'd come after me, and none of those things were true."

Cleo crouches up on her feet. She didn't care that her face was bared, she only did it so that no one would notice Jezio with her. Other than that she'll say she wanted to urinate on the roof for a change, to try something different before she awaits her death.

Jezio gets into the same position. "I was lured away, she seduced me-"

She presses her one hand not steadying hers against the wall of the chimney onto his mouth firmly. "I don't want to know. I don't care."

His warm and soft lips reminds her about their time they had in his room. She remembers how his body pressed against hers, and how his delicious hands and lips explored her body sensually.

She pulls her hand away. "I'm going to leave. I have other duties to see to. I might not be coming back to you again. My crowning is my next step to be concerned about right now."

After she said that, she feels a sense of relief. As if this was her drawback for her to continue leading her Court appropriately.

"I hope you and Mirabella find happiness."

She slowly edges to the end of the roof.

She hears a commotion right behind her and that's when she knew that he stood right behind her not ready to end the conversation just yet.

"Wait what? Mira and I?"

Cleo rolls her eyes not allowing him to see. "Or rather the girl you kissed when you weren't there for me. You know how risky that was for me? Anyone could of seen me. Easily spotted me in that crowd but instead you eat another girl's damned mouth."

It wasn't all that risky. Cleo vaguely remembers calmly making her way back, with her of course keeping cover. But she wanted to see the lengths that Jezio would go to come up with good enough reason for not being there for her.

"Cleo that girl you saw, I'm terribly sorry but I was so wasted-"

She cut him right off. Same old words from literally every man to ever exist.  "You made a promise and you broke it. That's where this ends."

"Where what ends?"

She finally turns around to face him both still crouching. He was right beside her close enough to feel his knee digging into her side. Cleo skims behind them and back again to his apprehensive eyes.

She doesn't answer him. She let her hair blowing into her mouth be an excuse for it.

"Cleo. Listen to me. What happened with the girl meant nothing, she kissed me."

Of course she kissed you. That's why you kissed back.

He continues, "And Mira is my sister."

Cleo freezes. That sound alone sent shivers down her spine to a point where she shook. Was he telling her the truth? Cleo runs her mind through the times she saw them together but can't think of one time where she saw them intimate or kissing.

Perhaps he was telling her the truth but for some off reason it still didn't sit right with her.

"Why didn't you tell me? You always told me to stay away from her."

"Of course I had to. You don't want her knowing you do you?"

She meets his reasonable expression, then she looks to his plump lips wanting to press hers to his to forget this all happened to make her forget about the injured Kaleb and Thane. And lastly to forget the intricate knot they were all in. She was considering hurling them both to his room and just get into it. But she rather fought against it.

She would just feel worse in the end.

Jezio inches closer to her and cups her chin rubbing his rough thumb over her silky soft skin. His hand was warm and hard but awfully gentle against her face. Like he always was with her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She wants to know. No. She needed to know.

Jezio sighs and brings his face closer to her until they nearly shared breathes. "I was afraid that would hurt you."

"How could that possibly hurt me? You not saying anything hurts more."

His thumb runs over her lower lip. He tugs it down and watches his thumb as he runs it over her bottom teeth.

Cleo clenches her teeth together. His finger is salty and a mouthful with just his thumb. "I don't eat fingers."

He immediately removes his hand and takes a step back before plotting down on his bottom with his arms around each of his knees. "I thought that would make you feel more distant from me. Because I have a sister you'll find every reason to leave me as to not reveal your true identity."

He didn't meet her eyes, he looked to the horizon rather. He is deep in thought Cleo instantly picked up. His scruff stood out more than usual.

"I have to go."

That startles him, just as soon as he got into his position he was quick to exit it and was at her side at the edge instantly.

"You're not angry with me are you?"

Cleo gets into position to jump off the building, Jezio's hands goes to her waist to enable her to. His warm hands burned her waist through the thin fabric of her dress, ten times worse than the sun did.

Before she jumps off, she turns to him."No not angry."

He sighs and nods his head slowly. "Will you come back?"

Cleo throws her head laughs. It was short and sweet, when she brought her flaming eyes to his he looked afraid and intimidated. She nearly felt sorry for him. Nearly.

"I only have one thing to tell you Jezio."

She was already feeling hurt and broken inside.

He still has his hands around her waist. "Whats that?"

She jumps off. She bends her knees before landing reducing the hard impact of it, which brings her directly face to face with a villager who stared at her wide eyes halting with a straw and cup of tea Cleo guesses; in her hand.

She ignores the young maiden, already seeing her screaming to the rest of her family Cleo guesses again that she stood here. She screams loud enough that Cleo could hear her even through the window at which she found her. She smells a delicious chicken roast from the kitchen window and when she stares further through the window into the house—she sees the figures of two other girls. The one had short cropped black hair and stares back at her with equally wide eyed stares, and the  other younger girl is pressed against the wall right before the black-haired one.

Cleo suddenly feels out of place, she has obviously disrupted something hugely going on here.

She hears a scream and the red head she saw just disappearing away seconds ago returned with the straw at which she sipped from, with other faces Cleo didn't have the energy for with two other faces behind her. One was a lad and the other another girl.

"She's still here! Oh my goodness Z! Its really her."

As if finally understanding what just happened the two girls sprang apart from one another both giving Cleo a what the hell look.

Cleo says noting but definitely takes this as her cue to leave. She looks up to see Jezio calmly watching her over the edge of the roof, Cleo didn't know if she should feel relieved about Jezio staying up there and not following her or whether she should feel guilty and perturbed.

"To hell with you and your excuses!" She shows him a vulgar gesture from both hands not caring if anyone heard and then Cleo found her guards and left.

                                                        °°°
"How is he holding up?" Cleo, if she were completely honest, barges right into Thane's room to see both Sir Evans and Gwen at Thane's side.

They both jerk when she asked that question a little too loud if she were honest again. But she didn't give a damn. Her mood was foul after what happened with Jezio at the Village. She wouldn't even cheer up in the least with a simple slice of chocolate cake.

Evans looks to her with hurt in his blue eyes before looking away and resting his chin on his son's palm tightly clasped in his. Even from this view Cleo could see how loose, pale and lifeless Thane's hand was in his. It brought a harsh stabbing pain in her chest. She didn't want this happening. To anyone else but Thane.

Gwen scuttles away from them before scratching around on her silver tray filled with the new herbs Cleo collected as well many other scalpels, and scissors and other instruments that made Cleo shake from fear critically remembering Genevieve telling her that she needed those instruments to dissect her thigh.  And having Thane need them made her feel ashamed and more vicious.

Cleo glances to the rest of Thane's silent bedroom. His double bed stood in the center of his room. He had gray sheets and curtains covering his huge windows with dressers and wardrobes at the end of the room. Even his room looked physically sick and glum. It contrasted his everyday personality. It was as if life itself has decided to stop growing in his room. It lacked colour and happiness— making Thane the exact remedy for it all to sparkle back to life.

She noticed the entire Court being dull and quiet. There was no ray of hope to be seen anywhere within their walls. Cleo pretended to not notice it.

Gwen starts making her way to where Cleo stood at the foot of the bed with the tray in her hands. Cleo didn't want to know which of the flagrant instruments Gwen used on Thane.

"He is stable Miss. We did the surgery on him and found many fractured rib bones. It will take a long time to heal, but for a little boy his age he should be battling it. He is still high with fever, so his infection is still strong but with the herbs you retrieved it should soon pass."

Cleo stops listening halfway through what she said. She was about to stop her to tell her to give Cleo a sentence of no less than ten words to tell her just what happened to Thane. A too big description was way too much for Cleo to bear with.

"So he will be alright?"

Gwen nods her head very thoughtfully. She had bags under her eyes and looked a little too frail and thin. Her sister's death has unmistakably taken a huge toll on her. Cleo pitied the woman.

"He is unconscious now, after the surgery but he will wake once the drugs has left his body."

Cleo could only nod. Her whole body feels less tight and angry. Thane will be alright. That was all she wanted to know. Those hooves of the demon had squashed a good amount of his rib bones but all that mattered to her was that he would live. She blames herself partially for what had happened to him. She would see that Thane would accept for her apology for not being there for him. She was so bloody drunk she could barely lift herself up. It was all her fault. Completely her fault.

She shakes away tears she didn't know was coming to her eyes and gives Gwen a deep nod of gratitude for all her life-saving doings.

Gwen bows in return clearly seeing her bobbing throat of swallowing away her tears and looks away from her before glancing towards Thane and then making her way to the door.

Cleo stops her by grabbing a hold of her arm. "Before you go..."

Her eyes gave it away. Gwen looks at her with pain in her own eyes and a small smile before shaking her head slowly. "There is no results. He has a huge deep cut on the head from the hooves, with  no reaction from him. He is in a deep slumber."

Cleo feels the tightness in her core returning. Her hands feels clammy and her chest too painful— feeling as if boulders were rolling across her from inside.

"You will call to me if anything else changes."

Gwen nods for the tenth time before bowing again and then leaving.

Cleo wavers in her position, her head is cloudy. Her whole body full of tension, even her red marks seemed to be acting up as if they knew how defeated she feels. She scratches her thighs.

She turns to Evans still holding his son's hand in a high-back chair. His hair is tousled, he had been running his fingers through it too many times to count. He was stressed. Bothered. He lost his wife and now nearly his son too. The poor man must be feeling attacked, losing all the good things in his life to mere accidents.

She could see in the set of his shoulders that he had been here for a long time without moving. Cleo thought that Thane would be in the infirmary, but she assumes that he is here because of how full the infirmary is. Full of the other sickness. The cold that had been frolicking the gardens, foods and also people.

"Evans." She squeaks his name. She didn't know why she did.

He turns his head, looking at her with sorrow filled eyes. There were beginnings of tears in them. It reminded Cleo of the night she found Thane in the library also about to cry for his missing toy Daisy.

They both had the puppy eyes and wavering lower lip when they were on the brink of tears.

Cleo swallows. She could handle people arguing, but not crying. It wasn't like her to hold them and to say everything will be alright. She knew Thane would be good and healing, and Evans knew it too. But she would not offer him comfort. She was not a slobby handkerchief or pillow to hold when feeling full of melancholy.

She decides to ignore his feelings. She sets her own aside and draws attention to the talk he had beseeched from her.

"I apologize for the late response. But I remember you wanting to speak to me about something."

Evans says nothing at first. He only stares at Thane's blue lips and sweaty hair pasting his unruly curls to his forehead.

Cleo steps closer until she reaches the chair Sir Evans was seated in.

Thane looks, well, practically dead.

His face is completely ashen, lacking of colour. There are rivulets of water on his forehead plastering his hair there, making the curls longer and to fall onto his closed veiny eyelids.

The sight makes Cleo's belly turn. She feels rising nausea burning in the back of her throat.

"Miss, apologies for how I look... I- I really am struggling to cope." Evans is out of breath as he uttered those words.

He was in his normal Court uniform, but his face looks worse than Gwen did she his son was alive. His hair stood on end, his face gaunt. His skin is too pale and he had dark bags under his eyes. He looks dead inside. Cleo knows exactly how he feels.

His face is expressionless. Only thing he felt now was pain.

"No reason to apologize Evans. I understand. I'm truly sorry for what happened to your son."

She eyes Thane's stripped pajamas with his hands on either side of him, except for the one hand that Evans refused to let go. Thane's blanket comes up to his chest, making him look at ease. Peaceful actually. Cleo despised it as much as she adored it.

"Thank you. I'm going to stay here until he wakes up."

Cleo nods knowing that he couldn't see her. She turns to leave him in peace with his son and to seek Landon to finally speak with him but then she remembered that Evans requested to speak with her.

"Evans."

He turns his head. His eyes full of hurt. "Yes Miss?"

"You wanted to speak with me about something." She repeats for the second time after he literally ignored her the first time.

He turns his face away. He looks to the bedsheets as if they had the answers for what she asked.

"That is correct."

She stands still at the foot of the bed crossing her arms. "I'm listening."

He takes a deep breathe and stands up, reaching to pour himself a glass of water on the bedside table. The big big room, which Cleo suspects could of been bigger than her shattered one; made her feel claustrophobic with his presence.

He faces her and holds out the glass of water to her. She shakes her head. He nods and takes a big gulp of it.

His cheeks are bloated before he swallows it and looks over her shoulder at something at the same time.

He is deep in thought but when his teary eyes meet hers she could only hold in her breathe.

He motions to the chair he just discarded. "Would you like to sit down?"

"No."

He nods. "Would you like to sit on the bed then?"

"No."

He nods again before chugging the last of the water down his throat.

"I'm having doubts about where I sit now. I don't like certain beads and materials. It's too uncomfortable. I only like my bedsheets."

He looks at her puzzled but doesn't question what the fuck she was talking about. Again. One of the things she absolutely loves about Evans. He was quiet. He leaves out questioning, he just listens and nods. She would of turned each person into an Evans if she could.

"I have to meet Landon. Get this over with Evans."

He sits back down with his forearms resting on his thighs. "I noticed that Thane likes you a lot."

He didn't meet her eyes. "I like him too."

That makes him look up to her. Those tear filled eyes are gone and are replaced with something else that Cleo couldn't determine.

He runs his fingers through his thick dark hair making them stand up even more. "He talks a lot about you-"

"Is this about your little secret?"

He looks baffled as he sits up straight. "Secret?"

She rolls her eyes and uncrosses her arms. "Your medicines for mommy. Ezra."

His mouth falls open, shock overtaking him. "Miss, how did you... It's not that what I am talking about."

Cleo crosses her arms again feeling shocked herself. She bites her tongue. Why the hell did she have to be so forward? Fuck.

"Don't worry Evans. Your secret is safe with me. I mean we all need our get away elixirs and broths do we not?"

He doesn't answer her.

"Thane didn't mean to tell me. I asked him for a completely different reason." She frowns then, "You don't know where Ezra is from or what those marks on his walls mean do you?"

He shakes his head slowly. Well at least his mouth closed up. "I don't know anything Miss. Ezra is a young but very wise man. He doesn't allow questioning. Only trading and that's it."

Cleo pouts. Her power and reputation has most certainly worked to her advantage at getting Ezra to speak with her about those marks and the Elemental, his wife.

"Did you know his wife?"

"No. I didn't know he had one."

She hears honesty in his tone. Evans is innocent in this whole knot. For some strange reason it made her feel unwantingly better.

He continues after she falls silent. "Is something the matter Miss? Do you seek help with something regarding him?"

"No." She really wants to plop her bottom down now. She's been walking and standing too much today. She is beginning to feel weary and crabby. She didn't eat today come to think of it. No wonder she feels the way she does.

Evans bows his head in his seat. "If there is anything to need you can always speak to me."

No! She screams in her head. She didn't even like him. Only what came from him, which was laying on his back motionless. She eyes Evans up and down. He wasn't too old. Around his mid thirties she would assume. He had a good build and stature,  he is quite fit with strong muscles peeking through his clothing. So what did Evans do in Court again?

She turns to leave again before her boredom creeps in and she scorches Evans' tongue off.

"Wait Miss! Please don't leave just yet."

He was half out of his chair when she faces him.

Cleo should really work on her always wanting to leave problem which Kaleb already mentioned to her.

He stands up fully and looks down at her from his height. "Since Thane has commenced a bond with you, which is something I don't even see with the nurses taking care of him nor the maids he has befriended; my thoughts went to him craving a mother figure in his life..."

Cleo already knows where this was going. He trails off as if he knew that she knew what he was asking of her. Either that or he was waiting for her to finish his statement and hopefully she'll agree with it.

"I'm not marrying you."

Evans shakes his head immediately and stretches out a hand but after she eyes it with disgust he drops it again. "Not marriage Miss. I want you to be his guardian after I pass."

"Me? His guardian? Evans I'm not a damn maid or nurse. I can't even take care of my plants how could I possibly take care of him?" Cleo chuckles darkly under her breathe.

He gives her a pained look making her regret her answer. "He really loves you. He can't stop talking about how cool or nice you are. And with this all happening my days are numbered."

"Evans. My days are limited. I will be seeing deaths bed sooner than you will. Then who will take care of him?"

He steps closer to her. "I am seeking for it just in the meantime. Please Miss. He has never trusted anyone besides me until he met you."

Cleo wants to say yes. But she knew she shouldn't, because if something like what happened to him happens again the blame will be on her. Again. She would be very much responsible for all his little stupid tactics that little boys his age does, like breaking glass or sneaking away food or worst case he finds his new interest in the Village.

"Alright. I'll do it." She only agreed because of what happened to him. This would be a sliver of that apology she so deeply owed Thane. She wasn't thinking for sure but if this was an opportunity to make things right with little Thane she will grab it. But this was only an apology nothing else. She'll probably tell Evans later that week that he should find a new mother figure for him.

Cleo despised children. She didn't want any for herself. It was just not her cup of tea. To have little feet running around you constantly begging to be given attention to? She'd rather clean the horses shed.

Evans breathes a sigh of relief and falls back onto the chair facing his son.

Cleo goes on. "Just tell him I'm not his mother. I don't have full breasts of milk and definitely don't have hands to change diapers." Did they still wear that at his age? She already knew nothing.

Evans takes a hold of his sons hand. "Thank you Miss. Not only will my son be overly grateful for it, but I will too. I-"

"I really don't have the energy for some oh you're amazing. You won't regret it. He is a wonder, kind of shit right now."

Evans gets up again and bows down. "Gratitude."

She is already at the door. "I'm doing this for him Evans not for you."

He only stares at her for a long time in his own thoughts and she was out by the door within a few heartbeats.

                                                          °°°

"Landon!" Cleo; as she knew she would; finds Landon in the meeting room where he is about every second of every day.

She startles him because his monocle fell off his eye to hang off its chain on his chest, his one hand went to his hundreds of brochures across his chest and he has sprung up from his seat. His back was to the open double doors viewing the Village from below, so he formed a silhouette across the table standing directly in the sun.

"Mistress?" He blurts. He looks like he is seeing her for the first time with that open mouth and look of awe.

"I'm going to the Demon Tower."

He looks even more flabbergasted and inches properly out his seat to walk around the circular table to her. "But Miss, you cannot. Why would you want that?"

She faces him firmly with her hands on her hips. "Because things can't keep happening like this."

She takes in a deep breathe in through her nose and exhales out through her mouth. "I'm going to destroy it."

She could of sworn she heard his monocle crack.