While Evelyn was too exhausted to dwell on everything that had happened that day, the same could not be said for Ivan. His mind was far too occupied with the weight of it all.
In an expansive dark room, lightning flashed outside the arched windows. Only a single candle burned by the bed, its flame trembled each time the wind blew a little inside the room. The bed remained untouched, as its owner sat silently by the tall window, lost in thought.
His intense dark red eyes stared out at the havoc created by the violent rain outside. He sat with one leg pulled up and the other resting on the ground. One arm draped over his knee, which held a lit cigarette between his fingers. He wore a black shirt, of which he didn't bother to close the buttons–revealing his taut chest and sculpted abdomen. Below, he wore low-slung black silk pajama pants.
He looked like a dark lord sitting there, with the storm raging outside reflecting the turmoil within him. As he stared out the window, his mind remained fixed on the moment Evelyn had unlocked her locket and unleashed her monstrous powers.
She was incredibly powerful, he knew that much. Perhaps even as powerful as he was, but she was untrained and anybody who saw her like that could tell that uncontrolled power was more dangerous than anything else. She was practically a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode with a single wrong trigger.
The question was…why? Why would the lumens do this to their own lumen princess, someone so powerful?
When he had spoken those harsh words to her earlier, he saw the sadness in her eyes. He could only guess she must have been subjected to harsh criticism by her own people. As royalty, she was expected to out power them all and yet, she had been made to feel lesser.
Why would a king let this happen to his own child, the first in line to the throne? Why present her as weak when she was stronger than any lumen out there? Not just stronger than lumens, if trained properly, she could almost rival him in power.
None of it made sense and that fact irritated him. And on top of all, why did his powers react to hers like that?
Ivan had lied when she asked if he had seen those flashes of images when their powers came into contact. The truth was, he didn't know how to respond if she began asking him question, questions he wasn't ready to answer.
The visions had affected him tremendously, rendering him speechless, which was rare for him. He felt those overwhelming emotions, an intense love and devotion that the man in the vision held for the blond woman running towards him. And when that man caught her in his arms, it filled Ivan with a profound sense of fulfillment.
He slowly lifted his hand, took a long drag of his cigarette and released the smoke upward. Then he rested his head against the wall behind him and looked up at the ceiling of his room.
"What was that about?" he whispered, his eyes still lost in that scene.
He asked himself again, "Just who were they? Why did we see them? Was it a lost memory?"
He took another long drag and continued to wonder, then said in a low voice, "Just who are you, Evelyn? Why are you filled with so many mysteries? Every time I try to solve one, another takes its place."
Ivan hated the idea of feeling anything remotely warm. Ever since that incident with his mother, he had always kept everyone at arm's length, refusing any love offered to him. He despised anyone who even tried to stir something close to warmth. So, with everything happening with Evelyn, he loathed the mysterious pull he felt towards her. He hated the idea of any feelings being stirred inside his dead heart by some memory that wasn't even his to begin with.
As he thought of his mother, his eyes turned icy cold and he realised that Evelyn was bad news to him. He understood that getting too involved in her affairs would only bring trouble to his carefully structured life.
After taking the last drag of his cigarette, he tossed it out of the window. Finally, he stood up and lay down on his bed, hoping to catch some sleep.
The next morning, Ivan woke up to a not so subtle knock on his door. He didn't need to look to know who it was, as there was only one person who would even dare to knock on his door, let alone aggressively.
After the third round of persistent knocking, he finally got out of his bed, and opened the door with a vicious glare directed to the person in front of him, who was none other than Damien himself.
With a wide grin on his face, he did a dramatic bow and said, "Good Morning, Your Highness.."
Ivan narrowed his eyes at him, then shifted his gaze past him to see Cece standing with a grim expression, her hands crossed in front of her.
Ivan didn't need to guess why the two were at his door so early in the morning. Letting out a soft sigh, he turned and walked back into his room, leaving the door open for them to come in.
After stepping in, Cece closed the door and went to take a seat on the sofa by the window, while Damien began to roam around the room. Ivan poured himself a glass of water, only to hear Damien say, "So..care to fill us in on what happened yesterday, brother?"
Ivan didn't reply right away, he took a couple of sips from the glass, then turned around to face them and said in a crisp tone, "Hm…let's just say, yesterday reminded me about why I don't deal with people."
Damien raised a brow, while Cece's brows furrowed in worry at the mention of Evelyn. Before Damien could make another one of his sarcastic remarks, she asked, "Why? What happened to Evelyn yesterday? I was so worried, running all over Raven Street trying to catch up with her. It's like she moved at lightning speed! I lost her in the crowd before I even realised it."
"Damien only told me that you took her with you after I found him in the alley with a dead child. He asked me to wait for you to fill me in. Well, I've waited patiently long enough, so can you please tell me, truthfully, what happened to my friend yesterday?" She emphasised the word 'friend' to make it clear that she wasn't interested in any more deflections.
Ivan and Damien fell silent, both taken aback by seeing Cece lose her composure, something they hadn't seen her do in a very long time.
Damien turned to look at Ivan, silently telling him not to provoke the tigress already baring her claws. With a heavy breath, he finally spoke, "Princess Evelyn is not a late bloomer... like everyone thought after the potion-making class incident. The truth is, her family made her wear a divine artifact, this amber locket around her neck which suppresses her powers."
Now it was Damien and Cece's turn to fall silent, their eyes widening at the revelation. Cece's frown deepened and she asked, "Why? Why would her own family do something like that? Also why did she run off like that, into that dark alley?"
"I don't have the answers to why a royal family would make their firstborn, the heir to the throne, look weak like that. Not just weak, they made her defenceless against anyone's attack. As for your second question, she said she felt a pull towards the place where the darkrots were… as if she had to stop whatever they were going to do to that boy."
This time, Damien spoke in almost a whisper, "It's the same ability as yours, Ivan. Are you telling me that Evelyn can sense and navigate to evil energy nearby as well?"
When Ivan gave a slight nod, Damien exclaimed, "Good lord! She's the second person who can navigate to those creatures accurately! Just how powerful is she?"
"She is powerful enough to melt the darkrots, so it is safe to say that she's almost on par with me." Ivan said calmly. "But she's untrained and that makes her a danger not just to those around her, but also to herself. She's like a ticking time bomb."
The room fell silent again. They all knew exactly what could happen when someone lost control of their powers. The memory of what had happened to Ivan's mother sent a shiver down both Damien and Cece's spines.
Cece then said softly, "We have to train her, we cannot let anything bad happen to her. Please… she's a good person! I know it. I sense no malice in her." One of Cece's special abilities was sensing a person's aura so neither of the brothers doubted her when she said it with such conviction.