Jasper's black eyes watched Princess Daniela escape the ballroom. With one piece of his essence still speaking to the vampire Prince, he took a deep breath before leaning his head back just slightly. He released another piece of his soul, this one far more sturdy than the last but lacking a physical form. It was a cooling ink puddle that leeched off his body to make a shadow on the ground. With practice, he sent it off to follow Daniela, wondering what she was getting up to. He was ready for true power and had waited long enough. He would need to find out how to manipulate or threaten her into following his will. She didn't seem quite the same as she once was, but that didn't mean she still wasn't as gullible, naive, or ridiculous as she was as a child. He couldn't take any chances.
His shadow form easily slinked over the large stone-tiled floor, a quiet inky smear. It arrived just in time to see Daniella close a nearby doorway that led to one of the meeting rooms. Slipping underneath the gap of the door, he watched as she fell to her knees, clutching her head as if in excruciating pain. In this form, he couldn't tell what was going on. He couldn't properly see her soul as his shadow figure, so he simply watched as she looked as if she was being pulled apart while simultaneously being stitched back together.
When whatever feminine episode was over, she stood to her feet, her eyes as hard as any polished diamond. She seemed fiercely determined, which made him wonder what she was after and what she would do. He called back his soul, knowing that she would soon come back to the ballroom and there was nothing more for him to learn. He felt a piece of himself fill with energy as his inky shadow crawled up his pant leg, fusing back with his main body. This was one of the most exhausting ways to use his ability. It was always taxing to pull himself apart.
Sometimes he even wondered if one day he'd put himself back together in the wrong places, if somehow he would end up as some fragmented version of himself. He wondered if that version would be just as violent as this one.
Lifting his head, Jasper noticed that Michael and Dahlia were now making their way toward him. Straightening his posture, he gave them a polite smile that was far too wide to look friendly.
"Your Majesties," he said, lacking any sense of respect or reverence in his tone.
Michael's eyes drifted left and right before he stepped closer to his son, making sure his voice was low enough not to be overheard by anyone. "You are not here for your childish games! You will find the most powerful among the ladies and bring honor to our house. It is your only job here." The harsh words whispered by his father were nothing that he hadn't heard before.
"Stop slouching!" Without looking too obvious, Dahlia held her son's shoulders as if she was straightening his suit jacket. In reality, she was making sure he was standing up straight. He looked so pale, far paler than usual. She guessed that he was using his soul's magic, an ability she couldn't quite understand. Not that her son had done her the courtesy of even explaining his powers properly.
As the king and queen fussed over their only son, their gazes shifted toward the entrance of the ballroom. They noticed the crippled girl walking in, looking far less pathetic than she usually would. For once, she wasn't in her chair, but the cut of her dress was peculiar; it was as if she hadn't finished dressing, and the neckline was quite forward for a young lady.
Danielle felt a sense of urgency as she came back into the ballroom. Now that she understood what exactly was going on, it made it far clearer how much danger she could possibly be in. And this time, she wasn't just battling Eric. In this new reality, it seemed like the entire world was dangerous.
She didn't quite understand how so many of the faces were unfamiliar. In each lifetime, she would see the same people over and over again. But this time, only her family was recognizable. She wondered if she didn't encounter anyone else from her past lives.
Just as she was about to pass a small group of people, she noticed Jasper. He was here. Jasper had been around in every single one of her lives, a constant. In some lives, he was insane and deadly, his own version of obsessive and chaotic, but in a way that never seemed quite threatening enough to be scary.
She stopped walking as she became lost in her thoughts, staring at him. Her mind was trying to tell her something, reminding her of the various memories. She had seen him at three other engagement parties in her various lives, and something in her brain was trying to click into place.
"Jasper," she spoke his name quietly, more to herself than to him. She touched her lips, a habit when she was trying to recall a memory from one of her past lives.
Both Dahlia and Michael gave the crippled girl a polite smile before making their way back toward the other kings and queens, not forgetting to give their son a harsh look, reminding him that this was not a game.
Jasper stared at Daniela, ignoring his parents shooting him daggers. No matter how much they said this wasn't a game, that was a lie. The marriage market was a game. Only very few people knew it.
His black eyes stared into Daniela's green ones, watching as she seemed lost in her mind while staring at him. She was so different now. Recalling his clone, it easily dissipated back into his body as he stared at Daniela. Unlike when she had left the ballroom, she returned whole in a way. Her soul looked formed this time, but not in a way that made sense. He had the ability to see the souls of the living, and hers was odd. It was as if it had been squashed and layered together. Someone had stitched multiple souls into one patchwork that didn't quite fit right, but somehow all held the same tapestry. It was creating a picture he could not yet understand, and Jasper was fascinated.
At that moment, a strange warmth bloomed in Daniela's chest, a buzzing sensation that made her feel oddly lightheaded and centered all at once. She didn't know it, but the green bead in her chest began to vibrate, glowing with a soft, ethereal light that pulsed in time with her heart. It was a faint radiance, but to Jasper's eyes, it was an undeniable response, a brilliant burst of energy. He didn't know why it was happening, but he could see that the bead was reacting to something. He had never seen a soul act this way before.
Their odd behavior had called minimal attention to the two of them. In their own ways, both Daniela and Jasper were one and the same. People avoided Daniela because of her crippled state, while others avoided Jasper because of his homicidal tendencies.
It took a while, but Daniela had overlooked something. Something glaringly obvious. In each of her lives, the only deviation in the pattern was him. As if he was some kind of glaring signal. Jasper was different every time. There wasn't a single life that she relived where Jasper was the same. It was as if his very being refused to be caged by some sort of time loop. If he could be different, that meant he was special. Maybe he could help. She needed to figure out a way of getting closer to him. In all of her lives, he had been the only anomaly, and this time she had realized it.
Hissing in pain, she felt something on the palm of her hand and knew what it was before even looking. The messages she received after she retained her memories of her past and present lives. The last message had said, "Third time's the charm." She was never sure if these messages were counting up or down to something, as if she would soon run out of lives like a cat.
Etched into her skin, as if someone had branded her with a hot iron, she read the words: "The fourth time is not so charming. Last chance." It looked like whatever God was gifting her these reincarnations had run out of patience. If four lifetimes were not enough to survive, she agreed she didn't deserve a fifth.