SILVER-HEART
Chapter 164: The Story Of Yin And The Fox Guardian {12}

Chapter 164: The Story Of Yin And The Fox Guardian {12}

Bartholomew stared at Nicklaus with wide eyes, he couldn’t believe his ears, the Emperor wanted to help a stranger he knew nothing about. With his Dark Grimoire? One off-limits to everything? He wasn’t sure what shocked him the most... the fact the Emperor was willing to help a stranger or the fact he didn’t once question what the little girl’s use might be, it was almost like he trusted her.

"Do you trust her Emperor? A stranger? Enough to help her?"

Nicklaus darted his green eyes to his orbs like the flame itself. "Trust" Nicklaus tasted the word on his lips, ’Trust’ was something he had never accomplished in his youth but only when he met Yelena he understood what it truly meant, she taught him a lot of things, things he wasn’t sure he was capable of, until her. She was a light into his dark world, and she was the world itself, and his children were a mixture of happiness and light. They ARE his light, the only light and the rest was the blackened world.

"Trust is a strong word, Bartholomew. For now, I just want to help a dying little girl" Nicklaus finalized.

☆☆☆

Ava stood before the mirror, unable to recognize herself, she has never worn any cloth aside from her Elven attires, but now seeing herself with an empire waist gown, cream-colored, and a black fur coat on top to keep her away from the cold, she couldn’t help but like this new sight of her.

And she hasn’t stopped smiling at herself, but that particular smile suddenly fades when she observes her features more, she was beyond pale and her eyes had bags under them and she looked thinner than usual, a constant reminder, she didn’t have long for this world.

Sometimes she wondered which it would be... Instant death or forced back to Aldon’s side. She would gladly choose the first.

Pushing the thought aside, she grabbed the journal on the table and shove it into the pocket of her coat, and looked around the room briefly, the maid was yet to be back after saying she needed to get something. Ava was already getting antsy here, and waiting wasn’t something she could do right now.

So having a second thought she stepped out of the room and peeked in the empty hallway before emerging fully. She buttoned the coat until she was certain she was covered properly, but a sudden sound made her jump, and her heart almost leaped out of her chest. Her gaze leveled to a boy suddenly emerging from a tiny door hidden behind the curtains.

He came out with a red apple in his mouth, and she just stood there observing the stranger as he rose to his full length and took a bite, his bored gaze on the floor before shifting to her and then he froze, the apple just hanging close to his mouth and his eating actions ceased.

Ava blinked numerous times staring at the pretty boy before her, midnight hair kept shoulder length, straight and silky, and his eyes, there were what stopped her in her tracks, they were pure golden. Such beautiful eyes. And the boy looked her age too, dressed in just a black long sleeve shirt as if the cold didn’t bother him one bit and black leather pants and boots, the only color around him his dark look was his eyes and the apple he held.

His skin was like the snow itself, just like the Emperor’s skin tone.

"Fuck!" a foreign language released from him instantly and his teeth gritted. "Maid... you saw nothing!" he interjected.

And Ava frowned. "I’m not a maid"

"Then whoever you’re"

She opened her mouth to speak but multiple footsteps caught her off guard.

A mantra of the same foreign language left the boy and before she turned to him next after diverting her eyes from the incoming presence he grabbed her hand. She couldn’t even process her own shock because he was already running like a lion was on their trail.

Ava wanted to shout at him at his abrupt gesture but her words were caught in her throat, her wide eyes on his bouncing hair as he ran and his side profile.

’This boy’ she thought as her eyes trembled. ’This powerful warmth’. A warmth so mighty that it felt like the sun itself, spraying against her skin and taking away the traces of cold. His aura was so warm and strong and it brought a tenderness to it, it was so strong and broad that it covered the entire area but suddenly it was dimmed and she only felt it emerging from his body.

Was he masking his aura? Why?

This body has the warmest aura she has ever encountered enough to steal the cold away.

Ava was already panting by the time he decided to finally stop, but the boy didn’t look like he had run up many flights of stairs. The said boy was currently peeking behind a wall like a criminal.

"Are you a thief?" Ava was forced to ask because he was overly suspicious and he DID come out of a hidden door. He could be dangerous.

The boy merely dragged his gaze to her like he didn’t want to spare her any glance at all, he looked overly bored, and not even a spark of interest in his eyes, no amusement, he looked as if his gold eyes could only see the blackness of the world with no color.

"Then you’re an accomplice,"

Ava gasped. "What did you steal?!" She demands ready to get this boy to the knights, but then again sadness found her features, maybe he didn’t have enough to eat, but the boy clearly didn’t look like he was malnutrition he looked healthy, maybe it was the money he needed.

"You can’t be serious right now," the boy said with an indifferent look, for he knew what she was thinking right now, but to think that far? Just who is she?

"I won’t report you to the knights as long as you don’t steal anymore"

"No, that won’t be necessary"

"I mean it! This is the last time okay?" she pointed a finger at him and the boy just stared at her with his bored gaze.

"You’re not serious are you?"

"I am as serious as I look, stealing is bad and if you need help just ask"

The corner of his lips twitched, and Ava couldn’t tell if it was out of amusement or because he was holding in his anger, either the way it was hard to read someone’s emotions who was bored about everything.

He even looked at her uninterested. ’A completely different way of how William looks at me’ she thought. William looks at her with so many emotions storming his eyes like a storm, everyone speaks volumes with their eyes, she has known that much, she has never met anyone as unbothered as this boy.

"First you’re mistaken" The boy began grabbing her finger and Ava stilled as his warmth flushed to her body. "I’m not a thief and I am not in need of money. I do not want anyone to know I am here"

"Why?!"

"Because I should be in the spirit forest with my mother and my little sister,"

"Then why aren’t you there with them?"

"I have no interest in seeing creatures or spending my time in a forest of them, so I asked my mother for a favor"

"So you’re here without anyone knowing?"

He shrugged letting her go. "Long enough before the old man finds out," he said staring into space.

Old man?

He darted his bored gaze to her. "Look... um"

"Ava"

"Ava. You did not see me and you never met me understand?"

Ava just simply nodded, although he wasn’t asking nicely she didn’t want to get in his way. She was fascinated by this boy because he simply does what he wants. He was meant to be away with his mother and sister but yet he chose to stay because it doesn’t interest him. Ava has never run away from her duties back in Aethel and yet this boy looked like he would do it with batting an eye.

"I have never seen you here before, are you a guest?" he didn’t ask out of curiosity because he wasn’t, he just wanted to make sure she would leave because he didn’t trust her.

"Y-Yes, I’m a guest"

Good... then he doesn’t have to worry about her. Saying nothing else because he lost interest in speaking, he walked to a curtain and grabbed it.

"Wait!"

He stopped and turned his golden eyes and met vermilion staring back at him, and strangely enough she was smiling.

"What is your name?"

He looked irritated now. "I don’t tell my name to strangers" he flapped the curtains and right before Ava’s eyes he was nowhere to be seen.

Was there a hidden door there again?

"That’s unfair," Ava said, pouting. "You know mine and yet you don’t tell me yours. Rude" She mumbled walking out of hiding and meeting with the maid who attended to her.

"There you are!" she sighed in relief. "Please we must go immediately the Emperor awaits you"