Iglance over at Felix standing in the distance, every instinct telling me that something is wrong, yet I can’t quite figure out what it is. I’m certain Felix has been ignoring me for close to two weeks, hiding behind the excuse of needing to help with placing the pipes in every town we’ve visited.“Is everything okay?” Elaine asks, and I turn toward her, unable to wipe the frown off my face.“I’m not sure. Felix… he’s been different. Has he ever told you about the darkness calling to him?”Elaine freezes and looks up at me, a hint of fear in her eyes. “It’s happening so soon? He’s usually capable of keeping its lure at bay for weeks at a time. We must move quicker if that is true.”I bite down on my lip, unable to ignore the niggling feeling that I’m not getting the full story from either Elaine or Felix. “What happens when he gives in?”Elaine looks away and wraps her arms around herself. “He is never harmed. The curse envelops him, but it never hurts him. It’s everyone around him that suffers. Before I joined the cause, Theon would often let the curse take him to aid us in conquering other surrounding countries. He’d go by himself and return victorious. Theon would decimate an entire army in a matter of hours, and he’d never remember a second of it. All he saw was the blood on his hands when he eventually took back control, without any indication of what might have happened. It hasn’t happened much in the last decade, but once, when he was going up against an army of tens of thousands of men, Raphael and I followed him with our best soldiers in tow, despite his warnings. I’ll never forget what we saw.”She shudders and closes her eyes for a moment, as though the memory is too vivid to bear. “He loses himself, truly. The curse transforms his entire body into a creature unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. His eyes turn black, and he becomes a demon in every sense of the word. I’ve never feared Theon, but I fear him when he’s like that. When the battle was over and he was the last person standing, Raphael and I tried approaching him. We thought it would help him fight the curse’s hold on him, but it didn’t. We lost several of our men, and we nearly lost our lives, too. When he’s like that, he’s not himself. It’s almost as though he’s possessed. He didn’t recognize us, and he couldn’t discern who did or didn’t wish to harm him.”I look at Felix, unable to even imagine what Elaine is describing.“We cannot let it get that far, Empress. You must warn me if it looks like he might be losing control, so I can arrange for us to return. Our plans can wait.”I nod in agreement and watch as Felix helps the soldiers lift and place the metal. I’ve noticed that he’s minimizing his use of his alchemy, and I wonder if it’s because he’s starting to fear that using it will make him lose control.I walk over to him, noting the way he tenses, yet he doesn’t look up. It’s odd, but I feel like he’s barely been looking at me. That’s an entirely strange thing to notice, but I doubt I’m mistaken.“I can help with that,” I tell the soldiers. They pause what they’re doing, and almost as though in sync, they bow. “You really need to stop doing that,” I tell them. They don’t bow to Felix; they treat him like one of their own, yet they won’t treat me the same. The soldiers look at me with reverence, and it’s unnerving.“Our apologies, Your Excellency,” one of them says. Simon, I believe his name is. “It’s instinctive. Most of us have waited for you our entire lives, and to have you here among us is an honor. Rumors of a prophecy have been whispered from one generation to another, starting with my grandmother.”I smile as best as I can and raise my hands the way Felix taught me to, lifting the steel into the air before lowering it into the ground the soldiers dug up, taking minutes to do what would take them hours. In each area we visit, Felix places the largest pipes as quickly as possible, and I push my fire through just as quickly, before the curse has a chance to disrupt our work. Once the main one is in place, it appears to give us a safe radius from which our soldiers can operate, placing additional pipes that warm the ground more than just the single one can, after which Felix connects them, and I channel my fire through them all.The soldiers murmur excitedly among themselves, but my eyes are on Felix. He’s facing his men, and he has yet to acknowledge me. I’ve been making excuses, telling myself that it was just the workload that was getting between us, but I’m uncertain how much longer I can deceive myself. Felix is avoiding me.His back straightens when I walk over to him, betraying his awareness of me. “Felix,” I murmur. When he turns toward me, he looks impatient, as though he doesn’t want to be anywhere near me and I’m merely inconveniencing him. “Let’s retire for the night,” I murmur nonetheless.He looks at me, his expression guarded, and I find myself wishing there was a way of knowing what he’s thinking. For a while, I was certain that he and I were growing closer, turning our marriage into a real one. The moment we embarked on this journey felt like the start of the end, and with every day we’re away from the palace, that feeling is reinforced.noveldrama“Very well,” he says, nodding politely. He gestures toward the tents behind us, and I tense. I expected him to take my hand or offer me his arm at least, but he’s keeping his distance from me.I smile tightly and turn to head back to the tent we share, Felix right behind me. “Won’t you walk by my side?” I ask, my voice soft.Felix responds by falling in step with me, his cloak brushing against mine. It hurts that I have to ask him for something so simple.“You’re pushing me away, Felix. I want to know why. Is this truly all because you think it’ll keep me safe?”He stares straight ahead, avoiding my gaze. “I’ve merely been busy, Arabella. We all have been.”“Why are you doing this to us?” I ask, my voice breaking. “It wouldn’t hurt you to treat me with kindness, would it? Are you behaving this way because you’ve now accomplished your goal of mitigating the curse’s effects? Now that I’m near useless to you, you’re dismissing me?”My worst fears escape my lips without conscious thought, and I wrap my arms around myself in an attempt to shield myself from the vulnerability I’m feeling.Felix is quiet for a moment, and I regret saying anything at all. I feel exposed and foolish.“Does it matter?” he asks, his tone uncaring. “Once we finish heating the ground, you’ll return to Althea.”I look up at him in surprise. It is what we agreed on when he asked me for help, but somehow I expected him to ask me to stay nonetheless.“What if that’s no longer what I want?”He looks at me then, a hint of an emotion I can’t identify flashing through his eyes. “You’ll return home, Arabella. You’ll have all you’ve ever wanted, everything I’ve promised you. That was our agreement, was it not?”“It was, but that was before…” I bite down on my lip, unsure how to finish my sentence. It was before he and I became a couple, before he took me to bed and showed me who he truly is, beneath the monster he portrays.Felix smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Before I took your innocence? What is it you’re worried about? I’m certain the boy will take you back the moment you return.”I stop walking then, and so does Felix. For so long he refused to even let me think of Nathaniel, and now he’s seemingly accepted me being with him after I return to Althea? It can’t be.“I assumed you were staying away from me because of the curse’s effects on you. I see the torment you’re in, Felix, and I’ve tried to be patient… but perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I was just another woman in the long life you’ve lived. Someone who has fulfilled their purpose and ceased to be of interest to you. Perhaps I was seeing things that weren’t there.”He looks away, as though this conversation is a tedious matter he must sit through, and it hurts. “What is it you’d like me to say, Arabella? As part of our agreement, we tried finding love together, and we failed. We’ve found a different way to mitigate the curse’s effects, so naturally, our priorities must shift in line with that.”Arabella. He hasn’t called me my love or beloved in so long. I stare at him, wondering whether I can trust his words. I can’t tell if this is the curse’s doing, or if I’m merely being naïve.“Don’t do this,” I whisper, one last plea.Felix smiles at me, regret in his eyes. “Our fate has always been sealed, Arabella. We might fight it, but we only delay the inevitable.”“Do you truly believe that?”Felix looks up at the sky and nods. “I know it.”I stare at him and take a step away from him before turning and walking away. Part of me hoped that he’d follow me, but he doesn’t.