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Will, not ainst the iolden head, she followed hireat hall Once they were through the door and in a glooness so deep it seeht of stairs barely illu

"Why must it be so dark in here?" she muttered "A maid could fall and break her neck"

"This is the Black Castle"

"I realize this is the gateway to the Abyss, my lord, but surely you don’t intend to harvest souls here on your staircase"

He turned and looked at her, then at the tinyat her back "I can see in the dark"

She startled "Can you truly?" But she kneas no lie How else would he hunt in the pitch-black of night?

He started up the stairs again without answering, his ar at it, she had another thought "How do you bathe?"

"Mistress Liliana, you ask the , he pinned her with a darkly intrigued look "Do you wish to share a bath?"

"I"It doesn’t come off - does it?" If it did, that meant her father had"It must, for I am clean" But he didn’t sound too certain "I don’t reht, one she’d have to stick close to hiure out No hardship, that And it wasn’t because the Guardian of the Abyss was a monster most beautiful She’d seen beauty in her father’s castle - the Blood Sorcerer hily man, but he surrounded himself with the most exquisite courtiers male and female It had only taken a few overheard pieces of mockery, a sneer here and there, for her to learn that outward beauty was no measure of the person within

But the Guardian - there was a strange charm to him, a wildness that was as innocent as she was not He truly appeared to have no comprehension of the impact of his looks, trapped as he was in the Black Castle and regarded with fear by both his prey and the people of this realence very well And Liliana was discovering that a lethally fascinating mind was a temptation as sinful as those lips she wanted to lick

"Surely you don’t wishchahts that had a su low in her body She couldn’t afford to feel anything for hih he would never look at her the same, that way lay distraction and failure Her task was to awaken and return hiain, its people no longer crushed under the steel boot of the Blood Sorcerer’s brutal reign

"So weak, Mistress Liliana?" Stopping at the top of the staircase, he held out a hand, his green eyes intent "Come"