When Dante was finally alone with Iza and the ‘dragons’, because Ron decided to speed up dinner preparations, those two creatures left his bag and again clung to him. Twinkle really liked nuzzling into his chest when Sparkles made a mess of his hair again. It even untied his low ponytail only to start building something akin to a nest.

  Iza sat on the bed next to him. She observed these two with curiosity that was a first for her. Dante had never seen her take that much interest in something.

  “So how can I help you?” She asked finally, while petting Sparkles' head.

  “You can take us back! We need a ghost to guide us through the barrier. Only you guys and SoUls can cross the barrier between worlds.” Sparkles enthusiastically explained that it was more welcoming to questions of the dead than the living, apparently, or maybe it was just Kelit they didn’t like.

  “So how did you two get here in the first place?” Dante asked, and Twinkle squeaked, embarrassed, and covered its head with wings.

  “It was StAr's idea, they said that this way we can find mum! We followed a SoUl, but we got lost!”

  “Don’t put the blame on me, sTaR! We got lost because of you!” retorted Sparkles.

  “Don’t argue over something that already happened,” the young lord reminded the creatures. “What matters now is that you’re safe. You said before that you would go mad if you stayed. Do you know why?”

  “We don’t, but the longer we were stuck here, the more we started feeling fuzzy inside. It was unpleasant.” Twinkle took a look at its butt, without the tail, but it didn’t look sad because of it.

  “It was abrupt at first, but then it stopped a few days ago, and it felt more like home,” the other sibling chirped. Dante connected that time to the start of the Death Week. “But like I was saying, the ghosts can help us! We tried approaching some, but they all ran away! Rude, right?!”

  “Very,” Iza mused. “But I think they all were scared...I was, too, before.”

  “That’s because they aren’t ready to go,” explained Twinkle with cute gentleness in its eyes. “It’s a one-way journey for your kind.”

  “Oh…” Iza mumbled, realising something. “So you’re from the Afterlife?”

  “No, we are from…” Dante again heard the sound he couldn't understand, and, guessing by her expression, neither did Iza. Sparkles burrowed itself in the young lord’s now tangled hair and said: “It's before the Afterlife. Home is so beautiful, I don’t know why you guys are always so scared to cross the boundary.”

  “Some of us are afraid of the unknown, and we have people that we care about here.” Iza again smiled softly. “We think of here as our home.”

  “Hmm…I understand.” Twinkle nodded its head at Iza, while Sparkles lay on its back:

  “I still don’t.” Its sibling ignored it and asked the ghost girl:

  “Are you ready to go? We really want to return home.” Iza glanced at Dante, who in turn avoided her eyes. He wasn’t ready, he doubted he ever would be, but it wasn’t his decision to make

  “I don’t know. Can I think about it?” Twinkle let out an approving sound. When Sparkles wanted to add something, it flew out of Dante’s hug and collided with its sibling to silence it. Sparkles fell down from the man’s head onto the pillow.

  “Dante, Iza, what’s going on? Everyone is afraid to come here, and they can’t explain why.” Veyra’s face phased through the closed door, and when they saw those two cute creatures fighting mid-air, their mouth went agape. “Wow.”

  “-Hey! You, new ghost! Take us home!” Sparkles flew toward the ghostly cook, who had just crossed the threshold.

  “I would love to help, but I can’t leave my friends here, and I don’t know where your home is.” -They smiled at the ‘dragon’ stretching out a hand to pet its head.

  “All that time you could go, but you chose to stay?” Iza was baffled by what they said.

  “So those two are from the Afterlife? And yes, I can’t leave those idiots downstairs alone, and they can’t go or don’t know they can...which is actually the same,” they let out a soft laugh, quickly grasping what Iza actually asked them about.

  “Apparently, it’s not the Afterlife yet…”

  “I think I’ll leave you to talk, Ron said there are letters for me.” Dante cut her off gently, finding the excuse to leave. He was sure that with him there, Iza would never decide if she really wanted to go with the ‘dragons’. Twinkle and Sparkles rushed after him when he stood up. “You two stay with them, I won’t be long.”

  He rushed to the door and didn’t even look back when Iza called his name. He really wasn’t able to face her or say goodbye. He could tell exactly what she was thinking. If he stayed, she wouldn’t go. If he spoke, she’d wait for an answer. So he said nothing. He’d let her choose her own way out. If she were gone when he returned, it would be good. And if she was still there, it would be good too.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  He ran down the stairs not to change his mind and turn around. Darvin and Agnes were there waiting. They shot him questioning glances, and he mumbled that they were just talking and they had nothing to worry about. That brief answer probably made them worry more than they were before, but about him, not other ghosts. They exchanged a look that said ‘he’s lying’ but said nothing.

  When he walked to the kitchen, he bumped straight into Faye. She recoiled and started frantically apologising, mistaking him for Ron. She had half of her hair combed into a braid and still had her academy uniform on. She must have just returned. In the morning, she said her classes that day ended earlier than his did.

  “It’s okay, really,” he said gently.

  “Young Master?! What are you doing at home?! Don’t tell Ron about it, I beg you!” Only now did she realise that it was him she bumped into, which made her even more embarrassed than before.

  “Don’t worry, if he’s not in the kitchen, he won’t know,” she breathed in relief, but her cheeks still reddened. She untangled the braid and made way for him to actually cross the threshold. “And I skipped my lectures.” He added, answering her question. Her eyes widened.

  “Skipped? Isn’t that punishable?” She asked in that first-year innocence.

  “Only if you do that every day. Professors don’t really care as long as you attend exams,” her expression told him that she was now smacking herself inwardly for not thinking about it.

  Then her eyes widened again and she bowed apologetically.

  “I’m sorry, Young Master! It was rude of me. Are you hungry? Do you need anything? How can I help?” That wave of questions told him that Ron must have scolded her about etiquette.

  “I was just looking for Ron.”

  “Me too, to be honest, he greeted me and ran off somewhere, mumbling about pumpkins…” Dante's brows furrowed. Last year, around that time, the old man became obsessed with pumpkins and even started growing them in a small patch in the mansion's garden.

  “Well, don’t worry, everyone needs at least one obsession,” she barked a laugh at that. “Do you maybe know where he put the letters?” She nodded.

  “I’ll change clothes and bring them to the living room, Young Master.”

  When he sat on the sofa, Agnes decided to keep him company. She didn’t ask more questions, just observed him with a gentle motherly smile. It would really be domestic if it weren’t for the hole in her throat.

  “That girl is faring much better than I expected,” she commented when Faye now dressed in black pants and a white buttoned shirt with hair in a high bun walked in. She definitely wanted to impress Ron or just prove to him she wasn’t as incompetent as he insisted she was. She even had gloves on. Surprisingly, she didn’t stumble on the way to him. She handed him a small wooden basket with two letters inside. He took it and she looked at him, like she was waiting for permission to sit.

  “Faye?” she hummed. “Ron’s not around, you don’t have to have a stick in the ass.”

  She gasped, not expecting him to use that phrase. She took a place next to him, her back still straightened, and she whispered like she was confiding him in a grander scheme:

  “Who knows, if it isn’t some kind of test? For all I know he may observe me from somewhere. Yesterday, he told me to carry dishes with a stick on my back when I relaxed for a moment during lessons.”

  “But he really does have a pumpkin obsession…” her glance told him ‘better safe than sorry’, which made him smile. That was the moment when he realised that he started smiling more. Almost every day.

  He reached for the letters. Both of them were in deeply red envelopes. He expected both letters to be from his siblings, so he was surprised when he saw his father’s sigil on one. He opened it with his brows furrowed; the content was longer than usual.

  ‘Son,

  With all honesty, I do not have any idea how to start this letter. I know you have nothing to do with it, and I am deeply perplexed. Firstly, I want you to know that I would never do anything about your future without your consent. Secondly, no one else besides me, you, and Edward knows about it. Your brother thought it was an official letter and read it before me. – For now, the content of this didn’t sound promising to Dante, but he kept reading with so much confusion that he wasn’t able to cover it as naturally as usual, so Faye saw his face twisting like that for the first time.

  Duke Florent… – it definitely sounded bad. – ...he had written to me with a proposition. Or maybe it’s the wrong word to use. His daughter Lady Alicia made him write that…or Duchess Ophelia. He wrote that Lady Alicia wants to marry you. – It was good that Dante wasn’t drinking anything. – He asked me if I would agree to your marriage. It would be a very convenient alliance, I am not gonna lie to you. Although I know that you don’t fancy women, that’s why I didn’t answer him right away. - -One sentence was crossed out, but then the exact same sentence was rewritten again, like Duke Cassian decided to be blunt after all. – I know it may sound paranoid coming from me, but I think Lady Alicia has some personal gain in it, that’s why I decided to write to you about it, before I decline to Cloude. Do what you want with this information, and if possible, send Ron with the answer. The quicker the letter is delivered, the quicker I will resolve this matter and scold Claude.

  Father Cassian Crimson.

  P.S. Your brother is right, do not feel obliged to do anything you do not want to.’

  When he finished reading, he read it again just to be sure that his eyes did not deceive him. He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. Of all the things he expected today, this wasn’t even on the list. He gave the letter to Faye without a word. She looked surprised that he let her read it.

  “What do you think?” he asked after a moment.

  “Maybe...Young Master should talk to Lady Alicia herself first.”

  “I thought so too. Can you call us a carriage? She should still be at the Academy.” She nodded quickly, like she was excited that he included her. She left the letter with him and ran out of the house.

  Truth was, he didn’t want to face Alicia alone, and Ron was most probably devoured by pumpkins or fighting a battle with them. That means the old man was unavailable, and knowing him, he would just say that he had to decline no matter what. He would probably have even done it in his stance; he was more protective of him than his father was.

  This must be what Alicia meant by see you soon. Of fucking course... – he sighed, remembering that there still was one more letter for him to read.

  ‘Dante, don’t you even dare. If you do, I’m going to visit. Mark my words, if you agree, I’ll toss all the work aside and break that engagement myself!’ – Edward must have been so emotional writing this that he even forgot to sign it. He wasn’t teasing, so it could only mean he was serious.

  Faye returned not long after he tossed the letter on the tea table and hid the one from father in his pocket. She said that the carriage was already here. He didn’t know what she had done to find a driver so quickly, but he could only applaud her eagerness. When he reached for the doorknob, he hesitated for a minute. What if… - He dismissed his thoughts and, not looking back, stepped out after Faye. He will be alright.