Chapter 162- Little Menace.

Arabella:

Once Toby disappeared inside, I looked down at the broken flip-flops still hanging from my fingers and moved them to my other hand for no reason.

Then I looked at Lucien. "You did it?" I asked him softly, taking a few steps toward him. "You got him out?"

I was still finding it hard to believe. Lucien smiled but didn’t answer. Instead, he walked over to one of the trees and stopped beneath it, looking toward the palace through the branches.

I hesitated before following him. "Thank you." Lucien looked over his shoulder, and then turned his attention ahead.

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

I shifted my weight from one bare foot to the other before glancing at the flip-flops in my hand. There was something else I needed to tell him, and delaying it wasn’t going to make it any easier.

I reached out and placed my hand on his arm. "I need to tell you something." He turned toward me.

"Those dragons..." I paused, already regretting how ridiculous the next few words were going to sound. "I was the one who summoned them."

His brows lifted slightly. "You did?"

"Yes, but not on purpose." The words came out faster after that. "Toby and I were trying to figure out something. I didn’t even know I could summon anything. They just appeared, and then everything went wrong."

Lucien stared at me for a moment before the corner of his mouth lifted. That was not the reaction I had expected.

A light breeze blew a few strands of hair across my face. He reached out and brushed them away before murmuring, "I had a feeling that you had something to do with it."

I blinked. "What? How could you possibly know that?"

"Arabella." He gave me a knowing look. "You’re terrible at pretending you know nothing when you actually know something."

I stared at him, offended. "I am sorry... I don’t think I ..."

"You are." His smile widened slightly. "And strange things have been happening around you for a long time. Even three years ago, there were things I experienced in your presence, and none of us could explain them."

I lowered my broken flip-flops to my side. "So, you knew..."

He gave a small shrug. "After everything that has happened since you came back, I knew there was more going on with you than you were telling me."

"And you just kept quiet?"

"I wasn’t sure." His expression softened. "Though Lilith warned me a long time back."

I lowered my eyes, suddenly wondering how much more I should tell him.

I hadn’t told anyone about my wolf yet. Toby and Maya had already been pulled into enough trouble because of everything happening around me. Telling them another secret would only give them one more thing to worry about... but Lucien needed to know.

"There’s something else."

Lucien turned his head toward me. For a moment, he simply studied my face, probably wondering what else I could possibly throw at him tonight. Then he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

"What now?" he murmured. "Should I prepare myself for a giant hydra appearing in the palace next?"

I couldn’t help laughing as I shook my head. "Nothing like that."

"Good. One disaster at a time."

My smile slowly faded. "I met my wolf today."

Lucien’s brows pulled together as he looked at me. "You met your wolf? Really?"

I nodded. "I saw her. I don’t know how to explain it, but I ..." I paused, remembering what she said to me. "She is in pain, Lucien. She can’t show herself unless she is strong enough."

The change in his expression made it harder to continue. I looked away from him and stared down at the grass beneath my bare feet. "She told me that someone has been poisoning me and that’s keeping her weak."

For a second, Lucien didn’t react, then his hand caught my chin and turned my face toward him. "Poisoning you?" The last trace of amusement had disappeared from his face. "You mean someone inside this palace is giving you poison?"

"I don’t know who it is yet." I swallowed. "But... maybe they’ve been slipping something into my food, and I’ve been eating it without even knowing."

"Dammit." Lucien cursed under his breath.

His face hardened as he stared at me, and before I could say anything else, his hands closed around my arms and pulled me closer.

"Why didn’t you come to me before?" There was an edge to his voice now. "Why didn’t you tell me the moment you found out?"

"I was scared." I looked down, suddenly feeling stupid for keeping it to myself. "And I could barely believe it myself. I didn’t know who to talk to or what I was supposed to do."

His grip on my arms loosened, but he didn’t let me go. Instead, he lowered his head slightly until I had no choice but to meet his eyes.

"Next time something happens to you, you come to me first." He left no room for argument. "I don’t care how strange it sounds or whether you understand it yourself. You come to me. Do you understand, Arabella?"

I nodded.

His eyes eventually dropped to the flip-flops in my hand. "What happened to those?"

"One of them broke on my way here." I lifted them slightly as proof.

Lucien glanced down at my bare feet before looking at those flip-flops in my hand. "So, you decided the other one should suffer too?"

"It looked lonely." I shrugged, trying not to smile.

His lips twitched. He held my gaze for a moment before leaning a little closer. "You have a soft spot for lonely things?"

I stared at him for a second before playfully slapping his arm. "Don’t get too hopeful."

He caught my hand before I could pull it away. "Too late, little menace!"

I rolled my eyes, but the smile I had been fighting finally escaped. This time, when his fingers slipped between mine, I didn’t pull away.