Page 2 of Triplets for the Dark Elf

Maybe I should be glad that it is such a struggle for me to maintain a secret. It is not in my nature to withhold information, even if I do prefer to withhold emotions. I know how deadly those can be, and that’s why I am careful to remain impassive around others.

My brother has referred to me as a statue more than once, but it doesn't bother me. I’d rather be the boring older brother who has withstood pain to protect him than see him get hurt.

But that’s something I’ll never tell Imris.

He’s too filled with joy. Being around him can elevate anyone’s mood, and oftentimes, people are surprised to learn we are even related, we are so different in personality.

But I guess that’s what happens when one of us is a shield and the other is the protected. I won’t hold that against him, though.

The same way I never held it against Charmaine. When I learned of their tryst, I quickly gave her a safe place to live, away from Imris. I just want to protect them from their own feelings – their mistakes. This isn’t a world where such things are allowed.

Just like my own shouldn’t be. Which is why I want Annalise to remain nameless, faceless, and connected to me in as few ways as possible. I fear what will happen if anyone were to suspect her of being special to me.

Even she doesn’t seem to be aware of my feelings. And the way that hurts makes me wonder if I’m doing this right or wrong. But at least everyone is safe from harm, and that makes it all worth it to me.

Despite them never knowing that I did this or why. I don’t need them to. I just can’t stomach another loss, and for that, I will let this toxic city batter me so that no one else feels an ounce of it.

“Miothro!”

My eyes snap up to see my father staring at me. His head is cocked, and I am nearly certain that he has said my name more than once.

“Yes?”

“I said, what is this?”

His hand is on the very shelf I’d hoped he’d bypass. On it is a stack that should mean nothing to anyone else, and yet, he’s rifling through it now.

I hold my breath as I wait to see what he pulls loose. I pray it's not Annalise’s contract, which I did not file away with the others. I didn’t want it so easy to locate – just in case.

Nor do I want it to be the notes she’s left me on the nights she’s locked up before I’ve come out of my office. They are her way of telling me good night.

And I hope it is not the letter her sister sent me when I helped her find a new dark elf to work for after Annalise told me how bruised Andrea came home one night. She feared for the woman’s life and I couldn’t sit back and watch it happen.

I’m not sure I know what I will say if he pulls any of them free from their hiding space behind my stacked ledgers. My mind is jumbled as it tries to come up with an excuse, but I know it can’t be the truth that passes my lips.

I’m not ready to face the consequences of my actions. I shouldn’t have grown attached to a human, not again, but this time I was so careful. And in the end, it doesn’t seem to matter.

But then he holds up a stack of sealed letters with a scrawl that is neither mine or Annalise’s. I’m so relieved that I forget those, too, are hiding a secret that I should be holding closer to my chest.

“Those are from Imris,” I answer before I realize my mistake.

He nods slowly, moving back to the chair across from me, and I stiffen. I can tell by the way his eyes go back to the front of the envelopes that there’s no use trying to hide it any more.

When his gaze drifts back up to me, his violet eyes are burning bright. It’s very reminiscent of the way that Imris stared at me with those same eyes the day he came here looking for a human that I’d chosen to hide from him.

At the time, I didn’t tell the truth.

But this time, I don’t think I am going to get away with that.

“Miothro, who is Charmaine?”

2

ANNALISE

“Thank you!” I call to Inyit as I close the door. He’s my last scheduled delivery for the day, most having come this morning.

I check the front to make sure no one has come in before I go to the shelves along the far wall to start putting away the fresh rolls of parchment and wells of ink. I grin as I open the box, inhaling deeply.