Page 28 of Dark Elf's Good Girl

My body stiffens because I know who the owner of the voice is. I have grown so familiar with Aiken’s voice that I no longer need to see his face to know it is him.

“I’ll help you.” He doesn’t wait for my response, probably because he knows the answer.

“I found these brooms. They’re quite hard, and we should be able to scrub the dirt away with them. Instead of going on our hands and knees.”

It has been ten days since I met Calix.

I know that I will never forget the first moment I saw him in the club. I replay the memory over and over, and I have become so used to experiencing it again and again that the memory has bled into my sleep.

I dream about those yellow eyes. They follow me in my waking and sleeping moments.

I take the broom from Aiken silently and get to my feet.

I know that he is trying to help me. But I don’t know if anything he does will ever be enough.

Five.

Today I am on kitchen duty. Again, I have been given the most difficult tasks. Today, however, I have Lira to help me.

We are peeling and boiling a mountain of burgona’s in preparation for a party that the Detlar’s will be having.

I have never peeled burgona’s before this. We could never afford them when I was a child, and I did not cook for myself all that much when I began working at the club, and afterwards.

Maybe I should not complain. I am sure that every woman, dark elf and human, should know how to do this.

But I am ready to burst into tears after I have cut myself for the fifth time.

This time, the cut is deep and copious amounts of blood wells up from the wound that is too close to my wrist for my liking.

Lorien, the older zagfer, grabs my hand before I can react and has the wound cleaned and wrapped up within seconds.

She pulls me into a hug, and I burst into tears then.

She leads me to a small room off the kitchen, and I am still sobbing when Aiken arrives.

Why is he here? Why does he keep showing up?

A burst of frustration surges through me and I wrench myself away from Lorien. She doesn’t look shocked or offended but keeps patting my back soothingly.

Aiken takes my hand silently and leads me out of the kitchen. I am exhausted and my hands are burning and my mouth is dry and I have a headache and I do not think I can go on for much longer.

Calix owns you now.

It has been five days since I met Aiken.

In those five days, he has shown me how kind he has been.

He leads me to my bedroom and orders me to sleep.

“What about my chores?” I ask him, although I am already half asleep.

“I’ll make sure that they get done.” His voice is gruff and he barely looks at me. In the bedroom I collapse onto the bed and I am asleep within seconds.

Three.

I am feeling better today.

Talara is not home today, and neither is Calix. In fact, Aiken is the only one who is home.