SPELLBOUND

Clad in a furry and thick white cloak, Evie stood at the top of the tallest watchtower at the City's entrance. Gavriel was standing next to her – a sight to behold as well as he stood tall and elegant clad entirely in black – holding her hand, and watching her silvery hair being blown behind her by the gentle cold breeze.

Evie had her eyes fixed at the vast snow-white meadow spread out before them, realizing from what her eyes were looking at, that Dacria was truly a fortified city. The giant ancient walls that seemed to be made from black stones looked so formidable and impregnable. No human army could ever manage to breach these fortifications and seize such a place like this.

Now that she was looking at the full view of the entire fortress, and saw what a formidable stronghold Dacria actually was, Evie could not help but look on with wonder. Why did the Dacrians ever thought of creating and building such gigantic walls in the first place? Was there an unknown reason that prompted this decision? These walls were definitely not made to stop human invasion, given how sturdy and durable they were. It was obvious they were constructed with the consideration of withstanding not just normal physical attacks, but more so attacks which are more supernatural and magical in nature.

She looked at Gavriel, curious and wanting to ask more on the questions running about in her mind, but the moment their gazes met, Evie found that she could not speak. His gaze was so intense and beautiful that Evie was rendered speechless and motionless from it. Then her face slowly turned hot as images from their previous intimate encounter just hours ago flashed in her head.

"Yes?" he said after a while, a slow and sensuous smile spreading across his lips.

Evie blinked and her eyes flitted away, utterly embarrassed at her own thoughts. "I… I just want to ask a question." She managed to choke out, trying her best to clear her mind.

"Go ahead, Evie." He encouraged, not taking his eyes off her.

"Why… why are the walls here so huge?"

Gavriel finally averted his gaze and glanced at the walls below them. "They have built these walls long ago when the beasts were still roaming around the Northern Empire."

"Beasts?"

"Yes. The beasts residing in the Middle Land. Long ago, they were the notorious enemies of the vampires. There will always be clashes and bloodshed every time the beasts come into contact with any vampires and vice versa. However, at some point, and for reasons that were still unknown, the beasts suddenly stopped setting foot onto lands which are claimed by the vampires. Since then, they only roam around in the Middle Lands and within the boundaries of the Dark Valley to these days."

Evie had heard about the beasts residing in the Middle Land even back during the time she was still living in the Southern Empire. She was told that these beasts were not only very powerful but also were extremely destructive in nature and were all man-eating monsters. However, these were now not the main concern of humanity and it seems to be that the same was true with the vampires as well since the beasts does not seem to be posing much of a threat to anyone staying out of the regions they occupy anymore.

"Do you think… there will come a day when the beasts would suddenly leave their territories and start attacking again?" Evie asked absentmindedly as she stared at the steep peaks of icy mountains from afar. She was not facing Gavriel and thus, did not see how her question instantly changed his expression.

"What do you think?" he asked instead of answering, causing Evie to return her gaze to him. "Do you think that there is that possibility of that happening one day?" his voice was deep and sombre.

For some reason, Evie felt that there was something she could not understand – some undercurrents that she was not privy to – and in that brief moment, she shivered, and goosebumps broke on her arms. But then, she sneezed all of a sudden, and the strange atmosphere disappeared before she could dwell any longer on it.

Gavriel reached out for her hood and gently covered her head. "Alright, the air is getting colder and it's time for you to go back and rest. I just brought you up here to show you around for a moment." He said, after which he scooped her up into his arms securely and leapt downwards as he speaks.

In no time, they were back again in Gavriel's quarters which was situated in one of the towers nearer towards the gate. The place was small compared to their room in the castle, but it was not that bad at all. In fact, it looked quite comfortable for a room in such a location.

Silently, he reached out for her cloak and took it off, surprising Evie. He then brought both their cloaks out of the room, and Evie suspected it was to knock off the snow that gathered on them and also to allow them to warm up and dry a little. When he came back to their chamber a little while later, he had asked her to come along with him and she just nodded obediently without question. She had the thought that he must just want to bring her somewhere else to sightsee for a while before heading back to his room.

She watched him placed her cleaned off cloak on top of a chair as well as his. She got absentminded just looking at his long tapering fingers manipulating their cloaks and wondered how can a male's fingers be so appealing and able to hold one's attention? Blushing at the direction her thoughts were headed towards, Evie shook her head mentally and directed her gaze onto his face, seemingly deep in her own thoughts.

Noticing her questioning gaze, Gavriel moved close to her and bent over. "We're not going back to the castle, wife. So, you're going to sleep here… with me."

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AN: I made a trailer for this book. you can watch it on my Instagram @kazzenlx.x or FB account @Author_kazzenlx.