I acted like a damn fool, throwing hundreds of Crimson gems at a scrawny, graceless girl just because I thought I saw something in her gaze.
I brush her mind again with my invisible fingers.
“I said stop.” She slams the book shut with a sharp sound. “Don’t you have your favorite toy to play with, cold and stiff, sir?”
She nearly makes me laugh.
I glance at the book resting now on her lap. I’m surprised to see that she’s reading about us and our history. I slowly withdraw my fingers from the surface of her mind, which today seems impenetrable. That frustrates me. The arbitrariness of her mind. On the first day in the castle, her mind was wide open, and now it’s locked tight.
The slam of my bedroom door breaks the connection. I abandon the library and my incorporeal form and return to s
