CHAPTER 483: TIGHTER FRICTION

"You’re pretty," Cassius whispered to her ears as he moved.

She could feel her entire world spinning from the intense pleasure already but Cassius’s words whispered so tenderly over her ears was what broke the camel’s back. She didn’t remember how many times she had broke down, sweat beaded around her forehead while her back was toasty from all the rough friction she had with the bedsheet. At one point her eyes almost rolled over and faint but thankfully she managed to hold herself together, or perhaps it was Cassius who had shown her mercy.

She remembered holding him tight, her arms wrapping around his shoulders while she looked at his face. Although she couldn’t see his face properly as it was still covered with that hazy darkness spread over his skin, she felt like she could remember him vividly, not his features but him.

"I love you," Cassius whispered to her ears as her consciousness faded.

In midst of her sleep, she felt once the warmth of a bath and then the softness of her silk. By the time she had woke up, she found herself wrapped in a new nightgown, her body clean without a single stickiness but Cassius was already nowhere to be found.

She immediately rose from the bed when at the same time a knock came from the door and the voice of a maid echoed, "Milady, may we enter now?"

Arabella however ignored the request. She quickly dressed herself, letting half of her hair tied while the rest loosely down because she had seen the red hot mess around her neck and she didn’t want to alert any of the maids, especially when they would spill what they see so easily all to Morpheus.

So then she opened the door, startling the servants who were stunned by her, already dressed.

"Milady!"

"I heard chaos," Arabella noted immediately. When she just push the door open, she could really hear the sound of someone shouting at the end of the hallway. What was even more weird was how nervous these maids were, as if they had been caught red handed for their mistake yet they were trying so hard not to show that emotion, as if trying to hide it.

Weird, that noise sounded so much like Cassius’s voice.

Oh no!

She rushed out from the hallway and heard some of the maids yelling from behind, begging for her not to follow after the noise which of course she wouldn’t pay any attention to. She hurried to the source of the voice which was not too far from the wing of her bedchamber and there he saw Cassius, now in his female form with his hands stretched forward while Esme stood in front of him, smiling wide with a wooden stick on her hand, ready to put some lesson into him.

Cassius, of course, couldn’t care less about this form of punishment.

In the first place, being hit by wooden stick won’t do as much damage to him as when his father had used to whip him with the iron barbed whip whenever he wants to "teach" him a lesson.

Well that man was already six feet underground and to be honest if he wanted to escape pain, it would have been easy. He could simply raise his hand and twist some necks here including Esme. But he needs to fulfill his role here, pretend to be that meek maid who was scared of being whipped and would be in horrendous pain after this so called punishments.

What had caused this to happen one my ask?

It was simple. Cassius had just woke up from beside Arabella’s bed. He decided to complete the last few plans he had in the palace after making enough trouble against Esme out of personal vendetta. Nothing was out of place enough for people to call his behavior weird, so in short, no one knew he had walked inside the place because of his plan to destroy the castle from the insides but in the end he was caught by Esme’s plan.

A foolish plan if he has to comment on it.

Because all Esme had done was ordered a servant to slip a golden bracelet into his apron pocket and had another servant yell to all the guards in the castle, forcing him to hand out the bracelet he had stolen.

Then Esme "accidentally" appeared in front of him, saying she could turn a blind eye to everything if he accepted the few hits. If not, she promise to bring this matter to Arabella and had him removed.

That threat, of course failed on him.

Arabella would not suddenly cast him aside because of this, no, he knew her too well to also know that she would instead defend him. But he also knows that if Esme fails today she would continue to pressure Arabella and so it was better to pretend that this time they lost.

Besides it’s only a few wooden hits, he shrugged inwardly.

"This shall teach you what it means to know your place and behave."

Like how you should know your place as someone who would never be chosen by Morpheus? Quipped Cassius in his head.

Just as the wooden stick hit him four times, he heard the sudden gust of wind blowing from afar. The once proudly standing Esme also noticed this and immediately turned her head around, raising both elbows to guard herself but it was slightly late as the gust of wind had appeared much faster than her and sharp enough to cause a cut over her cheeks.

The maids around Esme was also quickly blown away as Arabella’s figure came to view.

When she saw Cassius’s face, he was expressionless. He pretended to cry but she could see through it and see that his face was that of a boredom. Still, she wasn’t happy. She moved forward and brought him behind her back, then she snapped her gaze back to Esme.

"What do you think you’re doing?"

Esme gritted her teeth tightly and snapped her gaze at Arabella, "It seems that in a few days, you have forgotten your place, Lady Arabella."

"I have forgotten my place? Or are you talking about yourself, Esme? I think you have forgotten who you are. Even going as far as to punishing my maid as if you are the mistress of this castle aren’t you?" Arabella looked down to see how Esme had clenched her fist tighter then let out a loud tch out of her mouth.

Her bitterness was clear on her green eyes as she eyed her back with a sly smile, "For all I know, I have more power here than you, Lady Arabella. I have always been the one who took care of this castle and Lord Morpheus had tasked me to put everything in this castle according to my orders. Do you understand? I made sure everything is according to the rule, my rules, and while you may soon become the mistress of this castle, your role is to use your magic to save us all, while my job is to take care of this castle, including schooling a thieving maid. Let’s stick to our personal roles, won’t you?" Then her eyes swept over Cassius, a cruel smile appearing on her lips, "A thief like her own mistress. Should we cut her hand so it would be a lesson for her not to steal ever again?"

Arabella saw her about to take the wooden stick and immediately lunged forward. She stepped before Cassius and with a hard force, she raised her hand beside her face, striking her palms down until she had hit Esme’s cheeks.

The once proud sorceress was stunned beyond words, her cheeks stinging and burning with the fiery ache that had came from the tight slap.

She turned around, seeing how Arabella’s eyes had turned severe, narrowing in a glare, "Watch your mouth, Esme. It’s embarrassing to see someone so bitter and jealous like you. Sure, you can control all the servants in the castle, demand the order of things according to your wishes, you can. I really couldn’t be asked to care for your petty cat fights. But putting a hand on my servant? That’s where you have gone too far."

Anger, that’s all Arabella could feel when she saw Esme hitting Cassius’s hands. She didn’t need to ask to know that this was a trap laden by Esme as if Cassius really wanted to steal, he would have done it so quietly that not a single soul would have noticed. That’s how he always is after all. So if this was a ruse Esme had started just so she could once again enjoy the adrenaline of her authority, so she could tell her that she has more authority than what she could ever has, it was far too childish.

She doesn’t care. Truly, she doesn’t care who govern the castle or ended up in Morpheus’s sheets. What bother him most is how she had dared to lay a hand to Cassius.

But Esme twitched her eyes, "But that maid has truly stolen something, lady Arabella. Are you sure you can take blame for her sake?"

"I don’t care. Whatever h-she stole you can blame it on me. But tell me, Esme, does it really satisfy you to drop so low? After this, will Morpheus look at you any better than before? Because let me tell you a secret, that man’s heart is empty."