Hold More Power!

"Your reward ends here, Elias." The words fell like a sharp snap of winter air.

Elias froze for a second, her mind still dazed and her hands still molded to the curve of her body. His pupils were dark with heat and want, flickered in confusion at first. His lips parted like he hadn't heard her right. But then he saw the edge in her eyes.

The teasing had vanished and in its place stood a line she had drawn with a cold and detached look on her face. The one he hardly sees when it comes to her but he recognizes that looks too well, it shows disgust and loathing. It shattered his desire instantly.

Slowly, he pulled back. For a second, the only sound in the room was the heavy rhythm of their breath and the quiet crackle of the fire.

Then his face changed. The heat in his expression vanished like a flame under water. His jaw tightened and he nodded again,

"Very well, thank you for the reward, my lady." A silent wall came crashing back between them, colder than before. The way he did not ask her anything showed, he did not care.

As if a switch had flipped, Seraphina stepped off the bed. Her body shimmered with a flicker of magic, and within a blink, she vanished from sight.

Elias sat frozen for a moment. Even when his mind was calmer now, his body was still half-shaken by the intensity they had just shared. Then he let out a low curse under his breath and ran a hand through his hair, the strands falling back into disorder. 

His muscles still hummed with the memory of her skin, her lips, the sharpness of her teeth but he forced it all down.

By the time she returned half an hour later, the sun had dipped lower and shadows crept across the wooden floor.

She appeared in the doorway silently expecting to find him pacing, furious or perhaps gone.

But instead, Elias sat calmly at the heavy oak table near the window, fully dressed in a dark shirt and coat, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The soft lamplight casted a golden halo over the papers he was reading. He was working there with a serious face, as if nothing had happened.

A strange tightness rose in her chest when he didn't look up though he knew she was there.

She walked across the room with the hardwood creaking faintly under her boots. "What are you doing?" she asked in a voice sharper than she intended.

Only then did Elias glance at her. There was no warmth in his eyes, only a cool, calculating gleam. "I am making plans to begin construction on the land," he said without a hint of emotion as if he was talking to a stranger.

Her brows drew together. "Already, isn't it too early to plan something? I am sure lord Velmore would not sit silently and let you take control."

"The sooner I start, the less time I waste," he replied, tapping the edge of a map with a measured touch. "But before that, the area needs to be cleared."

Her chest tightened further. "So, you will be removing all the squatters living there?"

Elias looked up at her, finally meeting her gaze fully. "No, it would be a waste if I would do what Velmore would have."

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "I could hire thugs and make a show of force by scattering the poor and destroying their homes. That's what the traders expected me to do."

"But I am going to offer them jobs in my estate. if they agree to work, they will be paid. Those with families will be given proper housing in the servants quarter. After all, I need workers. They need a future. It's a fair exchange."

Seraphina blinked and her lips parted, then curved into a soft, almost reluctant smile. "You are going to build an army but they would not accept it readily. Do not forget Elias, you have to rise the ranks faster and you could only do that with the help of nobles."

"But you want me to bring the change with the power to. Right? Do not worry, I know how to keep them faithful to me." Elias turned his gaze back to the maps. "Now, I am going to work for a long time. So do you want me to stay here or return to my manor?"

Silence fell between them when she heard him. The manor was just the shell of a house provided to lord Crestford, Elias had never called it his home. 

"Hmm, it would be better that you return, Elias Crestford. I am sure the traders were already searching for you. Do not worry, I will come to meet you later." she said softly.

He didn't look up. But the corner of his mouth twitched. Did he ask her to come looking for him? But he only nodded softly. She walked closer and he collected all the files before standing beside her and letting her wrap her arms around his waist. He closed his eyes lingering in her smell.

In the fraction of a second he had been standing at the entrance of the manor, Seraphina vanished the moment his feet touched the ground. He shook his head and let their intimacy burry deep into his bones as if it was nothing but a nightmare. 

When he entered the manor, the maid ran toward him and bowed her head.

"Master!"

"Bring me the dinner in my bedroom and then you can go and rest." she nodded and then disappeared in the dark corridors. Elias returned to his room and started working on the files again. He had spent half of the wealth he had found in this cursed land but that did not matter anymore, he was going to get half of the assets of baron Velmore soon. At that time, he would hold more power in this estate.