When A Ghoul Falls In Love

Whenever he thinks that he has gotten the hang of his wife’s thought process, his wife manages to surprise him.

“Dinner with my family?” Eli utters each word slowly.

She gives him a nod. “If we get married, they will be my family too.”

“They are ghouls.” Eli leans against the doorframe, crossing his arms while watching her with his golden eyes. “They aren’t like me. The only reason why you aren’t eaten yet is”

“Because I am here to marry you.” Nell raises her hands, shrugging her shoulders. “Your father challenged me. I need to survive for three days. How am I going to survive if I keep hiding in this room? I don’t want him to say that I cheated. And I already know that you like eating raw meat.”

If it was that simple Eli scrutinizes her face. “Let’s eat here. I will make something for you.”

“It’s fine.” She holds her hands and drags him into the corridor. The servant gives her an awkward smile, and then he walks ahead of them. By now, she’s used to seeing unusual things. Eli’s siblings look mostly like their father. Eli has eighty percent of his father’s looks but the rest must have been inherited from his mother. She wonders whatEli’s mother looks like. Eli didn’t inherit his father’s temper for sure.

Meanwhile, Eli searches for the cat. As usual, the cat has vanished when he needs him the most. How is he going to convince Nell? If he tries hard, she will think that he doesn’t want her to meet his family. But he doesn’t trust his family.

If she wants to have dinner with his family, then he won’t stop her. He will make his family behave.

***

Duke Balthier Sanguine leans back in his chair with his eyes closed and hands clasped together.

The sitting arrangement is rather unusual. Judith, his second wife, is seated to his left with their fifth son, Nicholai.

Then, one seat is left empty. Tamara is seated with their three children: Cyan, Drace and Julianne. Siouxsie is visiting the northern border of the kingdom for an inspection with her second brother and Ephraim’s elder twin, Eoin.

Victoire, the youngest wife, who is only a few decades older than Siouxsie, is occupying the fifth seat on his right. Lennix and Belinda are sitting beside her.

The first four seats are reserved for Eli, Ark, Eoin, and Ephraim. Today, one of those four seats will be occupied again.

He peers toward the door. Why is his fourth son taking so long? They haven’t had dinner together since Belinda’s coming-of-age celebration party.

By the way, that human isn’t simple. Balthier Sanguine glances at Voss’ empty chair. His ninth son is too weak to move. The cat that harmed his ninth son and made a wreck of his office and study room belongs to that human female. She can’t be a common human.

What is that creature? The flames were destructive. At first, he was frightened for important papers that he might have lost. A long time ago, Nilora had suggested that he should place a replication spell in case something bad happened.

He didn’t expect that her advice would help him after more than six-hundred-years. The replication spell was able to reproduce everything from his office. Everything means everything that he left in those rooms ever since he had put a spell in those rooms.

Sorting out those papers will take some time.

But he has a bigger concern. What would Nilora have thought of her son? Eli is so much like her. His fourth son was born weak and frail but he has grown into a strong man.

However, what is wrong with his fourth son’s head?

How could he think of marrying a human? Though he is glad that Eli isn’t interested in men, he doesn’t want his fourth son to be interested in a human female. So what if that human female has magic? She’s still a human being. There are so many remarkable young women in this world.

Carmine is a good girl. Her background is quite powerful. With her and her father’s support, Eli might be able to overthrow the current ruler. Everyone knows that the second prince is not right to become the next king. As for other princes and princesses, they are too weak. If it wasn’t for Eli, they would have lost to the invasion of the devils.

He doesn’t want to imagine what would have become of his family. His eldest son, Ark, is a powerful figure in the country, set to become the next general. Eoin and Ephraim are also tracing their own paths. Eoin is too unruly and Ephraim is too stiff. Nicholai doesn’t think of his siblings. Rest of them are too young.

As for Eli, he’s too crazy but that craziness is only a side-effect of his genius mind.

In any case, his fourth son is too powerful. He is born under the constellation of a ruler. Because his mother was from the royal family, Eli can challenge the current king.

Balthier Sanguine wonders how to talk about this matter with his son. Eli isnt interested in ruling a kingdom.

The scent of the human female wafts into his nose. Just as he raises his head, Eli steps into the dining hall with the human. Balthier Sanguine studies the female carefully. He realizes that he’s been hasty. The human reeks of fresh magic as if it is waiting to burst out of her. Strangely, there’s another scent of foreign magic inside her.

Fae?

Eli looks at the table for empty seats. He only has two choices: either he sits beside his father or at the end. He points toward the first seat to his father’s right. “Wife, sit there.”

Though he dislikes it, he admits that his father has more control over his ghoulish urges than his younger siblings.

As Nell is about to sit down, Judith protests loudly, “She can’t sit there!”