Chapter 15

After hearing him say that, the two of them recalled everything that had happened before, and it struck them as odd.

Whether it was the eerie scene of those Shades dancing along with the music, or the fact that the shadows didn’t immediately expand the darkness to attack them but instead dealt with Lily’s body right in front of their eyes first, none of it seemed normal.

Thinking back, there were several moments during their escape when the Shades nearly latched onto them, only to get shaken off in the next instant, and that couldn’t just be chalked up to luck.

But what was her motive? Was it all just to scare them?

Serena and Albert felt their minds spinning in confusion, but Ethan’s next words short-circuited their thoughts entirely.

“You’re actually on our side, aren’t you?”

What did that even mean? She was clearly one of the castle’s monsters, wielding powerful and mysterious forces, one of the sources of danger, so how could she possibly align with humans? Would that mean betraying her parents?

Compared to the shock on their faces, Bella’s pale expression showed little change; she simply looked at Ethan, as if urging him to go on.

“I still remember what you said when you and your parents first appeared, something that stuck with me.”

Ethan gazed into Bella’s eyes, trying to read something in them.

“Welcome to the place where all must perish.”

“At first, I thought you were trying to frighten us on purpose, but later it felt out of place. Why describe your own castle as a place of certain death, almost like you wanted us to realize we’d come somewhere we shouldn’t have?”

“Now that I think about it, you might have been trying to warn us to leave this dangerous castle early on. But after dinner, when we didn’t go and even chose rooms to stay, you got anxious, showed off your control over the darkness, and warned us again.”