Evie woke up from that dream and she immediately buried her face into her palms.

She stayed sitting in that position for a long while as she breathed in and out many times and tried to calm herself. These dreams again! Every time she had them, it always threw her heart into havoc and her plans would waver as she would be so very tempted to drop everything and go chasing after him. However, she knew better than to do that. Thus, after calming herself down, she would be able to reorientate her mind and focus on what she needed to do instead of what she wanted to do.

Seeing Gavriel in her dreams made her heart feel better a little but troubled at the same time. She did not understand a lot of things in that dream, like the strange feeling she got when he was with her in that room. She also did not understand what he even meant about those last few sentences he had said. Promise? What promise? Evie had cracked her head over that issue every time she woke up from the dream, trying to remember just what the details about the promise were that he was talking about. And the worse thing was that no matter how she tried, she just could not figure out what it was.

From what she remembered from the dream, the look in his eyes as he told her those words haunted her. Because she saw what seemed like anger or pain – or perhaps both – flashing in his wicked devil blue eyes. It was something Evie had never seen before. He had never looked at her with that kind of gaze before. So why? What promise did she make that she had failed to fulfil? Or could it be that she had yet to make that promise?

For some reason, Evie felt that it was not the case. She did not know why but she felt like the promise he was talking about had already happened. But then, how could she not remember?

Evie tugged on her hair in frustration as she buried her face on her knees. There were just too many questions! And her desire and longing to see him again began to swallow her entire being. She just wanted to see him and touch him and talk to him again and more importantly to ask him about the promise he was talking about. She wanted to know if he was truly fine. And if he was, then why were his eyes still looking like that – in their flaming blue state.

Taking a deep breath, Evie gathered herself, knowing that thinking about this further would not help her at all. She knew that all she could do now was to train here with Zanya as much as she could so she would finally be able to leave and start looking for him. She knew that her men were as anxious to go on the search for her husband with her as well. They too were worried as there had been no news on him for quite some time.

Her eyes gleamed with determination again. Tonight, she was going make sure to rest up fully so she could throw herself into training tomorrow as much as she could take it. She told herself and then she rose from her bed as she heard her stomach rumbling as it was begging for food.

…

Outside Crescia's gate, the forest for some reason was no longer as ominous as Leon remembered when they had passed it on their way into the heart of the land. But perhaps it was because of the light fae's humming. Her beautiful voice somehow lifted the gloomy atmosphere and made the entire dark forest feel more alive now. And small animals began to show up as if they felt like they were in a safe place. Leon wondered if this was one of light fae's magic as well. Or perhaps it was just a natural attraction of light faes to lure in creatures with their out-of-this-world voice and appearance.

Leaning against a tree trunk, Leon's gaze was just moving back and forth from the pile of fruits on the ground to the faery who was still happily focussed on her work of picking fruits and seemed to be enjoying herself.

The half-blood understood she must be having the best day in a very long time since she was finally freed from her confinement in the crystal but… Leon's eyes fell on the small mountain of fruits again and after a long while of thinking on whether he should talk to Zanya or not, he finally made up his mind and opened his mouth to speak.

"Don't you think you should leave some fruits on the trees for others like…" he cocked his head and paused before he continued, "…the birds that are looking for food in this area?" he asked as Zanya put down the fruits she had picked.

She paused then lifted her face at him and then she looked down and finally, she realized that she had already created a small mountain of different fruits. She had forgotten herself in her joy because of her excitement that she could finally physically do something with her own body after so many years. It really has been too long. Way too long – thousands of years too long, in fact… and she was also excited to get every kind of fruit she could find because she wanted the princess to taste them. She knew that growing up in the human realm, the princess had never tasted the succulent fruits of the faeries yet!

But she realised that Leon was right. Looking down at the mountain of fruits at her feet, she suddenly felt that it was already too much. She also remembered that the vampires do not really enjoy eating fruits. So, who would be eating all of these now? Even though she wanted to eat and stuff herself as much as she could tonight, there was no way she would be able to finish all these even if the princess were to eat as much as she could.

"You're right," was all she could say, as a light blush tainted her cheeks in embarrassment.