Somewhere along the way Raiden Redthorn had fallen asleep. Since the distance to his home was not that far, making for a short drive, Eileen assumed that owed in large part to the amount of alcohol he had drank. He would definitely be feeling that in the morning. She didn’t envy it at all.

There had only been once when she’d gotten drunk enough to have as large of hangover as he would, and she had vowed never to be that drunk again. Although that had also been because of other embarrassing things she’d done. Ones she did not want to remember, so she simply did not.

Eileen had to move carefully not to jerk him as she undid the seat belt and carried him towards his apartment. Even with one of his arms wrapped around her shoulder, he was still very heavy. It took some fiddling to get him out of the car park and she was surprised he didn’t awaken.

When they came up to a set of stairs, for a moment Eileen pondered whether she’d have bridal carry him up them. Thanks to the training she’d been subjected to, she was absolutely strong enough to do so. It didn’t really matter that he was taller than her. She would have done so as well, but she knew it may embarrass him. And would be hard to explain should he wake.

Fortunately, she spotted an elevator next to the stairs, so she didn’t have to bridal carry him after all. Once inside the elevator, she pressed the button for the top floor. His house key had suggested he lived in the penthouse of the building. Which was unsurprising considering both what she knew about him personally so far and the wealth his family had.

Glancing at his sleeping face, Eileen is a little struck by how peaceful he looks. Then she considers how it would have been if he’d made to get himself home and feels a flash of anger. She quickly shakes the thought when his face scrunches up at her suddenly tense muscles, and her body relaxes.

The elevator dings and opens to reveal a solitary door in the middle of the hallway. Turning the key into the door, she has to once again readjust his weight to make sure he doesn’t fall flat on his face instead. It takes a few turns, but the door falls open.

Once inside, Eileen noticed a hook for the key and places the key onto it. She almost drops him as she moves because he moves in his sleep to turn. Thankfully she manages to readjust at the last second to quickly loop the key and then catch him. Breathing a sigh of relief, she takes a cursory glance of his home.

There are a lot of rooms. Besides the combined kitchen and living room which the front door opens to, there are about six bedrooms. She’d have been worried about not knowing which is his, but only one of the doors is open. Which is very convenient and tells her no one has visited him in a while. Or so she thinks. She’ll have to ask him at some point.

Fumbling with the light, she tries not to pay too much attention to his room as she moves him towards his bed. It’s a little difficult to get him to let go of her due to the way his arm is wrapped around her, but she manages to get him into his bed. As his weight finally leaves her, Eileen breathes a sigh of relief.

She rolls her shoulders to get rid of the strain and is about to head out when a hand shoots out to grab her arm. It’s so sudden that she doesn’t have much time to react as the arm connect to that hand pulls her it closer towards him. The arm slowly wraps around hers in a vice grip.

Eileen is left blinking in shock down at the still unconscious man as he clings onto her arm with both of his. Her eyebrows furrow, “What are you-”

“Kiran,” he whispers, opening his eyes a slit, “don’t go. Please stay.” A beat of silence. “Please don’t leave me here all alone. It’s so cold.”

“You’ve got a blanket.” Even as she says it, she can feel a lump grow in her throat, his words hitting like a shot to the heart.

“It’s still cold,” he whines even as Eileen uses her free hand to pull it up over him, “Please stay. Promise me you’ll stay.”

He stares at her pleadingly and Eileen can see the shimmer over his eyes. He’s still mostly asleep and intoxicated. It isn’t a good combination and a part of her feels like he’ll forget about this in the morning. She should say no. It would be the right thing to do.

Yet the words don’t leave her mouth. Her mind wanders to how dismissive his friends were, to the image of him hunched overdefeatedlyin the bar stool. She thinks about how excited he always seems to see her and they way he’d immediately perked up when she got there.

She didn’t know what Kiran had done to make him so willing to trust her. She knew that it was probably not a good idea to say yes regardless but…She couldn’t say no. Please don’t go. How the hell could she say no when he’d begged her to stay?

Rationally it was undoubtedly a bad idea. But Eileen could tell he was lonely. Despite all his wealth, he didn’t seem to have many true friends. In a way he was just as isolated as Ayla. She’d thought it before, but she hadn’t realised it was this bad. Her heart ached to see the fragility on his face. The vulnerability.

As the silence lingered, he seem to be shrinking in on himself, grip growing loose. The light in his eyes fading just a little. Gods.

“I’ll stay,” Eileen told him, “I promise. When you wake up, I’ll be here.” She took her arm out of his grip, made easier by his wide-eyed surprise, “Get some sleep.”

The beaming grin that got her would be ingrained into her mind for a long while. Seeing him settle back to sleep, Eileen turned off the lights and closed the door behind her. Once she was in his living area, she let herself relax into a long sigh. What had she gotten herself into?

She blamed her grandpa for this. It was definitely the Devencrux side of her family who were more inclined to make decisions based on emotions. Unless it was a fight, in which emotions took a back seat, but she digressed. But she’d made a promise and she was going to keep it.

Besides it probably was not a good idea to leave him unattended when he was so drunk. It hadn’t occurred to her before because she was so busy trying to support his weight, but it dawned on her that she had no way of locking his door without the key. She couldn’t take it with her, so she’d have had to stay regardless.

Eileen supposed she could have woken him to lock it or just pushed it under the door…Actually a second glance showed there wasn’t enough room for her to push it under the door. Right. So wake Raiden it was. Would he even be able to lock it in his state?

She shook her head to dispel the path of her thoughts. It was a nonissue at this point, so it didn’t matter. No use wasting time thinking about what-ifs when the situation didn’t need them.

Not wanting to invade his privacy more than she already had, Eileen decided to make herself a makeshift bed on his couch. Her coat would suffice as a blanket, but there was also a throw on the arm, so she used her coat a pillow instead.

Unbuckling the sleeves of the shirt, she made herself comfortable on the couch. A yawn escaped her as she lay there staring at the ceiling, not feeling very sleepy despite her exhaustion. The corset around her body to disguise it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it still wasn’t made to sleep in.

And it wasn’t as if she could take it off in this situation. There was no way she’d be able to explain it. The same could be said for the wig. If Raiden were to awaken before she did, it would be better for to look like Kiran and not Eileen. She threw a quick glance to the kitchen and took in the bags.

Even if he didn’t…She had a feeling someone else may wander in as well. So, it really was best for her sleep in the clothes she was wearing. Eileen nodded to herself as she pulled the throw up to her chin. It was a good decision.

Years of sleeping in forests had made her confident that she’d be able to awaken if needed, but it was still better to be safe than sorry. Raiden might not be wild bear, but she didn’t think the consequences would be much better. Even if in different way.

Eileen turned on her side to get more comfortable. Besides, she still needed to hang around high society. For Ayla’s sake and because of her search. That thought made her thoughts travel back to Calvin O’Quinn.

The general was very suspicious now that she was thinking about it. She hadn’t remembered who he was before, but now that she’d had time to think about it, she was reminded where she had heard that name. Dane had mentioned it as a promising talent a few years ago.

She remembered how annoyed he had been because the man had the makings of warrior but his personality was horrible. At least as far as she’d heard from him. Apparently, he’d said a lot of things that Dane didn’t find acceptable. Although, at the time he had been a soldier and not a general.

Now that she was here, she had a pretty good idea why Dane had decided against recruiting him. He couldn’t be a part of grandpa’s troops when he seemed to hate him. And more importantly, she knew he had done it because young Eileen would not have hesitated to punch him for the comments.

As gruff as Dane acted, she knew he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her family. And hearing a stranger badmouth her family would have hurt when she’d sop recently lost her parents. She was grateful for it now.

Although what really made her feel suspicious was what she had heard from Damian. Apparently the man had made his way up in a way that was loosely reminiscent of her grandpa. He and Aren had complained about it for days before they’d found something else to occupy their interest.

At the time, she had thought he was a fan or something. Trying to mimic her grandpa as a way to honour him, like Damian sometimes did. But now she knew that wasn’t the case. It was more likely he was trying to down play her grandfather’s achievements. It hadn’t worked as intended.

Everyone knew Emmett Devencrux had become a general at fourteen, a very young age that was yet to be beat. His victory at such a young age was part of the reason he was so esteemed as well. She almost felt sorry for O’Quinn, he’d been chasing after an impossible goal. Being his granddaughter, Eileen could admit that her grandfather could be considered a freak of nature. And she meant that in the fondest way.

Still, if he was that dedicated to discrediting him, there was no saying he wasn’t involved with the fire. After all, you didn’t need to personally be at the scene to be behind something. She would have to talk to him soon.

Eileen yawned. So far her list of suspects and leads was up to three. This outing may not have been as successful as she would have liked, but she still considered it as a win. She felt like she’d gotten one step closer to her goal, as small as that step was. She’d take something over nothing any day of the week.

Her mind whirled with plans. She’d have to wait a little while to follow up on O’Quinn, considering she had to go to that tea party with Ayla in a few days. Hopefully she’d be recovered by then. Ayla tended to overwork herself quite often, so Eileen had a feeling a good night’s sleep would do the job.

It would be a lie to say she was looking forward to it, because she honestly was not. But Ayla wanted to go, so Eileen supposed she’d just have to deal. She certainly wasn’t about to let her friend go there alone. Who knows what trouble Ayla would get into if she was left alone? More importantly, she didn’t trust those women to have good intentions.

Not after how pale Ayla had gotten at seeing them. Eileen huffed at the thought. One of these days she’d ask her friend for the reason behind that reaction. She had a feeling she wouldn’t like it, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to know.

Taking her thoughts away from Ayla, and from her search as well, she found it going towards Raiden instead. Unsurprising considering this was his house. He’d have a killer headache in the morning and may feel disorientated as well.

Eileen hated being a freeloader, even if he had asked, so she wanted to do something to repay the unusual hospitality. More relevantly, she wanted to do something to make him feel better after seeing just how lonely he was. It was a habit she had developed when it came to her friends, so she wasn’t surprised it had popped up now as well.

A wry smile came to her lips at that thought. Laughing softly, she shook her head. Just a few hours ago she’d been thinking that they weren’t friends and she could have fixed Falkner’s misunderstanding. Yet, here she was.

The moment she had seen how lonely he was and the way he reacted towards her as Kiran, she had felt she had to stay. However, she hadn’t noticed her mind had labelled him as a friend until she hadn’t been surprised at wanting to take an action she normally took with her friends. She smiled, closing her eyes.

Whether he liked it or not, Raiden Redthorn was her friend now. And if there was one thing Eileen did, it was look after her friends. But, it also meant he’d be hearing an earful about his behaviour in the morning.

She couldn’t let her friends put themselves into danger by being so stupid. But then again, their friendship was very new. Maybe she’d build up to it. And as Eileen drifted off to sleep, she realised exactly what she was going to do.