The silence that followed my question stretched between us like a drawn bowstring. Liliana's red eyes searched my face, looking for some hint of deception or hidden motive. I couldn't blame her for the wariness – after her experience with Count Xavier, trusting a masked stranger who had spirited her away to a private room was hardly the wisest course of action.
"A unicorn," she repeated slowly, as if testing the weight of the words on her tongue. "You're serious about this."
Not at all.
"Completely." I moved away from the window, settling back into the chair with deliberate casualness. "Though I should clarify – the creature I'm seeking may not be exactly what the old legends describe. The stories have a way of... embellishing certain details over the centuries."
Her cat ears twitched with curiosity, a gesture that was both endearing and distinctly non-human. "What kind of details?"
