"Father," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "What exactly did you promise him?"
The question had been building in my chest for days, but I'd been afraid to ask it directly. Now, with the strange forest growing larger ahead of us and the normal world receding behind, I needed to know exactly what I was walking into.
Father's jaw worked for a moment before any words emerged. "Companionship," he said finally. "Your presence in his household for as long as he requires it."
As long as he requires it. Not a specific term of service, then. Not a year or two years or even a decade. As long as he—a man I'd never met, who lived in a castle that apparently existed outside normal reality—decided he wanted me there.
"And if I want to leave?"
"The bargain doesn't... account for that possibilit
