Chapter 12

Azalea followed the man into his office, limping slightly as the pain in her foot intensified. Once inside, she took a seat and watched as he pulled out a box. The pain was getting worse now that she was paying attention to it, but she tried to hide it as best as she could.

“You shouldn’t leave bruises like that. Sometimes they get worse when you keep treating them harshly,” he said, crouching beside her foot.

Azalea felt a sudden, weird sensation in her chest, making her feel slightly weird. She took a deep breath and looked across the room to his desk, where his name was engraved on a glass plate. “Atlas Mercury,” she muttered as she read the name, not realizing that she was saying it out loud.

Atlas's ears perked up as he looked at her with a mesmerized expression, just like the one he gave her in the hallway. “Yeah, that’s my name,” he said in a soft tone.

“Oh!” Azalea realized that she had spoken out loud, and her face flushed with embarrassment. She pulled her