And so she did. His box was his bedroom in his suite, making it already difficult for anyone to reach her. On top of the protections already placed on the room to keep others from getting in, he placed more on the room to keep her from getting out. Sadistically, he had taken the door off the bedroom, but much like the wall around the castle that Alaric had set up to keep Cain out, she could press against an invisible barrier in the doorway and window.
At that point she knew better than to think he wasn't capable of anything.
After he had thrown her unceremoniously on the bed, told her to 'sit and be good' he had started his rage induced work on her protections.
"You can't keep me in here forever," she said, knowing full well that he could keep her in there as long as he liked.
"Just until you have given birth," he muttered, focusing on the window and the strange yellowish ripples that spread out from his fingertips in the air.
Well, she couldn't fault his paternal need to protect, except that it was a tad on the extreme side.
She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him work, knowing full well that any attempt to escape would either result in her face first on the ground, or his hitting her again. Neither was desirable and so she sat and watched.
***
She had gotten bored by the next day, prowling around her new home for the next several hours.
A tantrum had done nothing, smashing his things had only resulted in him glaring at her from the doorway. Throwing the water jug through the window had only resulted in her having no water, the window repaired itself before her eyes, the jug did not return. Evidently it repaired itself, because Epharis had accepted it from a guard and now it too taunted her from the sitting room.
By the second day, she had started to feel the effects of withdrawal, her skin burning but she felt frozen. Her head ached and she sat against the door frame, pleading for him to let her out. He didn't.
The elixir he had left for her to drink was ignored and the smell of it repulsed her, but she didn't dare smash it for fear that he would force her to drink it with the help of the guard. Instead she left it on the table and watched him, begging him to release her any time he looked her way.
By day three she had flown into a rage, screaming at him and snapping off the decorative ball on the footboard of his bed, lobbing it at him through the door.
He ducked but it was a narrow miss.
"Let me out!" she screamed at him, kicking the door barrier but that only hurt her foot and made her angrier. The second ball was through the door in the next moment, lodged in the wall in the precise location his head had been a moment before.
She stood and screamed at the top of her lungs, and to both of their surprise, the window exploded outward. Looking at the window, back to him, and then at the window again, her grin was huge and nasty as her eyes fell on him a second time.
He tackled her before she could suck in enough air to scream again and as a result, she was bound to the bed and gagged.
***
After the first week, he was forced to feed her and she wasn't going down easy. The guard's finger was spat in his face after she had bitten it off, his own fault for removing the gag and trying to silence her with his hand.
He howled, blood flowed and he was excused from his duties.
Instead, Epharis used the chain to bind her entire body down, including her head.
She glared up at him, sweating and shivering as he dug his fingers into her jaw to pry her mouth open and spoon the elixir into her.
After she had thrown up the first lot, he went slower, giving her only a spoonful or two at a time and letting it settle before giving her more. He had released her only after she had promised not to throw things or scream again.
Versalis found her on day nine, the sight of his form at the window making her quiver and she hurried to him, her hands pressed against the barrier.
Opening the window from the outside, his eyes were greedy as he took her in.
"Versalis, he won't let me out," she whispered, aching for him when his hand pressed to the barrier on the other side, a hair's breadth away and yet unable to touch her.
"I'll get you out," he promised.
She leant closer, pressing herself against the barrier and he pressed his forehead against the barrier over hers.
She could almost taste him, yet he could be on the moon for all the good it did them.
The bites on her neck and wrist had finally healed and the sight of the scars on her skin angered him. It meant she was returning to her natural state and his work was being undone.
They both hated it, but she didn't have the strength to get out.
***
He returned to her window almost nightly after he had found her, simply hanging there from the side of the castle and either talking to her or simply watching her while she suffered.
Epharis didn't seem to know about the visits and she wasn't about to tell him, but he was suspicious of her obedience when he fed her and she ate silently to hurry his leaving her room.
She hated it when he lingered to check on her, making sure both she and the baby were okay.
Both were well enough and as soon as he was gone, she was at the window with Versalis.
He glowed in the moonlight and the sight of him was magical to her.
"I want to be with you," she whispered, leaning against the barrier and he looked sadly back at her.
"I know, my darling, but it won't be long now," he soothed.
She sighed and smiled at the news, her fingers stroking the barrier over his cheek.
He stayed with her all night, standing on the windowsill with his fingers dug into grooves his repeated visited had worn in the stone.
It was the next night when whatever it was that he had been working on came into effect.