..........Kyros ..........I throw my jacket on the sofa before heading to the bed and plopping down on it. Today was a long day. I had to wake up and do extensive training before having to accompany Charon to another kingdom for a meeting he went to sit in for his father. I thought they hired me because they trusted that I was capable of defending myself. I killed more than fifteen of their guards, but it seems it was still not enough. Every morning I have to wake before dawn and go through a grueling training session with Charon himself. I must admit, though, that I was impressed by his fighting skill. He’s a prince with guards around him all the time; I didn’t think his fighting skill would be that top-notch. But he told me he didn’t like taking a lot of guards with him; he always took just Dyson, and now he’s going to take just me. He’s okay too, considering who his father is and the status they hold with her sister married to the Supreme King.I get up, realizing that sitting
................................Two months Later ...............................................Stefania ..............."I’m doing everything I can, Father. What more can I do if Paris doesn’t want to sleep with me?" I ask my father, frustrated by his tone. For the past two months, I have been trying to get Paris to sleep with me, but he’s never in the mood. It’s like that thing with Evaki traumatized him for good. I even spoke to Eva last week and point blank asked her if she and Paris were fucking, even though I would have smelled it on him, but I was going out of my mind, and she said no. She’s also going through the same thing I’m going through. The only thing he did was ask me to see a fertility doctor to get checked, and I refused because, even though I knew there was no way to be certain medically what gender I was going to conceive, I got spooked that he might want to go to a seer next, and it would be funny if I consented to go to a doctor, but not the seer. I thought
...............Stefania...............Paris breaks down in tears of joy, and I cry louder as he wraps his arms around me in a tight embrace. I feel his body shake with emotion, and I hold him close, feeling overwhelmed. "Thank you," he whispers, his voice breaking with emotion, and he cups my face, dotting kisses all over it before pulling me into a tight embrace again. When we finally break apart, he jumps to his feet and takes my hand in his before leading me out of the room. I let out a squeal, surprised by the movement as he suddenly picks me up, bridal style, and my hands instinctively fly to his neck as he takes long strides to his parent’s room. He doesn’t even knock when we get there, and his mother looks up at us, surprised by the intrusion, before her face quickly turns into a concerned frown, probably thinking something is wrong. But the frown doesn’t last long and is soon replaced by an inquisitive smile as she looks between the two of us while Paris places me down."
..........Evaki ........."Ooh! I love that boot," Tory says upon entering the closet, and I thank her before asking if she thinks the dress is too tight, and she says no. I feel like I gained weight this past month, even my breasts look and feel bigger. I tell her that, and she asks when the last time was that I took a pregnancy test, but I tell her there’s no need. Paris and I haven’t been intimate for about three months now. The first two months were on him. He was traumatized by our situation, and now it’s me. Ever since Stefania fell pregnant, I haven’t been able to be intimate with him; I just can’t do it. When I tell her that, she looks shocked, but the shock is quickly replaced by sadness."I love him, Tory; that hasn’t changed, and it never will. But it's too painful right now," I say, and she comes up to hug me. It’s been a month since the news of Stefania’s pregnancy, and I’m happy for her and for Paris, but it doesn’t take away the pain, and I have tried all I can to sh
...........Kyros..........."You are not going to get it?" I ask Maia, looking at her phone that’s been going off for the past fifteen minutes, and she shakes her head before muting it. I’ve also noticed that it’s her sister calling. I haven’t had the privilege of meeting her sister since I started here, but I know she adores her. She’s always spoken highly of her more than anyone else in this palace, but since she came back from Lycaon three months ago, she hasn’t been herself, and she’s been avoiding her calls, which leads me to believe that something happened between them. I’ve tried to get her to talk to me about what happened, but she keeps saying it’s nothing, even though I can clearly see it’s not nothing. I reach out to her and pull her closer to me, and I hold her silently for a while.I’ve also been thinking a lot about our situation. Charon almost busted me coming out of her room Monday last week. Maia and I have been spending a lot of nights together, but we decided that
..........Kyros..........I take a deep breath as I slip out of my room and into the dimly lit hallway before glancing up and down to make sure no one is watching me. Feeling it’s safe, I make my way toward Maia’s room. It’s been three months since Maia hasn’t been herself, with the first month being the worst. She refused to talk to me about it despite my best efforts to persuade her otherwise, so I gave up and stopped pushing because I didn’t want to make her feel suffocated by me too. But I haven’t stopped trying to make her feel better. So tonight, I’m surprising her with dinner in the attic, and I'm hoping it will make her feel better, even if it’s just for the few hours that we are together because I have noticed that she does seem better when we are together.I knock softly on her door and wait, my heart pounding in my chest with excitement. I’m always excited to see her, and I didn’t see her for the whole day today. She also doesn’t know I’m back because I was only supposed
.........Maia........"No," I whisper, staggering, taking in my father’s words, and I lean on the wall, everything starting to spin as I try to comprehend them while they keep repeating in my head. I couldn’t have heard him correctly. I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself as I turn around to leave, but I must have made a noise because next, Charon asks father to stop talking, causing a surge of panic, and I run out of the room. I run down the corridor like a mad woman, my heart beating faster and faster like I’m going to lose my mind as it finally sinks in. For years I asked myself, Why? "Why did they take a human when Father obviously had no love for them; he wanted me to marry Charon, and he knew. All along, he knew, that’s why he looked at me the way he did. They all lied to me. I have to get out of here................Charon............."What?" Father asks, and I tell him I think I heard something. I walk towards the door and open it, but I don’t see anyone, even
...........Kyros.........."Hrgh!" I grunt in pain, realizing I’ve taken a bullet as blood trickles down my shoulder. The pain starts to cripple me as my left side starts to get numb. But the sound of fire echoing in my ears, as bullets whizz past me, reminds me I have no time to pay attention to the pain."Stay down!" I order Maia, firing back as a bullet just misses her. My mind is racing, desperately trying to figure out a way to escape our pursuers as we approach the bridge that will take us out of the kingdom. I realize I'm on my last bullets."Faster!" I scream, looking back at Maia, feeling the car slowing down, but the words die in my throat as she takes a bullet in her arm, before one hits my arm, sending the gun flying out of my hand. I fire with my second, but I only have two shots left. Just then, the car swerves and sends me crashing, making me realize I need to take over. I crawl to Maia and make it just as she collapses from the bullet wound. I push her to the side a