Forgotten Fates

Chapter Seven

Athens, Greece 616 BC 

After receiving word of my father's summons, I leave Paige in the town square and make my way to the Prytaneion.

"Ah! Here is my lovely daughter now. Alice, come meet our two newest visitors," he calls.

I walk up the steps of the mess hall, and see the most beautiful boy with the brightest green eyes I have ever seen watching me. And goosebumps breakout all over my skin as I come face to face with the traveler from yesterday.

"Elijah and Cole, meet my daughter, Alice." my father says proudly.

The green-eyed boy, Elijah, takes my hand in his and bows at the waist. "It's an honor to be in your presence," he says before planting a kiss on the back of my hand.

"Please, my father is the head of council, that is far from making me a princess. Your bows are unnecessary."

"My apologies, with beauty like yours, I assumed you were a goddess," he flirts and I can feel myself blush.

His hand is still grasping mine and from the moment our skin touched I felt a buzzing throughout my entire body. I can't be certain but from the intense way he is looking at me now, I think he might feel it too.

His brother, Cole, clears his throat and quickly remembering his manners, Elijah releases his hold on me and steps back. The warm electric current disappears, being replaced with a coldness that makes me feel void inside.

"What brings you to our village?" I ask, hoping to recover some decorum, while also needing to know how long they will be in the city.

"My brother and I are architects from Corinth," Cole answers. "Your father has request our services."

"Of course. We are delighted you have come all this way to help us."

"It's the strangest thing really, we were asked to help design the new temple quite some time ago but turned it down. Then I woke up last week with the strangest desire to come here," Elijah explains, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Perhaps the Gods led you here!" my father exclaims, patting him on the back.

"Yes, perhaps they did, indeed," Elijah agrees.

My father continues to discuss the details of the new building, but all questions are answered by Cole, while Elijah stands silently, never taking his gaze off me.

I too, am unable to pry my eyes away from him. It's as if a force stronger than my own will was in control of my body. I don't know what's responsible for it, but I do know one thing. The longer I look into his eyes, the more my once beautiful necklace begins to feel like a noose. 

Alice

Leaving Paige at my house, I get to school early after waking up with an idea in my head. I wanted to leave even earlier, but I fell asleep before Elijah called and I woke up to four missed calls and a bunch of worried text messages. Luckily, Cole was on the phone with Paige at the time and she told I was fine, just asleep. However, I needed to call him first thing this morning and then felt bad for waking him when I heard his groggy voice on the other end of the line. I apologized profusely for worrying him and missing our phone date, and for waking him up, but he assured me it was fine as long as I was okay. Afterwards, we make a plan to talk at my lunch period to make up for it.

As soon as I get to the school, I head straight to the library and find all the schools collection of old yearbook. I pull last years copy from the shelf and start flipping through every picture, from every grade, to see if I notice Tristan. Of course, if he started this year then he wouldn't be in it, and seeing as how Paige didn't know him, I knew it was a big possibility.