Burning Ties

Chapter Thirty-Three

WE CAN ADD POLLS NOW????? I WILL BE ABUSING THIS NEWFOUND POWER.

Iris POV

Sometimes in order to win, you have to befriend the enemy. While I do somewhat enjoyed Slater's company, and I could previously see a future with us together, I no longer see anything beyond revenge when I look at him.

Is it so terrible for me to both find comfort in him for being there for me but to also hate him for what he's taken away from me?

Logically, he isn't the only one that I should be blaming, especially since this whole thing was my fathers plan, but I cant very well plot revenge against a dead man, can I?

When Slater knocked on my door last night, I admit that in a moment of weakness, I opened the door because I thought I needed him, however, once he started talking it occurred to me that I could hurt him in the way he hurt me too.

Will I follow through with it? Only time will tell that. For now, I will be getting to know my enemy.... or rather enemies since it turns out that Andrei was also involved in the taking away of my freedom.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm having such a lengthy internal monolog, and the answer to that is quite simple, my dickhead of a fiancè is making me run laps around my house.

I want to murder him. I'm currently on lap three, and while you may think that three laps around a house is not much, you would be right about it if this were a normal house. I believe our house could be classed as a small hotel. Or a castle, whatever spoons your soup.

I'm about to begin my fourth lap when I catch sight of Slater lounging around on the deck, naturally I stop running.

"Slater! I am absolutely not running another lap." I cross my arms over my chest.

"Yes you will, Iris. You need training so I know that nothing will happen to you." He retorts, narrowing his eyes at me. Is that supposed to be threatening?

"No. I will not be running even one more step. That doesn't sound right but you know exactly what I mean. I don't need to run to be able to fight." I glare right back at him.

"Iris, don't make this any harder than it needs to be. You're running two more laps whether you like it or not."

"No, Slater, I think you've got it all wrong. I won't even move from this exact spot until you give in." I huff, dropping down to the ground and sprawling out like a starfish. Damn that feels so much better than standing.

"Iris," Slater bites out, his tone exasperated. "Do not be difficult."

"Slater, I'm not an athlete, I'm a couch potato in what world would I ever be able to run five laps around this house with no prior training? You're lucky I even made it this far." I scoff, not even bothering to move a muscle to look at him.

"She's got you there." Luka says randomly spawning from God knows where.

"She does." Mikhail agrees, and then there's a sound that sounds like they just high fived, but I wouldnt know because I refuse to even turn my head to look in any direction.

Mikhail also spawned from nowhere, but since the two of them are taking my side, I have no problems with it.

"Do you two have nothing of value to add to our conversation?" Slater asks my brothers, I assume he's pinching the bridge of his nose, wondering what the hell he did to be in this situation right now. The answer to thar question is that he was born. That was his first mistake. Maybe I'm being a bit too mean, though.

"This is us being helpful, dude. We're taking our sisters part." Luka replies.

"Thats why yall are two of my favourite brothers." I smile. I can't just go ahead and tell them that literally all my brothers except Leandro and Andrei are my favourites, now can I?

"You're my favourite sister, Iris." Milhail replies. Damn thats nice to hear, at least someone appreciates me. Wait-

"I'm your only sister!" I roll my eyes.

"Exactly. And you're the best!" He replies, I dont bother dignifying the oaf with a response.

"Iris, get up. We need to do actual training now." Slater sighs.

"I'm actually pretty comfortable here. So you can just like leave, its okay." I smile sweetly, finally turning to look at his stupid face.

And to think, just less than forty eight hours ago, I thought his face was the opposite of stupid.

"Iris. You told me I could train you. Please, solnyshko." He begs with a frown on his face.

Is it bad that I kind of want to punch that frown off his face? Probably.

"Fine. Help me up, I guess." I reach both of my arms up, plastering a fake smile onto my face.

Slater takes hold of my hands before effortlessly pulling me up from the ground.

"Come on, let's go to the training room. We'll be there for about an hour today. This will also be your routine for the next week or so, just so that we can build up your stamina. Then everything will change."

"Well, that's not ominous at all. Thank you Slater." I grumble sarcastically, earning a smile from Slater.

He's falling for my trap. With the way that things are going, I might just be able to execute my revenge a lot sooner than I anticipated.

This is going to be fun.

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I accidentally deleted the usual banner I use and was too lazy to go to the previous chapter I published. That is unfortunately on me lol.

Anyway hiiii, I'm sorry it took so long for me to publish this. Grief is funny.

I missed New year's w yall, but I hope this year marks the beginning of many, many years of immense happiness for all of us.

I dont really know what else to say, I'm exhausted so goodnight my loves. I will be using polls soon enough btw.