Forbidden

Chapter 19

"You are parched, darling princess. Drink." Terentius chuckled heartily, his laughter echoing in the massive bedchamber. Aeliana, leaned against the headboard, kept her eyes straight, refraining from making any eye contact with her betrothed. He held the chalice in his own hand, offering her a drink which both knew he would not truly allow. Terentius splashed the water in Aeliana's face in an attempt to startle the princess into speaking, but her mouth only opened to allow her to breathe. She bent her neck so as to enable herself to wipe her eyes with her sleeve, since her wrists were chained to the posts at each of her sides.

A knock at the chamber's large, wooden doors was the first thing that could make Terentius break his view on Aeliana. He stalked over to it, opened it in the slightest in order for himself to see the knocker, and slammed it shut once he saw that it was Priscilla. Muffled shouts were heard from the other side of the door, but they were both incoherent and disregarded. "The maid knew, too, did not she?" He spoke snakily with a snarl on his lips. "Answer me, woman!" He shouted, though he stood but three steps away.

Aeliana refused to succumb to his requests, and so she sighed obnoxiously and stared forward even still, water dripping from her elegant chin. Terentius filled with an anger that Mars, god of war, would be proud of. In one swift move, he was standing at the side of the bed with his face in front of hers. Aeliana had to fight herself from barking laughter into his fury-filled face.

"Tell me, Aeliana," Terentius roared in her face, spit flying onto her cheeks like as if he were an erupting volcano, "was the maid not aware of this affair of yours?" Aeliana breathed deeply, her eyes closing. "She was not. Nor is she a maid." The back of his hand met her cheek with a loud smack, his face contorted in anger and hers reddened from impact. "Go," she muttered with tears streaming down her face. For once, Terentius accepted Aeliana's request.

**

"Your meal, Ael- Princess." Astinos said as he walked into the bedchamber after knocking. "You can still call me by my name, Astinos. I did not do anything against you. You are still my friend." Aeliana spoke, having been released from her binds by Terentius just before Astinos was called to bring her meal and keep watch on her. His uncharacteristically sad blue eyes looked hopeful as he glanced at her through his long eyelashes. He breathed a sigh of relief, "Aeliana, they told me that you said you hated every soldier and that we should not speak to you. They said to us- I now suppose in a manner of gossip- that you had bitten Caius, your brother, when he tried to embrace you."

Astinos, always jesting, looked to Aeliana as if to tell her to shut her mouth when she had gasped. "I would never put a foul hand on my dear brother. Ever." She concluded, setting her jaw straight. Astinos almost rolled his eyes out of their sockets. "And you, Aeliana, were under the belief that I, in fact, believed that you would?" He said mockingly. Aeliana cooled the broth with the wind from her mouth and drank. "Why must not you ever be serious, Astinos?" He replied, "I am not sure, but what I can be sure of is that you admire me for my acting the contrary." Aeliana threw her head back with laughter, glad to have one of few friends she still kept. 

As she brought her head down, Astinos only then noticed the burning red mark on her cheek. All joking aside, he took the empty wooden bowl from her lap and threw it aside, the bowl making sharp noises as it jumped across the room. Astinos grasped her face gently in his hands and turned her head to its side, brushing the reddened skin with a brotherly thumb. "By the gods.." he whispered, his lips barely moving, "Aeliana, did Terentius do this to you?" 

Tears welled in her oceanic blue eyes, a silent nod the only answer given. His eyes filled with fury, and he walked backwards until he stood in the mid of the room. "I'll kill him," he said, flexing every muscle on his body. He was much larger than the aging Terentius and could easily catch him on the hip and have him meet his demise. Aeliana was sure Astinos' chest guard was cracking from the pressure underneath it. "Please, Astinos. It is not the first time this has happened, and I'm afraid that it will most certainly not be the last." 

"It will most definitely be the last time, Aeliana, for there will not be any chances for him to have a next time once I am finished with him." Astinos barked, but Aeliana knew that he was not upset with her. "Please, Astinos," she repeated in a plea. "I cannot leave my guard now, but I swear to the god Jupiter that the next time I see his eyes even flicker over you in any foul way, I will snap his neck, Aeliana." He finished, but sat again on the edge of her bed. 

"I pray you, Astinos, will find a beautiful maiden with eyes that sparkle only for you and lips which only speak for your name, and the only man which she will think about is you, and let me be damned before the only human being that she thinks of is anyone but you." Aeliana spoke quietly, her hands shaking at her sides as she thought of a future without Atilius by her side.

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I'm sorry I suck and it was probably (most definitely) filler and you probably want to take the device you're reading this off of and cut out my left kidney with it but all novels have filler and everything else in life so donut judge me. Also hey it is an update and you should be grateful, thankyou very much. I'm kidding. It's way past my bed time sorry. Live long and prosper. x Brianna.