Athena In Gold

XXVII - Fling

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"Princess Vivienne is here?"

"The King's guards are stationed here for the La Sangre event so she's allowed to visit." Lea says with a defeated look.

"Is she similar to Zuhaila or something?" My attention gets caught up in hearing familiar footsteps.

The heels of Saffron.

"She's the opposite actually." She faces me with a look full of composure. "Princess Vivienne is a much better partner for my brother than Zuhaila. The only thing is she doesn't want to marry Altheo at all." Saffron chuckles at the thought.

"He shouldn't have to be in a loveless marriage."

Both Saffron and I turn to Lealani with a shared puzzled look.

"Well it's either that or he'll spend the rest of his life single, pining after your brother's lover." Saffron stated straightforwardly causing Lea to deadpan. "And he'll probably still yearn for Athena even after he's married to that unfortunate girl." She continued and even I started to feel bad just as Lea did.

Lealani turned to me with widened eyes as if she wanted me to go against what Saffron had just said.

"It's not like I can do anything about it." I said in surrender.

"You're happy with Nicholas aren't you?" Saffron asks out of the blue, I nod reluctantly. She gives me a faint smile before she takes a moment to look through her purse, her specialized school bag. Pulling out a small fancy hip flask. "You're going to need this." She takes off the lid and passes it over to me.

I look at her momentarily, confused. Eyeing the flask in her hand.

"Trust me." She insisted as she eagerly lifts the flask to my lips and tilts it so the liquid pours into my mouth before I could protest. Then only eyeing me with no remorse as I cough up in front of her.

I shake my head after getting hit with the strong slap that came with the substance.

Lea had awkwardly looked around. "You really didn't need to do that." She mumbled only to receive a light silencing glare from Saffron.

"She'll thank us afterwards." Saffron states as if I wasn't right in front of them, I didn't pay much attention to it as my mind felt a little dizzy. "Oh and I forgot to tell you, James wanted to have a chat." She then gently pushes me away, waving her hand dismissively as I look back to her warily.

Walking off to find my way to James.

He wasn't in the art room so there was only one place left.

The library.

It spans over a third of the whole building, taking up all floors and was filled with endless books.

"I was wondering when you'd finally get here." He chuckles as I finally spot him in the upper section.

"What did you want to talk about?" I ask walking over to a near shelf.

He shrugs almost nervously as he walked over. "I just wanted to ask you about my brother." He tells me as he sits down by a table.

"But you know Nicholas better than me." I point out, failing to think of what he could possibly want to know.

"That's true but I was wondering what you thought of him now." He rephrases. "You used to think of him as this selfish jerk that looked down on everyone." He reminds me of the countless rants I had comfortably said to him despite it being about his own brother.

My mouth opens to speak but I was yet to think of an answer.

James chuckles at the sight of me speechless. "Has anything changed now that you're his mate?"