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Five fucking days.
That’s how long Katrina has been staying with me in Braaka and she’s still acting like I’m a total stranger to her. Time slips through my fingers, and for the life of me, I have no idea how to stop it.
“You have to come up with a better plan than just forcing her to eat all her meals with you,” Cleo says, plucking out one petal at a time from the daisy in her hands while whispering something.
“I know,” I mutter, kicking the air at my feet as we stroll through the garden.
It may not be as beautiful as the one I have back home, but I was excited for her to see all the exotic flowers that bloom in the south. But she never gave me a chance.
Fuck.
All she does is stay locked in her room writing letters to Elijah—her little brother that she hasn’t even informed me she has yet—and of course, tohim.She’s written him letters upon letters in only five days, while to me, she barely says hello. I had the misfortune of reading just one of those letters, a mistake I don’t intend to ever make again.
With a little help from Cleo, I was able to distract her rider long enough to steal one from his bag and read her letter to Levi in its entirety. Sure, he would see that the seal was broken and that I must have been the one to read it, but in the moment I didn’t care.
After having read it, though, I didn’t have the courage to put it back in the rider’s purse. It would have been far more humiliating having Levi know I read each line where Katrina all but confesses her love for him, how her days are empty without his love, and how she counts each of them down until they are reunited again.
Yeah, fuck Levi and his fucking letters.
“You also didn’t help by trying to seduce her friend,” I quip back, needing to lash my anger out at someone.
“What can I tell you? When I see something I want, I do everything in my power to get it. You used to be like that too,” Cleo counters, not one bit fazed with my furious outburst as she continues to mumble some kind of gibberish under her breath.
“Yeah, and how is that going for you?” I retort sarcastically.
“Better than I could have hoped.” She smiles, her black eyes beaming with light.
And that’s when I realize what she’s been mumbling under her breath all this time while strolling through the garden, murdering one daisy, one after the other.
“She loves me… she loves me not. She loves me… she loves me not. She loves me…”
I stop moving just to let out a loud, demoralized cackle.
“Great. That’s just great. Here I am struggling to win back the love of my life in a month, while you end up falling in love with her handmaiden in less than a week! Just fucking fantastic!”
“Hey, don’t take your frustrations out on me! It’s not my fault your precious queen is in love with someone else,” she yells, scorned, making sure I feel the same with her reminder.
“Fuck you, Cleo.”
“No, fuck you, Teo!” she shouts, before pointing a finger at me and storming off.
Damn it!
Fuck!
“Wait, wait!” I yell, running after her, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to me.
“I’m sorry, Cleo. Fuck. I’m so fucking sorry. I was being an asshole.”
“You’re always an asshole,” she mutters, but thankfully spins around and places her palms on my chest. “You’re just lucky that I have a soft spot for assholes.”
I chuckle softly.
“Yeah, I am lucky. You’re my best friend. If I don’t have you in my corner, then I’m as good as done for,” I admit.
She lets out a little sigh, her black eyes going soft.
“I’ll always be in your corner. Always.”
