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“Lady Athena, do you have a moment?”
I stopped in my tracks, breathing in to steady myself and pulling up a smile I hoped reached my eyes.
I turned. “Sure, Elissa.”
Elissa smiled back, but in that way people do before they are about to ask you something completely out of line. I should be used to it with her. Her family held a millennium-long grudge that mine had won over Athens. “I don’t mean to pry, as I’m sure you and Lord Poseidon have everything under control. But we are starting to get a bit worried. My husband was out on the water for eight hours yesterday and only pulled in half a net.”
Oh. There was genuine concern there. I needed to help fix whatever was wrong with me. Now.
“I know how frustrating that must have been,” I said, making sure my tone was understanding. “And I’m sorry I can’t give you a better answer, but sometimes the catches simply drop for a few weeks. Trust, though, that we are trying to get them back up.”
Whatever concern I’d seen on her face dropped the second I was done speaking. “Are you trying or just too busy to deal with it?”
I jerked back. “Excuse me?”
Elissa’s eyebrow raised, but she didn’t back down. “Well, everyone knows that this wedding is taking up your energy. I heard from Piper that you are planning it on your own, which seems quite stressful. And dear, we all see the news. I’m sure Nikolas’s actions are quite hard on Lord Poseidon.”
“I appreciate your concern, Elissa,” I said, carefully. It was a practice in self-control making sure my voice didn’t waver and expose the anger building in my chest. Piper was trying to undermine meagainand Lukas couldn’t get a break from Nikolas. “Of course, it’s difficult for Lukas to be away from his brother, but they communicate privately.”
“And he approves of this?” I didn’t know someone could scoff while actively speaking, but Elissa seemed to be the first to figure it out.
I smiled sweet, like honey laced with venom. I’d told my father I didn’t have a temper. That wasn’t quite true. There was a fierce protectiveness that came out around Lukas, the force of which sometimes shocked me. “No. I meant that he’s handling this privately.”
Elissa opened her mouth, but I placed a hand on her wrist in a silent cue that I wasn’t finished. I raised my voice a little, enough so that a few people gathered around us could hear. “As for the wedding, I’m glad you mentioned it. I didn’t realize how long it had been since Piper and I last caught up about the details.”
I kept my words cordial, nice. Because if Elissa ran back to her friends with something I said, she’d be forced to recount them. Unless she wanted to appear dishonest, especially when there were now multiple witnesses to what I’d told her.
“I’d love for you to join as well, Elissa,” I added for good measure, keeping that smile plastered on my face.
Elissa wisely returned one, excitedly accepting the invitation with a promise to schedule it soon. When she left me alone, I got out of that room as fast as I could.
It felt a little pathetic and a whole lot sappy, but the only person I wanted to talk to right now was Lukas.
“I thought you said you were tired?” Lukas asked, as I curled up with a blanket in a chair in one of the garden alcoves, cracking open a book. He was trying to hide from his trainee soldiers, but I found him in minutes.
“I said I was tired of people,” I responded, tabbing through the pages to find my place.
Lukas straightened, wiping his hands on his pants. “I’m a person.” His face went striken and he looked down patting his hand dramatically over his chest and abs. "Fuck, unless I'm morphing."
I laughed and shoved a bubble of water at him. “I know,” I said, stealing a glance at the way his muscles flexed under his white shirt. “You’re different. It’s easy with you.”
If my memory served correctly—which is always did—I lasted about five minutes reading my book before I shut it, falling into comfortable conversation with Lukas.
I didn’t have to try with him. I could laugh and joke and run on about anthropological trends and what pottery said about our ancestors without feeling like I was boring him.
He’d given me an olive branch last night, whether he intended to or not. The realization that we’d chosen the same name for July gave me the strength to at least try to be his friend again.
Figuring out how to soothe the pain of keeping it at that could come later.
Right now, I just missed my best friend.
I walked down to the training rooms and out to the stables and gardens before I remembered that Lukas would still be on his perimeter check.
I was in my head about Elissa’s statement about her husband and my own responsibility for it, not even realizing that I took the long way back to our rooms instead of a shortcut.
As I walked closer to our rooms and the bustling main halls were traded for quiet spaces filled with our guards and closest advisors, I could no longer ignore how the energy had shifted.
People were looking at me like I’d suddenly shifted into a piece of fragile ceramic, threatening to break if I was knocked over.
