When I walked into the dining room, Deimos was already therepatiently waiting. I wasn’t sure when or if he came to bed lastnight, but I didn’t think much of it. He and Cainen were prone toworking late though so I didn’t think too much of it.
“How’d you sleep?” Deimos asked as I satdown.
“Fine. How did you sleep?”
He grinned, “Fantastic.”
My breakfast was set down in front of me and Ifocused on eating. Deimos did the same, but since he was here firsthe finished first. That’s when he decided to strike up theconversation again.
“We need to start wedding planning soon. My dadsaid he’s prepared to hand the Kingdom over to us any time now.”He stated. “I’d like us to be married by the end of the month.”
I bit the inside of my cheek trying to figure outwhat to say. I couldn’t argue or be upset since I knew his plan hadbeen to get married ASAP, but I still didn’t feel great about it.
“So soon?” I asked.
“You knew this was the plan from the beginning,so yes. So soon.” Deimos said looking a bit irritated that I wouldquestion it.
“I just thought we would wait until my trainingwas complete,” I said.
“Us getting married won’t affect your trainingso there’s no need for that.”
I could see a bit of irritation starting to formon his face. I let out a small sigh accepting the fact that there wasno changing this. I knew this was the plan, but I always felt that Iwould be able to buy myself some more time.
“When do we start?” I asked.
“I’d like to speak with the wedding plannertoday so we can figure out what we need to do,” Deimos answered.
I looked down at my half-eaten parfait suddenly nolonger hungry.
“I’ll go get ready then.”
“Perfect!”
I went back up to our bedroom and spent longerthan I’d care to admit trying to find the perfect outfit. What dopeople wear to a meeting with a wedding planner? It didn’t seemlike a casual affair but obviously, a ballgown would be too much. Iopted for a casual black sundress. It wasn’t overly dressy, but italso wasn’t pants. I put on a little makeup making sure to keep itlight as Deimos preferred it.
“You look beautiful,” Deimos said.
I looked over and saw him leaning against the doorframe.
I gave him a small smile, “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry if I seemed upset earlier. I justdidn’t like you questioning me, especially about us gettingmarried.”
“I shouldn’t have questioned it to begin with.I know that this was the plan from the beginning so I shouldn’thave pushed it.”
“We should get downstairs, the wedding plannershould be here any minute now.”
It seemed odd that they would get here within thehour, but I guess when your future King calls you, you come quickly. Wegot downstairs and were informed that our wedding planner was waitingfor us in the dining room. As we walked inside, the butterflies in mystomach flapped their wings a little faster. Already sitting at thetable was arguably one of the most beautiful women that I’ve everseen. Perfect ivory skin, long black hair, and piercing green eyes.The only off-putting thing was that her face seemed a bit toosymmetrical. It was unsettling how perfect she looked, but it alsodrew me in.
“You must be Nesryn,” She smiled brightly.“I’m Verena, it’s lovely to meet you.”
I returned her smile, “It’s lovely to meet youtoo.”
Deimos and I took our seats across from her andshe quickly started opening the binders that surrounded her. Shestarted flipping through them and pulling out pages that I couldn’tquite tell what was on them.
“So. I have a list that we’ll be following, itstreamlines everything and helps us stay organized while we geteverything picked out and ordered. Obviously don’t pay attention tothe recommended time that it needs to be done since we’refast-tracking this.” She said. “With that being said, you twoneed to be on top of everything, that’s the only way this willwork.”
“We’ll be able to get it all done, right myrose?” Deimos asked looking down at me.
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“Fantastic!” Verena clapped. “Is there aspecific budget we’re sticking to or…?”
“Verena,” Deimos narrowed his eyes, “Youshould know not to ask such stupid questions.”
Her face flushed a light pink, “You’re rightDeimos. I apologize.”
“What do we need to do first?” I askedsuddenly feeling like I was interrupting something between them.
Verena cleared her throat, “The first and mostimportant is getting a guest list done and then I need a color schemeand/or a theme so I can give you my best recommendations and we canstart picking and choosing things to order.”
“We will get started on that ASAP,” Deimossaid.
“Nesryn, I would also like for you to startlooking at dresses and figure out what you like. Getting your dressmade will take the longest so we need to get that ordered quickly.”
“I will get started on that tonight,” Ianswered.
“I hope so.” She replied. There was an edge toher voice that I didn’t appreciate.
I bit my tongue to keep myself from sayingsomething that might be considered rude. While disrespect wasn’tsomething a future Queen should tolerate, I was new here. I couldn’trisk upsetting anyone while I was still trying to gain everyone’strust.
“Nesryn, we’re basically done here. Go getready for today’s training session, I’ll meet you in the trainingroom.” Deimos said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes,” Verena said coldly. “We’re donehere.”
All pleasantries seemed to have left the buildingleaving her cold and rude. I saw Deimos looking at her with narrowedeyes which made me feel a bit better. He’d picked up on it too.
I slowly got out of my chair and left the room. Itook the stairs two at a time back up to our bedroom to get therequicker. I had started enjoying our training sessions since it meantthat we could be alone with no interruptions. Sure it was technicallya form of work, but it was enjoyable which is all I cared about.
When I walked into my bedroom, Marigold was therewiping down the coffee table, dusting, and overall tidying up. Iquickly shut the door behind me and caught her arm getting her tostop working.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I said quietly.
Confusion took over her features. I watched thegears start turning in her head as to tried to figure out what shehad done wrong here.
“Deimos doesn’t want you or any other staffmembers cleaning our room. He said he wants me to do it.”
“Oh,” She said quietly. “I’m sorry. I wasjust bringing up your laundry and saw your room was a little dirty soI thought I would take care of it while I was here. I was just tryingto help.”
I shook my head, “I know. I just don’t wantyou or anyone else getting in trouble with Deimos because of me.”
“I will make sure to inform the other staffmembers.”
Before I could say anything else, Marigold madeher way out of the bedroom. It was more than I’d ever gotten her totalk before and I wished that it hadn’t been about something sostupid. I didn’t have time to beat myself up over it though, I hadto get ready. It didn’t take me long to get changed, but as I wasin the closet I heard Deimos’ voice come from the bedroom.
“What was Marigold doing in here?”
I tensed up a bit before forcing myself to relax.I stepped out of the closet as I pulled my ponytail tighter makingsure to keep my face emotionless.
“She brought up our clothes that had beenwashed. I asked her to stay and chat while I put everything away.”I answered.
He stared at me silently, studying me to try tofigure out if I was lying or not. I simply stared back at him waitingfor him to say something.
“Alright,” He finally said. “Let me changeand we’ll head back downstairs. Hopefully your extra training timelast night will have paid off.”
Before I knew it, we were downstairs rolling themats out. When we were done, I patiently waited for Deimos'instructions. However, he seemed to have other ideas. Without anysort of warning, he lunged towards me swinging his fist towards myface. I didn’t even think, I just let my body react. I ducked andstumbled backward. Before I could ask what the hell was going on, hewas coming towards me again. He swung his fist again. For somereason, my body's response was to grab his fist before it could makecontact with my face. I started squeezing it and I could feel hisbones wanting to give out under the pressure now being put on them.
“You’re quick,” Deimos said.
“Thank-” I was cut off when I saw his freehand coming towards me.
I dropped his hand and did my best to jump back. Ialmost lost my balance, but that didn’t stop Deimos who was comingtowards me again. I didn’t think, I just acted. I let the darkenergy slither out of my fingertips in vine-like shapes just as hewanted me to do yesterday. I sent them after Deimos quickly. Beforehe had time to react, they wrapped themselves around his throattightly. For a moment, he looked impressed, but the vines of darkenergy squeezed tighter cutting off his air supply.
“Release,” Deimos ordered.
Something told me not to listen, so I didn’t.
“I said, release!” He shouted, or tried to.
Something about that was enough to inject fearinto my body which made me falter. It was enough to get me to come tomy senses and I let go of him. I expected to be praised for the powerbehind it, but instead, anger washed over Deimos as he took longstrides over to me.
“What the hell was that?!” He shouted in myface.
“I-I thought that’s what you wanted,” I saidbacking up.
I hit the wall and he boxed me in with his arms.
“You thought I wanted you to try and kill me?!”
“I just thought that you wanted to see mypower!” I said quickly.
“I wanted to see your control! Which you seem tonot have!”
“I-I’m sorry!”
He was breathing heavily now looking down at mewith solid black eyes. He was radiating power which made me shrinkback against the wall. I wanted some sort of distance between us, butthere wasn’t any room for that.
“You’re sorry?” He scoffed. “You’resorry?! That’s all you have to say? Really?!”
“I-I didn’t….I didn’t…” I couldn’tform any sentences. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know whathe wanted to hear.
“Go upstairs and stay there,” Deimos growled.
“But-”
“Goddammit, Nesryn! Don’t make me repeatmyself!”
“I- okay…”
He dropped his arms so I could go. I ran out notbothering to look back and see his reaction. Once in the safety ofour bedroom, I locked myself in the bathroom and let the tears fall.
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