ATHENA

FOUR

The Kingdom of Thestoria, The White Territory

The Palace

The night was becoming too overwhelming for Leonard to bear.

The moment his father had Duke Fredrickson Stone and his family to stay for dinner, Leonard's stomach had dropped.

Maybe it was the way the pompous duke and his father chatted so loudly over expensive wine or the way the duke's seventeen-year-old daughter bit her red-painted lips every time she made eye-contact with him-whichever one, he had had it with this night.

Raking his hand through his dark brown hair, he shot the girl a small smirk-an action he regretted immediately, because now her green eyes twinkled with something he identified as lust.

"A toast."

Leo's blue eyes shot to Duke Fredrickson, who was raising his glass of wine.

His father and the duke's wife and daughter raised their glasses, so Leonard had to do the same.

Fredrickson's grin was rather confident as he held his glass high. "A toast. To a blossoming friendship, new discoveries of land, and, a potential conjugal unity."

Leonard scoffed out loud. Conjugal unity, my foot!

His father shot him a scowl at such rude outburst.

Leonard grinned, angering his father even more, and earning frowns from the girl and her parents. "I'm sorry for my laugh. I must not have heard right. Did you just say conjugal unity?"

The table was silent.

Annoyed, Leonard chuckled. "I thought so." He faced the duke squarely. "Get this right, my lord. I cannot marry your daughter. Not in this life, not in the next." He pushed his chair back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have knight's training first thing tomorrow morning, and I need all the rest I can get." Standing up to nonplussed faces, Leonard bowed. "Good night."

~🌹~

Later that night, as Leonard laid on his bed, hands on his belly, staring at the ceiling in pensiveness, he heard a knock.

He knew exactly who it was.

"Enter."

King Jason entered into his son's chambers, a more relaxed look than Leonard had expected.

Leonard jolted to sit immediately. "I cannot marry her."

Jason leaned on the closed door. "And why is that?"

"Because I don't like her, because I don't want to get married."

"Jason raised his voice. "How dare you?! How dare you, Leonard? How dare you speak such nonsense?! You don't want to get married... what type of a responsible heir says that?!"

Leonard's jaw clenched.

Jason released a deep breath. "I don't like having this conversations with you, Leonard. You only seem to infuriate me. You have no choice. I'll give you the chance to choose. You don't choose, and I'll choose for you." He pointed a finger. "And never again are you permitted to speak rudely in front of my guests." Releasing another breath, he spoke again. "After your training tomorrow, take a bath and saddle your horse, I'm taking you somewhere. You need to understand a few things."

Leonard's brows creased. "Why the horse? What about the carriages?"

"We're going across the hills. The rocky surfaces could damage the wheels. We're going to the area just before the precipice."