It's been four weeks, exactly a month, since Scarlett Solaris took to the throne and has been leading her nation, Goldaria. She and her friends still hurt from the traumatic mental wounds inflicted on them during their captivity weeks prior, but the...
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✰✦✰ Chapter Eight ✰✦✰ " Scarlett "
WALKING INTO THE room was almost just as uncomfortable as I'd anticipated it would be.
Once people had curtsied and bowed before me, they stared and whispered as they held their champagne glasses, some even smirking at me like they knew something I didn't. Others merely glanced at me before turning around and continuing their conversations.
"So," I breathed. "No secret missions for tonight by any chance?"
Darius blinked. "No."
"How unfortunate," I said glumly, scanning the room for even one person that would look interesting to converse with. I knew that Antonine Martin—the Head of Isle—would be meeting me here, at the Gax, soon enough. Until then I'd have to entertain myself somehow.
Staring out of the window seemed good enough for now. Since it was already seven-forty-five in the evening, I found myself gazing at the sun setting on this isle. Sagax Isle. I'd been once before but hardly remembered anything since I'd been such a young girl. However, this. . .this view I recalled very well. The view of hundreds of different sized skyscrapers that reached into the clouds even, flying carriages that were shaped like chunky pancakes but so grey they were camouflaged with the sky. Distant mountains and tall, green trees hung far away, complimenting this rich isle incredibly well.
"Why is it unfortunate?" Darius's voice snapped me out of my train of thoughts.
I glanced over my shoulder as he approached me by the window, looking out of it instead of at me. "Have you seen these people?" I asked in a hushed tone. "They look like a pack of hyenas ready to pounce on me and eat my soul."
"I don't think that's what hyenas do," he replied.
"Uh, well, these hyenas do," I corrected him. "You wouldn't understand, you can't even see the looks on their faces."
"Of course I can," Darius made eye contact with me. "Trust me, I know that look better than anyone else."
"You do?" I said flatly. "Naturally, you do."
He shrugged. "Why is that hard to believe?"
"Hmm," I feigned thinking. Not for the first time and definitely not the last. "Maybe because you have never been a new Queen that's been under the public eye for three weeks straight and scrutinised for the simplest of actions."
Darius nodded. "I agree, it isn't fair."
My body locked. "What? Why are you agreeing with me?"
