You (Solangelo AU)

1. Yay! I'm Engaged! No.

It was January 28.

And, I, Nico di Angelo was turning 16.

What could be so important about this? It meant I'd be officially presented as next in line for the throne of the Inferos Kingdom. The heir. That's what I was, but this was the occasion that would officially name me this.

It was something I had never expected to happen until I turned ten years old and my stepmother had come into my room, early in the morning, crying. I had never seen her cry. My stepmother was a strong woman. Someone I had easily come to respect. Queen Persephone was also a very fair and amiable ruler. And that day, seeing her cry had taken me by surprise. I didn't know what to expect. But I knew when she took my hand in hers and looked at my drowsy ten-year-old self, that my older sister was dead.

Now, at sixteen, the day that I would be officially introduced as the next king, it fully hit me that my sister would never become Queen. It saddened me to think so. My birthday was already off to a crappy start.

Having just woken up as these thoughts ran through my head, it took me a couple of seconds to realize someone was knocking at my door. I threw my arm over my face and yelled at them to come in.

Reyna, who served as my valet and personal knight slash best friend, poked her head in. "Good, you're awake." Like that had not been obvious when I called for her to enter.

I heard her enter and close the door behind her. "Your father asked me to bring you your outfit for today's announcement."

Reyna was tall and lean. She had muscles where most women at this time didn't and she was an incredible fighter. She had long wavy brown hair she usually wore in some type of braid and earnest brown eyes. If she wasn't a knight, she would have made the best Queen. Not to forget she was actually the Captain of the Knights. An incredible feat at her age. She was older than me by two years, marking her at eighteen years of age.

She was not scared of me in the least when most servants were always a little nervous around me. I understood that I could come off a bit scary sometimes but I was nice to them. I thought maybe they were beginning to warm up to me after all these years. Something I had not done with my last valet, Bryce, who'd been outright irritating and rude and then later turned out to be a spy anyway and King Hades had him executed. That's what'd gotten me Reyna. Someone to wait on me and protect me if needed. I just knew Reyna was trustworthy and she seemed like a really genuine person, so as much as I tried not to be friends, in the end, she became my best friend.

I pointed to my desk chair with the arm not covering my face, "Set it there."

I listened as Reyna walked quickly to leave my clothes and as she opened the giant navy blue curtains from either side of my bed. "His Majesty also asked that you join them for lunch today, you missed breakfast. He has something he wants to discuss with you."

I removed my arm from my face and sat up, squinting at the sudden amount of light around me. I missed breakfast. The bright light made much more sense. I groaned, "Do you know if it's of importance?"

Reyna nodded, "He said it could be considered urgent."

I hated having lunch with my father. I hated ever doing anything with my father. He was never the same after Bianca's, my older sister's, death. I even remember him saying he'd wished it was me instead of her.

Before I could reply, by asking Reyna to inform my father I didn't want to have lunch with him for him to tell me something he could just tell me in the carriage on the way to our townhouse, where the announcement would happen, there was another knock on the door. Instead, I said, "Could you get that please?"