unforgivable | solangelo royalty au | sequel to unattainable

Chapter Eight

a/n: Rachel's friendship with Annabeth needs to be addressed more.

WPOV:

Over the next few days, Nico and I start to open up to each other a little more, whilst also learning each other's more sensitive topics of discussion. I learn not to mention Bianca or Nico's old
kingdom, and he avoids mentioning my mother, my wife, and the time we spent together.

Actually, we both dance around the latter.

On what I believe to be the sixth day away from home, Nico and Percy come down into the hold and announce that, soon, we will be arriving at the island where the fugitives live. Silena and Charles, who have grown pretty distrustful of me since I started being civil towards Nico, seem frightened, so I decide to act brave for them, despite how I really feel.

Later that day, after a lot of rocking of the boat, we're lead out of the hold and onto the deck of the ship. I look around and see that, sure enough, we've landed on a small, sunny island which bears nothing more than a few small buildings and a forest.

Nico, Thalia and Reyna lead us off the ship and onto dry land, which I'm very grateful for. I don't seem to suffer from seasickness, but the constant sway of the boat can be dizzying at times. We're not restrained at all, which I suppose makes sense. After all, if anybody tried to escape, where could they even go?

A red-haired girl I don't recognise runs up to us, grinning.
"I'm so glad you're all okay!" She excalims, hugging Annabeth, then nudging Percy playfully. "I saw a storm in the distance and worried you might get caught in it."
"We did." Annabeth says. Percy continues,
"We had to land unexpectedly, and we weren't exactly welcome where we ended up, hence the hostages."

"Oh!" The redhead seems to notice us for the first time. "Well that's not very nice." Annabeth shrugs, like she had no choice. She did.
"This is Charles, Silena, and..."
"King Will Solace." I introduce myself, holding my hand out for her to shake. She looks very taken aback, her eyes quickly darting from me, then to Nico (who is a little distance away, hugging somebody), then back to me again. I assume she, like everybody else, knows what happened four years ago.

Eventually, she gets over her shock and shakes my hand. "Well," she smiles, "if we're using titles, I'm Duchess Rachel Elizabeth Dare." She applies a haughty fake voice as she says her name. "Though I don't really go by 'Duchess' anymore, considering I haven't been to the kingdom where I held that title since I was thirteen."

"Why not?" Silena speaks up, an edge of accusation in her voice. Rachel frowns at her.
"I'm not a criminal." She responds, equally accusatory.
"Not that criminals are unwelcome here." Reyna mutters as she walks by.
"Of course." Rachel nods in agreement quickly.

"Actually, I was shipwrecked here, and by the time these lot-" she gestures in the general direction of the ship, since most of the island's inhabitants have dispersed by now- "landed here and offered to take me home, I had already settled nicely here."

She continues to look down on Silena. "This is more my island than anybody else's... Well, actually... No, never mind." That just raises more questions. "Anyway, I suggest you stay in line." She turns and starts walking away, calling over her shoulder, "Come on, I'll show you to your hut. The three of you don't mind sharing with Reyna, do you?"

"Actually, I'd prefer to have a place to myself." I speak up. Rachel stops and turns on her heel to face me, crossing her arms and looking troubled.
"Well, we don't really have room for anybody to have a hut to themselves, and you're a hostage, so you won't be trusted alone, anyway." She says apologetically.
"Why not? It's not as if I can escape!"
"True, but you could hurt somebody, or try to sail away on the ship, despite it being pretty much impossible for one person to man it all by themselves."

"But I don't know anybody here very well! And," I lower my voice so that Charles and Silena, who are trailing beyond, don't hear us, "The other hostages don't really like me." Rachel looks conflicted for a moment, then shrugs.
"Well, you could stay with Nico, Leo, or Thalia. "I can't help but flinch.

"So my options are my distrustful sister-in-law and her boyfriend, a crazy arsonist, my ex-fiancé's ex-girlfriend, and my ex-boy..." I stop myself before I go too far. "and Nico?"

"Yeah, pretty much." She says apologetically. "There were a lot of exes in that sentence."
"Yeah, well I've burned a lot of bridges." I murmur, so quiet she doesn't even hear me. "They're the only ones with free beds in their huts." The buildings aren't really huts as much as small cottages. I assume they're only one-room large each.

I wouldn't stay with Thalia or Nico even if you didn't have bad blood." Rachel weighs in. "You'll have to deal with small children." She grimaces.
"Small children?" I question as we start to walk again.
"Jason, Piper, Hazel and Frank." She says, like I know who those people are. I know Jason, and I think I recall the name Hazel...

"Great." I mutter sarcastically. "I guess I'm stuck with Reyna and the other hostages, then."
"Yep." Rachel says, reaching the cottage in question and shrugging helplessly. "If it's really that bad, my suggestion is to spend every second you can outside."

I decide to do just that.