[BOOK TWO]
"Anniversaries to some are like counting the years spent doing something great, years spent together, or years spent alive." I started slowly, voice dropping to a drawl as I peeked cautiously out of my bedroom blinds, scanning the road to...
"YOU SLEPT WELL last night," Minnie commented casually before gently placing a slice of pancake in her mouth. "I could hear you snoring into tomorrow."
Oh, if only she knew.
"You know that I don't sleep particularly well in new environments, Minnie." Slicing the strip of bacon, I stuffed it in my mouth along with a slice of waffle, chewing gently.
It was such a twist of fate. This time last year, I was fearing for my life, crying my heart out and cursing myself into damnation. However, now that I was seated on the long black marble table digging into a hearty breakfast fit for a king, I couldn't help but feel just a tad bit satisfied with my life. I mean, besides the fact that I'm still in Hell and in the same house as someone that might or might not had tried to kill me.
Dimitri was a walking contradiction. He was death, the personified version of the spirit and had walked the earth for eons. His very job was to take lives away, leaving nothing but a pale blue and freezing cold corpse. And yet, last night, Dimitri had shared a piece of information in which I could not whole-heartedly believe for myself. He had claimed that instead of taking my life, he had tried to save it.
And that, ladies and perhaps even gentlemen, is why I had never felt even more confused in my life.
"Minnie," taking a huge sip of apple juice to wash down my palate, I took a deep breath before asking. "What do you think about Dimitri?"
The red-head slowly chewed on her food, before she sucked her cheeks in as if she was in thought. Popping her lips slightly, she said, "Dimitri is.. an interestingly complex character. He fancies you."
"He fancies killing me," I corrected.
Shrugging with a slight laugh tinted on her tone, Minnie's eyes glittered with a hidden secret. "When he saved me from Lucius, I had been very shocked. I mean, I've not met the man up close so I wasn't too sure it was him, but you tend to recognize people who tried to kill you over time. The thing is, Addison, he had claimed that he saved me not for me. But for you."
-----
When afternoon came by, news travelled through the castle that the other kings had returned. Servants -- pale wisps that resembled spirits of people once alive -- rushed down hallway after another, carrying trays of food and various house decorations.
The whole castle was alive with buzzing energy. There had been a certain air of hurry and perhaps even a tint of panic. In fact, it was so much so that when I had accidentally blocked the path of a servant boy on my way back to my room, the boy had broken down crying that he thought it wouldn't be as busy.
A hint of curiosity had embedded itself within me. From this high energy, I soon found myself wandering the hallways instead of staying in my room, quite very eager to find out who these high kings were. Of course, I had a single thought in my mind as of to who these people could be. The brothers of Death in which we had met at the party could very obviously be these said kings, and yet there was nothing quite as satisfying as confirming a thought.
And yet, there was just something truly deadly about knowing. It seemed far too dangerous to hold so much truth and knowledge, but there could be nothing more exhilarating than learning something new. This was the thought in which I kept chanting to myself inwardly as I tiptoed down the polished marble hallways of the castle. Perhaps this time, going along with my curiosity wouldn't get me nearly-killed just like the last time.
Voices began to flow through the hallways, resonating against the high walls as tones of different men laughed and argued. Peeking out from behind a black marble column, I noticed three other men talking to each other, along with a very bored looking spirit of death standing in the middle with his arms crossed and a scowl evident on his features.
"We had them well, Fabian. We could've ended half of that wretched angel camp if you hadn't dragged us all away!" A man with fire red hair and ember gold eyes yelled, voice slightly hoarse.
A faint memory pricked the corner of my mind, teasing the name of the name as something in which I had found myself forgetting over the year apart.
Wilhelm, was it?
"Don't get over your high horse, Will. You very well know that those angels are trained in combat, especially after all the brainwashing Lucius and his little gang had thrown on them. We would've never made it through half the camp. If Fabian hadn't pulled you out of the fight, you might've been dead." This time, a man with hair of snow white rolled his bright electric blue eyes that positively shimmered in the low lighting.
"Either way, they will be coming back." Wilhelm's eyebrows were furrowed in a mix of annoyance, anger and worry. "And when they do, we still have to face them off. It's only a matter of time. They had their eyes set on our kingdom for eons!"
"Let them bring the battle to us. You're the spirit of war. You should know better that fighting in enemy territory is a dangerous step through murky waters."
"I rather have our blood drenched across their floors than have our people's painting our fields a vibrant red."
Through his brothers' argument, Dimitri's eyes lazily trailed around the large room. He seemed detached, and honestly, bored before those silver eyes landed on my semi-hidden figure. Before I could wrench my body back behind the pillar and into hiding, a smirk slowly graced his handsome features, his amusement clear in his eyes as he raised a hand and wiggled his fingers in salutations.
Once the three brothers noticed the last's lack of response, their eyes followed the lazy gaze that Dimitri offered, each sporting a different reaction from the other. Out of the three, only Calvin looked truly pleased to have seen me.
"Well," the dark-skinned man said with a brilliant heart-stopping grin. "What a pleasant surprise, Addison."
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