Free Web NovelChapter 24: Chapter 24
Hera lounged in her room. They had visited so many places over the last few weeks, she felt entirely too tired to do anything today.
"I think I’d like to be alone for a while," she said quietly.
Iris lay on the bed, half resting against the headboard. "You want me to leave?"
"No, no... I just meant, I’m too tired to do anything today," Hera said. "We have no arrangements with Niko today, and I would like to simply... exist today. To do nothing but anything, I eventually decide to do."
"Soo... You wish to be left alone, then? You would like me to leave."
Hera sighed. "Yes, I would like you to leave."
Iris studied her for a while, "Is something wrong?"
"No," Hera offered Iris a small smile. "I just feel a little overwhelmed from the activities of the past few weeks."
"Alright." Iris nodded. "Will you be staying in your room all day, or will you be going out? I want to be sure."
Hera paused. "I’m don’t really know," she said. "I might go out, I might stay in, whatever I end up feeling like doing."
"Well, be careful," Iris warned. "Whatever you end up doing, just don’t get yourself in trouble."
Hera chuckled but nodded anyway. Her mind was filled with thoughts of her sister again. She didn’t know why, but she desperately wanted Astrid back by her side. She missed her parents as well. They hadn’t been the best, but she loved them regardless.
She stood from her seat and went to lie on the bed, but stood up again after a few minutes. So much time had passed since Iris left her to her vices, dusk would be upon them soon, but she needed to leave her room.
She got her cloak and dashed out of the room, but stopped at the entrance of the palace.
"Could I have an escort into the city, please?" She asked one of the guards.
"But, mistress, it’ll be dark outside soon," one of the guards protested.
"We’ll be back before you know it, sir, please."
He sighed. "Call someone to take over from here."
Hera wandered at first, stopping by a few stands, sampling goods she wasn’t buying, until she remembered the theatre she’d visited with Niko.
A play was scheduled to start in thirty minutes. She immediately pays for two seats and tells the guard to find somewhere else to sit. She wanted to be alone.
In the meantime, she looked around the theatre while she sat. Nothing interested her.
Then someone sat beside her. It was a man.
"Princess," he said. "I’m quite surprised to see you here."
Hera’s eyes widened in fear as she looked at him.
"You don’t need to be scared, your majesty, my name is Theo," he said, stretching a hand out. "Theodore Diomedes, son of Prime Minister Casper. I watched you at the banquet when you recited your poem, and saw you again when you’d visited the sun arena with your maid. You had seemed quite preoccupied with Nikolas."
"Forgive me, my lord, but I do not recall seeing you."
"It’s fine," he laughed. "Compared to Nikolas, my face is less memorable."
Hera offered only a tight smile. He told the truth. He wasn’t an ugly man by any chance, but Niko more than rivalled him in beauty. However, he... He seemed more primal. Radiating raw strength and pride.
She’d taken a glance at him, and she could see the well-formed muscles, the scars. One in particular shocked her; it ran from the base of his neck down to the other side of his waist. He would be trouble, a lot of trouble, she felt.
"Why have you come here all alone?" He asked.
"I’m not alone, my lord; I came with my guard."
"I know, " he said. "I saw you both walk in. I meant, why did you come out so late in the day? It is not safe for a lady of your standing to be out and about by this time."
Hera lowered her head and looked at her hands on her lap. "I couldn’t stay in the palace. I need to get some air. It felt very suffocating for me to be in there. I have no idea why....
I’m sorry for rambling; it’s just that I can’t seem to stop thinking about my sister. It’s been a while since she left, and she hasn’t sent word to me of where she’s gone."
She covered her face with her hands.
"It’s alright, princess. I understand." He said. "You wouldn’t mind if I stayed by your side for the rest of the show, would you?"
"Of course not," she denied sharply. "Please stay as long as you like."
He chuckled. "Just till the end of the show."
"Of course."
"And you may call me Theo," he said quietly. "It would be much more comfortable for both of us."
She sent him a small smile. "And you may call me Hera."
"Hera," he repeated.
"Yes, Theo?" she said. They both smiled at each other.
The show soon began. It was about a woman who had turned into a ghost, wandering the world and seeking revenge after she was murdered. She’d tormented her husband till his last living days, but her spirit had refused to rest.
"Are those tears we see in your eyes?" Theo teased as they left the theatre. "Don’t tell me you’re a cry over things like this, Hera."
"It was a sad story, a sad story." She said, sniffing. She turned her head away in an attempt to wipe her tears, but it made him laugh even more.
"Oh, please, it wasn’t that sad."
She gasped dramatically. "There’s no sympathetic bone in your body if you didn’t feel sorry for the woman." She said. "She was murdered by her husband and roamed the earth even after his demise. Surely you felt something."
Theo chuckled. "Nothing at all." fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
They had walked quite a distance from the theater when Theo stopped beside her.
"I must part with you here, Hera," He said. "I had a lovely evening thanks to you. I hope our paths cross yet again." He gently held her hand in his and brought it to his lips, then his forehead.
"It was a delight to make your acquaintance, too, Theo. Let us meet again."
