Free Web NovelChapter 28: Chapter 28
Hera clenched her eyes shut. She couldn’t believe what was happening.
"I’ll make sure you both regret this, do you hear me?!" Penelope shouted and knocked down a few glasses.
"Try your hardest, princess Penelope," Iris continued, "but acting like an immature shrew will get you nowhere."
Hera whipped her head around to look at Iris, while Penelope shot up from her chair, walked towards Iris, and gave her a deafening slap.
Iris tasted the blood in her mouth and scoffed. "You think this changes anything?" She stood up to look at Penelope squarely. "I stand by everything I said. You’re immature and a vulgar excuse of a woman. I hope you learn one day that that nasty behaviour will get you nowhere." ƒrēewebnovel.com
Penelope gnashed her teeth. Her glare could burrow through a wall. "I’ll make you pay for this," she hissed, and stumped off.
Iris looked down at Hera, and regret immediately washed over her.
The room was extremely silent. So silent that the buzz of the city from outside the palace could be heard clearly.
Iris quietly sat down and poked at her food. Slowly, the other girls resumed eating their breakfast. The little chattering around the table continued.
"I’m..." Iris started.
"Don’t," Hera said. "Please don’t."
They stayed silently beside each other for the rest of the meal.
After most of the girls had left the hall, Ophelia, Andromeda, and Hope came around to sit beside them.
"What was all of that?" Ophelia asked first. "Seriously."
"It was nothing." Hera sighed.
"You call that nothing?" Hope chimed. "She was literally screaming her head off. And hats off to you, lady..."
"Iris. My name is Iris," Iris said.
"Of course, yes. Hats off to you, Iris, for standing your ground," Hope said. "She was asking for it, in my opinion. Why would she try to ruin your reputation like that, Hera?"
"That’s going to be the least of your worries now," Andromeda muttered. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Hera covered her face with her hands.
Hope nudged Andromeda on her arm.
"What?" Andromeda whispered.
"What happened, Hera?" Ophelia asked again.
"She just doesn’t like me," Hera said with a sigh. "I never did anything special to offend her; she’s a nasty person. But Iris here..." Hera turned towards Iris, "who should have known better, just had to aggravate her more."
"That was never my intention, and you know it," Iris said defensively.
"That’s true, though," Hope chimed in.
"It doesn’t matter whether that was your intention," Hera said, "what matters is that you greatly offended her, so now, we should expect the worst."
"I’m sure you’ll manage," Andromeda said.
"You’re not helping," Ophelia chided.
Iris sighed. "I’m sorry, ok? We’ll figure something out. Whatever she plans, it can’t be that bad. You’re still a guest here, and the king wouldn’t bother to about this either."
Hera sighed and said nothing.
They left the breakfast hall after they were done. Ophelia and the other girls headed outside the palace while Hera retired back to her room with Iris following closely behind.
"I’m really sorry about today," Iris said. "I did it to protect you."
"Protect me?" Hera sat down on the chair beside the balcony doors. "You just made everything ten times worse. Why did you have to insult her so badly?
"I gave her a taste of her own medicine, Hera." There was a slightly smug look on her face. "If you continue to tolerate this amount of disrespect, she’ll do something much more ludicrous."?
"You think I don’t know that? I know," Hera said. "My blood boils whenever I see her. She’s like a little splinter stuck in my toe. But, so is it with everyone else. Until you stepped in."
"Look, Hera. I’m sorry about what happened back there, but I honestly couldn’t stand her."
Hera leaned against the wall. "There’s nothing to be done. It has happened. We’ll just have to wait and see how she reacts."
Iris sat on the bed. "Why don’t we make a short visit to lord Nikolas. He could do something, say something to her if he could." Iris said. "But, also. It’s an opportunity to see each other again."
"Are you crazy?" Hera scowled. "The princess just told everyone that there was something untoward going on between the two of us, and you want me to be seen with him?"
Iris rolled her eyes. "If you suddenly began avoiding him, that would only confirm the accusation she made. You should be much braver when confronting this kind of slander."
"That’s absolute rubbish," Hera scoffed. "I need to stay away from him till whatever it is that I’m dealing with goes away."
Iris sent her a long stare, then relented. "If that’s what you want, then no problem," she said finally.
Hera heaved. "We could talk to him, I guess," she said. "But only to talk about Penelope."
"Of course." Iris grinned from ear to ear. "That’ll be the only thing you discuss."
"You need to stop trying to push us together. Nothing good will come out of it, you know."
"Enough with the sermons, Hera, let’s go."
Iris had already gotten up from the bed and was heading out the door.
"Where to?" Hera asked.
"To the Arena, of course. Or his house," Iris said. "We’ll find him wherever he is."
They took a carriage to his house and were greeted by only the chickens and sheep. Then they headed to the Sun Arena.
They checked the baths, the halls, and everywhere else, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"He could be at his parents’ place," Hera mused. "He told me the last time we met that if he wasn’t at his place, then he’d be with his parents on urgent business. Which means our journey has been in vain, and even if we could see him, he’d be too busy to see us.
A familiar face popped up a few feet away from them.
"This has to be a joke," Hera said.
