His Queen

28. Strength, not Weakness

Aliya's POV

On the way to Emma's room, I was turning a corner when I bumped into someone. A small sparkle of hope died as soon as it was born when I noticed who the body belonged to.

Certainly, not Damien.

The person who I wouldn't want to be in the same room with even if he was the last one on this planet. Any feelings of friendship or companionship I felt towards him died when he stood against Damien in the throne room.

It was Nicholas.

He seemed surprised to see me walking though the halls.

"Ni- King Nicholas," I lowered my eyes.

"Don't look so disappointed now," he said, "was it someone else you were expecting to see? Or rather, bump into?"

I chose to ignore his statement. Even though he has been kind to me during our encounters, there was something stopping me from reflecting that energy back. The thoughts of any developing friendship between us came to a halt after today's events.

He had joined hands with the council and stood against Damien in the throne room.

I always knew there was some form of tension or rivalry between him and Damien, but it wasn't so evident until today. It almost seemed as though he was waiting for an opportunity to speak against him; waiting for him to make a mistake.

"Sorry," I mumbled and tired to walk past him, but he stopped me by raising an arm.

"Is everything okay?"

Did he just ask me that?

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" I found myself answering.

I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing the distress he has caused both me and Damien.

This was between us.

"I don't know," he sighed, "after what happened in the throne room, I just don't want you to think I'm the villain."

"Why does it matter what I think of you?" I asked, turning to face him completely.

"Because we're friends," he claimed.

There was something completely strange about this situation. The past few times when I had talked to him it was light hearted and very much in a friendly way. It shouldn't sound so foreign for him to consider us friends. He may be the only other vampire who has been nice to me besides Damien and Emma.

But being friends with him didn't sound right.

I just didn't know why.

"How can we be friends?" I asked him, "you're a royal vampire and I'm- well, human."

"If a vampire and human can be mates, why can't we be friends?"

He said it so casually, which made it more difficult for me to believe the words.

Did he know?

No, he couldn't possibly know about... I stop myself before finishing the thought.

He was a vampire and could still read my mind.

"What?" I pretended to not know what he was talking about.

He was watching my reaction closely, and suddenly I wanted to run and hide from his stare. I chose to calm my thoughts as my eyebrows scrunched together into a frown.

"I know what you are," Nicholas began slowly as he proceeded to watch me, "King Damien doesn't just enter the ball with a random girl as his date, multiple times."