MINE (Caius Volturi)

Chapter 30

The day of the ball was fast approaching and I hadn't shown Caius my dress. It was wrapped, untouched, kept in the secluded corner of the walk in closet in the room. Although it wasn't hard to locate it because the rest of my belongings just took up a modest amount of room. Whenever I would walk in it, my eyes would automatically find it and a strange feeling would hit me out of nowhere. It wasn't like I was expecting anything out of this whole extravaganza but somewhere in the back of my mind, I had an unattended hunch that it wasn't going to be all that smooth. A lot of factors were directly or indirectly responsible for that.

There was a subtle shift in everyone's behaviour in the coven even Aro and Marcus who were having their slip up moments, here and there. These were the times when I so wished to have Bella's red flag husband's mind reading ability. It would be much easier to tame my curiosity instead of beating around the bush with pretty much everyone. Even Jane.

I asked her the other day.

"Is something... going on? In the coven?"

She was folding the laundry that was just delivered to my room. Jane was someone who could never sit idle. I never questioned her about it because in the coven everyone had their own way of coping with time and eternity. Evander would be practicing his powers. Alex actually had an arcade room where he would stay with Demetri all the time. Felix would be fighting with rookie vampire guards but nowadays, he was spending time with Gina. The kings would indulge in their own stuff. When they weren't together they would be with their mate, only Aro though. Because Marcus was stuck under a fateful tragedy and Caius was just handsomely aloof. A few days ago, I got to know that since my arrival, Caius was spending more time with me instead of staying in his study and I won't deny admitting that it didn't flatter me. Somewhere it was kind of obvious that Caius and Athenodora had a strange and sort of strained relationship, hence the distance. But as majority were unaware of their dynamics, I couldn't comment much.

Back to the topic of my curiosity, Jane's hands momentarily stopped and her eyes darted at me before she resumed her activities. "What?" she played clueless.

"Well, there is this kinda.....thickness in the environment. I might be wrong but I feel like subconsciously everybody is brooding about something." I shrugged.

Jane sighed loudly. "There is something. But we guards aren't aware about everything yet."

"What is it? Any idea?"

Jane folded the last piece of clothing taking her time. "It happened a few days ago in the Queen's quarters when a new guard arrived with the dress designer for the Queen's ball outfits measurement and everything. Corin said it was something related to Queen Athenodora. She didn't know exactly what happened but Queen Sulpicia asked everyone to vacate the chambers and called for the kings presence."

"Is she.... alright?" I don't know why I asked that Or why that was the first thing that came to my mind? Maybe because she was related to him and I somehow couldn't directly ask about him.

"We have no idea. We haven't seen the Queens or Corin after that. But that guard... " Jane hesitated.

"The guard... What about him?"

"He was expelled."

"Why?"

Jane shook her head. "Nobody knows. The King's orders I guess. It was around midnight. The guard just packed his stuff and left."

The conversation didn't satisfy me but left me with more questions. Why did the guard left like that? What happened at the Queen's chamber? What happened with Athenodora? Did it involve me as well?