Prisoner

Chapter Thirteen

"What have you eaten today? Aside from the cereal at breakfast," River added, making me look down to avoid bursting out laughing as I remembered the incident this morning.

Unfortunately for Hades, Cypress and River had found out where we'd been eating and hanging out, so they came in every so often to investigate what the royal family did in its off hours. Not that any of it was interesting anyway. River had joined us for breakfast, us being myself, Hades, and Lucy, and I had turned my nose up at literally everything those two had tried to shove at me. It was borderline war between Hades and I until River dug around in the cupboards, found a box of some kind of cereal with little chocolate balls and marshmallows in it.

I'd never had anything so fucking amazing. It was like crack in a box. I'd eaten two bowls before my stomach started to protest. At that point, Hades didn't give a shit as long as I ate. Of course, he spent the rest of breakfast giving River dirty looks, like he was pissed River had gotten me to eat while he'd had no luck.

"I had a handful of cheese crackers around one," I said absentmindedly, then paused when I realized that I'd not only answered his question, but I'd said it in a normal tone of voice. I reached up to rub at my throat. Setting aside the slight rasp from whatever bug I'd caught this time.

"That is not a meal, and it's late in the evening," River added, rising to his feet as he set his tea aside, "Let's go grab something to eat. We can even bring it back here to watch whatever monstrosity you've been watching for the past three hours." I barked a laugh as I rose to my feet, using the sofa arm for balance as my vision tilted a little. I hesitated a moment and River frowned.

"It's a good show," I said, pausing another moment to take a breath, then shrugged, "Fine, whatever." River stumbled and I looked at him and he stared at me.

"Sorry, I'm just honestly shocked. You didn't put up a fight this time."

"Key words there are this and time. I assure you I'm building up for later."

"Oh goodie."

I shook my head and River followed me out of the lounge room as we headed over to the kitchen. I was surprised to see Ryk in there already, pushing rice around in a microwave meal. When we came in, Ryk glanced up, looked sour, then looked back down. I smirked as I walked over to yank out the chair from across him while River went to the fridge to start poking around for food.

"What's the matter? You still salty I snitched?" I asked. Ryk glared at me.

"Look, asshole, I made a living on being a snitch," I pointed out, "You don't have anyone, but yourself to blame."

"I cannot believe I'm saying this for once, but he's right," River said, then paused to look down at his hands, turning them over a few times before looking up, "Sorry, I never thought I'd say that. Is time even real anymore? Where are we?"

"Fuck you," I laughed and Ryk rolled his eyes.

"You know nothing about it," Ryk said tartly, "It's none of your business."

"So who's the dude you're banging?" I asked. River made a noise at the counter, clearly disapproving of the conversation, but not having the balls to say anything. Ryk glanced at him, then glared at me.

"As I've said, it's none of your business."

"Sure it is. If your dude has friends going around stabbing people."

"It wasn't Aric," Ryk snapped, making me raise an eyebrow and Ryk stiffened, "It wasn't. Obviously it was someone who hates Cypress. Aric doesn't even know you're here."

"Wow, you don't talk about me with your boy toy? I'm kind of hurt, Ryky. I thought I was your favorite nephew," I mused. Ryk curled his lip at that as he rose to his feet with his unfinished microwave meal that he binned so fast, I'm pretty sure he threw it across the room.