A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
Annabeth woke up with a pounding headache and groaned. Now she knew why people always said to never mix aphrodisiacs and other drugs with alcohol. She could hold her alcohol pretty well, but not if her body had to also clear out the toxins from the aphrodisiac.
A cold glass of water was brought to her lips.
"Thank you," she muttered gratefully as the water soothed her parched throat.
"You're welcome," the deep voice replied pleasantly back.
Wait. Who the hell was in her bed? Her eyes snapped open.
Annabeth nearly spewed the water from her mouth when she realized Percy was sitting casually beside her on the bed. He was leaning casually against the pillows beside her, his white shirt open at the top and revealing part of his bare chest.
"Are you feeling alright?"
Despite his words of concern, Annabeth could definitely tell he was laughing at her current state with his eyes and his salacious grin. Memories of last night suddenly flooded into her brain.
Annabeth stared mortified at Percy. She had stripped her clothes in front of him and nearly begged him to come into the bed with her. She would have willingly let him do whatever he wanted. And then somehow she had fallen asleep in the middle? How absolutely embarrassing!
As if knowing what she was currently thinking of, Percy grinned.
Annabeth looked away only to realize that she was not wearing her dress from the night before but a soft nightgown.
"Did you...?"
"Last night, you did say it didn't matter whether it was before or after our marriage. We'll get to see each other eventually."
Heat inflamed her cheeks. It was true that she had said those words.
"I take that back. I was under the influence and clearly could not give consent."
"Certainly, my lady. To clarify, the maids were the ones to change you into your nightclothes, so I'll wait for the day you undress yourself in front of me. You're still free to ogle me as you wish. I give you my permission."
Percy looked meaningfully down at his chest.
She scowled but it was a relief that he had not been the one to change her.
"Jeez, button your shirt up, will you?"
Annabeth tore her gaze from his quite spectacular chest to glare at his amused face.
"Last night, you would rather we both had our clothes off." Percy teased again.
Annoyed, Annabeth swatted at his chest. Percy caught her hand easily before planting a soft kiss on her palm. Annabeth rolled her eyes but the corner of her lips lifted.
This close to Percy's bare torso Annabeth could see some white scars criss-crossing his chest. There was a particular nasty one that ran from his left shoulder to his sternum. She couldn't stop herself from gently tracing that long scar. The skin formed after the wound healed was slightly raised and jagged.
"How did you get these scars?"
"The small ones were from training or battles. This large one?" Percy looked down at the white-pinkish flesh. "We were raiding the headquarters on a smuggling case. One of the smugglers had a poisoned blade that left me with this reminder."
"Oh. That must have hurt."
"It did. I had a slight fever for a couple days but poisons don't affect me too much." Percy cupped and lifted her chin up. "Don't look so sad. Wounds will always occur on the battlefield, and I'm not invincible but I do know how to take care of myself. So don't look at me like that with those eyes. I don't plan on making you sad."
Her stomach fluttered as warmth spread throughout her body at his words. Annabeth bit her lip and had to look away from Percy's earnest gaze. Don't believe him, Annabeth thought. You believed Luke's words, and look where that got you.
Percy caressed her cheeks, capturing her attention again. Annabeth startled as he leaned closer.
The door opened and a maid walked in. Seeing Percy's and Annabeth's position, the maid's eyes widened and her face grew red.
"I'm so sorry! Please excuse me! I'll knock harder next time." She quickly bowed before exiting.
"Great." Annabeth muttered. "Now the whole mansion will know."
"What's wrong with having everyone know that the Duke and the future Duchess get along so well?"
"That one maid doesn't seem to agree with that."
"I know. I'll make sure it won't happen again." To her surprise, Percy gently brushed a light kiss on her forehead. "Now if you've slept long enough, let's eat breakfast. We'll see how the interrogation of the maid and the attackers went as well. Or you can stay in bed and have breakfast brought up, but the servants might assume that you can't get out of bed because of a certain nightly activity between us."
Percy chuckled as he left her room. Annabeth chucked a pillow at him, but it landed softly on the closed door.
It was only when she was getting ready for the day that she discovered the conspicuous pink mark on her neck. Percy sneezed twice as Annabeth cursed him in her mind.
Annabeth stayed quiet as she listened to Percy and Grover, his second-in-command, interrogate the affected Black Knights. The moment they had seen Annabeth come along, the Black Knights had fallen to their knees and apologized sincerely for what they had done. In fact, they looked startled when they saw her appear next to Percy. According to their stories, they remembered very little of what had happened, as though some kind of fog had come over their memories.
Percy sighed. "Memory loss or memory alteration is very common in victims of fascination magic. Whoever did this must be no novice."
"What's the last thing you all do remember then?" Grover inquired. "Do you remember seeing a person by you?"
One of the knights that Annabeth remembered attacking her searched his mind. "Honestly the last thing I remember before my mind gets all fuzzy is that I was passing by the ballroom to get to my shift in the gardens. There were a lot of guests around so I can't single out one person."
"I was standing guard in by the ballroom entrance," said another guard. "A lot of nobles were arriving and we were checking their invitations."
The third spoke up. "I was about to get off my shift in the entrance and was waiting for my replacement."
"Hold on. Wasn't the maid who tried to seduce you also stationed in the ballroom serving drinks?" Annabeth asked.
They had finished interrogating the maid prior, who had nothing much to add other than her memories were muddled. The maid did admit to disliking Annabeth because of her crush on the Duke but swore she never planned to harm Annabeth or Percy. The fascination magic had brought her desires to fruition, even when she hadn't planned to enact on them.
It crossed the minds of the interrogators that the culprit must have been in the ballroom. But that could be anyone invited as a guest, and all the nobles in the Cuora nation had been invited. Annabeth furrowed her brow, but it didn't seem like Kelli or Luke was involved, since she knew for a fact that neither could use fascination magic. Of course, it didn't strike out the possibility that they had access to someone who did.
"This will narrow our search down at least." Percy decided. "Investigate every single person on the guest list and those who actually entered the mansion yesterday night. Do not let a single word of the incident leak out." He looked back at his Knights. "You all will be undergoing extensive training starting today. Ten extra running laps at the training grounds every day, and I will be personally be checking your progress. What do you want to do with the maid?" Percy asked Annabeth.
"Me?" She was surprised to hear that Percy wanted her to be in charge of the maid's punishment.
"As the head of the Black Knights Order, it is my duty to punish my subordinates." Percy leaned close to Annabeth and brushed a stray lock of her curly hair behind her ear. "But you are the future Duchess, so the affairs of the household are under your jurisdiction. Do what you want."
The lady of a household had many duties, including managing the household budget. Being in control of the financial affairs of the Ducal household meant Annabeth had the full reign of the employees. Even back in her old life as Luke's wife, Annabeth managed the budget, although ultimately any decision had to go through Luke. This was why the servants of the Count did not consider Annabeth a true master of the household.
"Really? You wouldn't mind whatever I do?" Annabeth pressed.
"I trust you," Percy said simply. "Whatever judgement you make will be fair anyways."
Will it though? Annabeth thought wryly. Part of her was drawn to swear vengeance on those who had harmed her in her past life.
In addition, it had taken time for her to gain Percy's trust in her old life, but their relationship seemed to be much better in this life. Well, she wouldn't complain about it since it worked in her favor. Secretly, she felt better knowing that Percy had firmly rejected the maid's attempts at seduction.
Annabeth had the maid be brought up to the main hall of the mansion where most of the servants were gathered.
As she faced the maid, Annabeth thought about an appropriate punishment. Though it wasn't the maid's fault for falling prey to fascination magic, the maid had the desire to seduce Percy in the first place. The maid had even sent her several cold glares, especially at the engagement party when Annabeth was with Percy. Annabeth had first resolved to just let the transgressions go past. But if she did not serve a proper sentence, then the rest of the household might think that she was being too soft and take advantage of her. As she had purposefully had the servants gather in the hall, she would take this chance to show that she was not to be trifled with as the future Duchess.
"Young miss," Annabeth said finally. "During your employment at the Ducal castle, you have served to the best of your abilities. Your records and evaluations demonstrate this. However, to disrespect the future lady of the household and to attempt to seduce the master are severe transgressions. I'm afraid you will have to take on the consequences of your actions. You are henceforth fired. You will be given a small severance seeing that your past work records have been flawless, but I cannot give you a letter of recommendation to other employers. I hope you take this chance to not make the same mistakes again."
The maid fell on her knees and trembled. "No, please! Don't fire me, please! I didn't mean to, I truly didn't mean to! I just wanted to stay by his side, even if he doesn't look at me!"
But the future Duchess had made up her mind and was firm. If the maid only had a simple crush on the Duke but did not enact her wishes on a soon-to-be-married man, perhaps things would have been fine as they were. But Annabeth would be labelled as a fool if she kept a woman who was in love with her fiance under the same roof. She would not have another Kelli result again.
Annabeth felt pity for the young girl in front of her. Love made people blind, and Annabeth had also fallen prey to a one-sided love in her second life. She didn't want to make that same kind of mistake again.