Athy's POV
After hugging Lucas yesterday, he agreed to go with me while I go in town and stay in a small hotel. He even went as far as changing my appearance. It took him a lot of convincing not to build a whole damn mansion out of magic just for a temporary stay, and I'm glad it worked.
Now I'm here, reading a book on my bed as Lucas eats his cookies on the couch.
I shut my book tight as I recalled a question I've always wanted to ask him.
"By the way," I start, "I have a question."
He shifts his gaze towards me, "What is it?"
"Is there way, um.. how do I say this," I hesitated, "Is there a way to undo black magic?"
Lucas stares at me, trying to understand where the question's coming from.
"Why do you ask?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Just curious, so answer me." I shrugged.
"Well," He started to think hard, "the only good way is to use the fruit of the tree, unless you're okay with killing the source of the black magic."
I instantly shook my head at the mention of killing, "No, no I'm good with the fruit of the tree. How do we get that? What kind of tree?"
"Well," He puts his cookie down, "Remember the journey I went to last year?"
"Oh, yeah." I nodded, trying to get him to say more.
"It was to go to the tree and get its fruit." He explains.
"Oh!" I sat up in excitement, "Did you get anything?"
"Yeah, only the branch though." He shrugs.
"Will it work?" I ask hesitantly.
"Yes." He confirms, and I basically squeal in excitement.
"You want it?" He asks, to which I nod.
"But of course, I'm willing to pay for it." I say with a smile, but he shook his head.
"You don't need to." He casually says.
"What? But it took you a whole month to get it.." I hesitated.
"Doesn't matter, I have no use for it. You can have it."
"Are you sure.?" I ask once again, and he nods.
I ran to hug him as tight as I can, "Thank youuu!"
"Sure," he says, and I loosen my grip, "Are you gonna use it on your father?"
His words hit me. No, I wasn't going to use it on my father, I was going to use it on Jeanette.
I was silent, thinking of what to do. What in the hell is this situation? I only have one tree branch, and I could either save dad or Jeannette. It's either Jeanette's fall or my father's.
"I'll take it as a no.. Is it for that chimera?" He interrupts my thoughts, and I hit him.
"Don't call her that!" I hissed.
"Oh, my bad." He says half-heartedly.
"But yes.. It is for her." I look down.
After a few moments of silence, Lucas finally spoke.
"Why do you like her so much?"
I looked at him, then looked down. I thought about his question. Why do I like Jeannette so much?
"She'd do this for me too," I say softly, "That's all I know."
Lucas scoffs, "You're in this crappy situation and what has she done so far? Cry."
I tried to counter his remarks, but he was right. As far as I knew, she she only cried.
"But she cried for me." I say.
"How does that help you?" He raises an eyebrow.
"It makes me feel as if someone actually cares, you know." I mumble, loud enough for him to hear.
"I care," He says a little louder than usual, "haven't you already known that?"
I look up, into his eyes, trying to read his expression. I feel my cheeks burning. Geez, how could he say such things so easily?
I was speechless, every word I wanted to say was stuck on my throat.
Lucas smiles gently, which made my heart flip.
"So you didn't know. Well, now you do." He shrugs.
I look down, smiling, "Yeah, now I know. Thank you."
"So you don't need that girl." He starts once again.
I sigh, "I know, I know. But still, you don't need me at all too. You can burn the whole world down if you felt like it, but you still keep me around."
Lucas looks at me once again, and I still couldn't read his expression, "Well that's different."
"It's really not." I snort.
"No, our reasons, I meant." He shakes his head, and I was confused.
If not simply because I'm his only friend, why? I mean, if he wanted to be the emperor during my reign he could simply do it right now. So, why?
There was another reason, but I pushed it away. I didn't want to keep my hopes up.