"Hey! watch where you're going!" Alayna called out. Thankfully she caught herself before she face plummeted on the dirty street. The person that bumped into her briefly glanced at her once, before totally ignoring her existence.
Alayna knew that it was dangerous to make a big fuss in the middle of the street, but she was getting sick of people just walking over her. She deserved a proper apology, especially from a man who couldn't behave in front of a noble woman.'Well, he doesn't exactly know that I am a noble woman.'
"Excuse me," Alanya pushed, but the person continued disregarding her.
Alayna was quite offended by the person that seemed to be a man. The man wore a black cape with a hood and a mask making it impossible to see his face. She was about to speak up before she noticed that he kept looking behind him. Alayna followed where his head was turned. She saw four men from a distance aggressively pushing and turning people around trying to search for someone. From Alayna's point of view they looked utterly terrifying. Alayna thought that they must be criminals. She connected two and two together. The man that just bumped into her was being chased by them and she just had to get in his way.
'My lucky day'
Just as he was about to run away Alayna unexpectedly grabbed onto his arm. He was caught by surprise from her attack. The man snapped his head towards her. He looked back and forth between Alayna and where she was holding on to his arm.
"Seriously?!" he inquired in an annoyed voice, "I don't have time for this," he said in a deep, stiff voice, while trying to get Alayna to let go of his arm.
"You tripped me." she reminded, "On top of that you didn't even apologize."
She noticed that he started getting impatient with her. The man didn't utter a word, and instead just kept staring at her. She could not even properly see his face but being under his gaze made her feel uncomfortable. However Alayna refused to let his emotionless face intimidate her.
"LET. GO. OF. MY. ARM," he said, ice cold dripping from his voice.
"I- I won't let go of your arm until you apologize. In a proper manner too" Alayna tried to firmly state but only a wobbly voice came out. By the looks of it she started regretting angering this man. Alayna hadn't even thought that the man could be one of the criminals, yet here she was digging her own grave.
The man kept looking back as he was keeping track of the men still trying to find him. He turned his face towards Alayna daring her to continue her act. By his last expression, he made it evident that he was not having any of it which made Alayna quickly release her grip on his arm.
"Uhm, I'll forgive you then,"
In answer she received pure silence. She swiftly let her eyes look for the four men. Except this time they were gone. In the blink of an eye the man in front of her was also gone. Alayna was surprised by how fast he left and how she didn't even notice.
"Men nowadays," she quietly muttered for herself, before walking away.
_______________________________
As Alayna was returning to the castle she couldn't let go of the thought about the man. His rude behavior made her furious. She may be overreacting but she was still mad at how everyone was treating her. That's when she remembered the book in her bag. Alayna quickly searched for it in her bag, thankfully it was still in there. The book had to be kept a secret. She knew for a fact that the sort of information that could be in the book would be able to attract many unwanted enemies.
'If there was something written in the book, it surely must have been so confidential that it shouldn't be revealed to anyone'
She had let her thoughts run until she neared the entrance of the castle. Alayna decided to round the castle and go from the back door instead. When she was about to approach the door she noticed two shadows in front of it. Alayna didn't even try to see who they were. She was occupied by trying to find a way inside so she wouldn't have to sleep outside and die from pneumonia. Her safest option was not available however there was another way, a riskier one. The only way left would be the one on the left side of the castle. The problem was that it was underneath Angelos' window. There was a chance that he would see her, but she had to take the risk. Alayna walked to the left side of the castle, she hesitated for a moment before deciding to just go for it. She sprinted towards the door. Thankfully it was unlocked as she had expected because she knew she wasn't the only one who was using it for their nightly get away.
Alayna was burned out from everything. The moment she touched her bed she passed out sleeping, not even bothering to change into her night clothes.
_______________________________
"They are requesting you for breakfast," Lina announced.
"Tell them I'm not feeling well and that I need to rest,"
"As you wish, but you know you can't just stay in your chamber forever. It has been two days since you left your room"
"Why not? I am not bothering anyone. It's not like anybody needs me" Alayna responded.
"All right" Lina defeadly sighed, "Il go and bring your breakfast then"
"Thank you,"
Alayna was about to continue her reading before a knock interrupted her again. This time she got up to answer the door.
"Oh, you answered the door," Angelo stated.
Alayna immediately slammed the door shut. 'What was he out of all people doing here?' Alayna could hear his muffled complaining from the other side of the door. She locked the door and was about to continue ignoring him until she heard him mention something.
"If you don't open the door I will tell mother that I saw you sneaki-"
Angelo was unable to finish his sentence before Alayna quickly unlocked the door, dragged him inside, and locked it again.
When he was placed inside Angelo walked over to her lounge putting his feet on her coffee table with his hands resting behind his head, making himself comfortable. Angelo looked around admiring her chamber since he hasn't been in there before. Alayna narrowed her eyes at him. He was being far too comfortable for her liking.
"What do you want?" Alayna questioned in a suspicious tone.
"I kind of thought that it was the perfect time to reach an agreement with you. Now that I finally have something to pressure you with" He responded.
"And what would that agreement be?"
"Well, you don't tell mother of what you called my nightly rendez-vous and I wont tell her of yours" he explained.
"First of all I am not going on rendez-vous, second of all I'm not afraid of your threats. What made you even think that I would agree on this?"
Angelo was silent for a moment. His eyes suddenly shifted from silly and arrogant to dark and vicious. Angelos presence felt different to Alayna. It looked like he was done acting friendly. He got up and walked over to her bookshelf.
"I thought you would say that. That is why I came prepared" He said as his hand was brushing the book covers while he walked. Alayna was silent, urging him to continue with his statement.
"You see me and many others have just found out about your marriage arrangements" Angelo taunted, "And I know you must be overjoyed by it," he added with a wicked smile.
"What are you trying to say?" Alayna's voice roughened as she was following his movement. Angelo was dangerously nearing a journal she definitely didn't want him to see.
"I also found out that my father wasn't very happy about your response to the news." He said as he was randomly about to reach out for the journal from her shelf.
Although before he was able to, Alayna blocked his hand from reaching it.
"Don't. touch. that. '' she fiercely stated which made her receive a smirk from him.
For every sentence he spoke he took a step closer to her. "You step out of line and this union process will quicken" Angelo menacingly whispered to her. Goosebumps erupted all over Alayna's body. 'What happened to her silly cousin, and why was he taking this so seriously.'
Angelo backed away, making his facial expression return to its original state."Lets just hold our part of the deal and nothing will happen" He threatened as he was leaving her room.
Angelo left before Alayna could even respond to this deal assuming she had already complied to it. As much as she hated admitting it, she did really get defeated by her cousin. It wasn't like she was about to tell on him but now she has no other choice than to oblige.
When Angelo was gone Alayna took it as her perfect opportunity to look more into the book she bought from the old lady the other day. She had also hidden the book from the banned section in the same place as the book she bought. As Alayna took out both books from her closet, she realized that hiding both of the books in the same place might've not been the brightest idea. If one of them was found by someone, the other would too. She surveyed the room trying to find a place to hide one of them. She decided that underneath the mattress would be the best spot for now.
Alayna realized that she should probably note everything down in case she forgets anything in the future. She walked over to her bookshelf, took out the journal and returned to her books. As she began inspecting the cover of the book, she noted that they looked exactly the same. The cover of both books had a repeating design of leaves and different types of flowers on the edges. Alayna recognized one of the flowers, the purple iris. She also noticed that there was no author to either one of the books. Alayna opened the book she got from the old lady and as she was told by her, it was empty. She flipped through all of the pages, still every single one of them was completely blank.
A question arised in Alayna's head. 'Why would the old lady own this kind of book? She took the other book and put them side by side. Something was not adding up. One of the books was empty, the other had missing pages and spelling mistakes as Lina had said. Alayna took a second to sort through her thoughts. She was trying to decide on what the best option to find out more about this. She decided that the only way to find answers to her questions was to head to the banned section of the royal library. She needed to take the initiative today or else she wouldn't find any answers. But she couldn't do it alone. The only person that Alayna currently trusted was Lina. Because Lina had already agreed to it, the plan would hopefully go smoothly.
Alayna shut her journal and the books. She hid each one of them in different places making them hard to find.
"It's time for some action," she said, cracking her knuckles.
*******
Hi everyone,
In the next chapter you guys will get to read a new POV, so stay tuned!!!
S&S