Page 114 of The Fifth Life of Alicia
“No, no.” She gripped my shirt tightly and tilted her head back, staring at me hazily. “You have to promise to break up with me when you fall in love with her, okay?”
“I can’t do that.”
“Yes, yes, you must.” She pressed herself against me, and thank God there were thick bedcovers between us, or I might have taken that action the wrong way.
It was tough enough to lie here next to her as it was.
“Promise me!” Tears welled in Alicia’s eyes, and the sight of them was a punch to my gut. “Don’t let me die!”
Shit.
Forgive me for lying to you, darling.
“All right,” I said, cradling the back of her head. “I promise I’ll do as you wish. Please don’t cry.”
She sniffed, snuggling right into me. “Thank you. I don’t want to die again, Kalon.”
A chill ran down my spine at her words, and I held her even tighter. What kind of trauma did she carry within her to think such horrid things?
That I’d abandon her?
That I’d love another?
That I’d let her die?
The very thought of it made me sick.
“Sleep now,” I whispered, tucking her head beneath my chin. “And forget these frivolous notions when you wake.”
“Okay,” she whispered back, exhaling slowly. “G’night.”
Chapter Twenty-Six – Alicia
Red Flag Realisation
The longer I lived in this world, the more I became accustomed to it.
For example, I no longer missed modern-day technology. I accepted that books were all paper, communication was done via handwritten letters, and information was obtained by those willing to pay for it.
Perhaps that was why things like ‘hangover potions’ were so mind-blowing to me. I’d woken up this morning feeling like death thanks to my little drinking session with the Emperor last night, but Bella had almost drowned me with a little bottle of brown liquid that tasted like the worst cough medicine I could imagine, and boom.
By the time my bath was done, it was as if my hangover had never existed.
Modern-day society in my old world didn’t need more technological innovation—it needed magic.
We’d left mid-morning for the imperial hunting ground and the royal villas that surrounded it. All the nobles in the capital were required to attend tonight’s opening ball at the Imperial Villa before the hunt began tomorrow, and if I thought I was nervous about meeting the Emperor last night, it was nothing compared to what I felt about attending the ball as Kalon’s fiancée.
As for last night, my memory was hazy at best. It seemed to waver most after the point that Kalon picked me up and carried me like a princess through the Imperial Gardens, but a part of me thought that might be a good thing.
It wasn’t exactly becoming of a noblewoman to get drunk and be carried by her fiancée.
The problem was that he’d barely met my gaze all day. Every time I’d tried to initiate a conversation, he’d half-heartedly replied before seeming to doze off into his own world to the point even Sir Hayes was starting to panic.
Still, Kalon insisted nothing had happened aside from me refusing to fall asleep alone, so he’d stayed with me. He admitted to dozing off himself before leaving me alone a little past midnight and had refused to accept my apology for my behaviour, saying he hadn’t minded.
He had to be lying. There was no way he was all right with it. It was almost as if our relationship had done a complete one-eighty in the last eighteen hours, and I really couldn’t pinpoint why, so it had to be something I’d said or done in that period of blackout in my memory.
It seemed Kalon was the one person who knew what’d happened after we’d reached my room. He’d sent everyone away, even after specifically calling for Bella to attend to me, and nobody had heard our conversation from outside.
