I FELT BETTER WHEN I OPENED MY EYES THIS TIME, my body didn't hurt that much. My headache was there, but lighter than before. And my ribs didn't seem to be broken anymore.
"Are you awake, child?" It was Hov.
Slowly, I opened my eyes. "Yes. How long was I asleep?"
"Only five days, don't worry," Gods above.
"ONLY?" I joked and he giggled. "30 days in the total. Now I have 23 months, great!"
He seemed sad to hear me say that, and I sighed. "It's not like you missed anything good, though!" That's reassuring.
"Everybody must have been so happy to see me almost dying," my sarcasm made my voice bitter. "I wish I had seen their faces when they heard I was going to survive."
"I don't know how was your relationship with the people here, child, but I don't think some of them hate you as much as you may believe they do," as if.
"That's called, pretending, Hov. None of them can fool me with their faked kindness," I closed my eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm myself. "You should know that they hate me, Hov. All of them would kill me at any time. Especially Crown Prince Daisuke, and my older brother Rai. And in all honesty, I understand their hatred, and I'm okay with it."
"Do you think his highness made you be part of the trials to torture you then?" Is he kidding?
"There's no doubt about that, Hov. He isn't trying to hide his intentions either. Since we were kids, even before when Avy was still alive, he didn't like me. But that dislike turned to hatred when he realized I had seen her death way before it happened," I passed my fingers through my hair.
"Did you see it, though? Her death."
Nodding, I sighed, "I did. But believe me, I didn't want to, Hov. Avy made me do it," my voice was weak as I fought the tears. "She was amazing at manipulating people, so she made me see it, and made me swear to Gods and on her life that I would never tell anyone..."
"Oh Gods. But didn't she know that making you keep it a secret would result in everyone who still tolerated you, beginning to hate your guts?" Well, he got that very easily.
"Yes. She knew it, and I told her, but she still insisted on me keeping it a secret. I couldn't say no to her, Hov. She was the person I love the most in my life, even more than myself. Any was my best friend, my sister, the only person I even had on my side," I whipped the tears away from my cheeks with my hands. "It was her death, not mine. All I could do was respect her wish, and as wished for me to keep that a secret, it's what I did. Not caring for what was going to happen to me after that," and that was the truth.
I was very aware of how people would treat me after Avy died. How could it be different?
Even if Daisuke hadn't realized what I had done, someone would. It was obvious. Avyanna befriended the person who could see the death of others with her eyes, so what was the possibility of me not knowing when and how she was going to die?
"But child, they treat you like a murdered. When you aren't! It's not your fault that you have those eyes of death. You did not ask for it, and you suffer consequences for having this cursed gift," I'm not surprise that he knows about it, once he took care of my body personally. "Why haven't you told anyone about your healthy problems, Thya?" His face showed how worried he was and that made me feel guilty.
"Avyanna was the only one I ever trusted with this, so I told her when I was still a kid. Of course, I didn't told her everything, but I said what I felt safe telling her. But she died... And I never had anyone else trustworthy with me," although now I can talk with him about it.
The door got wide open and Sohan and Adonis showed up. Seeing their faces made my blood boil and they got a little awkward under my gaze.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Did you come to beat me a little more?"
My sarcasm made them back away for a second, however, as they met Hov's eyes, they came inside with more confidence.
Sohan was the one to talk. "The Queen got mad at us for what we did to you and,"
"Oh, no shit?!" I mocked and Hov looked at me as if asking me to give them a chance to talk.
"As I was saying," he spoke again. "Her Majesty gave us two choices. One, we apologize to you. Two, we do something she ask as to. She said that, once we chose it, we wouldn't have a chance to change what we decided on, and not even Dai would be able to help us with it."
"Let me guess," I began, still in a mocking tone. "You chose the second choice, because you wouldn't be able to apologize to me, once both of you wanted to hurt me, and do not feel guilty about it," Adonis smirked at that.
He turned to Sohan, "She has a brain!" Then his eyes met mine. "Yes. We did chose to do whatever she asked us to, but we did not imagined that the Queen we make us do this!"
"And what could 'this' be?" I turned to Sohan, noticing how he seemed to be more clever than the other dog.
"Her majesty ordered us to..." He gulped. "Take care of your safety until the end of the Trails!"
Even Hov giggled at that. "I don't want to defy the Queen's orders, but that's kind of useless, when you both are the reason to why she spent 30 days in bed, with lots of broken ribs," damn, I'm starting to really love Hov.
"Well, I don't give a damn when it's my safety that we are talking about. But seeing as the Queen also hate me, it isn't a surprise that she put two people who hate me to take care of me. It's quite a joke, if I think about it," I turned my eyes from Hov to the dogs. "However..." I smirked. "It's amusing that she's using this to punish you guys. And for a whole year at that!"
They sighed already annoyed, "I'll be staying on the chamber on the right side of yours, and Adonis will be on the left side. As the Queen ordered this herself, we can't disobey it," Sohan spoke trying to control his temper.
"It seems like we'll have to learn to tolerate each other for a year, Nsomi," Adonis said through greeted teeth.
My smirk got wider, "Be prepared to be tormented 24/7, little dogs." They hissed in anger at how I called them. "I'll make sure to annoy you as much as I can. I didn't have anything against you before, but after getting five ribs broken, I'm starting to desire the death of you both."
I saw when they gulped, and cursing me they left us alone. When I was sure they weren't around anymore, the smirk on my lips disappeared and I sighed tired.
Hov passed his hand kindly on my back, with a smile. "You will get through all of this, Thya. I'm sure you will. And if you want to speak with me, at any time, to stay away from those people, just say you are feeling nauseous and need to meet me. I'll free my schedule to help you at any moment, okay?"
"You must be an angel that Avy sent me," he giggled at that. "Thank you, I'll be sure to bother you a lot. Now, am I healed?"
"Yes. And you can already drink your smoothies. Be sure not to eat any meat, okay, Thya?" Hov was serious now. "You cannot do that to yourself, kid. Do not overdo yourself, either, okay?"
"Okay. I promise I'll try. Anything else?"
"Keep training. Train every day if you can. That will help your body to get stronger. Let's try to live those two years the best you can, alright?" That made me feel relief.
"Deal. So, how are the trials going?"
"I did not see anything, because I was designed to take care of you in my full time," that's good. "But I heard the girls had a their schedule full of vocal training, modeling training, cooking training, intelligence tests, sewing training, healthy care, and lots of things like this."
"Boring," I said playing with my hands. "You know, Hov, when I was younger, me and Avy used to imagine how the Crown Prince Trials would be. How she would have to spend a year surrounded by all the single noble boys in the Kingdom..." My laugh was acid. "She was excited, until she wasn't anymore. Now it all turned out to be a Crown Princess Trials and the focus is on Daisuke."
"It must be hard for you."
"Kind of. I miss her. All of this just feels so... wrong. She was supposed to be the next Queen, not her brother. I don't think I'll be able to get used to not having her around," he squeezed my hands to show that he was here.
"Try to live a life that would make her proud, Thya," I met his eyes and his kind smile made me want to cry again.
"I wish my father was like you, Hov!"
"And I wish I had a daughter like you, Thya!" He got up and made me sit down. "You have to react now. Let's not get sick again. Be careful where you lay down. You will have a scar on the back of your head forever, but your hair covers it, so you don't have to worry. Just don't let anything hit the scar, because it's still new, and we do not want it to open again, right?"
"Right!" I got on my feet. "My legs feel numb," he helped me stay up.
"That's normal, seeing as how you were laying down for 30 days. But don't worry, you can already get back to your training today!"
"Then I'll do that right away. I hate the feeling of staying on my bed for too long. It makes me feel like a corpse," that made him burst our laughing.
"Gods above... You have a different view of the world, don't you?"
"Kind of, yeah. Avy used to say that I have a morbid sense of humor," he agreed to that.
"Oh, I can see why!" Hov mocked, making me laugh. "Do you feel better, child?"
"Thanks to you, yes. My dad should have taken lessons with you on how to be a father," he giggled.
"And you should have been born in a better family than yours," with that, he left me alone.