"Hey you two, wait there!"
Haze froze, his hand itched as he longed to grab his sword, to hold it for comfort but doing so would give it away and ruin the whole point of hiding it.
He looked at Elena who was standing beside and motioned for her to keep walking, maybe by some stroke of luck, the guard wasn't talking to them.
She nodded back and they continued walking but the guard's was even louder this time.
"I said stop you two!"
Everyone at the entrance of the palace stopped what they were doing and started staring at them.
Oh gods, we're done for!, Haze lamented in his mind. The once buzzing entrance had now gone silent, Haze turned around and put his hand to his chest.
"Me?", He called out in the most stable voice he could.
"Yes, you", The guard called back. He was a short chubby guard with black hair that didn't reach his eyebrows. "Come over here", He said.
When Haze and Elena got a little closer to them, he shouted. "My friend and I had a little argument about ya just now", He pointed to a skinny woman beside him.
"She says your hair color, it's real and natural", He continued. "I call bullcrap, I say it painted that shade", He peered closely at Haze's hair as though he could zoom in to search for color pigment in the hair. "So what say you, is it real or not?", He asked.
Haze let out a huge sigh of relief. Elena's sigh was audible beside him. He looked at he guard and managed a smile that didn't look like he was thrown foot first into a tub of ice cold water.
When I'm done with your queen, I'll find you, and I'll kill you, He said in his mind.
"It's completely natural", Haze said out loud, still maintaining that faux smile. "I was born like this".
"See", The female guard exclaimed and fist pumped the air. "I told you".
"Oh well, oh well", The chubby guard said and waved Haze off. "Thanks for settling it anyways".
Haze turned away and his smile died. By now, the crowd at the entrance had turned away from them and were conducting business as usual but Haze was steaming. They had all been looking at them at one point, if anyone could recognize him as Hades' heir, he or she would probably start talking now.
Haze knew if someone started talking, it wouldn't be long before it would reach the Queen.
So much for discretion. He muttered as they stepped through the open door and into the throne room.
The throne room was an odd place. It wasn't sprawling or majestic like Hades' but it managed to be just as creepy. Large reptilian skeletons hung from the ceilings and the walls.
"Those are decorations", Elena said when she saw him staring at them.
"Figures", Haze mumbled.
Neesha wasn't hard to spot, she was standing with a group of young women, obviously the center of attention. Her gaze snapped to Haze and she widened her smile as she skipped to them.
Haze could swear he heard Elena's teeth grind together, he chuckled inwardly.
"You guys made it!", Neesha exclaimed when she got near to them. "Come let me introduce you to my friends".
Haze and Elena were introduced to her friends who seemed to gush over Haze as much as Neesha did, all to the displeasure of Elena who kept muttering.
Neesha led them all to a special place in the table and somehow Haze found himself sitting between Elena and Neesha.
He didn't have time to dwell on that though, there was soon an alarm and the entire room descended into a hush, people scrambled to their feet and Haze joined them.
A shadowy figured walked through the front door, flanked by seven guards, Haze knew because he counted them, She climbed the platform and stood high above the room, the people in the room all dropped to a bow, Haze included. Then she took her seat on the throne and everybody got up back and sat.
Haze observed the Queen of witches, she was tall for a woman and held herself with a certain grace that made Haze believe she was an elderly woman. Her face was obscured by the shadow she wrapped herself in so Haze couldn't see her face but a dull pang in his gut told him she could see and she was staring right at him.
Merriments resumed and Haze picked at his food but his mind was preoccupied with thoughts, he wanted to know how he would get the Queen alone so he could talk to her and how he could get her to go to her room to bring the ring.
The Queen suddenly made a dramatic gesture of wiping her face with her left hand, then Haze saw the glint, the ring!
The ring was on her hand, the queen had stolen the ring from the lord of the underworld and now brandished it like a deservedly won trophy.
Well, at least my mission is slightly easier now. Haze thought.
The was sudden murmur from the front table and Haze looked up to see the Queen had stood up and was making her way out of the throne room into the corridor. The bulk of her guards stayed behind and only one guard followed her.
Haze didnt know whether to be thankful for goodluck or be wary that the universe was so eager to dispose of him.
"I'm going after her", He whispered to Elena. "When I get to the door I need you to cause a distraction".
He excused himself from Neesha and slowly got up. Moving as carefully as possible so as not to draw to much attention, he walked closer to the door and looked back to Elena.
She nodded and grabbed her plate, then she dropped it on the floor. It landed with a loud crash and shattered into smitherens, bits of soup splashed on a few of the guests and they screamed.
Everyone immediately paid attention to the ruckus at her table including the guards. Haze smiled and slipped through the door into the hallway.