The Crown's Entrapment

Aurelia stood by from the balcony of Cordon’s Infirmary as the royal procession passed by in front of her. From her vantage point, her eyes landed in a particular direction where Calypso was riding mightily on his horse, wearing an outfit denoting his own position as the Great Justiciar of their Kingdom as he rode on by.

Their eyes met, and she couldn’t help but gulp at the man who had a wide and bright smile for her.

“He winked at you, milady. He is really handsome,” Nelly squealed along with Loisa, the two standing beside her at the rail of the balcony.

Aurelia didn’t bother replying to the two. She was already used to how loud these two physicians under her could get.

Watching the procession, she simply sighed as Calypso finally moved on ahead and away from her sight. She couldn’t exactly remember what happened last night, but she could feel that something weird happened between her and Calypso.

This morning, she woke up with the worst hangover of her life, and it was only a good thing that Calypso had already instructed the servants to prepare her some hangover soup as soon as she was awake before he left.

Of course, she looked for him to ask what happened, but the man was already gone before she could even try. Then again, he was involved in a lot of the tasks leading up to today’s coronation and parade.

As for her, she simply prepared herself to go back to her pending work in the infirmary. She would just have to join the dinner with the royal family then later since that would also be when the final talk for her brother’s upcoming Ritual of Marking with Princess Freya would take place.

“Let’s get back to work,” Aurelia uttered as she turned around. “I need to go back to the castle before the sunset, and we still have a lot of patients to go through.”

“Oh, will you take leave for the next few days, milady?” Loisa asked as they walked through the hallways of the infirmary. “I heard that House Everett will be quite busy for the coming Ritual of Marking.”

“Indeed, which means that I’ll only have today to wrap up some of my pending work,” Aurelia replied. Her mind was still honestly busy trying to recall what happened last night, but she just couldn’t remember. The last thing she could recall was her finishing off a bottle of wine with Calypso stopping her from drinking even more.

Her face twitched upon recalling how wasted she was while pulling on Calypso’s hair. She could remember demanding more bottles of wine, but the rest just blurred into nothingness no matter how hard she thought about it.

‘This is impossible… Why can’t I remember what happened next after that?’ she worriedly mused as she entered the private chamber where a dead body was currently waiting to be analyzed.

It was a body found at the Dead Sea, and no one could recognize the person it once was. There was apparently something off with the body according to Nelly that they couldn’t fathom, which meant that it was up to her to figure things out.

As soon as Aurelia was inside, she started inspecting the male body. Starting from the head, she checked the cadaver’s hair and smelled it, only for her eyes to widen when a memory of her checking Calypso’s hair flashed before her eyes.

***

“I like the color of your hair. It looks bloody like this drink; dark red purplish,” she drunkenly grinned before taking another swig from her bottle. “It suits you.”

***

“Did I really say that?” she murmured with a frown. She could clearly remember how wide Calypso’s smiles were while she touched his hair like she playing with a dog’s fur.

***

“I’m glad you like them,” Calypso chuckled. “So tell me, Lia… What else do you find attractive in me?”

***

“No way!” she burst out loud in front of the body.

“Why? What’s wrong milady? Did you find anything on the cadaver’s hair?” Loisa asked, snapping her back to reality.

“Uhm, I’m still checking on it,” she quickly answered.

With a frown, she opened his eyelids. From there, another vision appeared where she pointed at Calypso’s eyes.

***

“You h-have a nice pair of hazel eyes too,” she cooed. “It’s tantalizing and seductive, but also too dangerous to look at. N-no wonder every w-woman mmm-melts w-whenever you look at t-them…”

***

She was stuttering as she spoke last night. Aurelia’s face reddened. She couldn’t believe she would be acting like that when she was drunk! It was her first time getting drunk, and she only found out now how embarrassing she was in that state. Her eyes widened even more as she gasped at the next set of memories that that followed.

***

“So are you one of those women, Lia? Are you affected whenever I stare at you with these seductive eyes?” Calypso asked with a serious tone.

Instead of replying, she chuckled at him and pulled him closer, his face hovering so close to hers that one wrong move would make their lips touch!

“Hmm, I’m not sure. I find you attractive physically, but I definitely do not like you,” she mumbled. “Ah, you’re undeniably handsome, but your tricks won’tt work on me! Hah, I’m Aurelia Everett, and I’m someone who will not let any man toy with me, especially you!”

“Hmm, I see… Then tell me, why did you really agree to be my mate, Lia?” Calypso directly asked.

She gulped with how intensely he was staring at her. It was as if he was searching deep in her soul for her answer.

“Well, you’re the best option I have at the moment. Besides, my body feels weird whenever you’re around,” she drunkenly admitted. “I’m not sure what it is yet, but I’m curious to know and find out more about it. Also, your offer is very tempting. You said I can use you, sooo… Be ready, Calypso, because I… I’m g-going t-to use y-you w-well. Hehehe. We need to convince my brother and your c-cousin Freya that t-he t-two of us will work-out…”

“Use me as much as you like then,” Calypso remarked. “Like I said, I’m more than happy with that kind of arrangement. Still, I will require just one thing from you, Lia.”

“Hmm, t-tell m-me, a-and I’ll do my best to grant i-it,” she answered with a grin before quickly getting the hiccups.

“Use me with tender loving care, Lia. Can you do that?” Calypso requested, and it was the first time she saw something different in his eyes.

“N-no p-problem,” she answered with a smile. “I will u-use y-you w-with tender loving care.”

***

That was all she could remember before blacking out.

‘He sounded desperate,’ Aurelia thought as the memories of what happened last night kept on becoming clearer the more she remembered. She couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more she hadn’t recalled. Hopefully, there was nothing more, but she couldn’t help but feel as if something more worrying had happened between them…