I felt the stares of the strange people burning into my skin as I leaned against a nearby tree outside the castle. Waiting. I hated waiting with a burning passion. I hate the helplessness that arises, the itching in my fingers, and the thought that there's nothing I can do but sit. And wait.

What are we even waiting for? Where is he, and is he alright wherever he is?

I refused to stare at the door he had disappeared through, but every minute or so, I glanced up at it. And every time, I hoped to see him. And every time, I saw what I was expecting.

"Alright," I said. "I'm sick of this. Can we go inside?"

"We have to wait," said Aaron, who seemed to have no problem with the whole situation.

"We have. For almost twenty minutes. Can we go inside now?" I repeated sharply. "What can they possibly be talking about? What if Thomas is hurt?"

"How would he be hurt?" Lafayette asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the stone chair he had created for himself.

"You really want to know? Fine. There could have been a whole battalion of the kingsmen in there waiting for him! He could have become a dragon and been slaughtered brutally by a group of servants who didn't know any better! The king could have showed up randomly because he's good at that and set the whole place on fire!"

"I mean the castle's right there... not on fire... so."

"It still could happen."

Eliza cast me a smile, and I knew what she was about to say before she even opened her mouth.

"The point of the matter is that I'm worried. And I don't want to sit here doing nothing while my Th—my friend could be getting hurt." I sighed and glanced back up at the platform. "I'm a Type A person, okay?"

"I'll pretend to know what that means if you calm down," Angelica said. "I'm sure Thomas is fine, okay?"

"And I thought it wasn't your problem, anyway," James said, and a hush fell after his words.

My shoulders fell. "Look, what I said was wrong, okay? And I know it. It was a mistake."

"A mistake? Really? You think? He fucking cared about you, you know that?" James snapped, and I think this was the first time I've ever seen him truly angry. "How disposable was he to you? No, seriously. Answer me. Both of us want to know."

"I—"

"Do you know how upset he is over you? It's such bullshit. Utter bullshit, Alexander. You are horrible. What did he do wrong?"

"Okay, look," I said, searching for something to say and coming up blank under the pure scrutiny of his gaze. "What I said was wrong, and—"

"You said that," he hissed. "But it wasn't just that. It might have also been the ignoring him for no reason. Leaving him without so much as a word. It might have to do with the fact that he trusted you, and when he needed you most, you left."

"It isn't my job to make him feel good about himself."

James pressed on as if he hadn't heard me. "When I first talked to you about all this, what was my number one point?" When I didn't answer, he finally looked away. His voice came out shakily, as if he was keeping himself steady and failing miserably. "I told you not to hurt him, and that's exactly what you went ahead and did. It would be one thing to leave him, but it's another thing completely to leave him the way you did."

"Does my happiness not matter?" I spat, though it was such a minuscule and hopeless defense against the weight of his words.

"Well," Eliza said, drawing all attention to her. "Are you happy?"

"Of course I'm happy. Why wouldn't I be happy?"

"Yeah, we believe you," Lafayette said flatly, not sounding like he believed me. "Because we're all idiots."

"I am happy. I don't need him. He doesn't need me. We weren't good together. It doesn't matter. It's over now." Every single one of those was a lie, and they knew it just as much as I did.

"Alexander," Eliza sighed. "You're such a moron."

"Well, I didn't ask you what you thought." I turned away from her and glared elsewhere. I longed to hit something, to scream, to do something violent and chaotic so I could get rid of the piles of frustration that kept mounting up every day. "When we were in the cave, I called him something," I said as calmly as I could. "What did it mean?"

"Daescortum? It means demon's whore," Peggy said, happy to help out. As if the whole thing didn't affect her, and I was starting to think that maybe it didn't. "It's what they used to call Tenebrie before we understood them. A lot of people still do calm them that."

"Of course it does," I said, dropping to the ground. Did everything in the universe conspire to make me hate myself? Divinity, I could still picture the face he made when the words flew from my mouth; the hurt in his eyes still burned the back of my head. I hated it. I hated him, mostly because I hated how miserable he made me when he was gone.

"Thomas," Hercules said suddenly, making me raise my head to see where he was looking. "There you are."

I opened my mouth to greet him but stopped almost immediately. His usual attire was gone, replaced by a short, white shirt that was embroidered with complicated blue and golden designs and only covered the top of his chest and short pants that ended just above the knee. Two ribbons of white lace billowed in the air from behind him, connected to the golden cuffs around his arms.

I had to force myself to close my mouth and meet his eyes.

"How'd it go?" asked James, standing up straight.

He hugged his arms. "Well, she called me an insolent, selfish child that cared only for himself and told me that I abandoned my home, my people, and my family, all before slapping me. Then, she hugged me and told me how much she missed me." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "So you know. The usual."

"What are you wearing?" Lafayette asked, more curious than rude.

Thomas shrugged. "Traditional clothing of my people."

"Do we have to wear it too?"

Thomas glanced behind him and smiled. "You should be fine. As long as you don't say anything about it in front of my family. But anyway, now that my mother has relieved most of her wrath on me, she's ready to meet you all. Keep your head bowed and don't speak to her unless spoken to. There are quite a lot of rules about court and stuff that my mother likes to hold onto. Sound good?"

When nobody offered up a protest, a staircase to the platform above us appeared from nothing, and Thomas stepped aside to let us all through. I stopped by him for a second. "Thomas, I'm sorry."

His hand rose to his face. "Don't be. She didn't hit me too hard."

"That isn't what—"

"I'm sorry, can you hold that thought for a second please?" He asked as a pair of what looked to be guards sauntered up to us. He fled quickly to speak to them, leaving me alone, staring at my feet.

I'm not upset. I'm not upset, I said to myself, feeling very upset.

The guards disappeared a moment later, and Thomas led us through the hallways of the castle. The architecture was very dependent on the use of a single mighty tree, even having some of the branches spiraling through the floor and up through the ceiling. It was very different from the castle I was used to, in that it was almost made entirely from wood. I appreciated the comfort it brought, though.

Thomas led us past the guards, who made me more nervous than I already was, and through the hallways with relative ease. He seemed to be more comfortable than he was earlier. He stopped outside a curtain of vines and offered us a quick smile. "I'll see you guys later, okay? I have important matters I must attend to."

"Wait, you're leaving us?" I asked.

Thomas shrugged. "I don't want to, but I don't have a choice. I was gone for too long and now I have things to take care of."

"Please stay." I sighed. "Just—please?"

The hint of a smile touched his face. "I suppose I could put it off for a little longer."

I tried not to grin at the way he mixed the formalities with the colloquialisms, though it was rather cute. "Thank you," I said with a nod.

Thomas pulled back the vines to let us slip past. I brushed my shoulder against his hand on purpose, just to see what would happen. A burst of warmth poured through me, and I felt the tension in my shoulders release.

Inside the room was a woman sitting on a throne carved from a light blue wood. She raised her head as we entered, and I could feel her pressing stare on me despite the size of our group. The woman said nothing until Thomas fell in line next to us. "These are your friends?" she finally asked. She sounded like a woman who demanded respect and who knew what to do with it once she had it.

Thomas nodded and introduced us one-by-one. The woman on the throne seemed to perk up at the mention of Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy, and she seemed fairly impressed with Lafayette. That all changed of course when Thomas introduced me. "You brought an Islander here?" she asked suddenly, cutting into his introductions.

Thomas faltered. He kept his gaze straight ahead, and I wish he would just acknowledge me. Turn and give me even the smallest of looks. I truly hated not knowing what he was thinking. "Mother," he pressed carefully, locking his hands behind his back. "He isn't like the rest of them."

"He's an Islander, Thomas. Need I remind you of the Huntings?"

Whatever that was, it didn't sound good.

"So what? We blame them all on something that happened almost a billion years ago? That isn't fair."

"It isn't about fair," the woman atop the throne hissed. She let out a sigh and relaxed her shoulders, leaning back against the wooden back. "Thomas, why can't you just listen when people tell you what not to do?"

"And let others dictate my life? Yeah. Sounds fantastic."

I bit down on my tongue to keep from smiling. He's always so cute when he's angry.

"He isn't like the others, trust me. And we're on the same side. He fights for what we believe in, and he does a damn good job of it."

"Language."

Thomas apologized and ducked his head, sneaking me the tiniest of looks. I smiled at him, unsure of how else to respond. I couldn't exactly convey to him how much I wanted to throw my arms around him and let him lean against my body.

"The point is, Alexander stays."

The woman watched me. I could feel her gaze picking me apart slowly, but I held still with my head lowered as Thomas asked us. Finally, she caved. "Fine. But I want him carefully watched at all times."

Thomas and I spoke at the same time. "Thank you."

She eyed me carefully and turned back to Thomas. A smile hit her face lightly. "It's good to have you back, you know."

"I'm not staying."

"We'll see."

"You know just as well as I do that I'm not going to be our next lord. I can't do it."

"Is that the only thing that would make you stay here?"

"We're fighting a war," he said stubbornly. "I have no choice."

"Alright. Thomas, why don't you see your sisters? I'll have the servants escort your friends to their rooms." Something about her tone implied they would be a bit more than just servants.

Thomas nodded, bowing his head, and left through a side door. A quartet of guards stepped forwards and took his place.

"Why do they hate me so much?" I asked Eliza underneath my breath as the guards escorted us through the hallways of the castle and left us alone in a random room. I didn't stop to admire the simple beauty of it, as much as I wanted to; I didn't exactly find comfort or safety in the looks that the guards shot me. "Something called the Huntings?"

"Trust me, Alex. You don't want to know."

"I doubt I do. But I think I'm going to have to know. What if I say something wrong?"

Eliza sighed. "You know about all the regions, right? And their basic location and whatever?"

"Yeah, I think so. For the most part."

"Did your studies go into much depth of the rivalry between Avionerra and the Island Nations?"

"My studies were mostly centered around fighting and learning to control energy," I snapped quietly.

"Fair enough. Well, it all started about a billion years ago when the Island Nations and Mauleros started hunting down Avion for their wings."

"That's horrible. Why would they do that?"

"Why do you think?" came Peggy's voice from just ahead of me. I looked up, and almost had a heart attack as I took in the face of the girl standing in front of me, who had just come into existence from nowhere. The illusion grinned at me, and held up something familiar.

"Peggy!" Eliza snapped, glaring at her sister up ahead, who turned from her conversation with Angelica and Lafayette. A look of confusion flew upon her face, and if I didn't know her so well, I'd say she actually was confused. But there was just that bit of light in her eyes, the playfulness in the way she held herself.

"Oh, quiet down, Lizzy," Maria said. "It's good for appearances. Rest of the world doesn't exactly know, and I intend to keep it that way."

"You know you don't have to though," James said. Everyone seemed to know him just as much as they had known Thomas, though there wasn't the same awe in their eyes as he passed, not that James minded or anything. "Not around us, at least."

"Yeah, but it's kinda fun to be such a chaotic bastard sometimes," she returned, winking at me. She played with the feather that was between her two fingers. "Anyway, don't you remember? Avion feathers contain magical properties. And I totally cheated him out of this one by the way." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "How ironic. A feather for a dragon. Gotta love foreshadowing."

"Wha—oh," I breathed as the thought came flying back. The dragon. Shit; I hadn't thought about that thing since I put it down. "Can it heal him?"

"The dragon, or the feather? Guess it doesn't matter. Of course not. Nothing can. I guess you could say he's doomed." She said this with such easiness and a shrug of her shoulders, as if we were talking about something insignificant.

"I like Peggy more," Eliza mumbled to herself.

"Don't we all?" Peggy asked without looking over at us.

Maria grinned and stepped away from us. She was at the wall a second later, leaning against it. I fell to the ground and waited silently.

"Now what do we do?" Philip asked, admiring a mural on the opposite wall.

"The servants are preparing the rooms for you. There's going to be a ball tonight, and you all are expected to go," said James.

"Yay. That sounds great," I mumbled.

Eliza cast me a look of pity and nudged my shoulder with her foot. "You get used to them after a while."

I was too dispirited to respond, so I just sat there and clasped my hands together.

The guards came eventually to show us to our rooms, and I hated how three of them attended to me. They left me at the door and stepped away, but they didn't turn around and leave until I had the door opened and had entered the room.

I don't know what I was hoping for, but my shoulders fell in silent defeat as there was nobody in the room, nobody sitting on the bed waiting for me, with his beautiful smile.