The night in the palace of Romanos was silent, devoid of any celebration noises as the guests had moved to Jakov's home. Even though it was the wedding night of festivity, cadaverous silence curled the majestic walls of the palace.

Gracefully, she moved in through the entrance; the guards parting their ways in a deep bow. Her amulets clanked in a chime against her wrists as she passed them, a gentle smile on her face.

Once inside, she laughed softly, a mix of seduction and innocence as she stood in the celebration hall. She was glad to know the guards recognised her, even though they had never seen her.

Even though they were fiercely loyal to...

"Julian," she uttered his name, her breathing instantly shallower. As if she was tasting him on her lips.

Her kohl swiped grey eyes drifted over to the throne at the far end of the hall. Sitting in the centre in all its magnificence.

But it wasn't splendid enough for her. Not when he wasn't seated there. She closed her eyes, placing a hand over her throat.

She imagined sitting next to his feet while he ruled his kingdom. His strong muscular hand occasionally moving down the nape of her neck.

Lips wet, she shivered at the vile thought, a soft laugh pouring out of her lips. For her, it was a misery that he wasn't interested in slaves. So much that he had prohibited slavery from Romanos when other kings still favoured it.

Her longing for being close to him, even if it meant to be his slave, was hopeless. Still, she couldn't help thinking about it when he was madness, seduction and strength all wrapped in one man.

Her elaborate skirt swept on the carpeted ground as she made her way up for the floors, being all too familiar with the turns and corridors.

After all, she'd lived here. Long before the ruler of Romanos had even stepped foot in Egypt.

The woman, with an exotic beauty that matched only one person except her, reached the fifth floor of the royals. The guards parted ways as if they knew her since forever.

As if she and her family weren't banished by the king of Romanos ever.

At the beginning of the hallway was a large semicircular window where sat a girl, laughing jovially. A boy, no older than her, was seated across, occasionally playing with her hair. A constant night breeze blew by, ruffling up their hair.

She smiled, having seen that girl before. All splattered in blood during the marketplace massacre of Romanos, caught in the crossfire of Alexander's army and the nobles who ruled Romanos when the sweet law of having slaves still existed.

"Thalia." she smiled sweetly as the girl turned to her with a warm smile. She playfully pushed the boy away.

"You're back from the bridegroom's house?" she asked excitedly. "Even Althea is back!"

Her senses perked up. That was a foreign name to her. Resisting the urge to ask who the woman named Althea was, she asked otherwise.

"Hmm, she returned? I thought she was quite close to the bride and would stay at the celebration..." she murmured. But it seemed like nature itself was mirroring her emotion. So toxic, it didn't even compare to jealousy, as an icy night breeze blew by, shivering up Thalia for a moment.

Goosebumps rose on her arms as she rubbed them to go. The boy instantly removed his linen mantle to cover her; both of them blushing innocently at each other.

She cleared her throat, finding that childish love pathetic. Real love was what she'd seen in his eyes. Years ago at the Aphrodite Festival of Aphrodisia in Greece. When she had just helped the other women to purify Aphrodite's temple, he had come to her, asking about the ceremonies. Together they had chatted for so long, and with every movement of his eyes, his sly smiles and occasional jokes made her fall into a deep trench that was love.

In love with Julian Romanowski.

"My apologies, I'm disturbing your good time," she said timidly as Thalia broke into a shy giggle. "If you could show me where's the milk kept in the kitchen, Thalia..."

"Yes, sure, let's go!" She exclaimed, pushing away the boy named Cicero in hearty laughter. The exotic woman laughed softly to herself.

It was good that Thalia knew her and didn't know her at the same time.

She looked at her reflection in the windows they passed by in the hallway to the kitchen. Grey eyes, clever face, exotic enough to be his favourite. Her teeth clenched at the thought, but she hid it behind a tight-lipped smile. The jealousy was beyond overpowering, but she assured herself she was his concubine.

When in truth, she wasn't even allowed to enter his kingdom, let alone his palace.

"Where can I find His Honour..." she asked hesitantly as they entered the kitchen. "I'm so worried if he had his dinner properly..."

"He must be... in his room. It's quite late at night, so he should be there only," Thalia mused, but was taken aback when the woman placed a piece of cloth in her hand.

"I would've kept it in my room, but I need to attend to His Honour," the woman smiled, "Give it to me tomorrow morning. Hmm?"

Thalia was confused, nevertheless folded the piece of cloth and ambled out of the kitchen.

Like any other concubine, she warmed the milk, humming to a soft tune as she prepared two goblets of sweetened milk. She topped them with finely chopped fruits and used the same knife to drive it through her arm.

Blood oozed out of her pale arm, dripping into the goblets of milk. The crimson colour turned to a nasty blue before dissolving into the milk.

She smiled softly because this drink wasn't meant for Julian. She knew it wouldn't affect him.

He was immune to snake poison. That scar on his arm was clear proof.

The guards guarding the doorstep of the king of Romanos instantly bowed at the royal palace women they assumed her to be.

"Gentlemen, you work so hard day and night to ensure my Lord's safety..." The guards were taken aback at her sweet words. It never happened before and it instantly elated them that they were being acknowledged by a royal like her.

"Time and time, you've helped me too, without even knowing it," she tilted her gaze, an innocent sweetness, "So, I thought, why not make a little something for you," she extended the bronze tray of goblets to them.

She folded her arms, standing patiently as the guards took her offering. But soon, they were clasping their throats till their eyes turned bloodshot. A soft smile came on her face as she noticed the nasty shade of blue spreading down their necks and they dropped to the ground.

"M- Mistress..." The guards couldn't speak out her name as they continued to tremble on the ground, gasping.

"I am what you are wondering, gentlemen. His favourite." The woman completed for them. Her hands fisted beside her to the point she could draw blood out of her palms, but a sweet smile graced her lips.

"Promise you'll remember me when you tell everyone about this, hmm?" she smiled, dropping the tray to push the doors open to her dream man's room.

He was so great in her view that even being his slave seemed like a privilege. Tantalizingly, she entered, undoing the laces of her back. Desiring, he would undo the rest for her.

His back was to her as he slept peacefully in his four-poster bed, all soaked in moonlight from the enormous window. Mesmerised, she moved ahead, reminiscing about all those days when they would talk endlessly in this room. But never once did he give her the sign he wanted her more. More than just talks and tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Why did you do that to me, my Lord..." she whispered, tracing his back with her fingers.

It was she who had helped him when he was spying in this very palace in the guise of a slave during the rule of the previous cruel king of Romanos. If she wanted, she could've had him executed, but she was drawn to him like a helpless being. She remembered what happened in Aphrodisia and knew Aphrodite herself had sealed their fates together.

But the very warrior she had helped had banished her family after coming to the throne. Because they belonged to an exotic cult.

The cult, who loved making gemstones out of the human eye.

Years before the Greeks stepped into their land, they'd enjoy the status of their exotic cult under the previous ruler. Anyone who did a crime was easily subjected to the cult where their eyes were removed, which would then go through the process of becoming a gemstone.

People feared them, and that's what they fed on. The ruler also encouraged them with his sadistic approaches to keep the law of his kingdom in order. That's what the work of a king was. But she remembered what Julian had told her when she'd defended her family and that law.

I may punish culprits with my own methods, but taking their eyes out while they are still alive is something I'm not in favour of.

Her teeth gritted together. She'd assumed him to be just as cruel as the previous ruler. A sadist. There wasn't any doubt when he looked cruel with his harsh features, someone who'd enjoy the misery of slaves.

But he didn't. Instead, he'd forbidden the precious cult her family belonged to when eyeless bodies of people began to appear around Romanos. It began to be called the eyeless kingdom, and traders were afraid to even enter the region. The King had to take rigorous steps to stop that infamous notion.

"You said you owe me since I helped you when you spied..." she whispered, her breath shuddering in her heart with such rage, she had to bite her lip till it bled.

"And that's the reason you banished us, but never took our lives," she murmured. "Isn't it bad that I'm tired of being obsessed with you? Because I can never have you..." Her lips trembled, but still holding back her feelings for him, she plunged the hidden knife from her robes, deep into his back.

Her face was as still as a stone as the dark gush of blood smudged her hands. Only one thought in her mind.

The cult of the eye queen would prevail again.

She looked in horror as the knife came out clean. The earlier slash from her arm now bled profusely with the pressure she'd applied to stab him. Furious, she removed the sheets to see only cushions lying over his bed.

She let out a suppressed agonized cry, seeing the sheets that were now coloured red with her blood. Tearing apart the sheet, she tightened it around her bleeding arm, her breath heaving.

You're back from the bridegroom's house? Even Althea is back!

Her hands shook with a rage greater than that of avenging the disrespect of her family. Greater than killing the person who she was personifying to the others.

She was glad to know that the poor wench Medisa was already dead. At the expense of her dead cousin, who was the previous court writer of Romanos, she fumed to herself. Medisa was a weakling, so weak she could probably die if anyone even pushed her to the ground. Someone who was definitely not suited for a king.

Only strong women like her did who had a command over the kingdom's people. Who'd quiver in fear and bow to her.

Jealousy came easily to her. With the snake poison boiling in her blood, furthering her wrath. Whoever this Althea was, she wanted to gouge her eyes out.

Sickly, slowly, taking her sweet time until what remained of her was an eyeless carcass which she would happily gift to her beloved ruler of Romanos. Along with the gemstones made of her eyes. She thought with a cruel smirk.

The carriage moved at a steady pace over the desert sand as I sat staring out the little window across from me. A basket packed with sweets and jewellery lay in my lap. A gift meant for the newlywed couple.

I was trying hard not to break into a smile as I kept a straight face, looking out the window. As if I found something more interesting than the man sitting across from me.

Julian crossed and uncrossed his arms, his unmoving gaze directed at my ignorant one. It seemed fun to see him bothered over a small thing like me not talking.

After we got into the carriage, I only gave him small replies. It was my silent treatment to him for all those words he had whispered to me when... we had just woken up in the morning today.

The first rays of the Sun had just touched us, and I was all groggy, barely able to wake after I got so little sleep. But his warm, enticing mouth right next to my ear. Whispering those suggestive words had made me wide awake.

It didn't help at all that I was clinging to him (courtesy of my habit of being clung to my pillow) with nothing in between. First, his fingers feathering over my bare back, and then those words. It had my entire body twist with a need that I was mortified of my existence. Oh, you unholy Althea, Coretta is ashamed of you!

But even then, my lips quivered into a smile. It was strange, no it was lunatic of me, but I still thought it. That I felt like a woman... after he had done... that... Not a childish girl I deemed myself to be.

The daylight inside the carriage suddenly dimmed down. I blinked out in alarm at what just happened.

Julian had closed the linen curtains of the carriage window as he proceeded to take the basket from my hands, placing them in the carriage's small crate.

With the secretive smile on his face, it was obvious he had seen me break into a grin. Probably glad to know he was worrying for no reason.

Now my heart was thumping with the same curiosity, like that of the night, with an unabashed need that my insides curled and uncurled. Waiting. Anticipating. What the hell am I becoming? I'm beginning to sound like a hoe. God help me!

He pulled the curtains close to the window behind my head too, finally succeeding in holding my gaze that I was so playfully avoiding since morning.

The brown of his eyes was so light, almost transparent. As if I could see what lay inside them. Intensity. An obscure, primal hunger that told how different he was from the modern men. The men who I grew up having around. I shouldn't forget that even if he was gentle and caring in his actions towards me, he was an ancient man. It was so easy to note that restrained wilderness about him, that he had almost let go the night before. That eagerness to possess a female. No female but me. A natural instinct of the ancient man for his female counterpart. Polar opposite to modern men.

As guilty as I felt, I liked that fact.

Slightly, he pulled the linen mantle down my neck, gazing briefly over all the marks he'd made. A shiver ran through me. He really couldn't help his ancient man instincts. Marking the woman and all.

"Hmm, let me guess..." he started, retreating to his seat, his expression that of wonder. "You are quiet because you regret what we did?"

"No!" my mouth said before my mind could even process it. Flames of red spread across my face. Burning, teasing. My body started humming its own beat as the events of that night replayed again. Mind vaporising pleasure. Like how the water vaporises when it gets too hot? That's what happened to me. I vaporised last night.

If that was step two, I'll die if he ever goes on to step three. But wait, wouldn't it be an amazing way to die?

Congratulations Althea for officially becoming AltheHoe, I cried inwardly.

"No, what?" he asked, brows furrowed.

I took a double-take at that. Did he want me to elaborate on the no?

"No, n- nothing," I stammered, fiddling with my chiton dress. I should've given an indirect explanation, but AltheHoe was already one step ahead.

He sighed, moving his tongue over his upper lip in dismay. If it was possible, I grew redder watching his mouth. That mouth. That so damn lethally talented mouth.

"My apologies, Althea." he crossed his arms, face falling, "because of me you had to go through all that, last night-"

"Why are you apologizing?" my voice wavered in dread. His slightly knowing look brought me on edge again.

"Didn't you say no?" he frowned. "that means you didn't like what I-"

"Wait, I didn't say no in that context!" I attempted to explain, "you- you had asked something else."

"What was it again?" he lazed back in his seat. God, was he an excellent actor?!

"That if I liked what you did and yes I-" I stopped abruptly as realisation hit me with his ever-increasing smile.

"And yes you?" He poked in deliberately, clearly enjoying but masking that look from his face.

I grasped my fiddling fingers together, looking anywhere but his face, "You do not need to know."

"That you wanted me to stop," he said, guilt washing his voice.

This lethally creative man!

"No!" I responded again, but it was a little too loud. And eager. And that was making me look like a damn wanton woman.

In short, I wanted to disappear.

He just looked at me. Without a tease or amusement. God knows what he was planning in that kingly brain of his. I'd heard how he had one way or the other to make hardcore culprits speak, admit to their guilt. I was nothing in comparison. All easy peasy perhaps.

Can't you see Coretta, he's trying to make you talk again? A voice tugged me from within.

Warm hands enveloped mine, and that's when I realised my hands were freezing. A common symptom of me when I was-

"You are nervous." Julian laced his fingers firmly around mine, completing my thoughts. I'd assumed him to mock me, but only genuine worry sat on his face.

When I didn't say anything, he silently pulled at my hands, so I was compelled to sit next to him. He rubbed my palms, raising them to his mouth to leave a warm kiss.

Coretta and Cheryl, you must know that you are being deported to a time that was merciless for women. No rights, no voice and certainly 'no' man who'd ever want to sympathise for you. We have faith that we have trained you well enough to survive in such a harsh environment. But never slip up enough to expect that an ancient man can be good to you. That's a sign of danger. They controlled women like a puppet. Any possibility of affection towards them must be terminated the moment-

I squeezed my eyes shut, cutting off the instruction our mentors gave during the training. I'd taken them by heart, but now the same words were cutting through my heart.

Tingles ran down my arm when he blew warm air over my closed palm, and I remembered that he was still trying to ease the coldness of my hands.

Was this a sign of danger...

"Althea," he held my shoulders tenderly. This time, failing to hide the distress I was giving him, "are you embarrassed by what we did? Does it make you feel bad?" His voice was thick.

It beat at me. Again and again. How can a man of such strength and such status be so gentle in his actions? Did they teach us the wrong conception, that an ancient man can only be brutally controlling and aggressive to a woman...

Arms surrounded me, drawing me to him. Like a spell engulfing me, lulling me to comfort.

When he brought his face to my level, so concerned, I wasn't uneasy anymore. I picked up his hair between my fingers, taking in the jet black texture. "Shouldn't you be worried about more pressing matters about your kingdom?" I asked him softly, "than a woman being nervous..." A woman who was just for a temporary phase in your life...