Dominique's POV -

Nette wakes me up and I wobbly walk to the bathroom and take a shower.

I walk out and look in the mirror.

my eyes are pretty red. I should cover that up before anyone sees them.

"Go Nette I'll get dressed myself."

"But Your Highness-"

"Go," she nods

I put on some jeans and a hoodie. I put makeup on and fix the redness in my eyes.

I walk out of the room and we all meet up in front of the limo.

The air was tense and awkward.

I tsk and walk into the limo.

My phone pings and I look at it and decide to just entertain myself with it instead of being so uncomfortable.

Lucio sits next to me quietly.

I look up from my phone and he gestures at Dana's little friend.

"I dealt with it for you. I told Nette to take her in for a little while." He says

"Thank you. Seriously."

"Amir told me about the other thing."

"Mmm, I forgot about that."

"I figured but we're going to need it if we're really going to war."

"It won't grow that fast, "

"But it'll grow enough, right?" he asks

I look at him quietly and nod

"Yeah, "

"Good because I heard they have been planning this war from the beginning."

"That can't be true, "

"Well, apparently, it is so be ready sister you might have to hurt a friend or two, " he says and stands up to sit across from me.

I stay quiet and go back to my phone as the limo crowds up.

Jaime comes up to me and sits

"Hey," I say and she lays on my lap

I laugh as she just ignores me and closes her eyes.

We quickly get to the airport and we all go into the plane and go our separate ways

I hid in the room with Lucio and the dragon in his bag with the door closed so no one would come in.

"I haven't seen it in a few days but it looks like it grew" I say petting her scaly skin

"Careful, she'll burn your finger if she gets too excited"

"Uh-" I take my hand away and she just plays with a small blanket Amir used to put her to sleep

"She's not a pet," I say looking at the blanket

"Yeah, well, you should've thought of that before you took it"

"It's a her,"

"Do I care? no why? Because it's a dragon. A Dragon. Jesus Christ Nikki."

"Don't treat me like a child,"

"You are one,"

"I'm older than you,"

"You're a literal child even your little tantrums about how painful love is for you, " I glare at him

"Don't make that face you know it's true,"

"How'd you find out about that?"

"I live in the palace too y'know and it's currently the talk of all the nobles how Princess Dominique dumped the snobby Adrienne Bach, They look up to you now,"

"Because I broke her?"

"Don't overestimate yourself, sister, you're not all that,"

"Says you, thank you very much,"

"What are you going to do? You can't trust anyone with this. Anyone finds out and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a rumor about you trying to destroy the Empire."

"I know, I know, I'm thinking of telling Antoinette though. She would help me take care of it and hide it."

"Your nanny? Please, Dominique, she'd sell you out once someone puts a little bit of money in front of her,"

"If you're going to insult my servants, please, see yourself out."

"Sorry. Fine, if you think we can trust her you can tell her,"

"What about Wyatt?"

"We already know you're gonna tell him, anyway, he's your partner in crime,"

"That's clearly you he's just my favorite brother," I say and he rolls his eyes

"Mmm,"

"Anyway, what are you going to do about your little affair with Adrienne Bach?"

"I'll talk to her and agree to be friends," he laughs and lies down

" You can never be friends with someone you've had sex with, you already know what's under their clothes,"

"Nothing short of an inspirational quote, brother" I sneer

"And by the way, I can because I'm still friends with Michaela,"

"That's different, you two are still keeping it up with the kisses and sexual dances-"

"That was once,"

"Point is that's still not over and it probably never will be because now she'd never let you touch her like that again,"

"So? I can do that with Adrienne except I won't be so touchy,"

"That won't work," I groan

"Why not?"

"Hmm, think of it this way with Michaela you took a bite of the apple, a big one might I add, but then you started picking it little by little lightly peeling its skin as slowly as possible and that's probably going to go on and on until you die or stop being friends but with Adrienne, you've taken a big bite and now have to stop completely but you're hungry very very hungry,"

"So I'll just get another apple,"

"First, That apple is not as ripe so it won't suit your liking for more than a night. Second, It's not a good green apple like the one you like so you're completely not interested after taking that one bite."

"Why aren't I interested though?" He stays quiet for a minute

"I've never been able to figure that out, you've always been more complicated than I thought,"

"So can't I just save the Apple?" I ask

"You have your special apples saved in your fridge and there are only 3 special apples,"

four.

"Michaela, Adrienne, and C-"

"Uh-Uh"

"You feel emotionally attached to them but because one of those apples leaving a bad bad taste in your mouth you can't seem to totally finish one of those apples so they're just rotting in your fridge,"

I lay there silently looking up at the ceiling and listening intently to the sound of the plane's engine.

I can hear the Plane landing so I stand up, ready to leave the room,

"Nikki, My point is you can be friends with Adrienne but you have to throw the rotten apple out of your fridge and finish eating a new one so your whole fridge won't rot from the inside,"

"I think you lost the whole analogy," I laugh, confused.

"Yeah maybe a little," he nods

"Mmhmm," I say and leave the room with the small sleepy dragon in my purse

We get back to the palace after another limo ride and everyone just goes to their rooms.

I sigh as I slowly melt into my bed when I heard the dragon softly growl

I call Lucio

"What did Amir feed the Dragon?"

"Umm I don't know maybe call him," he says annoyed, and hangs up

I call Amir two times but he doesn't answer

"Nette, " I call and she enters

"Get me some veggies and a steak." she just nods and obeys.

She comes back in 10 minutes later with a whole meal being wheeled inside.

"Thank you, " I say and she leaves

I cut the steak up and feed it to her while also giving her the side of veggies.

She seemed pretty full after I fed her and disappeared off into my room.

"No- Scylla, " I sigh once I caught sight of her inside one of my cabinets

I sigh.

Apples, Huh?

They're human beings, Lucio. That's pretty unhumanizing. Not that I can talk.

I stretch my hand out and start lighting my fingertips like candles.

I need a haircut.

I sigh, again, but this time from boredom.

I grab my phone and text, Michaela, to come over.

Michaela barges into my room with tears in her eyes an hour or so after I texted her.

I urgently get up and grab her and sit her down on the bed.

"What happened?" I ask soothingly as she forced back her tears

We sit there for a few minutes before Mick calmed down and just silently got under my covers and laid down on my bed

I lay down next to her and we lay there silently watching American horror story which I had put on while waiting for her

The Dragon was currently sleeping, Like always, in a little nest made from my clothes. It was hidden away in my closet but it could easily come out if it was hungry or something.

"Violet's hot" she mumbles

"Yea..." I say still kinda shook from her barging in on the brink of tears

"I kissed her, " she says randomly

"Violet?" I ask

"No, you idiot, Adrienne. I kissed Adrienne."

"Oh, well, Did she like it?"

"No. No, she did not."

"Oh, that explains the crying, "

"I wasn't crying,"

"Fine, "

"She said she just wanted to be friends, "

"Oh... She missed out?" I say more as a question since I wasn't really sure what to say.

What should I say exactly?

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't apologize... It wasn't really your fault. I knew she was in love with you and I still kissed her."

" She missed out. She really did. You're better than me in every way, Mickey. Seriously." I say more confident this time and I hug her tightly

She ends up laying on my legs while I sat up and ate sour skittles and fed her some too.

"I slept with the Princess of the North, "

"Oh... Wait what? You slept with Anastasia?!"

"Shhhh," I say covering her mouth

"Would you chill? It felt like a good confession time, "

"Okay, okay, you slept with the princess??"

"I didn't mean to, It just happened but then... She got engaged to Julian in the same night."

"This happened yesterday?? And you did not tell me?? What the hell? Wait so you slept together and then she got engaged to your brother? Did she know?"

"Yea, she knew... She told me after sex. Right after 6 long hours of sex to be precise, "

"Oh, that did not help your sex issue, did it?"

"Sex issue?" I sigh "and no, it did not."

"I saw you walk out with a redhead after the announcement, I was wondering what that was about,"

"Oh her? No, she was- a friend of a friend. I didn't sleep with her not that I even could. I was exhausted,"

"Damn, right after sex?"

"Yea... Right after, " I say putting a skittle in her mouth

She sighs,

"You seemed pretty interested in her, I thought she would finally be it for you."

"No, you didn't. You don't have that much faith in me." I laugh

"I really thought she was straight, " Mick says laughing

"So what are you going to do?"

"What am I supposed to do? A war is about to start between our two countries. They have an empire, we have alliances but..."

"Don't be so pessimistic, Dominique, you've been to war before so you know just how powerful the Rodask Army is."

"Yeah but their army is just as powerful as ours and people may call them Barbarians or whatever they feel like calling them to insult them but I've seen them fight too. They have...wild measures but they're an army that can stand their ground against us."

"Barbarians... The Udril Army, right?"

"Yeah, The Princess's home."

"You liked her, " she says sitting up

"You actually liked her, " I laugh at her

" What are you on?" I laugh

"Don't. You actually like her. You liked her. You-"

"Stop. I didn't. I happen to find that out after we bumped into each other while going to the same place."

"Well, Fine then. Don't tell me but I know."

"How could I possibly like her? I didn't even spend that much time with her."

"You tried to though. You followed her around like a lost puppy. Mostly before you broke up with Adrienne though before you guys fought in the hallway. I remember that. You were pretty mad and insensitive."

"Why are you bringing that up now? That was a while ago."

"So what exactly is your plan now? You're just gonna go off to war and what happens after?"

I sigh,

"Yeah, War it is. It won't start for a while though. You wouldn't believe how much paperwork war actually involves." I say

"So you're just gonna sleep around until then?"

"Basically," I say biting on a skittle

"And train" I add " We wouldn't want me to die, now would we?"

"Don't joke around about that, "

"How could I not? This isn't going to be the same as the small war I went on last time. I'll be a Lieutenant Colonel this time last time I was a second lieutenant and it wasn't even earned it was just handed to me."

"You're way more powerful this time though. Last time, you weren't even fighting with two swords yet and you still proved yourself." I smile at her and mess with her hair

"Yeah... I guess. Now, pay attention to the show, " I say

"Fine, "

It'll be different this time. Way different.