It was January 28.

And, I, Nico di Angelo was turning 16.

What could be so important about this? It meant I'd be officially presented as next in line for the throne of the Inferos Kingdom. The heir. That's what I was, but this was the occasion that would officially name me this.

It was something I had never expected to happen until I turned ten years old and my stepmother had come into my room, early in the morning, crying. I had never seen her cry. My stepmother was a strong woman. Someone I had easily come to respect. Queen Persephone was also a very fair and amiable ruler. And that day, seeing her cry had taken me by surprise. I didn't know what to expect. But I knew when she took my hand in hers and looked at my drowsy ten-year-old self, that my older sister was dead.

Now, at sixteen, the day that I would be officially introduced as the next king, it fully hit me that my sister would never become Queen. It saddened me to think so. My birthday was already off to a crappy start.

Having just woken up as these thoughts ran through my head, it took me a couple of seconds to realize someone was knocking at my door. I threw my arm over my face and yelled at them to come in.

Reyna, who served as my valet and personal knight slash best friend, poked her head in. "Good, you're awake." Like that had not been obvious when I called for her to enter.

I heard her enter and close the door behind her. "Your father asked me to bring you your outfit for today's announcement."

Reyna was tall and lean. She had muscles where most women at this time didn't and she was an incredible fighter. She had long wavy brown hair she usually wore in some type of braid and earnest brown eyes. If she wasn't a knight, she would have made the best Queen. Not to forget she was actually the Captain of the Knights. An incredible feat at her age. She was older than me by two years, marking her at eighteen years of age.

She was not scared of me in the least when most servants were always a little nervous around me. I understood that I could come off a bit scary sometimes but I was nice to them. I thought maybe they were beginning to warm up to me after all these years. Something I had not done with my last valet, Bryce, who'd been outright irritating and rude and then later turned out to be a spy anyway and King Hades had him executed. That's what'd gotten me Reyna. Someone to wait on me and protect me if needed. I just knew Reyna was trustworthy and she seemed like a really genuine person, so as much as I tried not to be friends, in the end, she became my best friend.

I pointed to my desk chair with the arm not covering my face, "Set it there."

I listened as Reyna walked quickly to leave my clothes and as she opened the giant navy blue curtains from either side of my bed. "His Majesty also asked that you join them for lunch today, you missed breakfast. He has something he wants to discuss with you."

I removed my arm from my face and sat up, squinting at the sudden amount of light around me. I missed breakfast. The bright light made much more sense. I groaned, "Do you know if it's of importance?"

Reyna nodded, "He said it could be considered urgent."

I hated having lunch with my father. I hated ever doing anything with my father. He was never the same after Bianca's, my older sister's, death. I even remember him saying he'd wished it was me instead of her.

Before I could reply, by asking Reyna to inform my father I didn't want to have lunch with him for him to tell me something he could just tell me in the carriage on the way to our townhouse, where the announcement would happen, there was another knock on the door. Instead, I said, "Could you get that please?"

Reyna nodded and hurried to open the door. My younger sister, Hazel, stood on the other side. Hazel was a year younger than me. She had dark brown curls halfway down her back, rich dark skin (that could never compare to my colorless pale skin after six years of rarely going outside) and round golden eyes.

My mother and father had never married and a fight they'd had when I was one caused the making and birth of my wonderful little sister. But she hadn't been introduced to me until after her mother died-two years before-and our father brought her to live with us.

When she stepped into my room, she noticed Reyna at the door and a light smile took over her features. Hazel really respected her. "Oh hi. Good morning Reyna."

She cleared her throat and gave a slight nod in her direction, "Good morning your highness."

I was happy they got along. It would utterly suck if my best friend and sister hated each other.

Hazel sighed, "Reyna, I've told you you don't have to call me 'your highness', you may call me by name."

Reyna shook her head. Although they get along and she was casual with me, she insisted on treating Hazel like the royalty she was. "I could never do that, your highness, if King Hades were to-"

"If my father were to know, he would do nothing about what I want you to call me. What I'm now ordering you to call me. And he wouldn't mind."

"I'm so sorry your highness but I'll have to decline. Now if you'll excuse me." She bowed again and mouthed good luck in my direction as she exited. I would most definitely need all the luck I could get if I was to have lunch with my father.

I waited until Hazel turned around and looked at me to speak. "Did you need anything, dear sister?"

"I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Neeks."

"Thank you, Hazel."

She looked away then, "And father wanted me to make sure you would have lunch with us today."

It was my turn to sigh, I could never really deny my little sister. "Yeah, I will, I just need to dress."

Hazel nodded, and didn't say anything for a couple of seconds before opening her mouth again, "He's been trying, you know. To get close to you."

I looked away, "I don't want to, doesn't he get that?"

"I just-I believe it'd be a good thing if you two were on better terms. And he does love you."

"And wishing I was dead is a fantastic way of showing it." I snapped, looking back at her. I clenched my fists in my blankets and realized I'd snapped at my dear sister. I looked away again before speaking. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's okay." Her tone sounded a little sad. "He was grieving, Nico, he didn't mean it."

I got out of bed, ignoring what she'd said, and took my clothes from the chair where Reyna had left them for me, not looking at her. "I'll be down. You can go on ahead."

I felt her stare on my back before I heard her heels click on the stone floor as she left without saying anything more. The sound of the door closing once again echoed in the now empty room. I shook my head to rid myself of the sudden loneliness I felt and began to dress. The expensive clothes were snug on my frame and made it seem like I had more muscle than I actually did. I brushed my hair quickly and slipped on my worn black leather boots.

When I got downstairs, the maids had only just set the food on the table.

This room was our private dining room. It wasn't too grand. But we had torches lining the walls and a simpler chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. The heavy wooden table rested in the center of the room with ten seats around it.

I sat across from Hazel and thanked the maids for bringing our food. Hazel and Persephone did the same and they asked them to thank the cook for them. 

We ate in silence until Persephone wished me a happy birthday.

"Thank you," I said.

"Are you excited for today?"

I shrugged, "All the citizens know already."

Persephone opened her mouth to answer but my father beat her to it. "That's not all the people will be introduced to."

"Who else could there be?"

"What I intended to speak to you about." Hades raised his head to look me directly in the eyes as his next words left his lips. "Now that you are old enough to wed, we'll be announcing your betrothal to the prince of the Vindictae kingdom, from up north, and we'll introduce him to the people."

I started choking on my chicken. One of the servants rushed to help and when the chicken went down the right way, I didn't waste time in asking, "What?!"

My father didn't break eye contact. "Surely, you must have known this was going to happen at some point in your life. You are a prince after all and this is quite common between the likes of us."

"Since when have I been betrothed?!" My voice sounded unnaturally high. This was absolutely not what I thought he wanted to speak to me about. At the same time, Hazel asked, "He's betrothed?!" Obviously, it had just caught up to her what our father had said.

Hades casually cut into his lunch as he answered. "It is well known that before him, his grandfather only had a daughter. Nemesis. Queen Nemesis ruled her country as should be, unlike other countries who stupidly have their firstborn daughters marry and leave their husbands to rule the kingdom. A year before Bi-" He cut off abruptly. He couldn't even say her name. "A year before your sister died, Queen Nemesis approached me. She pointed out that there was very little chance of you ever ruling Inferos and asked for your hand in marriage for her son, Ethan, who'd taken a liking to you a year before that. She said with this, you'd be able to rule a kingdom as well, you'd have your own home. I agreed. Of course, this was before your sister's death. It took us four years to be able to speak of the complications this brought for your engagement. I needed someone to rule after myself and I had no intention of handing over my kingdom to them.

Thankfully, by that time, Hazel had joined us.

Not only will we announce your engagement and introduce your future husband, we will also announce that Hazel will be ruling Inferos after myself."

Hazel did a spit take and my jaw dropped. Maids hurried to clean the watered-down wine from the table. "Father!" She slammed the glass on the table. I was too angry to wonder how the glass hadn't shattered from the force. "You can't do this to him! You cannot have him marry someone he does not love and as nice as the honor to rule after you is, it does not belong to me. The rightful future king of Inferos is Nico! He'd make a wonderful ruler!"

I loved my sister for saying that, I really appreciated it, but I knew he would not change his mind with simply that. And yet, I tried as well, I couldn't either let this go without a fight. "You can't force me to marry Prince Ethan! I don't even know him!"

Our father didn't even look fazed, he acted like we hadn't spoken a word. "We'll be dining with him after the announcement. And he'll be staying with us for a week until Nico's engagement ball." He then looked straight at me. "I expect you to eat your meals with us for the entire week. If you do not, your wedding will be moved forward and you'll be moving in with him sooner than you expect."

I was angry, to say the least. He was manipulating me and forcing me to marry someone against my will. I would move out of the place I'd called home for as long as I could remember and be forced to rule a foreign kingdom alongside someone I didn't even know, for the rest of my life. How dare he? I knew he'd have preferred my sister being alive over me, so maybe he was right, I should have been expecting this. But he'd planned this since before her death. Did my own father really hate me that much? What could I have done to deserve this? "What have I ever done to you?"

He set his fork down. At this point, we were all either done with our meals or, didn't have an appetite anymore. He called for the servants to clear the table. When they were done, he stood and as he walked away he ignored my question, "Pack anything you'd like to take, we'll be staying overnight at the townhouse."

"When is the wedding?" Hazel asked before he left the room.

"Queen Nemesis is in terrible health, and she isn't recovering. Her death is fast approaching. The wedding will take place following her funeral and Ethan's coronation."

He made his exit. 

Hazel and I sat there. That was when Persephone talked again, her voice was gentle. "I'm sorry, Nico. After Bianca's death, I tried to dissuade him. To forget about the betrothal... I thought I'd succeeded in convincing him but he spoke to Queen Nemesis four years later."

I shook my head, and stood, "It's not your fault. He just doesn't give a fuck about me." I pushed my chair in angrily and stomped back towards my chambers, slamming the heavy doors shut upon entering.

Once the sound of the slamming doors receded, I grabbed my candle holders and threw them at my wall with an angry shout. The poor things didn't stand a chance against the stone and broke on contact. My breathing was heavy. I absolutely detested this. I tugged at my hair, how could he do this to me? How? This time, I picked up a chair but before I did anything, there was a knock at my door, I heard Reyna's muffled voice behind it. "Nico, your father is requesting we all make our way to the carriages so we may leave."

I waited until my breathing calmed before heading out with Reyna. I knew I looked angry and, to her, that must've been completely worrying, especially when I wasn't offering an explanation but I was fuming and didn't have the patience to care right then. But she'd find out soon enough along with everyone else.

Being my best friend, she knew I didn't want to talk and never pushed. This was why I loved her.

Thankfully, I wouldn't be riding with my father like I had expected this morning but instead with Hazel, her main lady in waiting, Gwendolyn, and her knight by the name of Frank who so obviously had a crush on her, and Reyna.

The ride to town took two hours and it was silent the entire way, save for the rumbling of the wheels over the road, the clopping of the horses' hooves and the snap of the whip every now and then. Hazel tried to coax me into having a conversation a couple of times but I never answered and after several failed attempts, she stopped trying. I knew she was worried and not exactly happy herself about this afternoon, but there was nothing I could do.

Merely seconds after arriving, as we exited our carriages, another carriage got there. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was Prince Ethan. I didn't stand around to wait and entered the house as fast as possible. Frank, Gwen, Hazel, and Reyna trailing behind me. Let my father greet the prince on his own. I wasn't going to speak to him for as long as I could. When we reached the floor that held our bedrooms, Hazel squeezed my hand before heading to her own, Gwen and Frank behind her. I told Reyna she could go to her own as well until it was time for the announcements. I could tell she didn't want to. She wanted to stay with me and see what was wrong, but again, she knew I didn't want to talk about it so she disappeared into the room next to mine and I entered my own, immediately throwing myself on my bed. Of course, I was still angry and didn't want to do anything but lock myself in there until either Ethan or I died. I'd prefer that to have to marry him. And maybe I was over exaggerating but I was also a teenager so it practically comes with it. I won't lie and say that I didn't think of running away but where would I go? What would I do? I didn't know anyone outside of the nobility and I didn't know of anything I could do to make a living out of the few skills I possessed. Irritated and frustrated, I turned on my bed and screamed into my pillow.

It didn't seem like half an hour had passed but in no time, Reyna was knocking on my door. "Nico, it's time."

A/N
If you have any questions regarding the storyline or characters, feel free to message me! And I really hope you enjoy this story. I was inspired by the story that was told in the movie Leap Year when they were at the castle. And well, again, I hope you enjoy!

Yours in demigodishness and all that, Izzy