Chapter Twenty-Four

Her normal wake up time felt cruel after having twisted and turned in bed, replaying Riven's confession in her mind, and Nieve struggled a little to get up. She had a bread roll on her way to her friend's room for their first appointment with the tailor for the most important dress of Layla's life, hoping they wouldn't be late.

"Nieve?"

The brunette felt like she'd walked headfirst into a wall. She'd never be able to forget that voice, no matter how much she tried. "What… What are you doing here?" she asked, trying not to let him see how much he was intimidating her right now. Nieve knew there was a good chance she would run into him, but she hadn't expected it to be this early in the day, when she was in a rush and hadn't been able to prepare herself for this.

"I'm here for the wedding, obviously," Christophe gave her a self-important smile. "But I must say, I'm surprised to see you be allowed anywhere near primes again," he added.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. If you'll excuse me, I have work to do," Nieve said as calmly and as put together as she could, walking away before he could say anything. She knew it wouldn't be the last time she saw him, and she knew he probably wouldn't let her get away with talking to him like that, even if there had been no one else there to witness it. She stalked through the corridors as fast as she could, almost barrelling straight into Riven as she rounded a corner. "Sorry," she breathed heavily at an instinct, before she realised who she'd almost bumped into, his hand still on her arm where he'd stopped her from bouncing straight off him and onto the floor.

"That's okay. Hey, are you alright?" Riven asked concerned, making her realise she must have looked a little shook up still if he didn't mention last night.

"Yeah, of course," Nieve nodded quickly, pulling her arm out of his hold. This was not the time to discuss their feelings, even though, after last night, she really wanted to. "Just running late," she added now. She knew Layla would let her off and make excuses for her if she was late because of talking things through with Riven, but she honestly didn't have the courage for this right now.

"But…" he tried to stop her from walking away from him again.

"No, Riven, I'm late," the brunette told him firmly and, without looking back, walked away from him, feeling extremely guilty as she did so.

After the first appointment to choose the design of her wedding dress, it was time for her next lesson. The only lessons Layla had now were in etiquette and the rundown of who's who in society, with some schmoozing at ridiculous big lunches. And that was purely because Lady Simia would not let her future daughter-in-law embarrass her or her son at the wedding in three days' time. The rest of her time was making sure her wedding dress, and her accessories, was perfect.

Lord Simia had acquiesced in her request for a different handmaiden but had informed both her and Nieve that the change would have to wait until after the wedding; there was simply no time to waste on those kinds of matters until then. Both women could live with the last few days working together, as they worked on regaining their friendship.

"Nieve, you'll stay with me during this dinner, right?" Layla asked softly when they entered the garden and she saw the vast crowd gathered there.

"As much as I can," her friend promised. "Besides, you've got Ryan and Riven, and Kaitlyn here as well," the brunette pointed out.

The blonde took a deep breath as she looked around and realised that she was right; she wasn't alone during this. Layla gave her friend's hand a squeeze before she made her way over to the table to take her seat.

While her friend quietly looked around the table, trying to put the names to the faces she'd learned, Nieve took a few steps back and took her place near the wall. She pressed her lips together nervously when Riven decided to stand next to her. He didn't look at her, but she felt all his attention on her. His eyes, however, were scanning the primes sat at the table until they finally rested on Christophe. She swallowed hard, hoping he hadn't overheard them that morning. The blond man was obliviously chatting up some unsuspecting girl, he had no idea the most powerful man in Serenissima was shooting daggers at him. It softened Nieve's heart to the blue-eyed man a little to know he cared so much that he'd hate someone without even knowing why. He didn't just care for her, she reminded herself, he'd told her he loved her. Love. She couldn't remember anyone telling her they loved her, not even her parents. Not even Christophe when he was lying about his feelings for her.

After lunch the Simias had organised a reception in the grand hall. The hall was decorated with wildflowers and colourful tablecloths on standing tables. A band was playing music softly in a corner. Staff walked around with glasses of champagne, and all sorts of wines, while the prime families drank and mingled. Layla tried to keep track of the conversations her fiancé was having, but she had a hard time when there was just so much history between him and his guests. She felt like an outsider looking in. She hoped that feeling changed soon.

Nieve was trailing her, just a few steps behind her. Fear trickled down her spine like ice cold water when Christophe whispered in her ear.

"That dress looks really good on you," he said, his lips so close to her that his breath tickled her. She tried to keep her back straight and pretended not to hear him as she followed Layla. She looked everywhere but at the blond man with the muscular arms, until her eyes locked with Riven. Just looking at him, with his dark hair combed back out of his handsome face and his jaws clenching and unclenching as he looked back at her, gave her a sense of security nothing else could compare to.

He hated that he couldn't do anything but look at her from a distance. Even when Christophe started talking to her. He wasn't allowed to read the muscular man's mind, and it took him all his willpower not to. He watched as he whispered something in Nieve's ear, something that clearly made her uncomfortable. The steely-eyed beauty was usually so unphased that he broke the rules when their eyes locked. He needed to know what Christophe had done to her. So he read the mind of Ryan's cousin, hearing him think about how alluring he found Nieve in her deep purple dress, how he remembered the softness of her skin when he'd tried to… Riven stopped listening, an angry fire growing in his chest as he looked at the blond man. The man who took that moment to caress Nieve's waist, his hands moving down slowly.

He couldn't remember doing it, but one moment he'd been stood near a wall, and the next he was hovering over Christophe, his hand throbbing while a bruise blossomed around the bulky man's right eye. He was about to punch him again when Lord Simia yelled, "Riven," and he froze.

Nieve couldn't breathe as she watched guards circle around Riven, cuffing him and escorting him outside when Lord Simia commanded them to. He just let them, even though he had the power to stop them all, he just let them lead him away as if he was a common criminal.

"Stay inside," Ryan told his fiancée and sister while he followed the crowd as the great hall slowly emptied. It wasn't until they were just the three of them that someone spoke.

"What are they going to do with him?" Nieve asked no one in particular. She could feel her friend's brown eyes on her, searching her face, and realised she was crying. "Where are they taking him?" she now turned to the youngest Simia.

"He's…" Kaitlyn wasn't entirely sure if she should say anything, but the way the two women were looking at her, it probably wasn't wise to stay quiet either. "I think they're taking him to the smaller courtyard," she said, not exactly explaining anything.

"Why? What are they going to do?" Nieve hated how desperate she sounded, but all Riven had done was protect her, and now they were about to punish him for that. Her heart thundered when Layla grabbed her hand and turned her so that they were looking at each other.

The blonde hadn't had many lessons, but she'd learned about the punishment for attacking a prime on the first day, the day that Nieve had done her best to avoid her. She'd never seen her friend so vulnerable in all the years they'd known each other. "Nieve, are you and Riven…" she trailed off, unsure whether she could finish that sentence with Kaitlyn around. What she was asking was illegal, and the young Simia was still a Simia, after all.

A distant pained cry made the three women turn to the door. The sound of the whip was so loud they could hear it in the castle. Nieve was running before she realised that she was doing it, her friend and Kaitlyn following her close.

"Nieve, stop," Kaitlyn reached for her arm and pulled, her grasp surprisingly strong. The brunette tried to pull herself loose, but the prime had an iron grasp and the handmaid didn't dare use the moves Riven had taught her.

Layla didn't know what to do when her friend looked at her instead of the white-haired girl. She didn't know what power she held over her former Lady, whether Kaitlyn now had to listen to her, since she was engaged to her brother. "Please, Layla," the handmaid begged. "I love him," she cried, and it looked like she'd only realised that now. It was surprise that made Kaitlyn release her, and the common girl was running faster than ever, rushing through the halls until she was standing on the edge of the smaller courtyard.

Riven stood on a platform, bound to a pole while one of the guards pulled his arm back, getting ready to lash him again. Four more guards stood around them, ready to pounce should something happen. Nieve's hands shook when a sudden headache made it feel like her head was about to split in two. She wasn't sure if she'd yelled at the guard to stop, but his hand stopped moving mid-swing before he and all the guards on the platform fell backwards, as if a force had hit them all individually.

Riven looked up when the pain he'd expected didn't come. The guards were scrambling to get up, but some unseen power kept them down. Everyone was looking at him, thinking he was the one that had used his powers, but he knew he hadn't. He scanned the crowd as he forced a healer up the platform to heal his back, his eyes first finding Ryan, who looked at him questioningly. He told his friend it wasn't him before he searched for a face and a mind that would tell him who had blown the guards away. Whoever it was, that person was about to end up next to him. His heart stopped when his eyes locked with a pair of grey eyes that he could picture in his sleep by now. Had Nieve done this? He felt breathless as he watched her push her way through the crowd. In fact, he realised, she wasn't as much pushing as that people were moving away. Guards were following her, but none could reach her, like she had a protective bubble around her. She ran up the platform and the cuffs that were holding him up unlocked by unseen hands. Her small frame was before him before he could fall to the ground, her arms around him as if no one was watching. Her usually cold eyes were burning, and his heart hammered in his chest as he took a deep breath of her flowery scent. The thing he'd been longing to do for so long was the only thing on his mind as he pulled her closer and kissed her.

Ryan stood rooted as the entire courtyard gasped. Layla's hand had found his as they both watched Nieve rush to the platform. He knew he'd been teasing his friend about the way he couldn't seem to keep his eyes off his fiancée's handmaid, but he'd never thought the infallible head of the guard would ever break the law. Not like this. Yet, there they stood on a platform for all to see, kissing.

His mother was shouting instructions to the sentinels, telling them to break the two apart, but nothing they did was working. Layla's squeezing of his hand made him turn to her. "Please, make them stop," she whispered. "Nieve and Riven don't deserve punishment." It wasn't until this moment that he finally understood why she needed for the law to change. He didn't really know the guard and chambermaid that had had their memory erased, but he knew Riven. He looked at his friend on the platform. They'd stopped kissing but were holding each other as if they were waiting for the spell to break. Ryan hated to intrude, but he tried to tell his friend to clear the courtyard by almost screaming in his mind. It looked like his friend hadn't heard him, but then everyone started to slowly walk away in neat single file lines, until only Layla and the Simias were left.

"Mother, stop shouting," he said, his voice quiet but stern, not unlike his father's.

She looked about to turn her voice on him, but his father placed a hand on her shoulder, and she quieted. "They need to be punished," the ice queen said. She wasn't shouting anymore, but her voice was colder than ever. The look she gave him made him feel like she blamed him for the situation they were in now; that him falling in love with a common had opened a floodgate, even though no one outside their family but Nieve and Riven remembered what had happened that night.

"I think they've been punished enough," he said. If he was going to be the future Lord of Serenissima, he needed to be able to stand his ground. Even against the ice queen. "In fact, I think you're going to find it very difficult to punish them again," he added. Riven had accepted the lashings before, but now he had Nieve next to him, the heir was sure his friend wasn't going to let anyone near them ever again.

His mother clenched her jaws and huffed as she seemed to come to the same realisation.

"Okay," Lord Simia's voice broke the tension. "It appears we have an entire ballroom full of people that need some explanation."

Layla's face broke into a smile as her eyes locked with her friend's.