IN WHICH SHE PRAYS HE BREAKS HIS LEG.

Maximus continues to glare at the girl, the glass cup in his hand re-filled with wine by a waiter. 

He brought it to his lips and tasted it, closed his eyes to nourish the taste. When he opened it to glare at her, Zoe looked away and kept playing the violin not giving in to him. Mad as she was, she was not ready to re-do this as he had said. If she were to ever make a single mistake. 

Maximus had turned around after glaring at her for a minute and raised his hand. Everyone stopped. Except Zoe. Of course she didn't want to get into trouble but she still wanted to pass her anger across. She didn't wait for him to look back and glare at her before she stopped. Maybe he was trying to act mature although it wouldn't fit his pompous self, but he didn't ask her why she did so. 

"Dismissed." Was the one word he said before everyone scurried away from the hall. He and Zoe remained when he turned around, stretched the glass in his hand to her and left. Was that a toast to the suffering he had put her through? 

Mad man! She thought. 

The moment they left, Lady Luminita had rushed in and towards her. Throwing the violin to a side, the she-wolf helped her to a chair and started rubbing her hands together. Zoe wouldn't let herself cry. She had promised that one thing to herself. Maximus was not worth her tears at all. 

Glancing at the ice and giving Zoe a sorry expression she says. "Maximus is impossible to handle, isn't he?" 

Zoe, who couldn't feel her body, didn't know what to say. Madam Cardboard walks in with a bowl of water and a flask. A duvet and towel around her neck. Lady Luminata helped her with the stuff and she quickly told her. 

"You should go back to your chambers, My Lady. If his highness were to see you here, Zoe would only get into more trouble." 

Reluctantly, she leaves, glancing to look at Zoe till she is out of sight. 

"Are you mad at him?" Madam Cardboard questions placing her cold legs in warm water. Soothing, Zoe let out a pleased moan. 

"Is it not written all over my face?" 

"You did wrong by helping the little child." 

"She is but a small child." Zoe insisted. 

"She was willing to poison the king. She is no little child but a betrayer." 

"Who wouldn't?" She retorts before realizing she might have said too much and looks away. "I mean the man is pure evil." 

"Thursdays like this are full of death and silent sorrowful mourning. Thursdays like this should go on and on from morning to night. But it barely lasted two hours this Thursday." She places her hand in a warm wet towel before wrapping her with a duvet. "Why do you think it happened this way?" 

Zoe wasn't following her train of thoughts and she knew she wasn't that smart but the old woman was simply making matters worse. 

"I am not sure I follow what you mean." She confessed. 

"Dear.." she held her hands that were now in a wet towel. "Maybe you could save his highness." 

Zoe stared at her like she had grown two heads and started laughing. A forced one, before she releases a scoff. "Save? Save who Madam Cardboard? Maximus? The same Maximus Dracon Lupus? The man is beyond saving. He is definitely with no doubt the wolf definition of evil." 

"Is that so? You think he can't be saved?" She had asked as if the man's life lies in her hands but Zoe didn't care. 

"He has no hope." She had repeated. 

"Maybe you aren't looking closely enough. Is he really hopeless or you only see him that way?" 

"Ma...." she lowers her voice, afraid his wolf ears would pick on her next words. "Maximus is a man that once fed on his own blood brother's flesh. The man has been evil since birth. You cannot expect such beings to be saved." 

Surprised Zoe knew this, she asked. "How did you hear this?" 

"It is all over the palace. Who wouldn't know?" 

Madam Cardboard released a deep sigh. "I see that we have a lot of work to do." 

"Work? About what?"

"The misunderstandings surrounding his highness. The ones you have of him." 

"Are you saying it isn't true?" Zoe wouldn't believe it even if she said it wasn't true. She wanted to believe Maximus was that kind of person. An ugly blood sucking monster. But she was eager to know more. "Then Ma, you are the closest to him and have known him for a long time. Can I ask you something?" 

"Go ahead." She was more than ready to listen to the young lady's questions. 

"Can you tell me why Lady Luminita is the only one free on Thursdays? And the only one he never gets mad at? It can't be that the animal has feelings for her, does he?" 

She chuckled when she heard this and slowly replied. "I would eagerly answer your questions Zoe. That you know but this, I am afraid you will have to ask the King himself. It is not my place to explain." 

Zoe rolls her eyes and removes her hand so she could rub them together. Madam Cardboard dips the cloth in hot water again before placing it around her hands. "You say that so much that I have started to write down my questions." 

Amused, she teased. "Have you?"

"Of course. I have a book for it." 

"Why then are you not questioning him yourself?" 

"You should know I hate talking to him. Such a despicable man! Every time we have a conversation, he always tries to put me down. Like I am nothing but dirt." 

"That you are." He confirms walking into the hall. Madam Cardboard gets on her feet and bows her head in greeting but Zoe remains in her seat. "You know I hate having anyone around after events. But you still remain here." She would never stop getting on his nerves and he knew she did it on purpose. He was talking to Zoe who further made her disobedience obvious by looking away and not giving him any attention. "Lock her up in her room for the rest of the day. Till I return." He added. 

"You..." She didn't even know what to say and did not want to anger him lest he increase her punishment. But Maximus did not spare her a glance before shifting to his wolf form, the sound of cracking bones, and animalistic grumbling no longer causing her to flinch.

"Did you see that? You witnessed it too, right? And you say he has hope? Tsk..I pray he breaks his legs." She cursed.