Chapter 22: The Drunken Fool

The date of Balthazar Riverwalker's birthday banquet and hunt was quickly approaching. Layla split her focus from Cassias' recovery to preparing for the banquet. Alistar was dead to her.

He tried to talk to her but she would turn away. He tried to hold her hand and she would move her hand away. She replaced Javier with one of her father's men and forbade Alistar from her room. The tension between the two was felt by every member of the household. Life had become a series of eggshells that everyone was forced to walk on. Layla would have kept appearances up but Alistar had killed the part of her that cared when he returned with a bloody unconscious Cassias. He still refused to give any straight answers to anyone who inquired.

Layla had hoped that he would eventually leave. The colder she was towards him, the more she pushed him away, the more likely it would be that he would just go away. But it had been almost two weeks and he was still there. She wondered what she had to do to get