Page 59 of A Broken Promise

“Obviously kill Florian. Kill Ronald too. Fuck Beatrice, that’s easy.”

I laughed. A Priya-fitting answer. “It doesn’t work like that; you have to pick one to marry.”

“I’d rather kill myself and they all can go fuck and marry together. Beatrice would probably enjoy it too.”

“So predictable. Boring.” I yawned.

“Fine, smartass, your turn.”

“I mean, not that I’ve thought about it but marry Beatrice because I am sure she would be the best. Fuck Florian for obvious reasons, and kill Ronald.” I eyed the sky and whispered, “Sorry, Ronald.”

Priya chuckled, pulling out another treat from her bag. At this point I got used to the fact that Priya mostly packed food for her trips and not clothes.

“Ronald deserves it,” Priya sneered. “And Beatrice would make a terrible wife, are you kidding me? In fact, Florian would be a better wife than her, granted she talks less and fucks better than him, so I guess I could see it.”

A little shadow crept over my thoughts. I tried to be subtle about it.

“Wait, are you saying you and Florian….?” I paused, anxiously waiting.

“OH FUCK NO. Gods, NO. Bleawh...” Priya just continued making vomiting noises for about five minutes. I chuckled, rolling my eyes.

“I take it as a no then.”

“This might be the most offensive thing you’ve ever said to me. Oh, Freckles, fuck no!” Priya kept on fake vomiting. “Such atrocity. How do you even dare? Like, I chop dicks for a living. I am not putting one near me unless it’s to cut it off.”

I smiled, though slightly embarrassed that I had asked that question to begin with.

“Florian and I met a long time ago,” Priya said, slightly warming up to the conversation I had been leading to and hoping to have for a while now. “I met him shortly after I moved to Svitar. His grandfather and I have mutually beneficial investments and since Florian is the named heir, I have to get along with him once in a while for the money to roll in.”

I slapped another mosquito on my arm. Gods, there were swarms of them now coming at us.

“Named heir for what?”

“Does the name Casteol mean anything to you?” Priya said with her mouth full of dried biscuits.

“No? Should it?” I warily asked. Priya rolled her eyes as if I was the most ignorant creature on earth, but I tried to fight that. “You forget that I spent most of my life in places like this, living cast out with the elven maid.” I motioned my arms to the gloomy nothingness around us. “And after being forced into slavery, we didn’t quite get the morning gossip of Svitar.” My words were sharp, but I smoothed mytone.Incompetent, unaware, clueless. It always irked me. That feeling like I didn’t know something but should have.

“Oh please, yes, be so dramatic, slave girl.” Priya clicked her tongue at me. “Relax. Casteols are drug Lords, but not just drug Lords, they aretheemperors in the drug world. Their family has been running the drug cartel in Esnox for generations now. Florian’s dad was murdered, his mom is some singer, performing day shows at the Queen’s Palace. And his grandfather, two years ago, announced Florian as his sole heir to the Casteol Empire.”

“And when exactly were you going to tell me any of that?”

“Are you not going to go out with him now?”

I opened my mouth to object but paused. Yes, I would still go. Drug empire heir or not, Florian was fun. He was such a ray of sunshine in the dark gloomy days.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, if it doesn’t change anything, why would it matter?” Now it was Priya’s turn as she smacked a few mosquitos off her thighs.

“So, you are an assassin and a drug Lord?” I asked casually. It didn’t surprise me at all. Not anymore.

“Me, a drug Lord? Oh please, those men are pure savages with no class.”

“Well, there issomeclass.” I smirked, my thoughts drifting to that slightly unbuttoned, ironed shirt on that summer tanned skin.

“A. Super gross.” Priya rolled her eyes. “B. Poisons are not the only useful thing you can make out of plants. C. When you make extremely potent opium, there are people, very rich people, that are willing to pay for it. So, as I said, it’s an investment. I like to diversify my portfolio. Who knows, maybe one day if I get bored and Florian pisses me off, maybe I’ll murder them and take over the empire. Who knows, life is full of possibilities.” She slapped another darn mosquito.

At my stern glance, she continued.

“What? I didn’t say I’ll do it for sure, I just mean I would like to keep it as an option.” She smacked a mosquito on my shoulder.

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