“You work too Olivia,” Sam says, chastising me. “You help anyone you come across. You’ve a kind a heart and will make a strong leader.”
I shrug. “I try and do what I can. I’d rather be out there fighting and protecting our people but I’ll settle for doing what I can from inside the walls.”
Sam’s expression turns serious. “You could have chosen me, you know that right?”
I arch a brow at him. “We’re friends Sam. I wouldn’t do that you. You’re going to find someone you can’t live without and I’m not taking that away from you.”
He nudges my shoulder. “You’re not a death sentence. We would have been fine.”
I laugh. “Death sentence. Good one.”
“I’m serious. You’re beautiful and have a good heart. What more can a man ask for?”
I lean back, my palms on the grass. “Love. Passion. I don’t know.”
Sam rolls his eyes. “I think you’ve been reading too many of those romance novels we found on the last raid. Times have changed Olivia. It’s like we’ve gone back in time, back to arranged marriages, traditional roles and new laws. Democracy is a thing of the past.”
“Traditional roles,” I repeat, scrunching up my nose. “You’re right about that. Did you see any of them while you were gone?”
By them, I meant the monsters. Zombies, I guess you could call them. Flesh-eating creatures that have taken over and demolished most of our population.
Sam shakes his head. “No we didn’t.”
I exhale slowly. “It seems like we are seeing them about less and less nowadays. At least from what you’ve been telling me after each hunt.”
Sam stays quiet.
“Do you think that maybe one day it will be safe to--”
“Olivia,” Dane says, cutting me off. He looks at Sam and gives him a scowl. “Don’t you have something to do?”
Sam flashes me an amused look before leaving. Dane sits down in his seat and turns to me. “Pretty sure I told you I didn’t want you flirting.”
I was pretty sure Dane had control issues.
“I was talking, there’s a difference.”
“You can talk to me,” he says, raising a sardonic brow.
I didn’t know what Dane wanted, what his aim was. The man was confusing.
My eyes narrow. “Sam’s my only friend in this place. If you think you’re going to stop me from talking to him, then you don’t know me very well.”
Sure, I spoke to others and they spoke to me. But everyone kept their distance from me. It was a lonely existence, one that Sam had saved me from. He was a good friend.
“I don’t know you,” Dane replies, staring straight ahead. “We’re going to have to remedy that.”
“Why?” I ask. What difference did it make at this point?
“What do you mean why? We’re getting married Olivia--”
“And it doesn’t mean anything to you Dane. I told you this. It’s just a piece of paper. For fuck’s sake, we don’t even have a priest in the castle. We can pretend all we want but it doesn’t change anything. Yes we will be tied together through everyone’s eyes. Yes, we will share a bed. That’s it.”
“That’s it?” he replies, sounding incredulous. “You think I want to have a kid with a woman I hardly know?”
I rub my forehead. “Now you don’t even want to share my bed? Christ, I thought that was the reason for all of this. To produce an heir.”
“Oh, I will share your bed,” he says, voice laced with steel. “That’s the one pro in this whole mess.”
I grit my teeth. “You’re going to make me regret choosing you, aren’t you?”
“Every day of your life. And you don’t need a priest to make a marriage legal.”
I sigh and look up at the blue sky. “I want to go out with the next group that leaves the walls.”
“No.”
“Women leave all the time.”
“Not you,” he replies flippantly. “Your father wants you safe.”
“And I want to be free.”
“You are free,” he replies. “You’re a princess. How many women in this castle do you think envy your position? And I think it’s time that you and I started over.”
He made me sound ungrateful.
Spoiled.
Maybe I was.
Late that night I couldn’t sleep. Sliding out of my bed, I open my door and wander the halls. The castle we were living in was old, and surrounded by huge walls that were made from a time of war. Back when castles were sieged and taken by sheer force. This castle withstood that, and now it keeps us safe from the monsters. I touch the wall and feel the stone beneath my palm. What did it look like out there? I always wonder. How was the rest of the world surviving? How many were still alive?