Page 63 of Dueling the Suitors

You’re dead set on this, aren’t you?

She smirked at him.The question is, Sky, are you ready for revenge?

His eyes gleamed.You know I am.

Good, then let’s go accomplish our next plan.

Astoria stepped out of her room and walked to the sitting room of their suite, changing the black and lavender-grey on her way. Cyrus was going to burst with fury when he saw this.

There was no one in the hallways as she stepped out of the suite. Not even Spyrah, which was good, because she didn’t want Cyrus to know what she was up to—yet. He would ruin her fun as soon as she started it.

And heavens, no one told her that exacting revenge would be so much fun.

Skylar trailed behind her, complimenting her work. The servants who passed them stared wildly between her and the now-green walls. Otherwise, they didn’t say a word but scrambled away when she turned to them with a sweet smile.

She changed the floors to white, but seeing how it contrasted more starkly with the dirt, she changed them back to black. She didn’t want the maids to have a heavier workload because of her, not when she was planning to win them over.

She hadn’t reached the main parts of the palace when Cyrus’ voice pierced through the air.

“Astoria!”

Astoria turned with a nonchalant look and saw him storming towards her with Rowan. Cyrus’ face resembled a storm like early that morning, but Rowan was on the verge of laughing, his eyes on the tapestries and the tapestry-free walls.

“What is the meaning of this?” Cyrus hissed as soon as he reached her, his eyes narrowed into slits. It was so unfair that even anger didn’t make him look any less attractive.

Astoria recoiled inwardly at the thought. Did she just think he wasattractive?

She had known he was handsome, but attractive? No man who tricked a girl—aprincess—into marrying him, kidnapped her, and locked her up in his gilded cage was supposed to look attractive.

Unfortunately for her, he was.

“Do I have to write it on the walls to make the meaning more obvious to you?”

Cyrus lifted his eyes heavenward as though praying for patience, then closed them and ran a hand through his hair. Opening his eyes, he grabbed her wrist and, without a word, dragged her in the direction he came from.

“What are you—get your hands off me!” She tried to pry his hand off her wrist, but his grip might as well have been iron.

“You complained about not having a single bloom around, and you get a garden!” he snapped, sparing her a sharp glance over his shoulder.

Astoria stopped struggling, pondering his words, until he practically shoved her towards one of the windows and pointed an accusing finger at the courtyard below.

Her confused gaze followed it, and her breath caught.

A garden.

There was a garden below them so vast it was bigger than the one back home, spread like a serene oasis.

Astoria couldn’t find her breath. Her mind spun. She couldn’t even move her littlest finger.

The fact that he had made her a garden with magic because she complained about not having a single bloom paralyzed her in shock.

What game was he playing? Why was he doing this?

“And you just had to go around turning my lavender-grey walls green,” Cyrus said, his words now a whisper. “Here I was, trying to convince myself there is nothing more to you than your spunk and stubbornness.”

Astoria’s heart raced. Why was he talking likethat?

“Enjoy your new garden.”

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