got out of the grand hall, I almost bumped into a solid wall of muscles. There were so many things inside my head that I didn't really see where I was going. A pair of arms caught me and kept me steady.

"Whoa! Be careful, Montgomery!" There was only one person in the whole world that would call me by my old surname and that person was Adrian. I looked up and my eyes met his emerald green.

"Adrian!" I threw my arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. It has been a long time since the last I saw him. I wouldn't admit this, especially not to him, but I kinda missed him. I've gone for eleven months and I noticed that some things have changed. Just like how his body went rigid in my arms and how his hands stayed on the sides of his body instead of hugging me back.

I let go and took a step back. "What's wrong?" I asked him truthfully. I wondered if, during the time I was in Underworld, he found life easier without me in it. Have I lost his friends along the way? I wondered about that too.

Yet the smile he gave me was genuine, there were no pretenses. "Can't you feel it?"

I frowned, having no idea what he was on about. "Feel what?"

He grinned. "The connection."

And that was when I realized that I was no longer able to read Adrian's mind. I blocked everything else from my head and tried to focus on him but there was nothing. No silly rants or blunt thoughts about everything.

My eyes widened in shock. "What happened?" I had to say that I missed having to be able to read his head. Although it gave complication in my relationship with Vladimir. In our race, we should only be able to read our soulmates and me being able to read both men was incredibly rare and unexplainable.

"I had a click," answered him with a dreamy sigh. I almost choked on myself.

Of course, I heard what he said but still didn't stop me from shouting, "You what?"

Adrian grinned. There was pure happiness radiating from him. "I got a click, Montgomery. And you wouldn't believe who it was." His green emerald eyes sparkled beneath the chandelier.

"Let me guess." I put one hand below my chin and narrowed my eyes. "Was it Renata Vidales?"

From the way, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, I could tell that I hit the right spot. "How did you know? Did Kris or Vlad tell you?"

I grinned at my victory. "No one told me. I just knew. She was probably the only girl you slept with after the first meeting." I remembered coming to Adrian's unit at the Royal High Court with Vlad and found him in bed with Renata. Both were naked, it was pretty awkward.

"Yeah." A small frown appeared on his forehead followed with an amused smile on his lips. "But I slept with tons of girls." I rolled my eyes and he smirked before continued, "how did you know it was her?"

I grinned. "Call it a hunch." I always had a feeling that Adrian was head over heels about Renata but he was too busy wasting his time on me rather than delved into it. "How did things go? How is Renata?"

"Believe it or not, the whole Vidales family welcomed me like I was a king," answered Adrian. I nodded, it was no secret that the Vidales was a reputation-seeker. Everyone in that family tried so hard to get a Pure Royal matched with one of them. So far, it never happened. I'd like to think that the gods above didn't even want their descendants to be in-laws with Vidales. Adrian was probably the first Pure Royal to ever broke the cycle and matched with a Vidales since Pure Royal usually matched with Pure Royal as well.

"Everyone except her," he quickly added. His smile flattened and there was a hint of annoyance in his eyes that got me laughing on the floor. "Come on, it's not that funny." He pretended to be insulted.

"It is funny," I countered. "Damn! I can't wait to see Renata."

"Well, you and me both. She ran away after we clicked. God knows where she went." Adrian sighed and for a moment, I was taken aback by how much he'd changed. He looked hurt, almost reminded me of a groom whose bride left him in the altar.

"But you can read her mind, right?" I asked. "Surely you can figure out where she went."

Adrian shook his head. "Not with Renata. It's like she's able to read mine but I do not fully have access to hers. Plus, she's good at hiding things from her own mind. I have no idea where she is." He grumpily stared at the ceiling as if wishing it would make a hole.

I nudged his arm and brought his gaze back to me. "Come on. Don't be sad. She'll come around." I had no idea we could shield our own thoughts from our partner, but apparently, Renata found a way.

Don't even think about it [V]

I giggled and Adrian raised an eyebrow. "Vlad," I answered his unspoken question.

He nodded. "You guys are good together." He smiled, showing his perfectly white teeth. He looked genuinely happy for us which was weird considering he was Adrian and a few months ago he went overboard by confessing his feelings to me, throwing himself to catch a bullet aimed at me, and begging me to give him a chance.

"Thanks." I returned his smile.

He glanced at his watch on his wrist. "I gotta meet the Queen. She sent a guard to pick me up this morning, I wonder what's going on."

"You better be quick. She's not in a good mood." I shook my head. "She's not as nice as she was before I died." It was weird to say about my own death considering I was still here and breathing right now.

Adrian flinched. "You can't really blame her, Montgomery. She's still grieving."

I frowned. "Grieving for what? Her broken tiara?" I couldn't help the sarcastic tone in my voice. I knew we weren't supposed to talk badly of her because she was the ruler of our kind but I couldn't help myself. The way she talked about me and Hades made my blood boiling.

Adrian quickly covered my mouth with one hand as he looked around. He swept the surrounding as if he just committed a crime. Once he made sure there were no guards nearby, he looked down at me and dropped his hand. "She's grieving about her daughter."

"What?" I felt a lump in my throat.

Adrian's voice was filled with agony as he whispered, "Scarlet died. She's gone, Montgomery."

♥

What do you think, my angels? Shocked?

What do you think happened to Scarlet? Let me know your theories in comments.