I was supposed to be the one who took a sip. I was the one who was supposed to fall down to the floor with my whole body shaking like madness as the poison started to spread all over my body. Yet here I was, still standing, while Adrian was on the floors, trying to fight for his life.

"You!" I shouted as I jabbed my finger at Emily. "What did you do?!"

Emily shook her head as she muttered her response, "it wasn't meant for him. It was supposed to be you. I didn't know Lord Ambrosia was here if I knew...if only I knew—"

"You did this." I grabbed her hand as I quickly added, "don't even think of running away."

The court guards rushed in, they probably had heard my shouting earlier. "Get the ambulance! He's Lord Adrian Ambrosia," I mentioned Adrian's title loudly, hoping that would make them work faster."He needs to be taken to the Court Hospital as soon as possible."

The CG immediately notified the hospital and in a few minutes, Adrian was taken to the hospital. When push came to shove, the CG could be very efficient in handling the task at hand.

One of them, a guy with dark hair and a soul patch, walked towards me. Unlike the others, his tie wasn't the usual brownish red, it was teal, telling me that he wasn't just a mere court guard. "Lady Stavros," he greeted me. His gaze slid to my hand which was still holding Emily's wrist tightly. "My name is Spyridon, I'm the head of the Court Guards." He stuck out his hand.

I gave Emily a warning look. "Don't even think of running away." I didn't know if it was the shock of poisoning a pure royal or if the look I gave her was deadly enough but she gave me a slow nod. I let go of her wrist and shook Spyridon's hand. "Camila Stavros. A pleasure to meet you." What he'd said earlier finally registered in my brain as I quickly added, "I thought Pete Hudson is the head of the Court guards."

His brows knotted in his forehead. "He was."

"Well, where is he now? I doubt that the old man chose to retire especially with everything going on." I was sure Pete's sense of justice wouldn't let him retire even if he was seventy and couldn't pick up his gun yet after what I'd learned about Scarlet, I could understand if he wanted to step back from his position.

"He was one of the fallen comrades."

I blinked a few times. Of course! Adrian had mentioned Pete, Sera, and Joseph earlier, how could I forget?! My stomach suddenly felt uneasy.

Spyridon seemed to accept my lack of response as a green light to shoot his question. "Lady Stavros, could you please tell me what happened?"

"She did this." I glared at Emily before returning my gaze to him. "She poisoned the tea." A tear slipped out of one corner of my eyes and I brushed it off with the back of my hand. Now wasn't the right time to cry.

Spyridon signaled one of the CGs to hold Emily. "I didn't mean to, I swear. It was supposed to be her!" said Emily as she shook her head. "I will never hurt an Ambrosia, it was never my intention. The plan was to eliminate Stavros."

She kept on repeating the same thing over and over as if telling everyone that she hit the wrong target would somehow make her less guilty. The court guards escorted her away and I turned to face Spyridon. "Can I go now? I have to go to the hospital."

My hand reached into the back pocket of my jeans and I realized that I didn't have my phone with me.

Dart it!

Just when I needed my phone the most, I didn't have it with me. Perhaps it was the right time to invest my money in a power bank. "Hey, could you lend me your cell?"

Spyridon raised one brow. He probably thought a normal teenager would have her phone with her 24/7. Well, sadly, I wasn't exactly a normal teenager. Normal was overrated anyway. Still, I added, "my phone died", to justify my request.

He nodded and handed me his phone. I quickly called Kristen and told her about what happened. We agreed to meet at the Court Hospital. I was about to call Vlad when I heard his voice in my head saying,

I'll be there.

I nodded although it was clear that he couldn't see that. Maybe he knew about it. I was still new to this bond, there were things that I was not sure about.

"Here," I gave his phone back to him, "thanks."

Spyridon answered me with a small nod. "Well, I gotta go to the hospital now. Thanks for everything."

I turned and started to walk away when one hand caught my wrist and I looked up to meet Spyridon's steely grey eyes. "What?" I asked him, annoyed that he interrupted me.

"You need to be protected. You shall not go anywhere without at least one guard from now on."

I groaned and threw my hands in the air out of frustration. "Seriously?! Again?!"

* * *