Love, and Other Torture Devices

"Is something wrong?"

Almira shakes her head, rolling her eyes.

"Yes?" Edmund glances back toward Almira's bedchamber door. "What happened?"

Almira slowly looks up at Edmund before shaking her head, "nothing."

"I'm having trouble believing that."

Rolling her eyes in frustration, Almira quickly links her arms with Edmund's right arm. She begins to walk down the empty corridor, dragging Edmund with her.

"You will have to tell me eventually, you know that, right?"

She shrugs, glancing over her shoulder, "sure."

Edmund looks over his shoulder, quickly scanning the empty corridor. He chuckles, "you're acting very strange."

"I can't stand to be around Cassandra anymore," Almira stops, taking her arms back and lamely throwing them up. They collide loudly with the skirt of her dress, echoing the noise down the hallway.

Edmund's eyebrows furrow, "I thought you befriended her, though."

"I did, but she never bothered me so much before."

"What is she doing that bothers you?"

Glancing down both sides of the hallway, Almira shakes her head. "She acts like she knows everything and sometimes she won't listen to me."

Edmund's eyes narrow slightly.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"What do you mean when you say that she wouldn't listen to you?"

Almira crosses her arms, "I wanted to put on a necklace and she wouldn't help me."

"What necklace?"

Her right hand finds the bare front of her neck, "your father gifted me a necklace yesterday."

"He... what?"

"Cassandra and I were having dinner when a few men came in and presented the necklace to me."

Edmund's chest expands slowly, before going back to normal. Turning on his heel, he walks away from Almira and in the direction they had previously been going.

"Excuse me," Almira says, watching the prince quickly walking down the hallway.

He shouts over his shoulder, "go back to your room!"

Throwing her hands up in the air dramatically, Almira does not move. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Go!" Edmund screams as he turns around. "Now!"

Almira takes a single step back, tucking her chin slightly. She watches Edmund storm around a corner, his footsteps echoing past her. The sound of porcelain stattering upon concrete make Almira tense slightly, clenching her eyes shut. Slowly shaking her head, she opens her eyes. "I didn't do anything wrong," she whispers.