"So where's Damien now?" Castle asked Drake from where he sat across from him at that extremely long table, absentmindedly playing with Maxie's hair with one hand and laying his head in the other.

"It would seem that he is sitting at the head of the table with the King," he muttered shooting his eyes in that direction, where Damien looked more bored than ever as he dipped is hand into his drink to swirl around the ice cubes .

With a heavy sigh, Cornelia sat down by his left, her assortment of weapons clanking together as she did so. Drake eyed her with a smile, "Worn out already?"

She stared at Castle for a moment and then turned her head, "I'm sick of trying to avoid this."

"Why?" Drake growled. He was beyond annoyed with her prejudice.

However, she just shook her head and laid it in her hands.

"Not even going to eat?" He simpered, glancing at his own full plate.

"Do you realize how much you're like him?" She snapped suddenly sitting up straight. It wasn't cruel or harsh, just a genuine question. One he had heard a million times too many.

"No," he growled angrily. "If you think that we are alike you know nothing about either of us." He even hated linking the two of them together in sentences.

"What did you do to him to make him hate you so much?" She laughed.

"Wouldn't you like to know, General" he smirked at her sarcastically, making her smile.

"Not like him, he says," she laughed again. He bit his lip into a frown, realizing what she was laughing at exactly. He spoke like him.

"Cornelia," Castle lifted his voice over the hum of the room. His hand had fallen out of Maxie's hair.

The older woman looked up at him with critical eyes, "Hmm."

He smiled with a cough and then turned to Drake, "I realize that you've had your mind on your father alone for the past half hour, Drake, but-"

"What?" Drake growled angrily, cutting him short. He was right Damien had been drowning his mind and he didn't want to be reminded of it.

"Your girlfriend, just slipped out," he smiled, "think she'll make it out without being caught?"

Drake frowned and then glanced down the table at where Damien should have been sitting. "Damien will deal with it," he sighed. He wasn't particularly worried that Damien would do something to her. In fact Damien was being so mellow that day that Drake doubted he'd do anything but gently guide her back without so much as a word. Drake wouldn't let that stand though. She couldn't keep doing this. She had one perfect chance. He had given her that, but this was too far. There was no way that she could escape after failing that first time and each time that she tried she would just tear off more and more off the barrier holding back Damien's temper. He'd give her a piece of his mind when he got the chance.

She hadn't gotten far. She hadn't expected to, but really she wasn't trying to run away. She was just bored with the lunch and all of the people that she didn't know and who were too stuck up to even talk to her. She really just wanted to walk around the courtyard of the small palace. It was pretty and peaceful.

"Just want to walk around?" Damien asked her with an exhausted sounding sigh. He wasn't angry. It was odd how he seemed to know what was exactly on he mind though.

"There's a gate around this entire place," she folded her arms across her chest, "with guards and everything."

"Yes, my doll, but you must realize that I cannot trust you," he muttered, bending down so that his eyes were even with her's. He was talking to her as if she were a four year old child.

"But then what the hell am I supposed to do Damien?" She rolled her eyes and let her shoulders droop dramatically.

"You can sit next to me if you want," he offered as if she had any interest being near him. 
"The king is actually an amusing person."

She was about to scoff at the idea when she realized that Damien was just if not more bored than she was. "No thanks," she muttered any ways.

"There's also a couple who'll be fighting the entire afternoon, a pronounced genius, and a man who can talk with the dead up at the head of the table with me," he smiled sarcastically. It wasn't that what he was saying was a lie, but Jade could't understand why he wanted her to abolish his boredom.

"You hate me," she growled.

"Not as much as I hate those people," he growled back in the same manner mocking her with a pouty face.

"Why aren't you screaming at me or trying to break my arm while accusing me of running away?" She asked, but maybe those were only things that Damien did in a fit of rage did.

"I'm in a good mood today. Please, Jade," he moaned dramatically, "I'm going to die if you don't save me. I'll give you anything that you want if you do this one thing for me, no questions asked."

"Fine," she smiled, beginning to catch onto his game "Give me my freedom." He wasn't amused by it though.

He smiled half angrily, "Anything but that, my dearest love."

She stood straight with her arms folded across her chest for a minute or two before smiling, "All right, Damien White, give me ten thousand dollars."

Now he stood straight wearing a deep frown, "What the hell does a fifteen year old girl want with that much money?"

"Nope, you said no questions," she stuck her chin in the air, continuing to smile. It was a half-hearted joke since she had no way out of the matter and she knew that she wasn't actually going to receive any money.

"Fine," he sighed as if he really would give it to her, "but only because I really am in a good mood today."