21

Chapter 21

Alice's POV

The wind gently swirled around me as I came to a stop in front of Duke. He stood there, waiting for me at the gate. As I looked around, I noticed there were no other girls hovering around him, which was quite a miracle.

"Who were you looking at?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Your girls?" I retorted, not holding back.

Instead of answering, he just laughed at my response. "Let's go? You want coffee?"

"I want it. But not with you," I replied, straightforward and unwavering.

He smirked and shot back, "You have no choice. You didn't have a friend. Look, they didn't want to connect with a war-freak princess."

I raised an eyebrow to indicate that he was mistaken about me not having friends.

"So, what does that mean?"

"I have a friend now," I said confidently, though it seemed he didn't quite believe my claim.

"An imaginary friend? Where was that friend?" he teased, scanning the area behind me as if searching for someone I had mentioned.

Smiling, I turned my gaze