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I didn’t bother knocking on Prince Chevalier’s bedroom door. He never answered, and anyway, he was probably still in his office. I let myself in, my eyes immediately drawn to the black storm clouds darkening the windows above the wall of bookcases. It felt strange for his room to be dark. I knew it wasn’t always bright, but I had only seen it in the daylight. The driving rain pelting the glass brought my mood back down after the distraction Princes Clavis and Luke provided. I sighed and looked away from the windows to the rest of the room, and my eyes landed on a pair of icy blue eyes.
Prince Chevalier was here.
He was lying on his bed, hands interlaced behind his head, knees up. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. How long had I been standing still, staring out the windows? How long had he been watching me without saying a word?
What was he doing here?
“My apologies, your highness, but I forgot these,” I said, looking away from him and crossing the room to his desk full of dirty dishes.
“It’s not like you to forget,” he said quietly.
“It has been an…unusual day, your highness,” I replied, stacking the dishes onto the tray. He hadn’t eaten anything. I’d chosen a tray at random in the kitchens without even looking at its offerings, but I knew he liked most of the cold, untouched food here in front of me.
This morning had really bothered him, too.
“Did you eat lunch?” I asked.
“No. Did you?”
“No.”
I sighed heavily. Something about the way we were interacting hurt. His short, clipped responses felt like a barrier devised to keep me away. But we’d already established that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Is this how it’s going to be from now on?” I asked, turning away from the full tray to look at him again. “Awkward and tense?”
He didn’t respond. I walked over to the window, looking out at the gardens. It was impossible to know where the blood had been, if I hadn’t seen it. Rain had soaked all the paving stones, littering them with fallen petals and leaves from the battered plants.
“Did you enjoy your romp with Noisy and Jumbo?”
The question was free of the mocking tone I would normally have expected from him, but it was a question, a prompt to continue our conversation. It was a start.
“For the most part. They saw the bruises and got a bit overbearing, though.” I wrapped a hand around my wrist unconsciously. “Did Prince Leon talk to you?”
“Yes.” He was silent for a moment, and then he said, “I can have you reassigned.”
I turned back to look at him, back to the icy blue eyes that didn’t match his soft tone. I told him about my decision earlier. Then I told Prince Leon. Both times, I thought through my options and came to the same conclusion. But this was like my decision to not move Mother. It kept coming back, kept making me doubt myself, kept forcing me to rehearse the issue in its entirety. Maybe I would be safer working for another prince. Maybe, but maybe not. I would still see Prince Chevalier, and people still knew that he liked me. And, in spite of what he did this morning, I couldn’t forget the way he’d jumped to my defense just a few days earlier. Somehow, I still felt safe with him. That was why I hadn’t been able to fight him, I realized. There was no doubt in my mind that he had been wrong, horribly wrong, to treat me that way just a few short hours ago. But he’d gone to such extreme lengths because he wanted to make sure I would run and never come back, so I wouldn’t be in danger just by being near him. If I was away from him, though, there was no way he could protect me from those who likely already knew his attachment to me.
It was no use. I’d made my decision, and I wasn’t changing it now.
“I think it’s a bit late for that, Prince Chevalier.”
He sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed toward me. His right hand was neatly bandaged. I turned without a word and went to his bureau for his spare right glove. The one I’d taken from him was with the rest of his laundry.
“Your hair is still wet,” he commented.
“It will dry eventually, your highness.” I returned to him with the clean glove. “And so will your other glove, but it’s not ready yet.”
He had some difficulty pulling the glove over the bandages. It was a very snug fit.
“I don’t know who to talk to about getting a new mirror,” I said quietly.
“I’ll handle it,” he said, walking past me and heading for the door. “Are you coming?” he asked, stopping with his hand on the doorknob.
“Oh, yes,” I said, startled by his invitation. I picked up the tray, and he held the door open for me to pass through first. He didn’t say a word about it, but when he followed me into the hallway, he resumed his normal position beside but slightly ahead of me. We walked together in silence until I took the turn toward the kitchens. I dropped off the dishes and put together a tray with a full pot of tea, since I knew Prince Clavis was coming. The soothing herbal aroma gave me a warm, cozy feeling. This was the kind of day when I wished I could just curl up somewhere with a warm blanket, a hot cup of tea, and a good book. Not that I would ever get the chance. I had to work, after all.
Prince Clavis met me at the door to the library wearing his usual sly grin.
“Still waiting on Chev hand and foot, I see.”
“That is my job, your highness,” I said politely as I walked past him. “I thought you might enjoy a cup of tea as well.”
I set the tea tray on a coffee table and poured a single cup for Prince Chevalier. Prince Clavis didn’t sit down on the sofa.
“How very thoughtful of you. A tea party to continue our wonderful date,” he said.
Still in fantasyland, then. It didn’t bother me anymore. He was always annoying and pushy, but today, he wasn’t angling and scheming, just distracting me from reality. Maybe he needed a break from it, too. I didn’t reply, and he followed me into Prince Chevalier's library.
“Will there be anything else, Prince Chevalier?” I asked, setting the tea on the end table.
He ignored me and fastened his icy glare on Prince Clavis. “Out.”
Prince Clavis sighed dramatically. “You really know how to ruin the mood, Chev,” he said, winking at me as he left. I closed the door behind him.
“When the rain passes, I will leave the palace for a short period during the afternoon, and you will accompany me,” Prince Chevalier said, his eyes turning back to me. His expression and tone were the same icy cold as usual.
“Yes, your highness,” I said formally, deciding not to ask for more details. “Will that be all?”
“Yes.”
I turned to go, but stopped with my hand on the doorknob. This couldn’t go on. My anger had long since fizzled out, and although I didn’t want things to go back to how they were, with all the teasing and flirting to confuse my mind, I didn’t want this formality and tension, either. I had just started getting comfortable around him. Was it so wrong of me to want that? When I had to put on a performance in every other area of my life, when I couldn’t even tell Mother the truth anymore, was it so wrong of me to want somebody I could turn to, somebody who wouldn’t mind if I removed the mask for a little while?
“Prince Chevalier,” I said quietly, not turning back to him, “do you promise to never do that again?”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation in his quiet, sure voice.
“Then I forgive you.”
I opened the door and left. The wind changed directions and drove the rain sideways into the windows, the deafening sound filling the usually quiet library with chaos. Flashes of lightning created brief and strange shadows on the walls. The storm was only getting worse as the day went on.
“Done with Chev?”
Prince Clavis’ voice came from right beside me, startling me enough to make me jump and spin to face him. He burst out laughing.
“You have the best reactions. Come on, let’s have some tea.”
“I need to get back to work, Prince Clavis,” I protested, but he had already taken my arm and was leading me to the sofa.
“Nonsense. Today isn’t a day for working. Even Chev left the office early,” Prince Clavis said, sitting down and pulling me with him. “How do you like your tea, Ivetta?”
Well, a hot cup of tea would be nice after getting caught in that downpour.
“I should be pouring for you, your highness,” I reminded him.
He laughed again. “Not on a date. A true gentleman waits on the lady, not the other way around.”
“But this isn’t-”
“Well, if you won’t tell me, I’ll have to guess,” he interrupted, dumping a massive spoonful of sugar into the tea. “Cream is boring. Let’s try this.” He extracted a small vial from his pocket and tipped a couple of drops into the tea. “There. Try that and tell me how much you love it.”
I tentatively took the teacup, although the way his golden eyes were dancing left me unsettled. “What did you put in this, your highness?”
His grin widened. “Just a little something to help you relax. You’ve been very tense today, Ivetta. Did something happen with Chev this morning?”
I stirred the tea thoughtfully, focusing on it instead of Prince Clavis’ probing gaze. “Yes, but it’s resolved now, your highness.”
“Hm.”
Prince Clavis fell silent for a moment while I contemplated my tea. He wouldn’t hurt me, but he would play a joke without a second thought.
“The first assassination attempt came when he was a child. Eight or nine years old, I think. His mother saw him kill the assassin.”
I looked up at Prince Clavis. His smile had faded away, and his golden eyes were serious.
“But Prince Leon told me the assassination attempts go back to Bloodstained Rose Day.”
Prince Clavis nodded. “Most of them. But he’s been a threat since day one, and before we found out about Jin, Chev was the first prince and the son of the queen. Everybody knew he’d be the next king. He’s a genius, the kind that’s only born once in a thousand years. Before that assassination attempt, he’d already stumped all his tutors, beat his swordsmanship instructor black and blue, and formulated complex battle plans that pulled out a victory in a losing situation. All he has to do to learn something is to read it, and he memorizes everything he reads. He’s perfect. And that’s why he has to die.”
Prince Clavis’ golden eyes hardened, his voice dropped, and a feeling of dread settled in my stomach.
“Prince Clavis…you don’t really mean that, do you?” I asked nervously.
The hard glint in his golden eyes answered for him.
“He killed his mother. Did you know that? Not with his sword or his bare hands, of course. But he killed her.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in a small voice.
“She married the king in a political alliance, but she made the mistake of falling in love with him. He was already in love with someone else, though, and he never loved her. Then she gave birth to that.” Prince Clavis jabbed a thumb at Prince Chevalier’s closed door. “She already lived with the heartbreak of watching the man she loved making more political marriages to Leon’s and Yve’s mothers, and then she watched her own child brutally murder somebody. He was a beast in that moment, and he became more beastly and less human every day after that. She couldn’t handle it. She died young, before we were teenagers.”
“Prince Clavis-”
“But Chev didn’t even cry at the funeral,” he interrupted me. “He just stood there, staring at her grave. I felt bad for him, and I told him it was okay to cry. Then he told me that for a long time he’d felt like he had been watching everybody from a bird’s-eye view, able to see everything but feel nothing. His lack of emotion at the moment surprised even him. If anything should bring out some sort of feeling in him, the death of his mother should. But he felt nothing, nothing at all, no sadness or sorrow. That was when I knew he was a beast. He doesn’t have a human heart, Ivetta, and if you think differently, you’re lying to yourself.”
I dropped my gaze back to my tea, watching the ripples breaking across the dark brown surface as I stirred. Prince Clavis was wrong. I couldn’t claim to understand Prince Chevalier, but I knew that much.
“What happened between you two for you to hate him so much, Prince Clavis?” I asked quietly.
“What’s not to hate?” he countered. “I told you. He’s perfect. How do you compete with somebody like that?”
I looked up at Prince Clavis and frowned. “Why do you have to, your highness?”
He laughed. “Ah, there it is, that refreshing naivety. It’s a shame to fill your pretty head with the darkness of this place, but if you’re going to be Chev’s plaything, you really should know the truth about him. Your tea is getting cold.”
“I’m not his plaything, and I’m not yours, either, your highness,” I said firmly. “What did you put in this tea?”
He laughed again. “I told you. It’s something to help you relax. You don’t have to drink it, but if you do, I promise I won’t further tarnish the image of Chev you’ve fabricated in your mind. At least, not right now, anyway.”
“Meaning you’ll continue telling me things I don’t want to hear if I don’t drink it. Is that right, Prince Clavis?” I asked, looking up at him again.
He nodded, grinning widely. That hard glint in his golden eyes was unsettling. I sighed and drank the tea. It wasn’t hot anymore, but it was still warm, and I downed it all before I set the cup back in its saucer.
“Good girl,” Prince Clavis said, setting his tea on the table and standing up. “I guarantee you’ll enjoy this afternoon much better now.”
I watched him suspiciously as he arranged the pillows at the other end of the sofa. “What are you doing, your highness?” I asked, stifling a yawn.
“Getting everything ready for your nap.”
I shook my head, trying to shake the sudden fogginess that clouded my thoughts. “You gave me a sleeping potion, your highness?”
“That’s right. You may as well lie down before you pass out.”
I shook my head again and tried to stand up, but my legs couldn’t support me. He caught me as I fell and scooped me up, laying me gently on the sofa.
“My mother…”
“I’ll see that you are awake and at home on time,” he said, draping a blanket over me.
My eyes were heavy, and my tongue was thick. I couldn’t reply even if I could formulate words. Somewhere in the distance, the storm was raging outside, but the pounding rain and roaring thunder faded away. I had one last thought that I should probably be frightened right now, but it faded, too, as I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
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