The Royal Trials: Imposter Read online

  Both Lee and Ty paused before responding, which did nothing for my anxiety. “I think you'll be okay,” Lee finally answered. “Zan has a, ah, special relationship with the royals. He stayed behind to smooth things over.”

  I laughed a bitter sound. “Of course that arrogant ass would actually be friends with the princes. I don't want him sticking his neck out for me, though. If they feel the need to punish me, then I can take it.” Because it couldn't be any worse than dying of poisoning. Unless it was torture… that’d suck.

  Ty shook with a laugh of his own and pulled me into his lap. “That's better,” he commented, wrapping his arms around me tightly. “Lee, weren't you getting a heating appliance?”

  Lee nodded and disappeared back into the darkness.

  “You have heating appliances here?” I asked, tucking my head into the crook of Ty's neck to get comfortable. “I didn't think they worked anymore.”

  “They don't, most places. The palace grounds seem to have been spared a lot of the damage the Darkness brought, so a few little things still work, like heating appliances and artificial lighting in a lot of the palace.” Ty shifted under me, then reached up and tugged my mask from where it was tangled in my hair. “You looked stunning tonight, Lo. You have no idea how badly I wanted to steal you away.”

  “Why didn't you?” I prodded. “I would have much rather danced with you than that... prince.”

  Ty chuckled, his broad hand stroking down my bare back under the blankets. “I should have. That asshole could have done with getting his ego bruised a bit.” He paused for a moment, tracing circles down my spine. “But I saw you kiss him.”

  My whole body tensed, and a wave of revulsion ran through me. Not at the kiss... but at the fact that I'd enjoyed it. I'd enjoyed kissing that sadistic, murdering bastard, and then a girl had died.

  “I don't want to talk about it,” I snapped, my brow pulling down in a deep frown. “It was a stupid deal I made with Zan for his help during etiquette class today.”

  “Ah, I see.” Ty nodded slightly. “I should have known it was something like that. Fucking Zan.”

  “Hey, watch it,” Zan himself barked out, appearing from the shadows and flopping down on the couch beside us. “’Fucking Zan’ just fixed things up with you-know-who and saved lovely Luna from a public whipping.” I gasped, staring at him with wide eyes. “I accept thanks in the form of sexual favors.” He said it with a playful wink, so I knew he was joking. Or at least half joking. Arrogant ass.

  “Looks like you already have that part taken care of,” I replied with a smirk, noticing the faint smear of red lipstick on his mouth. Zan frowned at me, and Ty reached out and smacked him lightly on the forehead.

  “You've got lipstick on, idiot,” Ty rumbled with something that sounded like anger, and I smiled. He had been such an angry, intimidating brute when I'd met him, but now he was proving to be quite the protective teddy bear.

  Zan scowled and muttered a curse under his breath as he wiped his mouth off on the sleeve of his dark shirt. “It's freezing in here,” he commented, changing the subject. “Where's Lee?”

  “Gone to pull out a heating appliance,” Ty responded. “But that's why we have blankets.”

  Zan's eyes narrowed, and he inspected the heavy blanket draped over Ty and me. “You're probably going to need to share. Those heaters take forever to kick in.” Without asking permission, he scooted closer and tugged a bit of blanket over himself. Frowning, he lifted the blanket and inspected my feet, where they were tucked on the couch between him and Ty.

  “Lovely Luna, why are you still wearing those uncomfortable looking shoes?” He arched a brow at me, and I shrugged.

  “I don't know,” I admitted. “I think I'm in shock and still a bit drunk.”

  “That explains why you're still trembling,” Ty commented. “And why you went through with Zan's insane dare.”

  I wanted to laugh, but a wave of shivers skittered through me, and I cuddled tighter into Ty's warmth. Zan just sighed and removed my shoes for me. He then tugged my feet into his lap, where he wrapped his own warm hands around them and rubbed little circles into my frozen toes.

  Lee returned then, carrying two small, metal boxes, which he set up on the table facing us before pushing a series of buttons to turn the heat on.

  “I don't know if this is the right thing or not, but I always find hard liquor helps a shock,” he offered, pulling a bottle of scarlettberry rum from under his arm. “Or alternatively, I can go and find some tea?”

  His thoughtfulness brought a small smile to my lips, and I reached out of the blankets to accept the rum. “This will do perfectly. I'm already half-drunk, so what's a little more?”

  Lee smiled back at me and handed over the alcohol. “I'll grab some candles so we're not just lurking here in the dark.”

  “Won’t that draw attention?” I worried, glancing up at all the glass panels of the section we were in. “Are we even allowed to be here?”

  Zan grunted a noise, his fingers pausing a moment on my feet. “It'll be fine; we come here all the time. No one will bat an eyelid.”

  Lee nodded his agreement and disappeared again, only to return moments later with an armful of candles, which he started setting out around our area and lighting.

  “This is an interesting mark,” Ty observed, stroking a finger across my birthmark. “Is it a scar?”

  I shook my head, twisting the cap off the scarlettberry rum. “I don't think so. I've always had it, so I just figure it’s a birthmark.” Taking a long sip of the burning alcohol, I moaned my appreciation. It was really good scarlettberry rum. Then again, anything found within the palace was going to be better quality than anything I'd had in the Pond.

  “Share,” Zan instructed, holding out his hand for the rum, which I reluctantly handed over. I was instantly glad I did, though, as he held my gaze and wrapped his lips around the neck of the bottle in what was one of the sexiest non-sexual acts I'd seen in a long time.

  Okay, ever.

  What the hell was going on with me?

  “Shit,” I cursed under my breath, tearing my eyes from Zan and burying my face in my hands.

  “What's up, Calla?” Lee asked, crouching in front of the couch and peeling my hands off my face. “What did you just think of?”

  “Nothing.” I shook my head. “I just... this whole thing, the craziness of the situation I'm in, just all sort of hit me. Is this seriously how my life ends? Dressed in expensive finery and sneaking around to see you three until I piss the wrong person off and get poisoned? How the hell did I end up here?”

  The three of them were all quiet for a moment, which I sort of appreciated. It showed they were thinking about what I was saying, rather than dismissing my fears on reflex.

  “It might be a shock, given everything you've experienced this far,” Lee answered me in a careful voice. “But there was a lot more involved in the invitation process than just looks and status. If you got accepted, then it was fate.”

  “Fate?” I snorted my disbelief. “Lee, you don't honestly think I'm stupid enough to believe in our god of fate anymore? Trust me when I say I was never meant to be here. This whole thing is just one giant mistake.”

  Ty's grip on me tightened a fraction, and I glanced up at him.

  “If that were true, then you never would have met us,” the lethal combat instructor pointed out with an edge of vulnerability to his voice. “I refuse to believe that's an accident.”

  I couldn't help the bitter laugh that bubbled out of my chest, but I placed a gentle hand on his stubbled cheek and met his eyes unflinchingly. “Ty, this friendship I have with you and Lee... and Zan, I guess… it has no future. There will be no happily ever after for us; we can only make the most of the short time there is left. Even if circumstances were different and the Royal Trials weren't a factor, do you honestly think at some point you wouldn't ask me to choose between you?” I shook my head and hurried to continue before he could make weak protests. “No, this
whole mess... it's my own stupid doing. Until I can see a way out that doesn't involve a funeral pyre or a bridal gown...” I trailed off with a shrug. “Well, until then, I can only do my best to have fun. Don't you think?”

  Looking around at the three handsome tutors, I saw the predictable frowns on their faces and sighed. It felt like all I could do lately was talk about my impending death, and I still had zero ideas how I could save my own ass. It was starting to feel pathetic and whiny—not at all like me, which was just another example of how I'd changed in less than a week.

  “So...” Zan spoke first, glancing at his friends before pinning me with his dark gaze. “It sounds like we need to turn this night around. Unless it'd help for you to talk about what happened tonight, Luna?” I shook my head frantically, shuddering at the memory of the girl dying on the floor mere feet from where I'd stood kissing one of her murderers. “All right then,” Zan nodded. “Better grab us another bottle of rum in that case.”

  He handed the open one back to me, then scooted off the couch to fetch more liquor.

  In the soft candlelight, I noticed a few changes to the area we sat in—most noticeably, the large pot overflowing with white flowers on the table.

  “Hey, you found more ophelia blooms?” I grinned as I admired the beautiful plant. “So much for dying out, huh? You were just looking in the wrong place.”

  Lee looked over at the plant with a strange softness to his face. “Yeah, I guess so. It's weird, though. Just in the last few days they've been thriving. The small patch you found has already grown to maybe six times that size.”

  I smiled, strangely thrilled to hear the rare flowers were doing so well. “Maybe they just needed some love and attention in order to thrive.”

  “Don't we all,” Zan muttered, rejoining us with two more bottles of rum. “All right, let's set ground rules. No talking about death.”

  “Or royals,” Ty added, and Lee nodded his agreement.

  “Done,” I accepted, sipping from the open bottle I held. “And no personal questions. No asking about families or childhoods... or homes. Okay?” Because I struggled at the best of times to maintain my Callaluna disguise when sober. Trying to fabricate a luxurious, aristocratic upbringing when all I'd known was the watery, mold-infested, and crumbling buildings of the Pond would be damn near impossible while drunk.

  “Agreed,” my three new friends responded, and Zan returned to his seat on the couch.

  “With all those topics off the table,” Ty said, tugging me back into his chest, “shall we play a drinking game?”

  Lee dragged over an armchair and got comfy in front of the heating boxes himself. “What did you have in mind?”

  “How about,” I suggested with a sly grin, “sword in the sheath?”

  Zan spat out the mouthful of liquor he'd just taken and started coughing. “What?” he gasped out, blinking at me in disbelief.

  “What?” I shrugged. “As if palace servants don't know sword in the sheath.”

  “Uh, sure. But why do you?”

  Pursing my lips, I gave the etiquette teacher a prim look. “What did we say about asking personal questions?” Zan grinned and gave me a nod. “Good, now does anyone have a deck of cards? I'll deal.”

  15

  Sunlight beat down offensively through the windows, and I groaned, covering my eyes. My head was pounding, and the insides of my eyelids felt like they were crusted with sand... or broken glass.

  “Good morning, ladies,” Lee greeted us, walking to a desk at the front of the room and dropping a stack of books onto it. They landed with a thump, and I saw Lee echo my own wince of pain at the sound.

  Thank Aana, he clearly felt just as shitty as I did.

  “Today we're learning about alchemy.” He rubbed at his eyes, and I bit back a grin. He might actually feel worse than me. For a gardener, he was surprisingly crappy at lewd servant games. Almost as though he was proving my point, a long yawn escaped his mouth before he could continue on his “intro to alchemy” speech.

  I didn't blame him, though. It was all I could do to keep my own eyes open, and I had my face propped up on my hands. Jules had given me a stern talking-to when she'd woken me up, which hadn't helped. Something about Ty scaring the shit out of her just before dawn when he’d dropped me off at my room passed out drunk.

  As it’d turned out, despite Lee's total incompetence in drinking games, Ty and Zan had more than made up for him and seriously drank me under the table. Bastards.

  “Lady Callaluna?” Lee's voice interrupted my half-asleep daze, and I startled. Blinking a couple of times to clear some haze, I took a wild guess that wasn't the first time he'd said my name.

  “Huh?” I blurted out with all my natural grace.

  “I said,” Lee repeated with a small smile. “Can you please help me gather some equipment from the supply cupboard? You look like you could use some fresh air.”

  Gracelin and her little crew started giggling across the room, and I instinctively flipped them off. It didn't even register that a lady would never use crude hand signals until several shocked gasps came from my classmates.

  Ah, crap.

  Whatever, it was done now.

  Gritting my teeth against blurting any Pond scum insults, I pushed off my tall stool and followed Lee out of the light-filled classroom. Our tables had already been set with beakers and a few other bits, but maybe we needed to fetch the actual supplies? Like the bits that we put inside the beakers? Truthfully, I had no freaking idea what was involved in alchemy and was just guessing.

  “How do you feel?” Lee murmured as the door to the class closed, leaving us alone in the marble-lined corridor.

  I snorted a laugh, rubbing at my tired eyes. “About as good as you, I expect. Whose crappy idea was it to play sword in the sheath again? I suck at that game.”

  A wide grin spread across Lee's weary, hungover face, and he rolled his eyes. “Clearly, so do I. Come on, this way.” He tugged me by the elbow into a small storeroom underneath one of the many staircases.

  Once inside, he closed the door behind us and flipped a switch, which lit the room with a dim, magic light.

  “So, what supplies do we need?” I asked, scanning my eyes over the shelves filled with all kinds of jars and boxes. The whole room smelled strongly of dried herbs and preserving liquids, which made sense given some of the things floating in jars.

  “Uh, none really,” Lee admitted, giving me a sheepish smile when I cocked a brow at him. “I just wanted an opportunity to do this.” He snaked a hand around my waist, tugging me in close to him and spinning us. My back met the door just moments before his lips met mine.

  For a long, indulgent moment, I simply sank into his kiss. It was perfect, divine, and so incredibly taboo. Our late night meetings had been bad enough, but now we were making out in a supply room during a class for the trials? Oh yeah, I was utterly screwed if the gods really did still exist.

  “Lee,” I groaned as his lips left mine and started kissing a fiery path down my neck. “Is this...”

  “A really bad idea?” he murmured against my skin. “Probably. Do you want to stop?”

  All the air gusted out of me in a rush. “Gods no.”

  With this admission, I seriously couldn't help myself. My hands went to the collar of Lee's shirt, fumbling at the buttons to expose a bit of that hard, muscled chest I'd gotten a few glimpses of the night before.

  He, too, seemed caught in the same fervor, lifting me with strong hands so that my legs could wrap around his waist, and his warm palm slipped under my long skirts. I'd been too damn hungover—or possibly still a bit drunk—this morning when Jules had dressed me in a huff. So I'd ended up in a floor-length, floral-patterned skirt with a closefitting, cream blouse. In fact, it made my tits look great, which I appreciated... especially now as Lee's lips caressed the curve of my breast.

  “Calla,” he groaned. “These last days have been torture for me. Seeing you and knowing...” He trailed off, but I think I knew wha
t he’d meant.

  “Knowing that I'll be dead soon? Forget about it,” I ordered him. “Just make the most of now.”

  He paused, pulling back to stare at me seriously for a long moment. His hand that wasn't up my skirt stroked at my cheek as his beautiful blue eyes peered into the depths of my soul. “I'll do whatever it takes to keep you with me, Calla.” His words seemed heavy, like they carried the weight of an oath. “With us.”

  I had never experienced the range of emotions running through me—it was all totally unchartered territory—so I had no idea what the hell to say back. “Thank you” seemed a bit weak and “don't bother” seemed so pessimistic. So instead... I kissed him.

  He accepted my kiss without hesitation, and his hand slipped higher under my skirt, finding the thin cotton of my underwear and stroking a light finger underneath the band at my hip.

  Mentally, I cursed Jules for remembering to give me panties today and considered whether it was possible for them to disappear through sheer strength of willpower. My hips pressed harder into Lee, encouraging him to take things further as my body tingled and buzzed with anticipation of what was to come. But right as his fingers moved to that heated, needy, cloth-covered area between my legs, he froze.

  “Shh,” he shushed me when I opened my mouth to protest. “Someone is in the corridor.”

  His voice was hushed, and I bit my lip to keep quiet as he listened.

  Moments later, he screwed up his nose in frustration and stepped back to gently return me to my feet. “We need to get back,” he whispered to me, looking just as frustrated as I felt. “That was Lady Savannah and some others. The only reason they'd be in this wing is to visit our class.”

  “Crap,” I cursed, tugging my clothes back into place. “Do I look okay?”

  Lee ran his eyes over me. Slowly. I had no idea a simple look could be so damn arousing, but I was ready to pounce him again right then when his gaze returned to my face. “Shit, Calla. You look like you've been making out in a supply room, and I'm so turned on it feels like I'm about to explode.”