And at the end of three of them stood the kings that all had vastly different objectives for me and my future. I wanted to say after last night that Royce cared for me as a person, but I still wasn’t sure. I couldn’t afford another broken heart. He made me want to believe in a true future with him regardless of the path I chose, but there was still a slight hesitation on my part. I wanted to own Royce and not just his future or his family’s political ambitions. I wanted him to tell me that I came first in his life and not anything that had been set forth by his family.
Until then, I had to cling to that shred of doubt that he still had an ulterior motive.
As I stepped into the hallway, I heard raised voices coming from Arthur’s study.
Interesting. I hadn’t seen them since Royce had given me a ride here, needing to study for the test instead of trying to entertain the kings.
In fact, I hadn’t even heard a peep from them and figured that I had one of them as my babysitter and the rest were gone.
There was another raised voice and I closed the distance to the study, knowing that I shouldn’t listen in.
But whatever the kings were arguing about, I was likely somewhere in the discussion.
Unable to contain my curiosity, I moved closer to the cracked door of the study, my heart hammering in my chest. I shouldn’t be eavesdropping at all.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
I stilled at the sound of Royce’s voice. Last night he had rejected me but had given me something way more valuable by showing me that I didn’t need to take out my frustrations with sex. It was surprising, of course, for a king to completely turn me down, but I was glad he had done so.
It meant he cared.
We had talked long into the night and I had fallen asleep against his chest, only to find him gone this morning, the blanket tucked around me.
I had felt anxious and he had calmed me down, giving me renewed hope that I might get out of this after all. What I was going to do after the semester was over was still up in the air, but I did need to see it through.
“We should rethink the plan,” Arthur was saying. “Since we’ve all had her.”
What?
“Well, none of us are closer to being the one,” Max added, the clink of a bottle against a glass following his words. “She refuses to choose.”
“Do you fucking blame her?” Royce asked. “We have Isauros breathing down our necks and she’s out for blood with Anna. It’s not the time or the place to be making decisions about her future until we can keep her alive in her current situation.”
“So, you are telling me that you don’t want her to choose?” Max asked as I strained to hear the answer. I wanted Royce to say that he wanted me to be happy, that he wanted me to do what was best for me.
“I saw you coming out of her room this morning,” Arthur added. “The first king to be in there and lived to tell the tale. You trying to get in good with her, Whitehall?”
Royce chuckled, the sound grating on my ears. “Better than you have.”
My hope faltered and I bit back a gasp. I had thought after last night that Royce had broken down his barriers as a king and given me something precious.
Instead, I had been duped yet again. His words had meant nothing.
Another broken heart. When was I going to learn my lesson?
“When we get through this shit,” Arthur said. “We will have to decide what to do.”
“There will be no we,” Royce argued. “She’s going to pick one of us and then the others don’t matter any longer.”
“Well it sure as hell won’t be you,” Max stated dryly. “Your family is just pretending to be sovereign even when you aren’t close to the crown.”
“Funny thing coming from a family of bastards.”
I jumped as I heard a chair overturn and the sound of bodies hitting the floor, knowing that the kings were fighting.
Not over me. No, I wasn’t a person to them. I was a means to improve their families’ positions, to give them a leg up in their future ambition.
No king cared about me and I had been stupid to think that they ever would.
Deciding I’d had enough, I pushed open the door, finding both Royce and Max on the floor, with Arthur attempting to pull them apart. “Enough!”
All three kings froze, with three pairs of eyes trained on me. I could see the surprise on their expressions as I entered the room, glaring at them all. “Anna,” Arthur began as the other two kings stood up.
Royce’s mouth was bleeding and Max was holding his eye, but I didn’t care about their welfare right now. Actually, I wished I could beat them with the fire poker near the fireplace and give them a few more bruises to worry about. “Don’t,” I cut him off, holding up my hand. “You know there was a large part of me that thought you all cared about me, that I wasn’t just a piece of meat that could solve your families’ problems.” I laughed harshly. “You must all be laughing at me on a daily basis.”
“Pauper,” Royce said, his gaze hard as steel. “It’s not what you think.”
I pointed at him, tears escaping my eyes. “You are the worst. I thought …” I couldn’t go on. I didn’t want to share with the other two liars in the room what I had thought were special moments between us. “You should all be ashamed of what you are doing to me, but then again, you don’t have any souls, do you?”
“Anna,” Max started, his hand outstretched. “We care.”
“No, you don’t!” I lashed out, letting them see the hurt that I was feeling inside. I hated feeling weak. I hated that I had thought they were changing, that they cared. “I hate you all. I hate this stupid academy!”
Royce was already moving toward me, but I turned and walked out of the study, hurrying upstairs as he called after me. I wanted to go back to the dorm, back to the one person that I thought I could trust, at least until I could get the hell out of here.
I wanted nothing else to do with the kings or their stupid academy.
Throwing my stuff into a bag, I angrily wiped my tears from my face. It was the middle of the night, but I couldn’t stay in this place another moment with those liars downstairs.
“Pauper.”
I paused, refusing to look at him. “Don’t.”
“Anna,” Royce said, his voice desperate. “Don’t leave.”
“I can’t stay here,” I said, clenching my jaw. “It’s clear we are right back where we started and I’m not going through this again.”
His hands settled on my shoulders and I immediately shrugged them off, not wanting my feelings to be clouded with the awful truth.