She tiptoed up to the back of the couch and poised to strike.
Before she could make her move, Adam’s hand reached behind the couch and grabbed hers. He turned, and his intense green eyes met hers. “You can’t hunt the hunter, Halt,” he said with a smirk.
For a moment, they just stood there, hand in hand, before Adam finally looked away quickly and dropped the embrace.
“But you can play video games with us,” Holden said, looking away from the light projection for the first time.
“Before our adviser takes them away,” Adam added.
Ana dropped her satchel of books and joined them on the couch.
“This one is pretty old school,” Holden said.
“Looks pretty similar to what we have on Earth,” Ana said. “My brothers loved this multiplayer one with shooters. Empire something. Have you heard of it?”
They shook their heads.
“No, but there are lots of multiplayer games,” Holden said.
“I think we should show her Neural Ninja,” Adam said.
Holden went to grab it from his backpack.
“What’s that?”
“You attach it just under your ear. It can read your brainwaves and create an image in your mind. You won’t see the video game. You’ll be in the video game. But safe here in the common room, of course. What do you think?”
Ana smiled. “Oh yeah, I’m in.”
Adam pressed a plastic node smaller than the size of a penny to her temple and then another just under her ear.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded, a little nervous.
The effect was immediate and intense. She was standing on a beach, looking out at deep blue water. She could actually feel the sand beneath her bare feet. She scrunched her toes and let the sand slide between them. It was so real. She could hear the waves breaking in the distance.
“Ana?”
She looked up and saw Adam. He looked like himself but in a ninja robe. She looked down and realized she was wearing the same. The only difference was the color of their belts. His black. Hers white.
“So, what do we do?”
“Wait and see.”
Suddenly, she heard the unmistakable shrieks of monkeys from the jungle. She looked up and saw underbrush moving as they barreled through onto the beach. Unlike the beach, they did not look real. They were a rainbow of colors and a little pixelated at the edges.
“Get them!” Adam said.
“How?”
“Kick them.” He charged forward, punching and kicking. Monkeys flew away and vanished into thin air.
Ana let a trio surround her. One of them bit her arm. She screamed. She could actually feel pain. She flailed her arms with reckless abandon, vanquishing the three monkeys.
“Hey! That hurt! I thought you said we were safe in here.”
Adam tossed one monkey into another, and both vanished.
Above them, letters formed in the sky. “Level One Complete.”
“You’re okay,” he assured her, panting a little. “Your body is untouched. You can’t actually be hurt. The pain setting is on low.”
“There is a pain setting?! Why would anyone want that?” Ana exclaimed.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize it was on. Let me turn it off. This technology was developed for military training. No pain. No gain.”
“Sounds like pretty masochistic technology to me,” Ana said, rubbing her arm where the monkey had bitten her.
“We can quit if you want. All you have to do is blink twice and hold your eyes shut for three seconds.”
“No way. Now it’s personal,” she said, glaring at the monkeys in the distance.
Adam snorted.
Without the fear of monkey bites impacting her body, Ana was able to enjoy the next round. She sent monkeys flying into the jungle and swimming away in the sea.
Before too long, she and Adam were on round nine. The monkeys had them surrounded, and they were fighting back to back. Ana’s health meter was down to ten percent. Adam’s eight percent. He was taking the lead. His technique was a lot more polished than Ana’s, though she had moved up to a yellow belt now.
A raid of monkeys poured in from the jungle. They pushed two large catapults and began shooting bananas and monkeys at them.
“Game Over.”
Ana’s vision went black for a moment, and then she was back in the common area, panting and smiling. “That was really cool.”
“Wanna play again?” Adam asked.
Ana pulled the nodes from her head. “I really should be studying, but I’d rather relax.”
“I get it. I could sit for hours after training today,” Holden said.
Adam and Holden turned and looked at each other with a gleam in their eyes. “Sitting wars!” they cried in unison, followed by gorilla-like whooping.
Holden ran for the couch, and Adam planted himself on the opposite side, leaving Ana in the middle.
“I’m sorry. What?” Ana asked with a laugh.
Adam explained, “It’s this game we used to play during the summer. Basically, the first person to leave the couch loses.”
“You’re on,” Ana said. “I am overdue for a long sit.”
Adam raised his eyebrows playfully. “Sorry to break your spirit, kid, but you’re looking at the three-time reigning champ.”
“Every dynasty ends,” Holden said.
“So, who has the game controller?” Ana asked.
“Crap,” Adam muttered. “Game starts in sixty seconds?”
“Agreed.”
He ran for the controller.
Twenty minutes into the first game, Holden’s stomach began to growl. “I think I’ll get some chips.”
Ana looked confused and started to remind him he wasn’t supposed to get up, but Adam shot her a look of daggers. Oh.
Holden got up, and Adam crowed in delight. “Haha! My reign continues.”
Holden shrugged. “Anyone want anything from the dining hall?”
They shook their heads.
Adam and Ana were alone in the common area. After another half hour of video games, Ana whined, “I’m bored. Can’t we go do something?”
“All you have to do is get up,” he said, his eyes sparkling with laughter. “We could go for a walk around campus or even outside the gates.”
He really knew how to push her buttons. Of course Ana wanted to explore.
“You first,” she said, crossing her arms.
“A gentleman always allows a lady to go first.”
“Oh yeah?” Ana laughed, reaching out a hand to push him off the couch.
He countered reflexively.
Soon, Adam was standing on the couch, lifting Ana into the air. In turn, she was trying to smother him with a cushion. Their laughter and screams rang down the hallway, attracting the attention of a passerby.
“Anabella Halt!” a shrill voice rang from the hallway.
Uh-oh.
Ana turned to see Madame Bali step just inside the doorway. Something she ordinarily wouldn’t do without an express invitation. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her jaw clenched.
“Good evening, Mr. Rockwell,” she said with a barely perceptible nod. “Anabella, please join me at once. We need to attend to your studies and evening briefing.”
Adam sat Ana down gently on the couch, and she released the cushion. She was out of breath, and her cheeks were tinged pink.
She stepped onto the marble floor, their game forgotten.
* * *
Madame Bali gave Ana a stern look. “Let’s review the facts, shall we. You have been called to the headmistress’s office…twice. You’ve been issued community service. Now, you’re playing contraband games and engaging in unladylike behavior.”
Ana interrupted, her face turning red. “But I didn’t—” she started.
“I blame myself. I obviously haven’t done enough to guide you.”
“But Adam—”
“Yes, it seems Mr. Rockwell is invol
ved in many of these…events. Perhaps a little less time with him and a little more time on your duties would be best.”
From that moment on, Ana had a new shadow. Her name was Madame Bali.
20
A Royal Invitation
Ana moped and stared out the window at the dull winter sky. A few students moved across the deserted courtyard. It was a Saturday morning. She wanted to be outside too, roaming the campus or visiting the town. She wanted to visit Adam.
As always, Madame Bali was close by. Right now, she was preparing morning tea in the kitchen. The clock had yet to strike seven. Ana woke at six now. Every morning. Without fail.
To her surprise, Samuel scurried up the trellis. The handful of students didn’t appear to notice. Not for the first time, Ana wondered how Samuel came and went from the academy undetected. She had assumed the cover of night was enough. Now, she wondered if there was more to it. Could he be cloaked somehow?
She pushed the window open for him, and an icy draft passed through the room. He crawled in.
“Well, somebody is an early riser,” she said.
Samuel scratched his unshaven face. “Not exactly. I haven’t been to bed yet.”
“But it’s seven in the morning.”
“Precisely. Now I will have the moral high ground against all those pretentious early risers.” His eyes flicked toward Madame Bali.
Ana felt the curve of her lips turn upward for the first time in a week.
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” he continued.
She noticed dark circles forming under his eyes and realized it had been almost a week since she had last seen him. “Which will be sooner rather than later if you don’t rest,” she added.
“Who is the grown-up here?” he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ana snorted. “How old are you again? Twenty?”
“A gentleman never reveals his age.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a lady.”
“Don’t be sexist, Ana,” he said, making his way to the kitchen.
She trailed along behind him. “Why is everything a secret with you? I mean, I’ve only just learned your last name.”
He stopped. “I know I’ve held a lot back. I’m not exactly proud of my family or where I come from. I’ve done things that could be considered treason. Not telling you is protecting you. It’s a debt I owe to your mother. Now, let’s get some breakfast.”
In the kitchen, Madame Bali set out three teacups. She filled each one with piping hot water and dropped a small pit at the bottom. It bloomed, and the tea turned electric green. “Very nourishing,” she said.
Ana and Samuel sipped their tea.
“Now, Ana, I understand you received grades this week. Ones that will lead you into finals. How did you do?”
Ana forgot to sip the tea and burned the roof of her mouth. “Speech & Debate went really well. I have a B+, and I think I can really nail the final. It’s an oral debate.”
She walked around the counter to get some toast, hoping the conversation would change.
It didn’t.
“And the rest of your classes?” Madame Bali prompted.
“C in Intergalactic Relations & Historical Contexts, C in Botany.” She lowered her voice and muttered, “And, um, well, F in Astrophysics, and F in Intermediate Mathematics.”
Madame Bali slapped her hands to the sides of her face in horror. “Oh my, that’s unacceptable. We must double our efforts.”
Samuel slammed his teacup down. “Do you think this is a joke? Everyone is watching you, from the teachers to the students to the staff. The council is listening. You could be expelled. And out there I can’t protect you.” His voice shook. “Nobody can.”
Ana thought of the car crash and how Samuel had shielded her from the glass. Suddenly, she felt ashamed. She wasn’t just risking her own life. She was risking his too. And her brothers’.
Even though Samuel’s eyes were drilling into her, she found she couldn’t look at him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, staring at her tea. “Please help me pass.”
* * *
From that moment on, Ana’s time was filled with studying. Samuel brought stacks of books from his apartment, and they spent hours poring over them together. He could run long ranges of numbers in his head in a way that she had never known anyone to do. It was a skill he couldn’t teach. And, apparently, a common gift in the Jacobs family. Albeit not a magical one.
Madame Bali queued up a series of terribly erudite lectures on the infotab. Ana found them hard to follow, but she tried her best. Madame Bali had also insisted on a series of etiquette lessons. She found Ana’s table manners lacking. Ana wasn’t sure how using the correct fork at dinner would help her pass exams.
Ophelia tutored Ana in Botany. After all, she couldn’t count on the C to get her through the final. Ana realized how much she had neglected Ophelia in the last month and remembered how much she liked her.
Meanwhile, things with Adam had grown awkward. They hadn’t seen much of each other since Madame Bali had interrupted their almost kiss in the Rockwell common area. Between long briefings, classes, homework, and community service, Ana barely had time to eat and sleep. Adam had his own schedule—morning drills and late-night runs in addition to studying.
He had stopped by her dorm and asked her if she’d like to go for a walk. She had reluctantly turned him down, explaining she needed to focus on schoolwork. And privately hoping to avoid another embarrassing interruption by Madame Bali, whose clickety-clacking heels were never far away these days.
Adam seemed to take this as a rejection. Soon he stopped sitting with her at meals. She had been welcome by Ophelia and grudgingly adopted by the Fleur table, where the talk revolved around one topic and one topic only—the upcoming winter ball at the capital. This year, it was going to be a masquerade with dashing men in tuxedos and ladies in glamorous ball gowns. They talked about who would ask who and what they would wear. They talked about family plans.
Ana had bigger worries—passing exams, and, you know, not getting murdered.
This afternoon, Ophelia had left lunch early to go check on a plant cutting in the greenhouses, leaving Ana alone with the rest of the Fleur girls. Ana shoveled green beans in her mouth, trying to escape before the subject turned to her.
She wasn’t fast enough. Her new tablemate and queen bee, Lauren Fleur, turned to her. “You’ve been quiet, Ana. What are you wearing to the ball? We don’t want to clash, or worse, match.”
“I’m not sure,” Ana said.
“Not sure, darling?” Her brow creased.
“I haven’t decided if I am going.”
The other girls leaned in with interest.
“Hasn’t anyone asked you to go yet?” asked Jasmine Fleur with a venomous grin. She was among Ana’s least favorites of the Fleur relatives so far. Ana had a distinct feeling she was involved in the vine trick.
“What about Adam? You seemed…cozy at the bonfire,” Lauren said.
“We’re—” She paused. What were they? Were they anything anymore? “Friends.”
Lauren frowned.
“We, uh, both have to think of our families first,” Ana added.
The Fleur girls, even Jasmine, nodded as if this were the most sensible thing they had ever heard.
“Well, boys come and go. Our family loyalty is forever,” Lauren said.
The other girls nodded.
Ana really wished Ophelia was still here to rescue her. She was so much better in these situations than Ana.
Lauren continued, “I’m sure you have something lavish planned at the capital, having been away for so long. My family will be staying at the Winter Garden Palace. While not the tallest building in the capital, it is one of the oldest. Magnificent architecture. You must visit.”
“I’d love to,” Ana lied, taking another bite of green beans. The truth was Ana had no plans to go to the capital. She had no transportation. She had no place to stay. She had no family. And she hadn�
��t thought to ask Madame Bali about it.
Admitting she didn’t have a date was one thing. Admitting she didn’t have a place to stay in the capital was another. She needed to change the subject before it became obvious just how tenuous her position was in this world.
“I heard you have a great dress picked out,” Ana prompted.
Those were the magic words. Lauren began to gush about her new gown, giving Ana time to brainstorm while she nodded politely.
At the end of the school day, she needed to see Samuel and Bali. She would need somewhere to stay. Maybe she shouldn’t have been dodging all these conversations for the last month.
Adam passed by their table, and Ana glanced up and tried to catch his eye. He turned his head and kept walking. She sighed. She had screwed up royally.
Lauren noticed. “Go after him, dummy,” she said with a trilling laugh.
Ana took the opportunity to extricate herself, even though it was embarrassing. She could feel a blush creeping up her cheeks and turned to wave. She didn’t try to catch up with Adam. If he didn’t want to talk to her, then she didn’t want to talk to him either.
* * *
Ana had just sat down on her bed when a loud knock echoed through her chamber. She walked to the door and found a large envelope pushed underneath it. It wasn’t the usual legal envelope of the school or the small notecards sent by the headmistress.
No, this was large with a thick linen paper.
It was addressed in flawless calligraphy to:
Ms. Anabella Halt
Heir to the Halt Family Council Seat
Monarch of the Southerly Province
Daughter of the Seven Worlds
Academy of the Royals
The back bore an official wax seal that looked to contain real gold.
She opened the envelope and pulled an opalescent card out.
As she looked at the card, silvery ink appeared in decorating flourishes around the edge, creating the effect of a flowering vine.
The Committee for Royal Affairs is pleased to invite you to the
253rd Annual Winter Ball
On 29th January
Seven Crowns (Bellaton Book 1) Page 16