Rogue Royalty

by Rebecca Ethington

  “Fine, but I already know this is pointless, he hasn’t been seen in over a week. He might be dead in there.” I was sure, well, I tried to sound like I was. My heart was pounding so fast my chest was starting to ache.

  “He’s not dead, I promise you.” Greer knocked on the door with a firm fist, three hollow beats thundering through the hallway. A second later the door was thrown open, loud music hitting me full in the face.

  “I was starting to think you weren't going to--” Rowan began, the prince’s wide smile staggering when he saw me. “Gemma?”

  “Look who I found in the hall!” Greer roared, shoving us past Rowan and into a room that I wasn’t completely sure I was supposed to be in.

  “Are we saying ‘found’? Because it feels more like a full kidnapping situation.” I spoke loud enough that both of them could hear, Rowan was mumbling and shifting his feet as he stood plastered to the door.

  “We could also say stalking. I mean, you were the one peering under the door frame,” Greer continued. I pulled myself away from him, jumping to my feet and instantly sinking into the carpet that was far too plush.

  “I was not!”

  “Tell his benevolent majesty that,” Greer waved at the now smiling Prince and sunk into one of the large chairs, clearly sinking a few inches into the thing.

  What was this? A room made out of marshmallow?

  I thought my room was nice, the furniture in this place was actually inset with gold. Judging by the sparkle it had diamond inlays or some shit. I could strip this place and make a pretty penny if I wanted. Next time, maybe.

  “You kidnapped me, Greer. I was only here to smear this on your door.” I gave him a smile and pulled out a glass jar from my pocket, the gurgled green gunk I had swiped from lunch congealed against the side of the glass.

  “Of course, you were.” Rowan smiled with a crooked grin that somehow made him look more rugged, the emeralds in his eyes pulling all the light from the room.

  “You left so fast the other night, I didn’t want you to miss out.” I placed the glass in his hand, careful not to touch his skin and stepping away the second I knew he wasn’t going to drop it. I didn’t want to risk that shit again.

  “So kind, as always,” Rowan said, that smile still plastered on his face. “Won’t you join us, Gemma?”

  He gestured to the couches and the chair that Greer wasn’t laid over, eating food that was laid out on the table with unearned zeal.

  “Uh, no thanks,” I was already trying to sidestep him, but the guy wouldn't move, he was still flat-backed against the door. “I delivered my gift, but thank you for your magnanimous hospitality Prince Douche.”

  I was really starting to like the word. Magnanimous. Not douche.

  “Ha! She really does call you that, doesn’t she?” Greer erupted from behind me, his mouth full of fruit. “The benevolent majesty.”

  Rowan ran his hands through his hair, the dark shag pulling over his eyes, I forced myself to look away and breathe. Definitely breathe.

  “I’m going to regret you two meeting each other, aren’t I?”

  “Meeting?” I nearly scoffed. “Greer and I are cut from the same cloth. He’s part of my resistance and attempts to overthrow the royal family. You know, you.”

  Greer choked on a grape, the loud hacking cough not even breaking the stare down Rowan and I had going on.

  “Going for full honesty are we, Gemma?” There was a tad bit of warning in his voice, but I ignored it and shrugged.

  “It’s not like it was ever a secret. We are both royal bastards remember.”

  “Nice, Gem!” Greer boomed, having recovered from his shock. “I like it!”

  Shit.

  Rowan’s eyes narrowed, his smile stretching. “Gem?”

  “Douche,” I responded without hesitation. He only smiled more. What in the holy fuck was going on?

  “Come on, Gem, you’ll like this,” Rowan said, finally leaving the door. “We’ve been working on some fourth-year stuff, break up the monotony of this place."

  “More like, I’ve been getting secret, possibly cheating, lessons from the master,” Greer added, still laughing, still eating more grapes, clearly Rowan had put out the platter with him in mind.

  "Whatever, Greer. Don't be handing out awards to royal bastards just because they’re pretty," I said it without thinking. Rowan smirked, that playful light I had seen in his eyes a few times gleaming.

  Teasing.

  Hot damn, my stomach was inventing its own carnival.

  "You think I'm pretty?"

  "Pretty douchey,” I rolled my eyes, taking a step back as the two guys chuckled. Greer was looking between us with too much of a knowing glare. I did what any girl would do, I flipped him off. They laughed harder.

  "Tonight is ‘stationary explosions’," Rowan said sinking into the wide couch and throwing his legs over the armrest. A second later the grape in Greer's fingers exploded. The guy shrieked and jumped off the couch, looking between his singed fingers and the Prince who was laid back and smiling. I don't think he had even moved. "Any interest?”

  I stood still, blinking at them both as Greer perched himself on the coffee table, the two already chattering about the why's and how's of what he had done.

  The door was unblocked, my escape was ready and waiting. Damn it all, I couldn’t move. Everything about being there was wrong, but they were doing magic. Really cool, harder than dumb shields and floating feathers type of magic.

  "Shitting rats on a storm grate," I snarled under my breath and earned myself a side look from Rowan. "Fine. Show me what you are doing."

  I stomped my boots and made my way over to the two, sitting on the coffee table and crossing my legs beneath me. The hole in my lace tights that I had been poking at for the last few days spread over my knee.

  "The idea is to send tiny whips of your magic into the object, while still keeping it connected to the source. Think of it like a fishing line. With a tiny tug..." He was looking right at me, his eyes wide and deep as they looked right through me. So intense--

  The lamp on the end table exploded.

  I jumped so high that the table I had been sitting on cracked. I jumped even further.

  "Sorry," Rowan whispered, shoving his smile down. "I should have warned you."

  "Is this what you have been doing for the last week?" I asked, my boots stomping on the broken pieces of glass as I inspected the remains of the lamp. It didn't escape my notice that Greer sat up, looking between me and Rowan.

  Weird.

  I pressed my lips together, leaning against the table that had once held a lamp and now was only home to Rowan's feet.

  "Wait. You didn't tell him you are exercising your royal privileges of ditching class for the last week?" I clicked my tongue and shook my head, picking up one of the pieces of broken porcelain and pinching it between my fingers. "Some friend you are, Prince Douche. I mean, if you are gonna ditch you might as well share the wealth. What's your secret, anyway, because you miss a lot of school. I mean, it’s a lot of school."

  "Letter from home?" Greer asked, popping a grape in his mouth before immediately spitting it back out looking at it as if it was about to explode.

  “He does have Royal Dispatch classes,” I said, pocketing the porcelain and folding my arms. “Are they sending you on secret missions?”

  He had been smiling up to that point, but I must have said something very wrong, because his features darkened, his brow pulling into a scowl.

  “No,” the word was more of a snarl when pushed through clenched teeth.

  “Touchy, touchy,” I was suddenly regretting coming at all. Not that I couldn’t take the spoiled brat, but I didn’t want to go the way of the lamp.

  Greer was equally nervous with the narrowed side-eye he was giving me.

  “I have to be here,” Rowan said after a minute, no longer looking at either of us. “I’ve been trained my whole life. Coming here is like a formality. I’m bored.”

 
I gave Greer a look, both of our brows furrowed, I don’t think either of us had expected that. Expected him to be… not a royal douchebag.

  “I’m going to be honest,” I said with a bright grin, working to break the tension. “I thought your reason was going to be so much cooler than that.”

  Rowan sat up, the worry on his face falling.

  “Agreed,” Greer tacked on before Rowan could respond. “I mean, everyone says how sickly and broken you are. No magic what-so-ever.”

  “Just a rickety baby royal with no control except to explode things,” I said as sarcastically as I could, before fixing him with a smile. “Oh wait. That’s me.”

  Greer laughed while Rowan smiled and shook his head, his eyes darting back to me with that same bright light I had seen in his eyes when I first got there. Light and joy. It almost swallowed me whole. I had to look away, pushing my hair behind my ear nervously.

  It was only then that I realized that Greer was staring between the two of us, a wide ugly grin on his face.

  “So, show us how to explode this, Princey. Starting with Greer’s nose ring.” That wiped the smile off his face, and mine.

  It was only then that I realized I had been smiling. Actually smiling.

  Damn it. I should have never gone in there.

  27

  Sia

  'Hey, beautiful. How was school? Ready for me to show you some new tricks this weekend?'

  I blushed so hard I was sure the roots of my hair went red. Even one glance at the text message was sending my heart into a flutter of activity, my magic reacting as though Talon was standing right there, his hand running up and down my spine.

  I shivered and tucked the phone away; it wasn't worth it to risk anyone finding out about this. Not until all of this was over.

  "Okay, girl, you need to spill right now or I am going to lose it," Tasha said from beside me, looking from the phone shaped lump in my pocket and back again. All of that giddy joy instantly deflated.

  "I don't know what you are talking about." I tucked my bag close to my side, suddenly questioning how much Tasha had seen. Questioning what lengths she would go through to get her answer. "Even if I did know I'm not about to tell you in the middle of the hall."

  "Uh-huh." She gave me a wink and eyed my pocket again. I quickly shielded the thing, not like I could do more than make it bulletproof. "Trust me, Miko and I have noticed you checking your phone and walking around with a smile on your face."

  "What does it matter if I smile?" I snapped, a little too loud, causing a few people to turn.

  "Easy. You only smile before you are about to severely injure multiple people," Tasha waved her hand to the side flippantly as we turned the corner toward her dorm, thankfully there were fewer people there. "So, either you have become a serial killer, which I wouldn't be against provided the targets are Drains. Or, you got Rowan back."

  I smiled again, knowing the answer was so much better than they assumed. Luckily, Tasha misunderstood my meaning.

  "Rowan. Knew it." She nodded, proud of herself, pulling me around the last corner and toward Miko who was leaning against the door.

  "Took you guys long enough, I was about ready to bail," he said, pushing himself off the door so Tasha could open it. The door swung open to a room cluttered with everything from clothes, to food, to failed experiments. Everything coated with the pungent smell of rot and smoke.

  "Remind me why we are meeting here," Miko said, closing the door behind us and locking us in with the stink. "Because unless we fumigate, I can't stay here long."

  He flung his hand forward, the window sliding open as I pulled a wind through the main room, getting as much of the trash and the smell away from us. Unfortunately, the whole place turned into a trash tornado. Tasha shrieked some profanity as my wind knocked her off the couch and replaced the balled-up blanket on the couch with one that was hopefully less covered in crumbs.

  "We are meeting here because I don't need my neighbor seeing who is visiting me. I don't want to risk her overhearing." I pushed another wind through the room, sending more papers and half-eaten bits of food into a trash can. "I had hoped that Tasha would have cleaned up."

  "You should know me better than that," Tasha said, throwing her legs over the side of the couch and kicking off her shoes. Thankfully it didn't add another layer of stink to the putrid room.

  "Well, if we are to endure this you better have good news. Like, you spiked Gemma's drink and we are expecting a notice of her death any minute." Miko was carefully cleaning off the few remaining crumbs off one of the green side chairs. He fell into it with what I had to say next.

  "Gemma is no longer our target."

  "Excuse me?" Tasha sat up as though she had been shocked, the partially eaten apple still clutched in her hand. "That's what you are walking around smiling about? That you don't have to kill the Drain anymore? Here I was thinking that your magic had connected to Rowan's finally and we could start to move forward with the takeover you had planned."

  It took far too much effort to keep the smile from creeping over my lips. The giddy joy that was becoming a new normal twisted into something beautifully nefarious.

  "Will you two shut the hell up and listen?" I snarled, sinking into the chair opposite Miko’s and leaning forward. "We found another way around our tasks. Gemma can live, for now. With the new addition to our group we should be able to bypass the issues she presents and move forward."

  "So, you have bonded your magic to Rowan's?" Tasha asked with too much shriek.

  "No. Better."

  The two stared at me. Yes, I knew I was being cryptic, but it was hard to know what to say when I was in this school, the window opened to one of the many courtyards below. With a regretful sigh, my magic snapped the thing shut.

  "What is this, Sia, torture?" Miko grumbled, throwing his head back into a pile of what looked like old newspapers. "We need air."

  "Get over it," I snapped, he didn't even deserve a glare for how much of a whiny baby he was being. I was too busy digging in my bag for the phone that was vibrating again.

  "According to my father, we needed Gemma gone to eliminate the threat of uprising within the school. Knock out the head take out the snake sort of thing." I waved my hand to the idea and went back to digging through my bookbag, fully aware that the two were talking to me. "We needed Rowan because his magic, while weak, has something that we needed. He was our easiest chance to infiltrate the royals which was the last piece we needed to take over Imdalind."

  I grabbed the phone, letting the bag drop to the floor as I looked up to the two of them, their focus undivided, even though Miko was noticeably breathing funny. They stared, they knew me well enough to know that I wasn't going to give them the news easily, no matter how many times Tasha tried to guess.

  "I found someone even better." I had expected some kind of awe or surprise, instead, they looked confused.

  "But not Rowan?" Tasha asked after a minute, still stuck on the pathetic prince. Figures. She had been the one to point out Talon originally. Now it’s all Rowan this, and Rowan that.

  That fecking bitch.

  I bet that’s why she’s so focused on Rowan; she wants Talon all to herself. Well, she can wait and get bitched slapped with my news.

  "I bet it's Analine," Miko said with a smug grin. I always knew she would be a great ally.

  "You're both wrong." I smiled and leaned back, nodding my head toward my phone and letting my magic ignite within it. The screen flaring to life. "My magic connected to someone.”

  The screen glowed as they both leaned in, staring at the background picture of two intertwined hands that hadn't been there last week, and the message alert that was burning a hole into the ceiling.

  'Talon: After the raid this weekend I am taking you out to celebrate. I know of a great island...'

  "What the fuck?"

  "Well there goes my chance to ask you out," Miko said with a laugh at the same time that Tasha mumbled, picking up the phone to stare at
it.

  "Are those your hands? What did it feel like when your magic connected? O.M.G. Did you kiss him?" Tasha's questions were coming in at rapid fire, still staring and tapping at the phone as she tried to figure out the password. I held out my hand and brought the thing right back to me, she knew me well enough to be able to guess the code and I didn't need her snooping around.

  "Stop prying, you whore," I snapped, Tasha giggling as she sunk down into the chair. "I don't kiss and tell."

  "Sure you don't," Miko said, giving me a wink, although I didn't miss that the regret in his eyes was very real. Poor boy, he really did have a crush on me.

  He wasn't the only one. If I had known I would have had some fun with him while I was still trying to coax Rowan out of his shell. Now, he would have to get over it like the rest of us. I flipped my hair behind my back, giving him a smile as I turned back to Tasha.

  "Miko’s right, all we hear for weeks is Rowan, Rowan, Rowan. Now you are quiet and smiling like a loon. What's the deal, Sia? Don't lie."

  "Nothing's wrong," I sighed, stretching a shield around us, trying to spread my magic the way that Talon had taught me last weekend and block out all sounds. "This is real and I don't plan on losing it. Besides, Talon is much better than Rowan, in many ways."

  "Knew it," Tasha giggled, Miko was looking like he was going to be sick.

  "But with an Eternal playing for our side, we are one step closer to enacting our plan. I'm one step closer to being the new Queen." They both froze.

  "I'm sorry," Miko asked, looking between me and Tasha. "Did you say Queen?"

  "Yes. Everything is beginning this weekend. The last community of Drains is being taken, Last Pyre, home to our very own bubblegum brat. It will cripple her efforts as well as I could have. With her neutered, and the tunnels clear, it opens us up to the dark line."

  The dark line, an area on the map that divided the country in two. It had been overprotected for as long as anybody knew, which could only mean one thing. An underground well of power.

  We had found out what it really was just a few years ago.

  "The dark line? That's a rumor." Tasha was scoffing, but Miko’s jaw was set, his eyes hard.