My Royal Temptation

by Riley Pine

  The crowd clears, and within minutes it’s just my stepmother and me.

  “Why are you doing this?” I ask at last, breaking the silence. No more pretense. I just want answers.

  “I’ve waited for this moment a long time,” she purrs. “Ever since I buried my daughter in the cold, hard ground.”

  And I believe her. I just don’t believe that is the whole truth. But do I trust this inner voice, the same intuition that whispered that I should take a chance on Kate? The one that has led me back here, to this black place of pain and bone-crushing loneliness? Victoria hurt my heart. Kate detonated it with the precision of a lobbed grenade. It will never be whole.

  As I begin to search for answers, one truth is certain. Not only will I never marry, I will never love again.

  Kate

  A heavy gated door scrapes across stone as it slams shut behind me. I stumble into the cold, dank cell and stare with wide eyes back at the man who just threw me in here.

  “X,” I say, my voice shaking. “Why?”

  He stares at me without expression, and my fear starts to morph into something fierce. I throw myself at the bars separating me from him, shaking them to no avail.

  “I care about him—so much! You know I do.”

  My heart beats wildly in my chest. I can’t even say it to X, that I love Nikolai. But he watched me get carted away thinking I betrayed him because I was too afraid to tell him the truth.

  Because I’m a fool to have ever thought I could bridge the divide between his world and mine.

  “This—this is all the queen,” I continue. “She told me she would choose his bride, that if I didn’t comply my sister’s business would be ruined. You know she has the power to do that. You know she set this whole thing up!”

  Still he stands, arms crossed, impassive as ever.

  I pace, shivering in the damp air, tears pouring along my cheeks. When X says nothing, I collapse onto a stone bench at the rear of the cell and let out a bitter laugh.

  “I didn’t think places like this were real, you know. Castles? Sure. But dungeons? This is the stuff of fairy tales,” I tell my emotionless captor. “But I never expected to be the princess. I only ever wanted to take care of my family.”

  I meet X’s stare. There is no sign that he’s even heard a word I’ve said, yet I swear I see a twinkle in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

  “The money?” I say, my voice steady now because even if Nikolai won’t hear me out, he will know the truth. “My sister and I live and work out of our small apartment. Every cent that doesn’t go toward our monthly payments, toward food or keeping the business afloat—it goes to the elderly care center where our grandmother lives. And now it will go to the hospital that’s keeping her alive. That’s where I’m supposed to be now, X. Please. Let me go to her.”

  X’s jaw tightens, the only sign that any of this is getting through to him.

  I open my mouth to say something more but am interrupted by what sounds like a sack of potatoes hitting the stone floor.

  X looks to his left, and his features finally relax.

  “You have three minutes to decide if you trust me, Miss Kate. Three minutes to decide if you are willing to put your life in my hands.”

  I rise from the stone bench and make my way to the iron gate that separates me from him, pressing my face against the bars so I can see what X sees—a burly palace guard slumped on the floor next to a stool, an empty beer stein tipped over next to him.

  “Yes, I drugged his ale.” X waves a hand. “It won’t be the first time he’s fallen asleep on watch, but it is the first time it’s of my doing. He’ll be lucky not to piss himself with relief when he wakes to find he hasn’t been caught.”

  The corner of his mouth quirks ever so slightly into the hint of a grin, and my heart surges with hope.

  “You don’t need to prove your love, Kate. Not to me,” he says, his voice a firm whisper. And just like Nikolai calling me Kate somehow made me know that what we had was real, X doing the same—dropping that ridiculous Miss—tells me I can trust him, too.

  “I’ve known of your family’s situation since the king and queen hired you,” he goes on. “But the prince—he has been in the dark, and you are one of those responsible for keeping him there.”

  My breath hitches, and I swallow back a sob. He is right. Nikolai hid nothing from me, but I hid my life from him. Even if it was for my own protection, I betrayed his trust in doing so.

  I nod. “This isn’t my world,” I tell him. “I’m out of my depth. And as much as he means to me—as much as my silly secret wish has been for him to choose me—I knew it was a fool’s errand to think he could ever truly be mine. I must think about my family right now. And Nikolai—” I stutter on the next thought, but it is the only way. “Nikolai must marry Catriona. If she’s carrying his baby, he must.” I swallow hard against the ache in my chest, against the cavern that will replace my heart after my next words. “Tell the queen I forfeit my fee. Tell Nikolai. I will not cause trouble for the prince. I just need to get to my family.”

  X nods somberly at me. “Queen Adele plans to leave you here until after the wedding.” My whole body begins to shake as his words sink in.

  Another tear slides down my cheek. “When will that be?” I ask.

  X clears his throat. “Three days’ time,” he says. “I hope you understand I had to bring you here. The prince’s safety depends on it.”

  I glance around my cell and shudder not just at the thought of being locked here for three days or of losing Nikolai—but that such cruelty exists in the queen’s heart.

  “Father Benedict is working tirelessly to find a loophole,” X continues. “If this baby is not Nikolai’s—and if there is a way out of the decree—he will find it within these three days. If I let you go, though,” he says, “the queen will expedite the wedding, and Nikolai will have no chance at true happiness. But if you trust me—if you trust that my one and only mission is to protect my prince—then you can leave here tonight.”

  I wipe the tears from my face, my hands now covered in dirt from the filthy cell bars. I’m sure I look as frightened as I feel, but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything but protecting my family and the man that I love, even if he will never know my true feelings.

  Everything inside me trembles so hard I fear my bones will shatter. But I hold my head high and look straight into X’s unwavering stare.

  “I trust you,” I say. “For Maddie. For my grandmother. For Nikolai, all whom I love. I trust you, X.”

  He pulls a small vial from his coat pocket and hands it to me through the bars.

  “Then drink.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Nikolai

  “WALK WITH ME.” Adele gathers her crimson skirts and strides toward the gloomy entrance to the maze.

  I follow as if in a trance. My head pounds, and my brain is reeling. Too many questions. Too many years living with lies and pain and never knowing who to trust. Who, if anyone has, ever loved me for me?

  Maybe no one.

  A feeling of utter loneliness swallows me.

  Do I want to be king? It’s never been a question that I’ve consciously asked myself before. It’s as inevitable as drawing a breath. The next beat of my heart. Someday I will sit on the Stone Throne in the Reception Hall and lead my people into what I have always hoped in my deepest heart would be a prosperous and bright future.

  But I don’t want to be king at this price. My birthright isn’t worth letting Adele win at her twisted game. But I don’t know the rules. I don’t know how to beat her when she holds all the cards. But the worst thing that can happen is to let her sense my uncertainty. That would be like slicing my wrists in a shark tank. Better to square my shoulders, set my jaw and figure this the fuck out. She will make a mistake. I just need to stay sharp, be ready to pounce at the first
misstep.

  “So quiet, no? As if the world holds its collective breath.” Adele runs her fingers over the hedgerow. “Why the long face? I’d think you would enjoy taking a stroll down memory lane.” Her voice is steeped in innuendo.

  I ball my hands into tight fists. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Now, now. Coy’s not a good look on you, Nikolai,” she croons. “We might dislike each other, but do let’s be frank. I know how you ravished the lovely Kate Winter here on the ground of the maze. You feasted and rutted on her with your face like the wild beast that you are, depraved by lust. Disgusting and yet fascinating.”

  I stare at her, blinking slowly.

  “How do I know your...activities?” She leers. “Please. You think your father runs this place? Why do you think I encourage all of his travels for diplomacy? This is my kingdom, and I have eyes everywhere.” She enunciates each syllable of that last word. “A mouse doesn’t so much as shit in this palace without me getting an update.” She shakes her head in mock sorrow. “Now don’t get all pouty. No one likes a sore loser.” Her eyes gleam. “And you’ve lost, my sweet prince. You have lost so much that I’d be tempted to pity you if I wasn’t so absolutely delighted.”

  Her laugh cuts my skin like glass shards before it morphs into a hysterical sob. “My daughter should have been queen!” she snaps. “It was her destiny to save Rosegate, not that dimwit Catriona.”

  My jaw clenches. “I loved Victoria.” I choke out the bitter truth. “But she was sleeping with my traitor of a brother.”

  She scoffs, sneering as she looks me up and down. “You are unfit to be king. A real man worries about affairs of the state, not of the heart. You are nothing but a weak fool. So what if Victoria didn’t love you? She would have bedded you, born you an heir. She knew her duty. And your duty was to keep her safe! There were greater plans at work.”

  Every cell in my body recoils. “Wouldn’t you want more for your daughter than to serve as a broodmare to a man she didn’t love?”

  “I wanted her to be queen,” she hisses. “And to...and to... It doesn’t matter! There is no more worthy goal than the pursuit of power. You took that away from her. And now I get to take your happiness from you.”

  Bile rises in my throat. “She loved my brother! He took her life, Adele. And he’s been paying the price for years.” An unexpected twinge of sympathy pierces me. I loved Victoria and lost her. Damien loved her and lost everything. I will not forgive my youngest brother, but only now when I have lost Kate—when I stand to lose everything if Adele has her way—do I have the slightest idea what life might be like to be banished.

  “Damien was third in line to the throne.” She speaks so forcefully spittle flies from her mouth. “You ran her off so she could be what? An insignificant nobody? Do you know who my family is, that we are a bloodline even more ancient than yours?”

  I swipe my cheek, not having the slightest interest in getting into a snobby pissing match over who is the most royal. “I ran them both off after discovering them fucking like dogs in the Royal Library. And do you know what I think? I think she wanted me to catch her. I think she wanted me to free her from a future she never wanted as much as you did.”

  My chest heaves. I have to squeeze my eyes shut as the memory takes hold. It’s not as if I don’t hold some of the guilt. For years I’ve wondered if it could have gone differently. If there was something I could have done that would have set in motion a different course of events that did not end with Victoria dead. But the fact remains that she loved another, that she betrayed me and was all too happy to leave once she was caught.

  “She’d still be alive if it wasn’t for you.” Adele flies at me, claws outstretched, grief taking her to the point of insanity.

  This is my moment.

  I’ve been waiting for a misstep. If she was playing a political game, her feelings for Victoria, the grief at losing not only a daughter but also a future meal ticket, muddles her thinking. She isn’t calculating now. She is ready to tear me apart limb from limb, unleash her long-simmering resentment, the fact that she has had to kowtow to the Lorentz family to wear the crown, and now the best she will ever get is a puppet in Catriona, a weak-minded, selfish woman easily manipulated to do her bidding.

  As for me, I’m ready to go to hell and bring Adele along for the ride. I am at the brink of endurance, and below me lies the bleak roiling blackness, the void that is there, always there. I’m done resisting. I’m ready to give myself over to the void.

  She is right.

  I’ve lost.

  I’ve lost everything that matters.

  The world goes crimson before a strong steady hand clamps my shoulder.

  “Sire,” X says in a grave voice, pulling me back. “Come quick. There is no time.”

  Kate

  You will be able to hear all too clearly but see nothing. You’ll feel the touch of others all too keenly but will be paralyzed from any movement yourself. You will be alive, but to anyone without sharp medical training, you will appear dead. Heartbeat too slow to detect, breathing too shallow to recognize.

  This is what X tells me before I drink. There isn’t time to ask him how he knows of such a drug or if he’s seen it work before. I have mere seconds to decide that I trust him before everything goes black and I lose myself completely.

  I feel the cold stone beneath my cheek but see nothing at all. I hear the frantic scuffle of shoes in the distance. The sound grows louder, and then there is nothing but silence for several long moments before the unmistakable click-clack of high heels approach.

  “She was delirious. Screaming nonsense about how the queen threatened her livelihood if she did not get you down the aisle. Of course it was all rubbish,” X says. “After her tirade she complained of shortness of breath. I knew she was just looking for a way out, so I ignored her pleas. And then she just—collapsed.”

  Metal clangs, and I swear the ground beneath me shakes.

  “You ignored her?” His voice is hoarse, frantic, and I can feel his pain. It is as tangible as the stone against my cheek.

  Nikolai! I want to cry out his name, but I’m stuck in this blackness, forced to do nothing but listen and to trust that I will be out of here soon.

  “You bastard!” he growls, his voice wild. “I will kill you, X. I will fucking kill you!”

  Laughter trills through Nikolai’s madness. The queen. They are all here, staring at my prone body. And Nikolai thinks—Oh God. X. What have we done to him?

  “Oh, this is too good,” Adele says. “Not even in the plan, but it certainly makes things much easier for me. Tell me, X. Is she dead?”

  “Unlock the fucking cell!” Nikolai bellows, interrupting her question.

  “Oh, very well,” the queen concedes. “Have your last look if you must.”

  Metal grates over stone, and I feel the faint warmth of skin against my own.

  “There is no pulse,” X says gravely. “Sire, my deepest condolences.”

  I hear a sickening crack and then Nikolai’s broken voice. “I will kill you for this,” he says again, and I’m not sure if he’s speaking to the queen, or X, or both.

  The scraping of heels comes nearer, and icy fingers touch my neck. If I wasn’t already paralyzed, the queen’s cold touch would do it.

  “You didn’t actually think I’d trust your word, X. Did you? But it looks as if you’re being truthful. The girl is dead.”

  Her skin leaves mine, and I fight to claw my way out of my body, out of this cell and away from her even though I know there’s nothing more she can do to me—so long as she thinks I’m gone.

  Seconds later I am weightless. No, I’m in someone’s arms. I feel warm liquid splash on my cheek and know that it is my prince who cradles me.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispers, and I feel his trembling lips press against my forehead. “I beli
eve you,” he whispers. “I trusted you, and I know in my gut it was the right thing to do, but I let the goddamn past get the better of me. I will never forgive myself for doubting you. I don’t deserve your love, but I know you gave it to me today. I let my fear blind me to the truth, but know this, Kate. I love you. And I promise you this—I will not love another.” And then in a voice so soft I almost miss it, I hear, “I win our wager,” he says, his whisper cracking on that last word. “I will not marry—not if it means the woman beside me is not you. You owe me a favor, Kate. Those were our terms.” I hear him take a shuddering breath. “Please. Come back.”

  My body rocks in his arms. Again and again warm drops of liquid splatter my cheek, and my heart cracks wide-open for the broken man who holds me. “Come back, Kate,” he pleads, louder this time, and then his lips are on mine.

  I taste the salt of his tears, and if I wasn’t sure that I was, in fact, paralyzed, I would swear that my eyes leaked tears of their own. Kiss after soft kiss, he doesn’t let go of me, not even when the queen groans.

  “Enough already,” she hisses. “You’ll never know loss like I do, Nikolai. But now you will live with yours for a lifetime. Now, X. Wipe the blood from your lip and do something with Miss Winter’s body. I’m sure you can conjure a reasonable explanation for the Royal Guard, and I trust it will be kept from the papers.”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” I hear X say.

  I feel Nikolai lift my palm to his cheek, and my fingers twitch against his tear-soaked skin.

  A throat clears. “Your Highness,” X says, “is the king not arriving back at the palace shortly? Surely you want to be the first to break the news about the prince and Catriona. I will—take care of things here.”

  “Yes. Fine,” she says. “Nikolai, clean yourself up and join us in the grand dining hall for dinner. You can announce your impending nuptials yourself.”

  Nikolai says nothing, only holds my palm flat against his cheek as I listen to the piercing blows of her heels against the stone until the sound grows farther and farther away. Finally, I hear the far-off clank of the heavy cellar door closing.