I didn’t respond. I just kept washing.
“Are you going to say anything to Master Barclae?” She grabbed a cloth to help rinse the red from my tangled hair.
I stayed silent.
“I wouldn’t fault you if you did,” she said quietly. “Was it Priscilla?”
“Darren.”
“The prince?” she gasped. “How did he—what happened?”
I watched the crimson haze twist and curl around the tub’s drain. “I should have listened to you,” was all I meant to say, but instead I found myself spilling the secret I had been holding onto for the last month. I told her everything.
“I think it’s time I told you what really happened in Devon,” Ella said, once I had finished. “There’s something I think you should know…” She looked at me, eyes clouding. “I would have told you sooner, but I was ashamed.”
That night I stared up at the ceiling, long after Ella and the rest of our barracks had fallen asleep.
How had I been so naive?
For some unknown reason, I had really thought there was something genuine to Darren, something likable and kind, something that could justify the reckless attraction I had felt in the midst of all his sarcasm and condescending talk.
Now I knew with certainty there was not. Ella’s tale haunted me, and while she had clearly moved on, I couldn’t help but feel righteous anger on her account. Darren had hurt me, but what he had done to my friend was despicable.
Ella and her family had lived in the capitol for years, in one of the palace’s many rooms for visiting nobility. She’d grown up playing with the children of various courtiers, though the two princes had usually not been a part of that group.
Blayne and Darren were too important to mingle with any but the most important residents’ children…It was only as they got older that they started paying attention to the intrigues of court.
Darren was private and aloof, much like he is now. He spent most of his time with the knights. I hardly ever saw him.
Blayne was the older, more sociable, of the two. He was handsome, popular, self-aware. He was also charming, and he could do no wrong.
Ella had only been twelve when the crown prince had lured her away under the guise of amity and attempted to rape her. She had tried to fight him off, but Blayne had muffled her screams.
But Darren heard me anyway.
When he came to investigate the shouting, he found his older brother on top of me. He could see there’d been a scuffle. It was obvious from the rips in my dress and the long scratches on Blayne’s neck.
Darren looked me right in the eyes, Ryiah. He knew exactly what was happening. I felt hope. I knew if anyone could stop the prince it was his brother.
But Darren had just walked away.
At first, I thought maybe he had gone for help…but no one ever came.
The only reason Blayne had not succeeded in his mission that day was by accident. In the heat of their struggle, the boy had slammed Ella’s head against the wall.
Like your first time, the pain released my magic. Until that day I hadn’t even known I’d had it.
Her powers had knocked the crown prince unconscious, and she’d been able to escape. Her family had left court the very next day.
Ella had warned me repeatedly. She’d said it since day one. Don’t trust Darren. Don’t trust the nonheir. Don’t trust a prince.
The overwhelming hostility had never made sense.
Now it did.
Darren had willingly stood by as his sixteen year-old brother had attempted to rape my best friend.
Prince Darren, second son to King Lucius III, was the most base, amoral, cold-hearted person I had ever met.
He wanted to try and send me home by pig’s blood?
Well, he had just guaranteed my stay.
I was not going anywhere. Someone like that would not win.
“He did what!” Alex roared over breakfast the next morning.
I grabbed my brother’s wrist in an attempt to quiet him. “Please Alex,” I begged. “Don’t make a scene.”
Much to my dismay, Ella had told the rest of our group about my encounter with Darren and his friends the night before. Ruth, Clayton, and James had taken the news in stride. They had been disturbed, but each one of them understood that reporting the incident was not an option.
Alex, however, had refused to see reason. He was the level-headed twin, the pacifist… except when it came to me. Then brotherly instinct took over, and no one, not even me, could calm him down.
The last time I’d seen him this upset was when his best friend Jason had called an end to our courtship. It had been amicable. But that still had not stopped my brother from ending a ten-year friendship and swearing that he would gut the trader’s son, should he ever come calling again.
Alex had broken many hearts in his wake, but the gods should fear if anyone ever hurt his sister. I had tried to point out as much last time, but it hadn’t gone over well.
My brother broke free of my hold and took off toward the front of the room.