Kelan heard the bolt click on their door. He and Fiona were already awake. There were no clocks in their suite, so it was impossible to tell what time it was. The lighting in the fake solarium had begun to brighten, but there was no way to know if that was actually timed to occur at dawn.
The men who had brought them to this room last night stepped inside. The light-brown-haired guy waved to him. “Let’s go. Quickly.”
Kelan took Fiona’s hand and hurried over to the door.
“Not her. Just you.”
“You said I was the only one who could save her.”
“You are, but she can’t go with you now. And unless you move fast, you’ll be too dead to help her get out of here later.”
Kelan wrapped his arm around Fiona and started to push through the door, but the two guards shoved them back.
“We don’t have time for this. He’s on his way here right now. If you don’t come right now, he will kill you. And us.”
“We’ll hide Kelan,” Fiona suggested.
“No. He knows now that the wrong War Bringer stayed the night in here with you.” The guy looked at Fiona. “He won’t harm you, but he’ll kill Kelan.”
Fiona stepped free of Kelan’s hold. “Go. Hurry. Please, Kelan.”
One of the guards straightened. “We’re too late. They’re almost here.”
The lead guy dragged Kelan into the bathroom then into Fiona’s closet. He hit a button beside her jewelry cabinet, which popped open. One of the guards stepped into the dark tunnel. Kelan struggled for a last glimpse of Fiona. It was wrong to leave her behind, to face the danger herself.
A sharp twinge hit his shoulder, followed almost instantly with paralyzing heat. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t fight, couldn’t get back to her.
His last thought as his mind went dark was that he’d lost Fiona once again.
*
Fiona’s heart beat hard and fast. She went back into the main area of her suite, then remembered Kelan’s boxer shorts and rushed to grab them out of the bathroom and hide them among the clothes in her closet.
She had just walked over to the sitting area of her room when her door slammed open. A middle-aged blond man and four guards rushed inside.
She studied the man, wondering if he was King…her father. She felt absolutely no connection to him. But just in case he was, she memorized everything she could about him so that she could tell Kelan later. He wasn’t very tall—a couple inches short of six feet. His hair was thinning in the front but was still a golden color. His pale blue eyes could have been jovial, but instead were like steel. His pug nose was oddly small for his face. His skin was weathered, folded into lines about his eyes, forehead, and mouth. His teeth were small, yellowish, and straight. The corners of his mouth turned down.
“Where is he?” the man asked.
Fiona lifted her brows. “Who?”
“The pretender.”
Fiona clasped her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking. “Um. Maybe this all makes sense to you, but just two days ago, I was a student going to Colorado State University. My worst challenge was grasping the finer nuances of macroeconomics, so forgive me if I’m not following you. What ‘pretender’?”
Kelan’s words of wisdom from yesterday came to mind: “It’s some kind of role-playing game. I don’t know anything about it, what the rules are, how one wins. Just go with it. Buy us some time.”
Her favorite class in high school had been her drama studies. She had no idea what was expected of someone who was King’s daughter, but it no doubt had to do with being regal and having a sense of entitlement. She could play this role.
Especially if she were acting to save her life.
The man motioned his guards to search the place, then crossed the room to stand in her space. She didn’t back down. Perversely, she thought Selena would be proud of her.
“I thought it was a bad idea that you were raised out in the world where you would know nothing of your true identity.”
“Perhaps you were right. Who am I really?”
“You are the Princess Fiona.”
“I see. And who are you?”
“Mr. Edwards. Where is the imposter War Bringer you brought back with you last night?”
“Imposter? I brought with me? In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Edwards, I am no longer in control of my life—I haven’t been since I was kidnapped on my way home from school. I’ve been given no choice in where I went or what I did. And if I resisted, I was drugged until I complied. So you tell me—who was he?”
Mr. Edwards’ eyes narrowed. “Don’t be coy with me, girl.”
“That’s ‘princess,’ I believe—”
“He’s your lover, from the Red Team. The one who’s been panting after you since he took you from your stepfather’s.”
That took her aback. How did he know about that? Had Alan said something to them about her living with the guys? “What makes him an imposter?”
“The true War Bringer is a pure-blooded Arian son, not a mixed-breed mutt like the one who was here. Not only is he from a perfect race, but he will be its leader too. And you will be his bride.” The man—was he King or not, Fiona wondered yet again—leveled a hard glare at her. “Marriage to him is the start of the very purpose for which you were conceived.”
“What purpose is that?” Fiona asked, half dreading the answer.
“Why, to perpetuate the perfect race of Arian warriors.”
“No, thanks. I don’t think that’s what I want to do with my life. I’ve been having a hard time figuring it out, but I’m pretty sure that’s not it.”
Mr. Edwards smiled. “That’s not your choice to make, as you so wisely observed earlier.”
Two girls came into her room, entering from her closet. They brought a tray of dishes, a sewing box…and a white dress.
“I’ll leave you to your breakfast and your fitting.” He gave her a hard look. “Get your imposter out of your head. He must be here somewhere. I will find and terminate him like the rat he is.”
Fiona watched the man and his guards leave her room through the door to the hallway. The girls made no eye contact with them. Did they fear them?
“Princess—” the older one began.