I smiled up at him. “So we’re to have an adventure in getting lost?”
“While that is one reason to explore the maze, I figured if we’re hidden inside, it’ll be more difficult for someone to spy on us again.”
“Did you discover who was spying on us yesterday?”
He rolled his eyes. “It was Seren. She never rests from stirring up trouble.”
“I wondered if it was her. She’s been watching me closely—or rather glaring at me.”
He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’m not surprised. She always sticks her nose in others’ business. But please don’t worry; I’ll deal with her. In the meantime, just ignore her.”
I slowed, tugging us to a stop. Now was not the time for Aiden’s usual vagueness. “Why was she spying on us? How will you deal with her? Please tell me.”
He sighed. “She was spying on us because she’s angry with me. Fortunately for us, I have something over her that will ensure she remains silent.”
A chill rippled up my spine at the fierce look filling his eyes. This was the Aiden that used to frighten me, and that in many ways still did. “Why do you hate her?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Who says I hate her?”
I traced around his eyes with my fingertip. “I can see that you do.”
His jaw tightened. “I have my reasons.”
“Tell me,” I pleaded.
His expression darkened. “She took away something very precious to me.”
“Is that why you broke off your engagement?”
Bewilderment filled his eyes before he actually laughed. “She’s not my ex-fiancée. Even if she were, I broke off my engagement because I fell in love with you.” He kissed me lightly. “Have I satisfied your curiosity? May we go exploring now?”
While his answers had only caused more questions, I offered him a tentative smile in agreement. We ducked inside the hedge maze and were immediately swallowed up by towering, leafy hedges surrounding us on all sides, with several narrow pathways twisting in all directions.
I nibbled my lip as I looked around. “Are you sure we won’t get lost?”
“I know this maze well. I promise to guide you every step of the way.”
His assurance eased some of the tension tightening my stomach. I leaned against him and allowed him to lead me down one seemingly random path after another, each twisting in sporadic directions. “It’s so confusing. How will we ever find our way back out?”
“I’ve explored this maze for years. I’m rather close to the royal family and spent a lot of my time here at the palace while growing up. I always took great comfort in being in a place secluded from the world, surrounded by nature, where I could be alone with my thoughts or a book, or wander the maze for hours. It took many wrong turns to know it as well as I do, but now I’ll never get lost again.”
He led me down a particularly tight path that forced us to press ourselves closer in order to pass through. The heat of his body caused me to shudder. We continued walking whatever paths Aiden nudged us down. With every step, his confident navigating put me more at ease.
“Do you know the royal gardens as well as you know the maze?” I asked after several minutes of content silence.
“Quite well. Is there a reason for your curiosity?”
“Prince Liam speculates that there’s a secret passageway that leads to the Forest. If you knew of it, I could escape.”
Aiden’s hold on my hand tightened. “Do you still want to leave so badly?”
I opened my mouth to say yes but paused. Did I still want to leave? I peeked up at Aiden, who stared down at me with undisguised yearning. He was a very compelling reason to stay.
“I don’t know.”
“Then perhaps I must work harder to convince you to stay with me.” He gave my hand another squeeze before resuming walking.
Despite his earlier display of confidence, after several more turns he paused at a fork and frowned down each path, his forehead furrowed in concentration.
“Are we lost?” I asked.
“No…” But he didn’t sound so sure. He managed a breathless laugh as he led me down one. “At least, I don’t think so. I suppose we’ll see.” It took a few wrong turns before Aiden’s confidence returned. “I know where we are now. The center of the maze is just up ahead.”
The path opened up to a magnificent fountain. Roses grew in twisting patterns along the hedge walls, filling the air with their sweet perfume. I pressed my hand to my throat. “It’s beautiful.”
“I agree. Well worth the trip getting here.” He pulled me gently down to sit beside him on the edge of the fountain. “This is my favorite place on the palace grounds. I often come here when I need to be alone.”
He broke off a rose near its head and handed it to me. I cradled it in my palm as my reverent gaze took in my surroundings. I ran my fingers through the cool fountain water as I nodded towards the several paths that emerged from the encircling hedge.
“Are there multiple ways to get here?”
“Many. One day we’ll explore all of them.” His arm wrapped around my shoulders to pull me close. I rested my head on his shoulder. “I hope it’s not just the maze we one day explore. I want a lifetime of experiences with you, Eileen.”
He cupped my chin and caressed my lips with his own. At first I returned his kiss—until the implication of his words settled over me. I pushed him away.
“What do you mean?” I asked breathlessly.
His brow furrowed as he lightly stroked my cheek with his thumb. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
I embraced such sweet words, the most beautiful I’d ever heard. “I want the same.” It’s what had given me the courage to choose him. “But we’re still from two different worlds.”
He sighed. “And choosing my world would force you to give up the simple one you love so much. I just want to make you happy, Eileen. Do you think you could ever learn to be happy in my world if it meant we were together?”
“Of course, Aiden, but that doesn’t mean we should do this now, not when I’m still entrapped in a competition to win the prince’s hand.”
Aiden burrowed against my throat and groaned. “I almost regret getting you involved. Are you suggesting I try to be patient?”
“It’ll give us time to continue exploring this—us.”
“I love the sound of that.” Aiden pressed a light kiss on my temple. “Although the competition really shouldn’t matter; you don’t want to marry the prince.” Another kiss, this one on my brow, as if he was trying to appease me in order to convince me to change my mind. “Let’s forget the competition and just be together.” He dipped down to kiss my lips again, but I pressed my hands against his chest to keep him back.
“Please, we need to slow down.” This was all too new and beautiful. I wanted to savor the experience.
“I know we should, but that doesn’t mean I want to.” He leaned down, undoubtedly to steal another kiss, but I kept him back.
“Aiden, please.” Even with knowing all I felt for him, this was still too fast. While my fears had shifted from choosing him to being terrified of living a life without him, there was still so much I didn’t know about him. While I no longer doubted he was the right path for me, I still wanted to walk it with caution.
At first he didn’t move. Then with a sigh, he burrowed his face against my hair before he slowly pulled away, expression pained but still full of his usual sweet understanding. “I’m sorry, I’m not meaning to rush you. We’ll slow down.”
I gaped at him. “We will?”
“If that’s what you want.”
He scooted away and started to withdraw his arm, but I whimpered in protest. “I don’t want you to slow down that much.” I snuggled closer and sighed contentedly as his hold tightened. I laid my head back on his shoulder and smiled when he nestled his on top of mine.
“I’m sorry I pushed you away,” I murmured.
“Don’t be,” he said. “I’m
sorry I rushed you. It just feels so right to be with you. But thank you for being honest with me. I don’t want to hurt you.”
At this point, the only thing that could truly hurt me would be losing him. I didn’t want that to happen. Perhaps the farther down this path we walked, the easier it’d become. No matter how long it took for me to trust not just him but the future together he promised me, I knew it’d be well worth the journey.
Chapter 20
I nibbled my lip as I scanned the towering shelves of the vast palace library. Certainly such a grand library would contain the book I was seeking; the problem was I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking for. All I knew was I needed to uncover the mystery constantly gnawing at me; I had various pieces of a puzzle but lacked enough information to assemble it.
Something felt…off. It had from the moment the Forest had gone so uncannily still when I’d first gotten lost in the storm, only for it to lead me miles away from home to the palace. Its motive for my presence here had never been adequately explained, and with each passing day I felt more unease with the situation, especially when I remained uncaught. It seemed a bit too lucky to be coincidence.
“Feeling bookish, Princess Gemma?” I turned to find Prince Liam leaning casually against a shelf with his usual cheeky grin. “Or perhaps you’re still on the quest to uncover the secret passageways. Maybe pulling on the correct book will open a hidden panel.” He began to yank books off the shelf at random.
“Goodness, Liam, what are you doing?” His three sisters had arrived, Princess Aveline wearing her usual frown of disapproval.
“Causing mischief.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Do you ever do anything else?”
“I’ve been known to be charming should the need arise.”
All three of his sisters scoffed, but Prince Liam ignored their reaction and continued tugging out books.
“What are you doing here, Gemma?” Princess Elodie asked.
“She’s searching for the secret passageways,” Prince Liam said. My face heated with a blush.
“I haven’t been looking for them for a while.” As unnerving as my presence at the palace had been at the beginning, the longer I stayed, the less inclined I was to leave.
“If it’s not the secret passageways, then what are you searching for?”
“I’m not entirely sure…” As I spoke my gaze settled on a volume blending into the shelf: The Noble Families of Sortileya. My heart gave an excited leap. For as close as we’d become, Aiden still remained as much a mystery as everything else around me, a mystery I most wanted to solve, considering I’d chosen a future with him. Perhaps learning more about his lineage would provide some of the answers I sought.
I tugged the book free and eased it open. Prince Liam leaned over my shoulder. “Aristocratic genealogies, huh? If it’s a noble you’re interested in learning more about, you’ll glean more truth from gossip than from that tedious beast. That’s how I gather all my own information.” He wriggled his eyebrows.
That certainly explained a lot. “Perhaps I find dry history more interesting than rumors.”
He leaned further over my shoulder, squinting at a prestigious family tree taking up two full pages. “Looks fascinating. Well, to each their own.”
“I didn’t invite you to read over my shoulder, Your Highness.”
“Your Highness?” He made a show of looking affronted. “What did I do to deserve such an offensive address?”
A cold voice interrupted our conversation. “My question exactly. Someone as ridiculous as you certainly doesn’t deserve such a title.”
We all turned to see who had spoken. Princess Lavena stood regally at the end of the row with her look-alike handmaiden in tow, her nose upturned and a sneer directed towards Prince Liam.
“Oh, it’s you.” He swore bitterly, ignoring Princess Aveline’s scandalized retribution for his language.
Princess Lavena tossed her hair elegantly over her shoulder before gliding over. “What an unpleasant surprise to see you too, Liam.”
“Now that you’ve done so, we’ve both filled our quota for the rest of our lives, so be so good as to leave me alone.” He turned his back to her. She rolled her eyes before turning a smirk to me. “Why, if it isn’t the incompetent princess.”
My chest tightened. With the sneer she was giving me…did she suspect?
“You know,” she continued, “I heard the most interesting story about a commoner pretending to be a noble. Have you heard it before, Princess Gemma? It’s a fascinating tale.”
My heart pounded in my ears. I ached to escape from her suspicions, but my knees had locked.
“Since when has anything you had to say been fascinating?” Prince Liam said coldly. “Is that the word for your usual scorn and biting comments?”
Princess Lavena shifted her coldness from me to glare at him. Princess Elodie took the opportunity to shuffle to my side.
“I’ve seen that calculating look of hers before,” she whispered. “She’s going to rile him. It’s best we take cover now.” She took my elbow and guided me down the row. I gratefully followed. We’d no sooner turned the corner than their raised voices echoed from behind us. Princess Elodie sighed. “And there they go.”
It took a moment for the fear to unclench my throat so I could find my voice. “Is she always like that?”
“Often worse. Poor Liam can’t stand her. I’m not sure how those two will survive their match. Rhea and I are convinced they’ll murder one another not even a day in.”
“And Prince Liam truly can’t get out of it?”
Princess Elodie shook her head. “He’s searched for every loophole. The contract is set. It was originally arranged between our late brother and Lavena, but after our brother’s sudden death, Liam inherited not only the crown but our brother’s betrothed. As I’m sure you’ve gathered, he’s rather unhappy about both.” She sighed. “Poor Liam. It was rather startling to not only become the heir but to be forced into an engagement with someone he’s never gotten along with.” She shook her head sympathetically.
Behind us, the raised voices had turned into shouts. Princess Elodie released my arm and turned around with a worried frown.
“Oh dear. If you’ll excuse me, I should go make sure the two don’t kill one another.” She hurried gracefully away. I headed in the opposite direction, trying to put as much space between me and the suspicious Princess Lavena as possible.
Once I’d gotten a safe distance away, I settled into a seat to peruse the volume of lineages, but only a few pages in, I grew bored and abandoned it. Perhaps Prince Liam was right: there were more interesting ways to gather information. I searched the many shelves for something new to read.
“What are you looking for?”
I spun around with a startled gasp and came face-to-face with Princess Seren. She was gorgeous, as was typical for a royal, but hers was more of a hard, cold beauty. Her dark hair was pinned in an elegant style woven with sapphires matching her lavish silver-trimmed gown, both of which emphasized her startling grey eyes, narrowed at me as if she meant to skewer me.
It was clear why she was called the Dragon Princess. Not only did her voice hold an air of constant displeasure, but her expression was twisted into a fierce scowl and fire filled her light eyes. With the way she was glaring at me, she clearly had plans to unleash it.
My nerves were still heightened after my conversation with Princess Lavena, a conversation I now fiercely hoped Princess Seren hadn’t overheard. The tension from that encounter returned full force. I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself.
“I’m searching for reading material,” I said, fighting to keep my voice from shaking, but despite my efforts, it sounded strained to my ears.
She smirked. “I see. You spend an abhorrent amount of time in the library, as if you're relying on it just to survive this experience.”
So she suspected, too, which was likely why she’d been watching me so closely. I fought to remain calm,
a difficult feat when my heart threatened to leap out of my chest. “And you spend a lot of time spying on me.”
She laughed coldly. “You believe I’m spying on you? What a rash claim, one unwise to make from one of your station.”
My breath caught. Oh no, she knew; she had to. Princess Seren was the last person I wanted to discover my secret, for she could easily turn me in to the king or her brother, the Dark Prince.
But then I noticed the calculating way she studied my reaction, as if she were still seeking evidence to support her claim. I swallowed and forced myself to keep my expression impassive, all while fighting the urge to escape this interrogation before it became even more damning.
“It sickens me that one of your background is mingling with those of superior birth,” she continued.
I raised an eyebrow. “You're referring to my royal background?”
Her eyes narrowed further. “You claim to be a true princess?”
Mouth dry, I forced myself to maintain a confidence I didn’t at all feel. “Isn’t that what this competition of Prince Deidric’s is meant to prove?”
Princess Seren’s smirk returned, as if it were a permanent feature on her face. “I must admit you’re doing remarkably well considering your inferiority—a bit too well. You’ve obviously been receiving assistance. But from whom?” Her forehead furrowed in thought as she considered the puzzle before understanding settled over her. “I see. Aiden’s been helping you. I saw you two together the other day. You’ve obviously gotten quite…close.” She rolled her eyes. “The fool. He’ll regret his interference.”
My heartbeat escalated. Would Aiden be punished for his involvement? The thought twisted my stomach in nauseous knots. “He has nothing to do with it,” I stuttered, my heart pounding so loudly I was certain she could hear it.
“He has everything to do with your situation. He’s trying to keep his assistance a secret, but I suspect the truth even if I don’t yet have definite proof. But I will, and then I’ll delight in watching your secret exposed. I’ll ensure you get just what you deserve from this competition.”
Pathways (The Kingdom Chronicles Book 1) Page 22
