“Fair enough. But they’ll be interested in you when our engagement is announced. A royal marriage always gets the media talking about the future of the monarchy, even if it’s not their own.”
“Then we’d better sell our arrangement well,” I stated. “Are you as bad an actor as you are at charming women? We might be in trouble if that’s the case.”
He smirked.
“If I wanted to charm you, we wouldn’t still be talking, Princess.”
“Oh, so you’re a ladies man. Is that why you’re so against this arrangement? Am I ruining your fun?”
“I have more important things to worry about than charming women.”
“Right.” I rubbed my temple and let out a sigh. “Look, we need to either commit to this or give up now. And if we do give up, it’s coming from you, not me. You know where I stand. So the ball is in your court.”
“Fine. I’ll give it a try.”
“Say it with more conviction and I’ll believe you.”
“We’re going to try and make it work,” he said through his teeth. I took a sip of my tea.
“Perfect. Well now that’s out the way, let’s start getting to know each other properly. We’re in a public place so we need to make it look like we can actually get along.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“I’m sure we’ll get along properly at some point,” I said at his look. “But right now we’re trying to make this engagement believable. That’s why we’re doing this right now. We’re the distraction so they can figure out how to stop the Impius attacks without turning the entire realm against us.”
“I don’t see how this will be a distraction,” he said doubtfully.
“It’s a royal marriage. The media will be too busy contemplating what dress I’ll wear and who will make the guest list to make up shit about these attacks. I hope you don’t mind being on the front page.”
“Even a royal marriage won’t take their attention away from a supernatural attack on their world.”
“I can guarantee that we’ll be on the front page this time next week. And everyone will want to interview us on our new found romance.”
“You seem very sure.”
“I know the media. And this is exactly the distraction your army needs to fix the veil without the human realm turning against us.”
Chapter 4
A newspaper slammed down on the table in front of me. I looked up and saw Rick scowling as he slid into the seat opposite me.
“They miss nothing,” he said. I looked at the front page but we weren’t the cover. There was a mention of a new Fae romance on the side so I flipped to the page the article was on and saw a photograph of Blaine and I leaving the café.
“Wow,” I muttered. “They have spies everywhere.”
“They’re always watching you.”
“That’s the point. Though, I wasn’t expecting it to move this quickly.”
I studied the photograph. Despite our rocky start, we’d agreed to play the part and see how things went. We’d left the café and said our goodbyes. It didn’t look romantic, but they’d still managed to make an article about it.
“It looked like a date,” I read aloud. “But I think it’s early days. They kept the whole thing casual and just talked but I reckon it could be more.”
It was a quote from someone who’d been in the café at the same time as us. I laughed.
“You find it funny? Isn’t this what you wanted?” Rick frowned.
“I guess,” I said, running my hand through my hair. “I just wasn’t expecting it to be in the news this soon.”
“Yeah, about that. My dad let it slip that the Council tipped The Mirror off.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“Because the Council is diabolical?”
“That’s a big, mean word. Your dad’s on that Council.”
“Yeah, well…”
“It could’ve backfired,” I sighed. “It wasn’t exactly the big romantic date I think they envisioned.”
“That bad?”
I knew he’d been dying to ask me about it.
“It was… complicated. In the first five minutes he insulted me and told me to make my dad pull the plug.”
“He insulted you?”
“He was trying to provoke me because he doesn’t want to go through with it. But I talked him down. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’ll keep the media busy for a while.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Rick said, brightening a little. “So, what’s he like?”
“A bit arrogant, a workaholic and moody as hell.”
“What a dreamboat.”
“Yeah. It’s going to be tough pretending to be totally in love with him.”
“Yeah. That’ll suck.”
His frown returned but I ignored it, skimming the article. It wasn’t front page stuff but at least the gossip was out there.
“So, you reckon you’ll actually marry this douche?”
“I don’t know. I think there’s more to him but it’s going to be like chipping away at concrete with a spoon. He’s stubborn.”
“From my experience, two stubborn people can lead to trouble.”
“What experience?” I shot back at him. He scowled at me. “I know you don’t like this but I have to at least try.”
“Is it really worth being unhappy for the rest of your life?” he asked.
“I don’t know. But this is how it has to be for now.”
He let it drop, though I could tell he still had plenty more to say about it.
“When are you next seeing him?”
“Tomorrow. We’re going for a romantic stroll through London.”
Rick pulled a face but the door opened before he could reply. Dad walked in and put his hand on my shoulder.
“How’s the studying going?” he asked me. I gestured to the pile of books in front of me.
“Slowly,” I answered. In my spare time, dad had me studying our history. Most of it was pretty dull but I persevered anyway. Even though my dad would reign for many years, I wanted to be ready for when it was my time to take over.
“I know it’s boring but there’s important information in these books,” he explained. “We learn from the past. That’s why you need to know it.”
“Did grandpa make you read these?”
“He did,” he said, sitting down beside me. “Though this book wasn’t in the pile.”
He tapped the newest volume, which was all about how the Fae declared their existence to the humans. It had been during my grandpas reign, over two decades ago. I had been born into two realms but my father hadn’t. He’d taken over after my grandpa had dropped the bombshell to the humans.
“What was it like?” Rick asked. “I bet the humans hated us.”
“It was a complicated time. Humans love to watch films about magic but knowing it existed scared them. They feared we would use it against them. It took nearly seven years to write all the laws and prove our desire to be at peace with them. Even now, there’s a lot of hate towards our kind.”
“Will it always be this way?” I asked.
“Probably. It doesn’t help that the Impius are attacking.”
“Have you heard anything from Roger?”
Roger was one of my father’s close friends. He had been part of the team that volunteered to enter one of the portals that had been stabilised.
“No,” dad admitted. “We’re debating sending another team in to see what we’re up against.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” I frowned.
“Yes but we can’t stop these attacks if we don’t understand why they’re happening.”
“But what if…” I didn’t want to finish my sentence, afraid of upsetting him. If Roger’s team had been killed inside the Impius’ realm… Dad knew what I was getting at anyway.
“It’s a risk,” he said stiffly. “But if we don’t find a way to stop these attacks, it’s going to escalate. People are dying and they’re starting to p
oint the finger at us. It’s a supernatural threat and we’re supernatural. If we don’t find a way to stop this, everything your grandpa and I have worked for will be destroyed.”
“How many Fae live in this realm?” Rick asked.
“Thousands. Some have even moved to other countries. Losing our peace with the humans will be devastating to our realm.”
“Would it really be so bad?” I asked weakly. “I love it here. Really, I do. But I also love Avaria. And we stayed in our own realm for thousands of years before the first portal was created.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” dad sighed, running his hand through his hair. “We rely heavily on the trade we get from this realm.”
“But those trades are luxuries, not essentials. In the twenty years the main portal has been open, we’ve advanced our own realm so much… We could survive without access to this realm.”
“And you truly believe our people would just nod and agree after experiencing all the benefits of this realm?” Dad raised an eyebrow. “And more than that, could you abandon this realm to the Impius?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Then we need to deal with this threat as if it were against our own realm. And maybe it will be. Until we know more, we have to do what we have to do to fix this.”
I nodded, understanding. Though I had only seen a few recordings of the Impius, I knew they were terrible creatures that only seemed intent on killing. When the first attack had occurred over six months ago, there had been over a dozen deaths. The media had claimed that the Impius came from our realm, but we quickly squashed that rumour.
“What’s our next move?” I asked.
“Now that the country is on lockdown, we’re expanding our forces across the whole continent so that we can be at any incident within minutes. I’m negotiating portal openings to make travel easier for bigger attacks.”
“Why didn’t you mention to the public that Impius are susceptible to fire?” I asked him.
“Because I don’t want people to burn down their cities in fear. Humans can’t control fire. If it gets out of hand, they risk burning to death. Giving them the means to protect themselves is better than allowing them to risk their lives to try and kill these monsters themselves.”
“But it will get out eventually.”
“I imagine so, but right now I’m not concerned about that. I’m concerned about stopping the attacks.”
He rubbed his temple and sighed. Now I was looking at him closely, I could see worry lines on his forehead and rings under his eyes. After everything we’d gone through last year, these attacks were the last thing he needed. I swallowed hard.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked, knowing there wouldn’t be.
“I’ve got it covered,” he replied. “You just worry about this engagement. How are you feeling about it?”
I’d only gone into vague details about my first encounter with Blaine to my dad. And seeing how tired he was, I didn’t want to burden him even more.
“You know me,” I replied with a small smile. “I can sweet-talk him into behaving.”
“That’s my girl.”
I ignored Rick’s scowl.
“You two have any plans for today?” dad asked.
“I have homework,” I said gesturing to the books. “And Rick forgot to bring me a drink so he’s fired.”
“Am I just a beverage dispenser to you?” he asked.
“Do you see a drink in my hand?”
Dad stayed for a while before leaving to go to some meeting. Rick hovered, looking bored as I flicked through the books.
“Are we still going out tomorrow night?” he asked after a while.
“Yes,” I said as I turned another page. “I’m probably going to need a few drinks if my last date was anything to go on.”
Rick didn’t answer immediately and I imagined he was debating whether or not to comment on Blaine. Luckily, he let it go.
“Good,” he said. “And we’re good to crash here?”
“Yep.”
I glanced through the doorway at the generous open-plan living area of my dad’s London flat. Everything was white and perfect, like it had been pulled out of a catalogue. Unlike our home in Surrey, he’d never decorated this place, only filled it with stuff he needed. There were two double bedrooms, one of them mine.
I returned my gaze to the book but the words were starting to blur together.
“Ugh,” I sighed. “I’m frazzled. Let’s go get some coffee.”
Chapter 5
Blaine was waiting next to a street cart when Rick dropped me off the next day. He had insisted and I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him so we’d had a tense drive from my dad’s flat. He pulled up behind the cart and narrowed his eyes at Blaine, who was looking moody as hell.
“He’s tall,” he muttered.
“Yeah.”
“What’s with the hair? He not heard of a comb?”
I rolled my eyes and unclicked my seatbelt.
“Want me to pick you up?” he asked.
“Nah, I’ll just get a taxi. Meet back at the flat for six?”
“Okay.”
I climbed out of the car, leaving Rick to stew as I walked over to Blaine. He glanced behind me at Rick’s car.
“Hi,” I said when he failed to speak.
“Hi,” he answered. “Who’s that?”
“My friend,” I replied. Blaine returned his gaze to me.
“He doesn’t look very happy.”
“That’s his default face. Don’t take it personally.”
I glanced back at Rick and waved my hand, hinting at him to go. He scowled but drove off.
“So, what’s the plan today?” Blaine asked, sounding like he’d already decided this was going to suck.
“Just walking,” I said. “I’m sure the papers have been tipped off that we’re out.”
“Of course they have.”
“So we need to act like we’re having a good time.”
“Uh-huh.”
He sounded so miserable it was starting to annoy me. Instead of showing it, I gestured for him to walk with me.
“So we’re just walking?” he asked as we strolled down the street. “Why would they write an article about this?”
“Because it’s gossip,” I pointed out.
“Is it? People walk all the time.”
“Did you see the article about our date in the café?”
“I did.”
“They’ll start speculating about why we’re hanging out, what it means, if we’re dating. We just need to sell it.”
“Right.”
He frowned a little. I tried not to scowl.
“So, how’s work going?”
He shot me an irked look.
“What?” I asked, raising a brow. “Am I not allowed to ask?”
“Work’s fine.”
“You could give me more than that.”
“It’s restricted information.”
“It’s like you’ve forgotten who you’re talking to. I’m allowed to know.”
“You are?”
“Your army is as much my concern as it is yours.”
“I figured you were too busy to concern yourself with what we’re up to.”
“And once again you prove just how little you know me.”
He took a moment to reply.
“We’ve set up regular patrols throughout the country. We can be at any incident in half-an-hour.”
“My dad’s working on getting more portals available,” I offered. “As soon as it’s approved, it will make your job a lot easier.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Blaine replied dryly. “Getting there is the easy part. It’s the rest that’s hard.”
“Have you seen one?” I asked. He seemed to tense a little.
“I’ve seen a lot.”
“What are they really like? I’ve only seen footage.”
“Consider yourself lucky. They’re horrible.”
“Ha
ve you killed any?”
“A few.”
“What’s it like?”
“Killing one? I wouldn’t know how to describe it.”
I didn’t push him because I guess it wasn’t exactly a nice question for him.
“So, the Fire Unit,” I said after a brief pause. “How’d you get to be the Commander of it? You’re still so young.”
“I’ve been training since I could walk,” he shrugged. “And I’m good with fire.”
“Fair enough,” I said, wishing the conversation would flow easier. How the hell were we meant to reach a place suitable for marriage when we could barely hold a conversation?
I could feel people watching us. Everywhere I looked, people were pointing or taking photos. I was used to it but I couldn’t help but feel like our date was in the spotlight. And it didn’t really look like it was going well.
I guess Blaine was having the same thoughts.
“So how are we meant to act for the cameras?” he asked.
“Like we’re… happy. Having fun.”
“And how are we meant to do that?”
“Seriously? You don’t know what a good date looks like?”
“I don’t really date.”
“Uh-huh. Fine. Stop looking so damned miserable. Ever heard of a smile?”
He rolled his eyes.
“It’s really not that hard,” I offered, giving him a big smile. He glowered back at me.
“I’m not used to being watched.”
“Really? I’ve seen articles about you. You might not be as famous as me, but the media’s noticed you.”
“They have?”
“A handsome, young, Fae Commander? I found a piece written about you when you took over the Fire Unit. I mean, it was clearly written by a middle-aged woman obsessed with Fae, but it was very flattering.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Not a big fan of the spotlight?” I guessed. “Why did you agree to this then?”
“It’s not like I really had a choice,” he admitted. “My father was insistent.”
“He forced you to agree?”
The Avarian Chronicles: A Tear In The Veil Page 3
