Rogue Royalty

by Rebecca Ethington

  “Good.”

  They had awoken with their magic nearly a full week before I had. A full week of playing with the power and feeling it rumble in their veins and a few of my sparks scared them. I expected more from two Golden children, they were born and bred by Chosen, raised to hold magic. Maybe they didn't know what was coming

  “I said, that Drain is bringing down the whole school. Yes, her ass is hanging out of her jean shorts, and yes she is getting too close to my boyfriend.” They gave each other a look, but I plowed on. It was wasting my time having to constantly remind them how they were supposed to treat me, especially now that I was dating the prince. “I would hate for her to get too comfortable here. I would hate for her to start to think she can get away with stuff like that. You know what my mother always says; ‘you let the bad behavior grow and it will spread like a disease’. Her disease is spreading.”

  I had both of their attention now, Miko’s phone was back in his hands, his eyes sparkling as the corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile that I had thought was handsome once.

  Well, before Rowan.

  "What are you suggesting?" Tasha smiled, nails tapping against her forearm as she crossed one arm over the other. "Or rather, what do your parents want you to do?"

  Miko snickered and I looked between the two of them, my lip curling. "I take it you know, then? Did your parents call?"

  "No," Miko said, his shaggy blonde hair shifting as he shook his head, grabbing his own glass and draining it halfway. "But we know that look in your eyes, Sia. My parents were very specific when they asked me to assist you with anything you need. Besides, I have sat around enough dinner tables hearing about the Great Samantha and Giovani Demarco and all the good they are doing in our world. I suppose that good is continuing..."

  He was fishing for information. Poorly. He might as well have been throwing livers to bears with how obvious he was being. Not that I wouldn't tell him, but my parent's actual involvement in everything that was going on wasn't exactly something they wanted getting out, especially to the girl that I was supposed to kill. The girl that had serendipitously been placed right next door to me, not that I thought she was smart enough to press her ear to the wall.

  "Well, they aren't feeding me information on some underground movement," I sighed, pouring myself more of the biting alcohol. "But I am sure they are doing more than blowing up cathedrals."

  The two looked at each other with a smirk, Miko refilling his own glass as he looked at me, his eyes unwavering.

  "I like that. I never understood that guy's obsession with churches anyway," Miko laughed at his own joke. Glasses forgotten, he leaned closer, perched on the edge of his chair as our voices dropped, the air growing heavy with conspiracy.

  I tried to snap a shield around us, letting my magic stretch into a bubble like my defense instructor had been teaching us all week, but I wasn't sure that it worked. Well, more than making everything around us look wobbly. It would have to do.

  I knew what I needed to work on next. It would be needed, especially with meetings and neighbors and wondrous plans taking form.

  "You know, Sia," Tasha said, grabbing her phone back from me. This time she pocketed it. "I was starting to think that you and Rowan were going to have all the fun and you were never going to ask Miko and I to join in."

  "Never!" I feigned shock and took a sip. "I had to wait for the right time is all. Besides, it's not like Rowan is ready to do more than smile and wave. I'm starting to realize why he was kept under lock and key for so long. I've never met someone so awkward. So... Stupid and bumbling! He hasn't kissed me once. I sure as hell ain't any closer to getting our magic to link. I can’t feel anything from him, not even when I kiss him. I’m starting to think that maybe he doesn’t have magic. Useless twat.”

  I threw my hair over my shoulder, nose in the air. They chuckled, but I couldn’t find it in me to join them. Truthfully, magic or not, there was something about Rowan that was drawing me into him. Even if he didn’t have the balls to kiss me.

  "Well, we are here now,” Miko said, refilling the glasses again. “I'll forgive you for dragging your feet."

  "It’s been less than a week, Miko. I wasn't going to send out invitations to participate in a murder on the first day."

  A murder. The words boiled and braced against my ribs, fear pulsing with the eagerness at the task that was before me. Kill the girl? Yes, I was still eagerly planning that delicious end. It was everything that went through it that I was still struggling to accept. The dethroning of the royal family. After so many years striving for a place with them, of getting so close to Rowan, I wasn't about to give that up yet.

  I wasn't going to share the second part of that plan with them, not until I convinced Rowan to bind himself to me. Having their parents leave them in the dark might have been a bit of a blessing. Killing the girl was easy compared to the forced revolution my parents were leading.

  "Murder?" Miko asked, his tongue darting out to lick his lips as though he was hungry for it. "Is it who I think?"

  He knocked his head toward the thin wall to our left and the laughter that was echoing through it, the damn Drains that were visiting the bitch were so loud I could nearly make them out word for word. I let my smile stretch and gave him a single nod, both of their eyes lighting up.

  "Perfect," Tasha said, "I never understood why she was let in here anyway. We might as well blow up half the school and see if it gets us an audience with the Queen."

  "She had an audience with the Queen?" I nearly jumped out of my chair, even Miko was looking at Tasha as though she had tried to serve him spoiled milk and not the fiery drink she was sipping on. The laughter that bled through the wall was a cruel accent to what she had said.

  "Yeah," Tasha said, waving her hand to the side as though she wasn't dropping one of the biggest news bombs of the day. "I was one of the last through The Gauntlet. They had been about to give me my mark when she blew the thing to shit. While you were flat on your back, screaming bloody murder, I saw them catch her. I saw Talon punch the shit out of her, saw Rowan and his mom show up out of fucking nowhere and they all dragged her off to a room. The queen was in there with her, for a long time..."

  Her eyes spread with each word, as though she was telling the most dangerous tale of the girl who blew up the Gauntlet. As if she is being in the aftermath was more important than the fact that the bitch’s explosion had broken my back. I would have to remind her of that later, we had bigger problems now.

  "So, she was alone with the queen--"

  "And the king, and Ryland, and Mira... Didn't your mom tell you?" Tasha said, her awe drifting to a haughty smugness. I pursed my lips. "I told my parents and they said they would pass on the information."

  "They didn't. At least it didn't make it to me," I growled through the tick in my jaw, the anger of what I could only identify as betrayal winding up my back.

  My parents hadn't told me. They wanted me to dispatch the Drain to hell but hadn't given me more than a thread of information on what I was going into. The failure at my 'honorary' acceptance to Imdalind Academy was running deeper than I had expected. It was going to take more than one murder to build myself back into their trust.

  Much more.

  I didn't want to think about what that meant, or what me being paired with Rowan was leading to. Once I finished this job, I could ask more of them.

  "You don't think that the Queen did anything to her do you?" I was suddenly nervous, the vile feeling refusing to move as I waited for Tasha to respond. "Like what Gregario said in Basics today, about the water."

  "The Queen is stupider than we thought if she used the water to give her more power," Miko laughed, shaking his head. "Besides, that's all rumor. It’s clear the Eternals aren't telling us everything. Didn't you say Rowan told you something about Wynifred in the carriage ride over here?"

  "Yeah, he said she killed an entire race of people before she defected to fight with Ilyan."

  "So, the Ki
ng’s sister-in-law is a murderer. Figures,” Miko said with a dark laugh. “I bet she killed the Draks, that's why there aren't any. I bet Ilyan even had her kill them. Kill all the Draks but Joclyn, so the queen can be the only one."

  "You're probably right, would make sense seeing as it's not in the history books. All those say is that Wynifred Krul fought valiantly for centuries. But if she massacred an entire race of people on Ilyan's orders they clearly aren't as good as they make it out to be. That’s quite the cover-up. Wonder what other secrets they are keeping."

  I swallowed, peering between them. Only Miko was meeting my gaze head-on. A shout and more laughter broke through the wall, it sounded as if they broke something. No one moved.

  "I don't want that kind of people leading us. Do you, Sia?" Miko’s eyes were wide, shaking.

  "How much do you know?" My question was a low whisper, barely heard over the noise that was serving as a shield on its own.

  "Enough." Miko smiled, leaning closer, the hungry look taking over his eyes again. "I have a bad habit of listening in doorways, and my parents have a bad habit of leaving doors open."

  "Tasha?"

  "You think I trained for that Gauntlet for years so I could go to school?" She laughed at herself and leaned back in the chair, pulling out her phone and tapping on the screen again. Although this time I had a feeling that it was for a different reason than silly photographs. "I've been waiting to play the game with everyone else."

  "Perfect." The nerves were gone, swallowed by an eager buzzing as the two sat back, lifting glasses and smiles in my direction.

  "Okay, so what do we want to do first?" Miko asked after we all took a drink, the laughter growing into a dull roar that bled through the walls. We all turned to it.

  "I want to find a way to end her in defense class. A powerful spell, sent the wrong direction,” I said to the wall, to the laughter that would be silenced by the end of the month if I had my way. “It has to appear to be an accident, but I have no intention of making this an easy death, especially with how she thinks she can be friends with my boyfriend. She needs to hurt.”

  “So, we need to find an attack that will kill her slowly,” Tasha said, tapping her phone again before she put it down.

  “I think I know just the one,” Miko whispered, smiling at his glass before he drained it. “What do you say we try it out first?”

  5

  Rowan

  It was getting harder to keep my eyes open. I had contemplated sleeping at about two that morning, my body finally ready to drift away into what I was sure was going to be a haunted slumber. This close to the end of the first week, I knew I could make it one more day. My plan had always been to sleep through most weekends so as to not call attention to my weird sleep schedules. We hadn’t told most of the teachers what was going on, for security reasons.

  Which meant I had to make it a few more hours.

  A few more hours of monotony and forced smiles and then sleep.

  It was the perfect excuse for what was really dragging me through the halls, and the girl I wanted to see.

  Gemma.

  It was dumb. With this pathetic and vile role I was being forced to play with Sia, possibly dangerous. Last I heard the Chosen’s’ protests had become increasingly violent; this pathetic chess match might be the only thing that kept us from drifting to a full war.

  I kept telling myself it wouldn’t be much longer, but even I was no longer believing the lie.

  “You’re gonna let me cheat off you, right?” Gemma hissed half way through class, when Analine was going over a world map with some students at the back.

  If I hadn’t been so focused on her I might not have heard her at all.

  “Excuse me?” Damn, my voice was totally shaking.

  “Your family lived this shit, didn’t they? I mean, this is like the sweet story of how your parents met and fell in love and got married and had lots of sex and babies.”

  “Ew.” My jaw clamped and I tried to turn away, but she plowed on.

  “Don’t they regale you with stories of the good ol’ days when you’re sitting around the spit roasting pigs? I mean, you have to be bored out of your mind.”

  I blinked, “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. We don’t roast pigs.”

  “Fine, rats then. You’re still bored. I can tell.” She smiled and nodded to the paper on my desk, the one covered in my signature doodles, monsters and dogs that were poking their heads around questions like “What happened in San Antonio, Texas that triggered the fall of Imdalind?” and “Tell how Ryland’s role in Spain tipped the scales.”

  Yes, I knew the answers to both. I had heard the stories far too many times. I wasn’t sure what part of the stories were public knowledge or which parts were Mira and Ryland trying to battle out who had the highest body count or longest scar.

  Two hundred years after the war and they still bickered about it. You would think Ry would have given in by now.

  “We don’t eat rats either.” Even thinking about it made my stomach twist. Not because I had been vegan for my entire life, but because I had more than my fair share of dreams of Gemma catching and skinning the beasts. Or going hungry when there were none.

  “Well, you’re missing out,” she said with a grin and a wink. “Maybe I’ll invite you to dinner and we can eat ourselves some rat. Yum, yum.”

  She added that last part when my face soured, I must have been going green or something with how loud she laughed.

  “Head down, Miss,” Analine snarled sweeping up behind her and slamming her hand into the back of Gemma’s head as she pushed her toward the untouched paper on her desk.

  I nearly jumped out of my chair, ready to throw my cousin off her. I didn’t know what had gotten into Analine, it was like she had a vendetta against all the Undermortals in the class. I curled my fingers around the edge of my desk, trying to keep my magic restrained even though it was boiling.

  “We do our own work in this class.” Analine jerked Gemma’s head down once more before she swaggered away, giving me a warning look.

  She had warned me not to challenge her authority in class, but I was starting to think that was a request I couldn’t follow. She had always been kind of a bitch at home, but this was taking it to new levels. There was no way Cail would agree with her.

  “Dude, your cousin’s a douche,” Gemma hissed, rubbing the back of her head while she stared daggers at Analine who was now talking to a student near the front.

  “Dramin and I have been saying the same thing for years,” I mumbled staring at my paper and trying to ignore the heat that was buzzing against the base of my neck. My magic spread over my skin like a blush, something that I was sure was getting worse with how she looked at me.

  Paper. Keep my focus on the paper.

  “Dramin? Your brother?” she asked, I nodded, not trusting myself to look at her. Staying awake this long was clearly taking its toll.

  “Well, at least I know there are two Eternals that aren’t total douchebags.”

  “You including me in that?” I asked, sparing her a glance, she was back to lounging in her chair, feet on her desk as she grinned.

  “I thought that was obvious,” she gave me a wink and my magic flared, the power sparking thanks to the gleam in those lavender eyes. “Well, except for your taste in women. Sia Demarco knocks you down a good sixty percent.”

  “So, a half-douche then?”

  “Definitely a half-douche.” She gave me that smug, saucy grin before darting back to her paper, starting up doodles of her own as Analine sauntered by, warning clear in her eyes.

  “Don’t worry,” Gemma said, not looking at me. “There’s hope for you yet, Princey.”

  It was hard to ignore the way my stomach flip-flopped at that.

  By the time I had dragged myself through Professor Stone drawling on about wind magic, lived through Sia hanging on me at lunch, and failed in a chess match with Cail, I was struggling so bad that my swagger was mor
e of a stumble. It was with a yawn that I walked into the large sunken theatre where our Healing and Defense class was meeting.

  The room was huge, with no seats, no desks. Instead, it was made up of large stone steps that rose around the main stage. The whole thing was covered in pockmarks and smoke stains from decades of battles gone wrong.

  Both my brothers had been forced to take this class, even though we had been trained by both Ryland and Mira in both fighting and healing. Which would be why they were never given partners and instead waited around to be used for demonstrations. It was a waste of my time, which was fine as chances were high I was going to fall asleep on the top most stair, as far from the stage as possible.

  All of the windows had been thrown open to hopefully coax a breeze into the stifling classroom and prod the magical smoke that was about to clog the air back out. It wouldn't be the best seat in a few minutes, but right now it felt divine to sink to the floor and lean against the wall, close my eyes and feel the breeze dance over my face, pulling at the long dark strands of my hair.

  I was settling in for a five-day nap when the shriek that was becoming unfortunately familiar broke through the buzz of the other first-years.

  "Rowy!" How, in my exhaustion, had I forgotten that this was the one and only class I had with Sia? A blessing in disguise seeing as I was supposed to be her glue-stick boyfriend for the foreseeable future. The downside was that it made her super clingy and more irritating than I had thought possible.

  She was already heading right for me, taking the massive raised steps two at a time, as she batted her eyelashes at me in signature hummingbird impersonation. Well, it wasn't the best option for me to fall asleep in class anyway.

  "Hi Sia, How's your day?" I stifled a yawn, speaking as politely as possible as she tried to lean in, sparkly lips already puckered. I turned my head at the last minute, letting her mark up my cheek instead.

  "Fine," she pouted, setting her bag on top of mine and sitting as close to me as she could. Everything from shoulder to knee was plastered against me. "Better now. I hate that we don't have any classes together, Rowy." I really needed to get her to stop using that name, and kissing me, and sitting so close she might as well be on my lap. Which I was sure was her ultimate hope. "Are you sure you can't talk to your cousin about changing your classes to match mine?"