by Shelby Hild
Darissa listened without question. Jolene, Louise, and Marisol came up to the wall as Vivilyn directed Darissa to the second handhold. Soon she was directing which handholds to grab for each of them until she could reach Darissa’s hand.
“We can pull each other up,” Darissa shouted as she grabbed Vivilyn’s hand. She didn’t have to suggest it twice before they were all working together to pull each other up.
“First table brunch loyalties,” Jolene said as she slid down the back side of the wall. “They’re the best loyalties out there.”
Natalie ran up right before Vivilyn jumped back off the wall. She was completely covered in mud, dripping a path behind her. Her hands were so slick, Vivilyn was sure she would have difficulty gripping any of the hand holds.
“Grab the rope,” Vivilyn said to Natalie. Then she spoke towards her group waiting behind her, “Go ahead, I’ll catch up.”
Natalie held tightly to the rope and Vivilyn pulled it up.
“Thank you,” Natalie said, as Vivilyn pulled her over the wall. “I’m not sure why you did that, but thank you.”
“Don’t get used to it,” Vivilyn said, with a smile before dropping back off the wall and running. Especially if you’re planning to betray the kingdom.
Vivilyn caught back up with her group after going through a few more of the obstacles on her own.
The tenth obstacle was a single rope strung over what appeared to be a vat of blue dye. Many of the women were huffing and puffing by the time they reached the ladder to climb it, including Darissa and the rest of those from the “first table brunch” group.
Vivilyn pushed herself by the women who had stalled, only taking a moment to be sure everyone was alright. She pulled herself up to the rope and hung from it by her hands and legs. Carefully, she moved across it and then hopped down to the ground on the opposite side.
She could see the women in the lead attempting to get beyond the swinging bars. Natalie somehow kept up right behind Vivilyn since getting over the wall.
They caught up with Brayleigh and Freya at the last obstacle. It was a pair of poles that had a platform with a zipline at the very top that ran about the same length as the rest of the obstacle course. In the center of the platform, a hole was between the two poles.
“How in the five hells are we supposed to reach that?” Freya said underneath her breath. Brayleigh tried to wrap her arms around it and climb up but slid back down almost immediately.
As Vivilyn looked at it, the pole reminded her of a pair of the thinner apple trees she used to always try to climb. She couldn’t climb it on her own. She’d always needed Duncan to get near the top. It had turned into a monthly competition to see if they could reach the top quicker than Maia and Ryso.
“Natalie,” she said suddenly. “Stand next to me, but face away from me.”
“What? Why?” Natalie asked, as she complied to the request.
“We are going to hook arms and walk up the poles. Together.”
“Are you crazy?” Freya asked.
“Quite possibly,” she responded as she watched a slight dark shadow pass over Freya’s face.
Natalie didn’t question it anymore and slowly the two of them walked up the poles. It took a bit of extra maneuvering to actually get on the platform stably, but once they did, they wasted no time in taking the lines all the way down.
Before running away from the ziplines, Vivilyn noticed a rope attached to it that connected to the platform so whoever got up next could pull the bars back up to the top. Someone yelled from the base of the ziplines.
Natalie ignored whoever called out as they followed the path in a large U. Vivilyn took a split second to look behind to make sure everyone was okay. Then she rushed off and caught up with Natalie.
Soon they were racing back to the start upstream, through the freezing water of the river. The water reached up to Vivilyn's knees.
Vivilyn ignored it as much as she could.
One of her feet slipped on a sharp rock and she inhaled sharply as she felt the rock cut her foot. Still, she ran on. Natalie stumbled slightly as well, but she also continued moving.
Soon, Vivilyn could see the finish line.
Prince Aiden stood directly on the other side of it. Vivilyn, panting heavily as the cold air stung her throat and lungs, spurred her legs to go faster. It only took a few steps to get past Natalie.
She could barely breathe. A sharp pain started stabbing her in the side. Her legs itched as though something was irritating them underneath her leggings. Her hands were stiff with the cold.
I can do it, Vivilyn thought to herself, before immediately following the thought with, Gods, I’m out of shape. I need to run more often.
Then, she tripped.
She was so close to the finish line, the fall propelled her directly into Prince Aiden.
He caught her easily and laughed.
His laughter was cut short when someone started hollering in pain in the distance.
Chapter 14
“We just tried to do it like Vivilyn and Natalie did,” Brayleigh hissed through clenched teeth as one of the producers wrapped her ankle tightly. Freya sat on a bench beside her with a swollen wrist that matched Brayleigh’s ankle.
“I swear she’s part spider or something the way they clambered up those poles,” Brayleigh complained.
“It’s just a sprain,” the producer said. “If that. It could just be rolled.”
All of the women gathered in the area outside the large mess hall they'd be eating in later. They shivered in the cold, made worse because they were wet and muddy from the obstacle course.
“Everyone should go shower,” another producer said. “There is plenty of warm water so you can warm up and clean up at the same time.”
“Except you, Lady Vivilyn,” Adontus said, as he left Brayleigh’s side. “Prince Aiden,” he called. Aiden had been whispering to Brayleigh and Freya since they’d been carried to the cabin area.
Falling from halfway up the poles had left them both very shaken, but thankfully not too injured.
Prince Aiden looked up as his name was called and smiled.
“We get to warm up somewhere special,” he said as he took Vivilyn’s arm.
They walked across a bridge over the river a short distance from the cabins. Vivilyn shivered the entire way as three cameramen and a producer with two large bags followed them.
Eventually they came upon some steaming mud pits.
“I’m not so sure this will clean me off,” Vivilyn said as she knelt and stuck a finger in the mud.
“There are caves through that grouping of trees with springs that we can rinse off in,” Prince Aiden said. The producer quickly pulled out swim trunks for Prince Aiden and a swimsuit for Vivilyn. At least, that’s what Vivilyn assumed it was since there was remarkably little cloth compared to her normal swimwear.
“A gift,” the producer said, “from us to you.” She handed the top and then the bottom to Vivilyn.
After they changed into their swimsuits, they stepped into the mud.
“This feels so weird,” Vivilyn said as she squished the mud between her toes. The warm mud felt smooth against her skin. She could feel it even through the stitches of the swimsuit.
“I feel like I’m swimming through slime,” Prince Aiden said as he stepped in after Vivilyn. “Why do I seem to keep getting in muddy situations with you?”
The smile he gave her made her heart flutter. Her stomach seemed to be attempting cartwheels.
“I think you just like having an excuse to not look so perfect and pristine all the time,” she said. She picked up a handful of mud and dropped it on his head.
“Hey!” he exclaimed with a laugh before trying to do the same thing to her.
Vivilyn moved to the side at the last minute so the mud only landed on her cheek and shoulder. They both laughed before wrestling to get the mud onto each other. Every inch of them was covered before they relaxed and decided to get out and try to clean up.
They weren’t given long in the mud, but it was long enough for Vivilyn to have stopped feeling as though even her bones were shivering. When they stepped out and ran through the trees and into the hot springs inside the caves, she couldn’t help but sigh as she wiped the mud off.
After they had rinsed as much of the muck off of each other as possible, Prince Aiden pulled Vivilyn closer to him.
“How is everything?” he asked as he looked down at her. Vivilyn could feel his heart pounding against her own chest as she looked into his silver eyes.
Vivilyn wanted to tell him about all her doubts. About feeling as though she was a fraud. About everything weighing on her mind, even the visions. But how could she add to the enormous weight he was already under?
She had no doubt he would listen with a sympathetic ear, but for most of the things worrying her mind, how could he help? And if she told him about her visions, then he’d have no choice but to turn her in. She’d be killed for her connection to magic and he’d not be able to do anything to stop it, no matter how much he liked her.
Plus the cameras filming the moment made it even more difficult to even consider opening up. It was one thing for him to know how she was feeling, but that would just make her appear weak to the people watching.
“Everything is going about as well as it could, I think,” she said, rather than unloading everything she felt.
“Are you sure?” he asked, as he pulled at a strand of Vivilyn’s hair.
“Why shouldn’t it be?” She said as she laid her head against his chest. The steam of the water rose against her face.
“Well,” he said, his arm around her tightened. “You’ve just seemed a little off recently, I guess.” He shrugged and Vivilyn felt him drop her hair and wrap his arm around her, so he was completely holding her again.
“I guess,” Vivilyn said, trying to explain without actually explaining. “I guess I’ve just had a lot on my mind,” she settled on.
“If you want to talk about anything,” he said, pulling away from her to look firmly into her eyes, “you can talk to me, you know?”
“And if you want to talk about anything,” Vivilyn said, “I’m here for you too.”
Aiden smiled and kissed Vivilyn’s forehead. He pulled them both over to a ledge in the water and sat down.
“You’re beautiful,” Prince Aiden said as he looked up at Vivilyn, “and I do really like what you’ve done with your hair.”
“Thank you,” Vivilyn said as she pulled herself through the water onto his lap. She leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.
She was comfortable.
The warmth of the water steamed all around them. Prince Aiden’s heartbeat was steady, as was his breathing.
He hummed something quietly as he ran his hand through her hair.
Vivilyn felt her own heart start to match pulses with his. She looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back.
Vivilyn could almost ignore the voices in her head telling her she was a fraud and didn’t deserve to be there as she stared into his kind and calming eyes.
She couldn’t look away from him until people came to collect them to rejoin the rest of the group.
***
“And you just sat there?” Darissa said back in the cabin after Vivilyn had returned and taken an actual shower. Dusk brought with it an even colder chill in the air, so the women in the cabin all collected under thick, fluffy blankets.
Initially dinner was supposed to be served in a mess hall to be followed by tales around a campfire, but clouds moved in quicker than predicted and thick sheets of sleet had changed the plans. Instead, the women were brought food in their cabins and tons of extra blankets.
The sleeting had stopped, thankfully.
“What do you mean?” Vivilyn asked as she shifted on her nest of blankets in the middle of the room.
“You didn’t kiss or anything?” Trina questioned. She had started out on the opposite side of the giant pile of blankets, but each time Vivilyn looked over as she told about her alone time with the prince, Trina had moved closer and closer.
“No,” she said.
“Have you kissed him yet?” Jolene asked from her bunk, under at least three extra blankets.
“No,” she said.
She thought back to the time in her room when she’d given him the painting of the phoenix. She wasn’t certain, but the more she thought about it, the more she was sure that they would have kissed had they not been interrupted.
“We haven’t either,” Darissa said as she laid her head across Vivilyn’s lap.
“Me either,” Jolene said.
“What about you guys?” Trina asked the other women in the room.
“We haven’t,” Entra said. “But that’s partially because I don’t want to kiss anyone until I know them better. I mean, who’s to know that he’s not kissing hundreds of other women? I want my kisses to be special.”
“We…” Marisol said with a small smile, “we have. It was before the last ceremony. We’d just seen a rainbow and… I don’t know, the moment seemed right.”
Vivilyn wanted to ask Marisol more about that since the last she’d mentioned anything about Aiden to them was that there was no connection between her and the prince. But the conversation moved on too quickly.
“We have as well,” Louise said, with a dreamy, far-off look. “I said he wouldn’t dare. And he dared.”
“I wonder how many of us he has kissed so far,” Marisol said.
“I try not to think about it,” Trina replied with a shrug. She shifted from the nest on the ground to her own bed.
“He’s probably done more than kiss Brayleigh, Freya, and Serinta,” Jolene said. “I mean, they’re willing to do anything to win this thing.”
“You’re just speculating,” Darissa said as she sat up. Within a few minutes, the women had collected all their blankets and moved to their beds.
Vivilyn curled up on her bunk just thinking about the whole day until she was listening to the deep breathing of most of the other women.
“Vivilyn,” Darissa whispered from above her. “Vivilyn, are you still awake?”
“Hmm?” she said quietly in response. A shift in the shadows above caused her to open her eyes. It was just Darissa leaning over the side of the bed.
“Do you think he has done more than kiss anyone?” she asked.
Her voice seemed so small and vulnerable it woke Vivilyn completely. She had always been so self-assured and happy. Why would she suddenly doubt something like that?
“I don’t think so,” Vivilyn whispered back. “I mean, when would he have the time to do anything? We rarely get any alone time with him.”
“That makes sense,” Darissa said.
She was quiet for a few moments before saying, “Well, he managed to find time to give you your jasmine charm without anyone seeing.”
“Yeah,” Vivilyn said, as she curled up more underneath the blankets. “But that’s a different situation.”
“How?” Darissa asked.
“It just is,” Vivilyn said.
Darissa seemed to accept it as she pulled herself back up to her bunk.
Vivilyn couldn’t sleep, though.
Was it something completely different than the times Prince Aiden had met with her versus meeting with someone else? It felt like it was to her, but would it be to him? Vivilyn wasn’t so sure. If he could find the time to spend with her, surely he could find the time to spend with the other women.
Her thoughts remained on that track until sleep completely overtook her.
“Vivilyn,” a voice whispered in the night. “Vivilyn, wake up.”
A poke upon her forehead caused her to sit up rapidly and smack the poking offender.
“Ouch,” Prince Aiden said. “What was that for?”
“Prince Aiden?” Vivilyn quickly and quietly responded, rapidly trying to brush the sleep out of her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to wake you up,�
� he said.
“Is she awake?” Darissa asked in an equally whispered voice.
“The red hand mark across my face has determined that yes, yes, she is most definitely awake.”
“What is going on?” Vivilyn started to remove the blankets from her legs, but the cold battered against them. She covered her legs with blankets again immediately.
“We are going on an adventure,” Darissa said.
In the back of Vivilyn’s mind she heard Ally’s voice telling her adventures were part of why no cameraman wanted to follow her.
“Get dressed.” Darissa had to cover her mouth to avoid laughing in her excitement and waking anyone else up.
“What kind of adventure?” she asked, pulling the blankets up even higher on her body.
“Both of you mentioned lesser fortunate people in Crysteal on the way to the manor,” Prince Aiden said. “My whole life I’ve been led to believe that all the people in this kingdom are well taken care of. I need to know more about this, about those that are in more need than I know. I need to see just how bad it is.”
“Here,” Darissa said, dropping something heavy on top of Vivilyn’s blankets. “It’s a coat that isn’t as high quality as the stuff we normally have. It’s warmer than the ones we’ve got, though.” Something else dropped. “And those are some fleece leggings. It has to be below freezing out there.”
“Hurry up,” Prince Aiden said. “I’ll be waiting outside.”
Vivilyn listened as he walked away from them. The door opened, revealing a slight increase in light from the moon as he exited the cabin.
She quickly jumped out of her bed and changed into the clothes that had been dropped on top of her.
“Where did you even find this stuff?” Vivilyn asked as she slipped on her boots. They were more snug than they had been earlier since she currently wore four pairs of socks rather than just a single pair of them.
“I have a thing about being prepared for any possible event,” Darissa said. “And since I know Ettravil doesn’t get cold as quickly I assumed neither does Treelyn.” She pulled the door open and they walked outside together.
“Where did you even hide the coats?” Vivilyn asked.
