by Rose, Louise
“Maybe I can.” I think for a moment. “Romy, could you do a detour and drop me off at my father’s? I can sneak in and see what I can find. I’ve done it before when I rescued you guys. I might be able to find something which will let us know what he’s up to, and we can figure out our next move based on that.”
“I’ll come with you,” Romy offers. “I don’t want you going in there by yourself.”
“It’s safer if I’m alone,” I say. “I’m less likely to be spotted and if they do find me, I’m my father’s daughter. They won’t hurt me. But if they capture you, there’s going to be all sorts of trouble.”
“I’m not happy about this, Ivy,” Romy says. “I should be there to protect you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I tell him. “I’ve got my phone and I’ll have the tracking switched on. I’ll hit the speed dial if there’s any trouble and you can storm the place to get me.”
“All right. But I want you to know I’m not happy about this.”
I climb on the back of his bike and Romy speeds off in the direction of my father’s. He drives past the security guard at the entrance and around the corner, parking up by a large tree.
“Here. I’ll give you a leg up.” Romy leans forward and clasps his hands together so I could put my foot in them, and boosts me up the tree. I shimmy up the branches, climbing out and over the wall around my father’s grounds, dropping down on the other side.
The sun is setting, providing me with plenty of shadows to hide in as I scurry towards the house. I remembered the layout from when I’d rescued the boys, so I went around the back, staying low as I try each of the windows, trying to find a way in.
“Bingo!” I find a small window which has been left open. Carefully, I push it open, trying not to make a sound, tumbling through it into a study. Picking myself up, I dust myself off, trying to get my bearings. If I’m right, my father’s study is a couple of doors down. If he is in there, I am planning on listening at the door to see if I can hear anything useful. And if he isn’t, then I am going to rifle through as many drawers as I could. Somewhere in this house lay the secret to what my father is up to with Lucas.
I tiptoe over to the door and put my ear up to it. I can’t hear anything, so I slowly pull it open…
…walking straight into the arms of two guards.
I reach into my pocket for my phone to press the button that would call Romy, but one of the guards grabs my hand. Pulling out my phone, he yanks it out of my hand, throws it to the floor, and stomps on it.
So much for the cavalry.
“Hey!”
They hold tightly to my arms and roughly drag me down the hall to my father’s study. I did my best to fight them, kicking and struggling, but they are way too strong for me.
They go into the study without knocking. My father is clearly waiting for me, leaning against his desk, Lucas by his side like the good little lap dog he is.
“Ah, my dear Ivy. How good to see you again. I’ve been expecting you. I must admit it is quite amusing watching you ninja your way across the lawn, thinking you were being discrete. Surely you must have realised I’d have stepped up my security since you helped my prisoners to escape? You didn’t honestly think you’d be able to get anywhere near my house without my seeing you, did you?”
Yeah. I did.
“What are you up to?” I don’t let any of my fear show, instead letting my hostility towards my father shine through. “Why is he here?”
“I’m so glad you asked.” My father smiles smugly. “Meet your new fiancé.”
“Fiancé?” I do a double take as Lucas grins.
“Although not for long,” my father continues. “Now that you’re here, we can step up plans for your wedding. How does tomorrow sound?”
“Tomorrow? Woah, woah, woah. Hold on. I’m not marrying him. Not tomorrow, not ever.”
“I had a feeling you might say that.” My father leans across and presses a button on his desk. “That’s why I arranged for a little insurance.”
“Let go of me, Carl!”
My blood runs cold as an attractive young man drags Milly into the room.
“Ivy! What are you doing here? Have you come to save me?”
“I suppose in a manner of speaking, she has,” my father says. “You see, Ivy is going to marry young Lucas here.”
“Lucas?” Milly frowns. “But she’s marrying Romy.”
“Not anymore. Ivy will marry Lucas tomorrow, otherwise we’ll all be gathering to witness your execution.”
“What?”
“No!”
Milly screams and I gasp.
“So, you see, it’s all Ivy’s choice. Marry Lucas or your best friend dies. Which is it to be?”
Epilogue
I look at my reflection in the mirror. My father’s assistant Isabella certainly has good taste in wedding dresses. The ivory gown is figure hugging, just the right side of understated with delicate embroidery running around the hem with a high front and low back. My hair is caught up in a chignon, a long veil covering my face and hair.
Milly stands next to me, wringing her hands. “I’m so sorry, Ivy.” She is on the verge of tears. Again. “I had no idea Carl was working for your father. I should have guessed. No one that attractive would want someone like me. I owe you my life for this, Ivy. I’m going to change, I’m not going to be the pushover any longer. I will figure out a way to make your father and Lucas pay for this.”
“Stop it, Milly.” I turn and put my hands on her shoulders, wanting to shake some sense into her. “You’re beautiful. Any man would be lucky to have you. If Carl hadn’t brought you here, my father would have found some other way of blackmailing me into doing what he wants. None of this is your fault, so don’t beat yourself up about it. I’ll get an annulment or something.”
“But what about Romy? His heart will be broken when he finds out.”
Neither of us mention the gunshots we’d heard the night before. I was in no doubt that Romy had tried to come get me, but my father’s men fought him off. I could only hope that he’d managed to get away without being hurt.
And that he’d forgive me. How stupid I’d been, thinking I’d be able to figure out my plans so easily. This isn’t Milly’s fault. It is all mine.
There is the sound of someone unlocking the door. Milly and I look over to see Isabella come in.
“Are you ready to get married?” she asks with a fake smile just for me.
Never in a million years.
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Description
King Academy has fallen with its elite and I'm going to save them.
All towns have sins, most hide them well, but King Town?
The sins rule here.
And they each have a name.
Archer Knight, Romeo Navarre, and Declan Dauphin rule this little town. And I am theirs.
Together, we have come up with a plan to make sure our throne never ends.
My father has no idea what is coming next.
Some say our story started with a fairytale but it will end in blood and crowns.
Recommend for 18+ readers due to content. This is a full-length book and the first of five books in this series and a reverse harem romance which means the main characters has more than one love interest.
Chapter Forty-Seven
“Good morning, wifey.”
I open my eyes to see Lucas smiling down at me, leaning against the side of the bed like he owns the entire world. I feel like throwing up. It’s been a week since Lucas and I had exchanged vows, and I still am not used to being married to him. I didn’t think I ever would be. It wasn’t as though I’d done it because I wanted to. When you’re faced with a choice of get married or see your best friend butchered before your eyes, you say ‘I do,’ even while your heart screams I don’t!
The only good thing so far was that Lucas had behaved like a perfect gentleman since he put a ring on my finger. He hasn’t even kissed me, other
than an awkward peck on the lips once the priest declared us man and wife. Sure, we slept in the same bed and my father insisted on calling me Mrs Donatello every time we met, but for all intents and purposes, we might as well have been brother and sister for the lack of passion between us. Every time I see him, I only see them. The three kings who have my heart and nothing my father or Lucas can do will change that fact.
I stretch out, trying to act all nonchalant when the reality is that the thought of walking back into that school a married woman makes me feel like I have heavy rocks at the bottom of my stomach. How am I meant to explain this to Declan? And what about Romy? Poor Romy will be heartbroken. Our engagement might have been one of convenience, but at least the two of us had feelings for each other. It wasn’t all fake.
Archer would know about it by now. My father had kept Milly under lock and key since the wedding. He called it insurance in case I decided I wasn’t going to accept life as a married woman, but now we are going public with the news I’d married Lucas, he let Milly go home last night.
I hope against hope she would be at school today. I am going to need a sympathetic face, but something tells me her family would insist she stay home to recover from her ordeal and I can’t blame them. The Knights had suffered enough thanks to my father.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” Lucas says. “I’ll be with you. I know you don’t think much of me right now, but I want to make this marriage work. It’s to both of our benefit if it does. It might be too much to ask for you to love me right now, but I think, no, I know that when you get to know me better, you’ll find I’m not a bad person and maybe you’ll change your mind.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” I say, getting up and grabbing some clothes before going to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I lock the door behind me. This is the only privacy I ever get, so I take my sweet time getting ready.
My father confiscated my phone, so I have had no contact with the outside world since my sham of a wedding ceremony. I can only imagine how many text messages Romy has sent me. The poor guy must be going out of his mind.
If I’d been allowed to wear whatever I liked to school, I’d have picked all black clothes, a signal that I was in mourning for the life I should have had. As it is, I go for a Goth look with my makeup, going as over the top as I dared without risking being told to wash it off by Pilkington. I am not going to glam myself up for Lucas. Anyone watching me will know I am angry with the world and my father in particular.
“Wow, Ivy.” Lucas does a double take when he sees me stride out of the bathroom. “I wouldn’t like to get in your way today. You look like someone seriously pissed you off.”
“Someone did.” I give him a look, and he smirks.
“Look, none of this is my fault,” he protests, holding his hands in the air. “I’ve told you that so many times I’m sick of hearing it. I’m as much a victim here as you are.”
“You keep saying that, but I’ve yet to see any evidence of it,” I reply. “You’re still as buddy-buddy with my dad as always. The pair of you are up late talking every night, no doubt plotting your next move to take over this town. Well done on preventing a marriage to Romy Navarre which would have given me independence from my father, but would also have benefited House Archaic. I don’t know what you said to my father that persuaded him that a complete unknown was a better bet, but whatever it was, it must have been good. My father never does anything unless it benefits him. So, what was it, Lucas? What did you promise him? Or did you buy your way into my family?”
“We ought to go to the dining room,” Lucas replies, sidestepping the question. “Your father wants us to have breakfast with him before we go to school.”
“Probably wants to check I’m not wearing gloves to cover up my wedding ring,” I snipe, but I follow Lucas out of our suite and down to the dining room where we’ve been having meals with my father three times a day since the wedding. Most couples would have been on honeymoon this past week, but not us. My father said he was going to pay for us to go away on our first anniversary. Until then, he wants to ‘keep an eye on us’, presumably to make sure that I am behaving the way he wants. Lucas has the father-in-law from hell, but what my father doesn’t know is that I can be as stubborn as him and I am more than happy to wait for the perfect opportunity to get my revenge.
He won’t know what hit him by the time I’m was done with him.
“Ah, the happy couple.” My father beams at us as we walk into the dining room together. “So good to see you ready to announce your marriage to the world.”
I scowl but say nothing as I cross over to my regular seat to the left of my father, Lucas coming to sit next to me. I bite down on my cheek as hard as I can to stop myself from screaming. The taste of my own blood settles me.
“Let me see your hand, I want to make sure everyone can see your commitment to Lucas,” my father orders. Obediently, I hold out my left hand and he takes it, inspecting my engagement ring and wedding band. Even though Lucas and I hadn’t had time for an engagement, my father had insisted on supplying me with a ridiculously over the top diamond solitaire and matching platinum wedding ring which had been engraved with Lucas and my names.
“Good.” My father nods, satisfied. “Be sure to show that to everyone you meet, particularly Archer Knight and Romeo Navarre. Let no one say that your new husband doesn’t know how to treat a lady. And while you’re at it, be sure to mention how in love the two of you are. By the end of the day, no one at the Academy should be in any doubt that you are serious about this marriage and being with Lucas. I do not want to hear any rumours about you and Romeo rekindling your affections behind Lucas’s back-–nor do I want to be told that Archer is using you to get to me. Are we clear?”
“Clear,” I mutter.
A maid comes and places a plate with a selection of Danish pastries in front of me as well as a large bowl of fresh fruit salad with a dollop of plain yogurt on the top, exactly how I like it. I have no appetite-–hadn’t wanted to eat since the wedding-–but I know my father would be displeased if I didn’t finish everything in front of me, so I force it down, every bite turning to ashes in my mouth.
“Now then,” my father comments. “I want you both to come straight home after school today. Ivy, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of catching up to do with all the classes you missed. Your work has never been exemplary other than for music. Need I remind you that I allowed you to take that class on the condition you maintained a certain standard in your other subjects? I know you were able to scrape by the assessments on your return to the Academy, but you and I both know that if you do not remain diligent in your work, you’ll soon slip behind your peers, which will not do. You’ve missed enough school this year without having to lose another week.”
And whose fault is that?
I know better than to openly criticise my father, so I say nothing.
“Lucas,” my father continues, “I want you to come see me as soon as you return home. We have a few matters to discuss after you’ve assessed the situation at the Academy. Of course, I know there’s no need to worry about your grades. There’s no doubt who has the brains in your relationship.”
I narrow my eyes and bite harder on my cheek. If I’d been allowed to take the subjects I’d chosen, I’d be acing them. It isn’t my fault I was being forced into doing something which didn’t suit my skills and interests.
I force down the last of my fruit while Lucas finishes his bacon. He starts every day with a full English. He must have hollow legs to eat all that food and still be as skinny as he is, but I take a small satisfaction from thinking about the damage it is doing to his arteries in the long term. If I can’t figure a way out of my sham of a marriage, maybe I’d get lucky and he’d keel over from a heart attack in his forties.
“I guess it’s time for us to head off to the Academy.” Lucas takes my hand and squeezes it, smiling at me. “Excited?”
“Yeah. I can’t wait to show everyone my new bling.�
� I fight hard to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
“Have fun, you two!” My father waves as Lucas and I leave the dining room and go out to the car, our school bags already packed, sitting on the back seat ready for us.
Perfect for a trip to hell. Or in other words, King Academy.
* * *
Lucas and I stood at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Academy. He reached out and took my hand, and for once I didn’t pull away.
“It’s going to be all right, you know,” he tells me. “Once the excitement over our wedding dies down, nobody will care about us. Today’s news is tomorrow’s chip wrappings, as they say. I know you’re nervous, but it’s going to be all right. Romy will understand. He knows how the politics of this place works. Love doesn’t enter into the equation when you’re heir to a House. He’ll be happy for you. You wait and see.”
I smile weakly, wishing I could share his optimism. I knew what things had been like between Romy and me. He isn’t going to take this lying down.
“Come on.” Lucas nods in the direction of the school. “The bell for first period is going to go in a minute. We might as well go up and hit the common room first. That way we can make sure as many people know as possible. After that, the rumour mill will spread the word way faster than we’ll be able to.”
“Okay.”
I keep holding Lucas’s hand as we walk up the stairs and into the entrance hall of the Academy.
“There they are.”
I look over to the stairs leading up to the first floor. Romy, Archer, and Declan are standing by the bottom step, waiting for us. The three kings of the academy and each one of them look ready to kill.
And for some reason, it makes my heart pound that much more.
“Ivy!” Romy walks to me, but Lucas moves in front, stopping him from getting closer.
