Playboy Princes: Royals of Arbon Academy

by Eve, Jaymin

  “Shit! Are we going to get into trouble?” I asked, shoving thoughts of Meghan, his sibling-slash-fiancée, aside. Or trying to at least.

  Jordan shook his head. “Rafe and I are safe. But I don’t want anyone looking your way, so let’s sneak you back in.”

  “Don’t let Steve or his fucking son anywhere near her,” Rafe snarled. “Or I won’t be able to stop myself from ending the current royal reign in Australasia.”

  Jordan gave a grim nod. "Agreed."

  "Macho men," I grumbled, "I'm perfectly capable of slitting throats myself, you know?"

  The three of us started making our way back toward the ball, but a shadowy figure stepped out into our path, blocking the way.

  "Excuse me," Jordan said politely, but the man stepped closer, holding up his hands to show he wasn't armed... I think.

  "Ms. Spencer," the stranger said, and his voice seemed familiar. "Could I have a word?"

  "Mr. Wainwright?" I asked, coming closer so I could see his face in the dim light. "What are... I mean, hi. This is unexpected."

  The older man gave a tight, uncomfortable smile and shot a quick look at Rafe. "Highness, I need to speak with Ms. Spencer. On orders."

  As the personal assistant to the dean, he certainly didn’t outrank the royals, but they seemed to understand what his vague words meant. Rafe still stiffened and scowled.

  "Please, Your Highness." Mr. Wainwright was firm. “You know this is important.”

  "Fine," Rafe said on an exhale. "But we will be nearby, so don't pull any shit."

  The older gentleman looked relieved and indicated that I walk with him away from the ball. Fine by me, really. The less time I had to risk King Steve putting his hands all over me, the better.

  Mr. Wainwright led me out to one of the small courtyards, where low stone benches sat dotted around a perennial garden.

  "Please, sit, Ms. Spencer," he invited me, indicating to one of the benches.

  The night air still held a sharp bite of cold, and a shiver swept through me as I arranged my ballgown to sit down where he'd pointed. Hopefully what he wanted to talk about wasn't going to take long, or I'd turn into a very pretty Popsicle.

  "What did you want to talk about, Mr. Wainwright?" I asked when he also sat on the bench, clasping his hands in front of him. Movement from a nearby window caught my eye, and I spotted Rafe and Jordan hovering just out of hearing distance. Unless I screamed, of course.

  My companion cleared his throat, checking his wristwatch. "I understand several interested parties have their eyes on you tonight, Ms. Spencer, and your absence will have already been noticed. So, I'll cut to the chase, as you Americans like to say. Have you thought any further on the offer made by the Society?"

  I kept my face carefully neutral, while on the inside confusion and curiosity warred with each other. Mr. Wainwright knew about the resistance? Was everyone part of it?

  Was the dean?

  Maybe this was all a trick to get me thrown into jail if I said the wrong thing. I had to be very careful about how I responded. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, Mr. Wainwright," I responded in a cool voice. I'd rather insult a member of the Society than land myself in prison for trusting the wrong person.

  He gave me a tight, understanding kind of smile. "Of course. I was asked to touch base with you as perhaps your previous point of contact was considered less than... uh... less than trustworthy among your circle of friends. I assure you, this organization is going to better the world. For all of us, not just those who were born into wealth and power."

  I pursed my lips, thinking. "It sounds like you have things pretty sorted out," I commented slowly, still letting the gears of thought churn. "You have a lot of influential members... even crown heirs. Why do I get the feeling the Society is chasing me just a little harder than they would any other new member?"

  Mr. Wainwright inclined his head in acknowledgement. "Because, Ms. Spencer, we are."

  A non-answer if I'd ever heard one, and I still wasn’t sure I could even trust Wainwright, despite having a good vibe about him pretty much from the start. Mattie was freaking right, all along. There was something seriously fishy with him.

  “If Rafe and Jordan could be here…” I suggested.

  They would know who I could trust.

  He opened his mouth to reply, when a commotion through one of the courtyard windows caught our attention. It was a troop of Swiss guards, but they were coming from the ballroom on a perpendicular corridor to where Rafe and Jordan waited, so my princes wouldn’t have seen them yet. More worrying, still, was that they seemed to be escorting a prisoner.

  I stood up, trying to get a better look, and my movement drew Jordan's attention. He stepped through the doorway, arching his brows at me—asking if I was okay.

  There was no time to warn him, though, as the guards approached the junction that would bring them out almost on top of Rafe.

  I picked up my skirts, rushing forward to find out what was going on, and caught the tail end of Rafe's conversation with the guards.

  "...I totally understand," he was saying. His voice was calm and collected—as always—but there was a hint of a feral grin on his face. "Well, that's very disappointing to hear. Hacking and stealing confidential files from the Danish monarchy is a very serious offense. I can't imagine what Prince Alex was thinking."

  "Fuck you, Rafe!" Alex snarled.

  My eyes widened as I drew closer until I found him in wrist restraints but still thrashing against the guards holding his arms.

  "I know you were behind this! You're going to pay." His threat was delivered with pure venom, and his dark glare shot to me. There was no doubt in my mind it was me who he wanted to pay for this infraction. Well, fuck that. I was just about done playing the sweet, dumb charity case.

  One of the guards smacked Alex in the face, and the others rumbled with anger.

  "Never disrespect Prince Rafael again," the guard snapped. "We don't care who you are. You're on Swiss land, and all kinds of nasty things could happen before King Steve manages to free you."

  I gaped in genuine shock at the guard’s behavior, but Rafe and Jordan looked smug as fucking cats. The guards proceeded to haul Alex away, and I stared after them, my jaw open, until someone cleared their throat.

  "Ms. Spencer," Mr. Wainwright said, looking anxious. "I think we should continue this conversation another time. I'm afraid I have somewhere to be."

  Without really waiting for any response, the silver-haired gentleman hurried away, heading for the academy entrance.

  "That was strange," Jordan commented. But not as strange as what happened next.

  It was the sound that reached us first. A low, rumbling roar that escalated quickly. The marble floor beneath us began to tremble, and a picture slipped from the wall, its glass shattering on impact.

  "What's happening?" I asked, panic welling up in my throat.

  Jordan grabbed me at the same time as Rafe, both of them shoving me back into the courtyard, then dragging me as far from the walls as possible. Once in the middle of the open space, they tugged me to the ground and covered me with their bodies while the whole world continued to shake and shudder beneath us.

  "It's an earthquake," Rafe shouted to be heard over the rumble and crash of breaking objects. "I think."

  "How is that even possible?" I demanded, huddling under their warmth and trying to get a grip on my anxiety. "Do the Switzerlands get earthquakes often?"

  There was a pause, neither one of them replying for a beat, and the earth continued jostling us around like a washing machine. Then...

  "Nothing's impossible," Jordan said, sounding full of dread and resignation.

  A deafening crash sounded, and the whole world went dark.

  Chapter 36

  When the sound receded, it became eerily silent. The air around us was thick and dusty, making me cough and choke when I sucked a too-deep breath, and I pushed the boys off me in a desperate bid for more oxygen.

  "Vio
let," Rafe rasped, "are you okay?"

  "I'm fine," I replied, not even pausing to check if I was, in fact, okay. Fine white powder coated every surface, including us, and I gasped when I saw what I'd come from. The whole east side wall of the courtyard—the exterior wall to the corridor I'd just watched Swiss guards drag Alex down—was gone. Or... not gone so much as it had completely collapsed. A section of an upper level of the stone palace had collapsed and crushed the lower level. Chunks of rock and plaster the size of people had landed a scarce few feet from us. Had they hit us... I shuddered to think. Broken spine, crushed skull...

  "Jordan?" I exclaimed, tearing my eyes away from the closest hunk of debris. "Where's Jordan?"

  "Here," came his groaned reply. Somehow he'd ended up behind a topiary horse and was slowly picking himself out. I breathed a sigh of relief, noting nothing more than superficial scrapes on his face and hands.

  "What the fuck just happened?" I asked the two of them as if they had any answers for the cataclysmic event we'd just experienced. Thank fuck we hadn't been indoors, or it all could have ended so much worse.

  “Natural disaster technology,” Rafe said, voice flat. “My mom was right.”

  Shit, and I finally had my answer from that day. It was bad. Very fucking bad.

  I sucked in a sharp gasp. "Mattie and Nolan! Rafe, your dad!" I scrambled to my feet, and white plaster powder sloshed off my huge skirts in waves.

  Rafe caught me before I could tear across the debris, heading in the general direction of where the ballroom had been only a few moments before. “What are you doing?” I snapped, trying to wrench my arm free. “Our friends are in there. Your father!” I waved at Jordan. “Even Meghan.” Thank God his parents hadn’t been able to make it.

  Rafe growled and got right into my face. “I fucking know that, and I’m worried too. But running in there without thought is going to get you killed. And that’s not happening on my watch.”

  “We can’t lose you, Violet,” Jordan said. “You need to stay with us, just in case there’s another quake.”

  I huffed. “Okay, fine. But I’m not staying here.”

  “Never said we were,” Rafe replied as he wrapped his hand around my right one, Jordan took my left one, and they started dragging me along a different path than the one I’d been about to take.

  I noticed that they stuck to the middle of the space, away from large objects, and their faces were alert as they looked around constantly.

  “So this natural disaster technology,” I whispered, “it created this? This… earthquake?”

  How was that possible?

  “Maybe it was a bomb...” I mean, an explosion could rattle the land and walls like that. Surely.

  Rafe shook his head, leading us through an archway to the main wing, half the stone of the doorway now lying on the ground. My heels caught on the rocks as I wished for flat shoes.

  “It was definitely an earthquake,” he said softly, pausing briefly before moving again. “And since the damage looks to be focused right where the ball was, this was definitely man-made. ”

  I spluttered, and Jordan covered my mouth quickly, no doubt to shut my stupid ass up. They’d just told me this was an attack, and I was reacting poorly.

  So I pulled myself together, focusing like I’d done so many times in the past when the world went to shit.

  “What else can this technology create?” I asked in a low voice, managing to sound calm.

  Rafe took a second to meet my eyes, and his were, unsurprisingly, very dark. “In theory: tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, floods. You name it, there’s supposedly been something invented to unnaturally set forth the disaster. All monarchies are aware of this, but until this moment, it was assumed to be nothing more than a resistance rumor.”

  The area where the ball had been was just ahead, and my heart galloped at the sight. Rafe was right; it had been focused there. Everything was in shambles. Half the walls looked to have been blown out, the floor was broken, and there was no way I could make it across in these fucking heels. But I was going to try because people I loved were in there.

  “Mattie and Nolan,” I sobbed before I could stop myself. Fuck. Fucking fuck. I would not survive if my friends were hurt… or worse.

  Rafe lifted me into his arms when my shoes got caught for the fourth time. I would have kicked them off, but then my feet would get cut to shit.

  “Did the resistance do this?” I asked as the first body came into view. It was a man, one we didn’t know, and he’d been literally cleaved in two by a stone pillar. Dead, blank eyes stared up but wouldn’t see anything ever again.

  “If this was the resistance,” Jordan said, voice harsh as we spied more dead, “then it was nothing sanctioned by the main Society.”

  “Those fucking extremists have gone too far this time,” Rafe muttered, gently placing me on the ground, then reaching down to feel for a pulse on a prone girl. She had black hair, even though it looked grey with all the dust, and she wasn’t moving. “Clearly they decided to take some drastic measures to ensure the end of the monarchy.”

  There were a ton of royals here tonight. Actual senior royals. Taking out this many at once… it would devastate the global control of the monarchies.

  “Do they care that you guys are princes and you’re part of it?”

  “Some protested when we joined, but since we pretty much stick to ourselves and fight, they use our power for what they need and forget the rest,” Jordan said, head moving as he took in more of the bodies.

  I nodded. “So, you’re the fringe dwellers of the society.”

  They both nodded. “Zach is quite high up and a total dick.” Jordan scowled. “He could’ve had something to do with this.”

  We reached a section that was a little more cleared, and the sound of screams reached my ears. It was hard to tell at first, but now it was obvious that we hadn’t yet entered the main part of the ballroom. Once we reached it, there was utter chaos. “Stay near us,” Rafe shouted as the guys moved faster.

  We had to duck under a half-cracked doorway to get inside, and when we did, I swallowed hard. Holy fuck, this was exactly how I imagined a war zone would be. People were everywhere, hundreds… thousands, I couldn’t even tell. There were blood and bodies scattered about, and those that weren’t dead were running around trying to figure out what the fuck had happened.

  “Stick together,” Rafe said again, pushing his way through the people. He and Jordan used their bulk to keep me from getting smashed about too much, but I was pretty good at dodging blows myself.

  “We need to split up,” I finally said when it was obvious we weren’t getting far. “We need to find the twins and Rafe’s dad.”

  “No fucking way,” Rafe said.

  There was no time to glare at him, so I did exactly what he would kill me for later. I took off to the right.

  “Violet!” Jordan and Rafe both yelled after me, but I was busy pushing my way through the crowd, heading for the bar. Or what was left of it.

  I was confident that’s where King Felipe would be, in the vicinity of where I left him, and when his body came into view, tears streamed down my face. He was covered in what looked like a plank and some rocks, blood pouring from a wound on his head.

  Dropping to my knees, I reached out and pulled off what I could before I pressed my fingers to his throat. It took me a couple of tries, but I found a weak pulse.

  “Dad,” Rafe said, sliding in beside me. His eyes met mine, and I started crying like a fucking waterfall had spurted from my eyes because the devastation on Rafe’s face broke me in two.

  “He’s alive,” I choked out, “but his pulse is weak. He needs medical assistance right now.”

  Rafe’s palm reader was up, and the message he sent out was red. I had a feeling that would get someone here ASAP.

  “I need to get him out of here so the helicopter can land,” he told me. “You find Jordan and stay with him. I’m not kidding, Violet. This is life and death.”


  I choked on my next breath, the dust and tears making it next to impossible to breathe. “Okay,” I murmured. “I’ll find him.”

  I helped him lift his dad, even though we knew we shouldn’t be moving him. In this situation though, he would definitely die if we didn’t move him. This way there was at least a chance.

  “I should come with you,” I blurted out as Rafe turned away.

  He shook his head. “As fucked up as it sounds, you’re safer in here with all these people around. Those assholes might be lying in wait, and you’re not a member yet.”

  So much of that didn’t make sense. If these guys were huge extremists, no doubt they gave zero shits that Rafe was a part of their group. He was a prince, and all royals must die or something. He couldn’t fight while carrying his dad, who was no small dude.

  Everything was adding up to him needing my help.

  Before I could argue, and we really didn’t have time for that, Jordan and Nolan appeared beside us. “There you are,” Jordan exclaimed, worry in his voice and face.

  By the time I turned back, Rafe was already gone, and all I could do was cry and pray he made it to the medevac in time.

  “Felipe?” Jordan asked, grabbing my hand.

  I shook my head. “He’s hurt bad. Rafe called in a helicopter. I—I don’t know if he’ll make it in time.”

  He hugged me closer. “He will. Felipe is as tough as his son, and I’m pretty sure nothing in this world can kill Rafe.”

  I had to have faith that what Jordan said was true, or I wouldn’t mentally survive the next little while.

  “Where is Mattie?” I asked Nolan, giving him a hug at the same time because I was so relieved to see him alive and somewhat uninjured. Outside of a scrape on his cheek and some blood on his hands, he looked okay.

  “She’s alive,” he said in a rush. “She sent me a message right after the quake, but I haven’t been able to find her anywhere. And now she’s not answering her palm reader, either.”

  Fuck. “We should keep looking,” I suggested. “Maybe she got hurt or lost afterward in all this chaos.”