by Nora Cobb
“Your fucking name is Anna,” he ground out. “Though I prefer pauper.”
My name sounded foreign on his tongue and I wished he hadn’t said it.
Maybe I did like pauper better. Royce saying my name sounded far too intimate. “Go back to the first question,” I squeaked out, hoping my voice didn’t sound as bad as it had to my ears. “What are you getting at?”
He let out a breath. “Think about it, pauper. There’s a reason you are here and if Isauros hates you as much as I have heard, she would never have let you in this place.”
Royce was actually making sense. I knew she hated me, but why would she want me in her academy, causing an uproar as I had?
Royce was right. She could have denied my entry the moment she saw my name, but for some reason, she had allowed me to come here.
“There’s got to be something that forced her hand,” Royce continued as I thought about his words. “Something that she couldn’t fight.”
“It does make sense,” I said slowly.
“You’re a bastard,” he said, his voice deadly calm. “Entitled to nothing.”
“Gee, thanks,” I muttered, his words hurting me more than they should.
“I don’t mean it like that, pauper,” he growled, surprising me. “I mean in the eyes of royal families and shit; you aren’t entitled to anything if you are born out of wedlock.”
I looked at him and giggled then. “That word should never come out of your mouth, ever.”
His eyes crinkled in the corners as he gave me his first real smile and it took my breath away.
It wasn’t a sneer or a fake grin that he wore all the time.
No, this was a true smile that reached his eyes and I was stunned by it.
But before I could breathe again, it was gone, and the same old Royce was back in place. “Concentrate, pauper.”
Back to business. All right. “You’re right,” I finally said. “I’m not entitled to anything.”
He tapped his finger against his lips. “But what if you were? What if something had it in writing? Isauros couldn’t fight you then.”
“What? Like a will?”
When he didn’t grin, I realized that was exactly what he was talking about. Was there a will from my father? What if he had put me in it? That would be the only reason that she would be forced to let me attend this academy. “Oh my God,” I breathed, grabbing his upper arm. “There’s a will.”
“Yeah,” Royce confirmed, eyeing my hand. I quickly removed it, tucking it in my lap so I wouldn’t be tempted to touch him again. “There is. I called my father. He said your father loved to hide his treasures and he loved this academy. There’s a good chance it’s here right now.”
That changed everything. My heart started to pound in my ears as I thought about what I had just learned. If there was a will, that could be the proof that I needed to identify my mother. He would have had to put her on there as the benefactor since I was a minor at the time.
This could be the smoking gun I needed to bust this wide open.
Tamping down my excitement, I forced myself to meet Royce’s steely gaze. “Did he know where to start?”
His grin was back, but not the one that had stolen my breath away. “Maybe.”
“You have to tell me,” I said, borderline begging him to do so. “I know you don’t like me, but this is everything to me, Royce. Surely you can find some shred of decency to do so.”
He leaned closer. “Better yet, I can show you, but you have to come alone, pauper. This isn’t the type of thing you need a shitload of protectors drawing attention to.”
He was right of course, but I didn’t feel comfortable in his presence. He could be leading me right off a cliff for all I knew. “I can’t do that, Royce.”
Royce stood, tsking as he did so. “Well then, I can’t show you where to start. Good luck with your research, pauper.”
I stood as well, grabbing his arm as he turned to go. “Please,” I begged, forcing him to meet my eyes.
He shook his head, pulling out of my grasp. “I already told you my terms. I won’t accept anything less. You know where to find me.”
With that, he walked away, disappearing amongst the rows of books. I let out a frustrated sigh and fell back into the chair, not believing that he was being such an asshole about this. Didn’t he know this could be the turning point in my investigation?
It could be everything to me, yet he was being the king he was and forcing me to choose between my future and what I knew probably wasn’t right.
I shouldn’t go anywhere with Royce, especially not alone.
But if I didn’t, I would be sitting at this table, waiting for something to literally drop in my lap and solve all this for me.
At this rate, I would be taking the curator’s job in a few years.
Pushing my hair out of my face, I shoved my stuff back into my bag, my jaw set. I would run it by Johanna and Arthur. After all, they were the ones that knew the entire story. Maybe they could give me some advice about if I should trust Royce or not.
Who was I kidding? I couldn’t trust Royce at all. He hadn’t given me any reason to, making my life a living hell from the moment I stepped across that threshold.
Why remained to be seen.
**
I didn’t have a chance to run it by either of them until the next afternoon, grabbing Arthur after lunch and dragging him to my dorm room. “If I knew you needed me this much, I would have come prepared,” he joked as I opened the door.
I didn’t bother to answer, walking in and finding Johanna seated at her desk, her wireless earbuds in her ears. She looked up and removed them slowly. “What’s he doing here?”
I shut the door behind Arthur. “I need to talk about something with both of you.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, crossing her arms over her chest.
I dropped my bag on the floor and looked at them both. “I had a conversation with Royce.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of conversation?”
“He knows something,” I continued, ignoring the jealous tone of his voice. “Something about my father and why I am here at Weissmore. He wants me to allow him to help.”
“That’s bullshit,” Arthur said immediately, his fists balled at his side. “Don’t trust him, Anna.”
“Why?” I asked, mimicking his stance. “Why shouldn’t I trust him? He can’t be much different than you.” I knew I was throwing old business in his face, but it was the truth. I had trusted him, and he had lied to me. It wasn’t like I wanted to have Royce help me. I knew all the kings were trouble and I needed to keep my guard up against all of them.
Arthur glared at me. “If he wants to help, then I will be there to watch him.”
“No,” I said with a quick shake of my head. “He said I had to do it alone.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Arthur asked, his gaze incredulous. “Anna, you can’t trust him.”
“I agree with Arthur,” Johanna finally spoke up. “Royce is an asshole and he’s been nothing but nasty to you, Anna. Why would he want to help you? What’s his motive?”
That I didn’t know. I too was surprised that Royce all of a sudden wanted to help me, but at least he was offering.
No one else was. “I need to give it a shot,” I said, clearing my throat. “This could be what I was looking for.”
Arthur let out a frustrated breath, walking over to gently cup my chin in his hand. “Anna, please,” he said softly, his eyes boring into mine. “I’ve known Royce a long time. He doesn’t do anything remotely nice without wanting something in return. You need to trust me, but never him.”
I stepped out of his touch, mainly because I couldn’t think when he was that close to me. “I appreciate your concern, but honestly I was just trying to keep you in the loop.” What Arthur didn’t know was I hadn’t made up my mind until that moment, when he had asked me to trust him. I had tried repeatedly to trust him and all Arthur had done was either let me do
wn or try to distract me.
I was finding it hard to trust anyone.
Arthur made a sound of disgust as he brushed past me and wrenched open the door, stalking out of the room. “Well he sure is pissed off,” Johanna remarked as I shut the door. “What does Royce have, Anna? Is it really that good?”
I drew in a breath, leaning against the door. “He thinks that there is something here at the academy that forced Isauros’ hand into keeping me here, something along the legal lines.”
Johanna’s eyes rounded. “Legally? But I thought you were …”
“A bastard,” I finished for her, the word bitter on my tongue. “Yes, but why else would she even entertain the idea of me being here? Would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Johanna replied softly. “Do you think Royce is telling the truth? What does he know?”
I ran a hand over my face wearily. “I don’t know. He refused to tell me unless I made the bargain to go with him alone.”
“It sounds fishy.”
I agreed, but what else could I do? He would likely just continue to taunt me relentlessly until I finally gave in.
“But I don’t feel the same way as Arthur does,” Johanna continued, giving me a sad smile. “I believe Arthur is still out to marry you, Anna. His family needs your connections and I wouldn’t put it past him to give into the pressure from his own family to get you to marry him.”
Yeah, I knew that too and it worried me. Arthur had made it a point to go out of his way to try to please me lately and I knew he wasn’t giving up on any chance of us being together. “So, what would be the harm in seeing what Royce has found?”
“A lot of harm,” Johanna replied. “But if it was me in your shoes, I would do it too, no matter the cost.”
I returned her smile, glad to hear that she had some common sense about all this. I would be an idiot to let this pass by. I had to trust Royce and believe that he was truly trying to help me and remember at the same time that he could have an agenda.
God, why couldn’t this be easy? Why couldn’t I just find what I needed and moved on with my life?
“You need to let me know every step of the way though,” Johanna warned. “I have connections too. I can see if what he is telling you is legit.”
“Thanks,” I answered.
She gave me a shrug as she picked up her earbuds. “That’s what friends are for.”
Friends. I had at least one friend in this crazy academy.
Chapter 4
Royce
I leaned against the stone wall as I waited for Anna to arrive, tossing the flashlight in the air aimlessly. When she had told me in passing that she was willing to meet my demands, I wasn’t surprised.
Anna was desperate and she wasn’t getting anywhere with any of her other research or those that claimed to be her friends.
I snorted. I had no friends. The kings had a mutual understanding between us, bound together by our need to be on top and by what we dealt with with our families.
But friends—we wouldn’t be friends after we graduated. No, we would go our separate ways and do whatever the fuck our families wanted us to do, eventually taking positions that would hold power.
Then there was a good chance we would be enemies.
Anna appeared at the end of the hallway and I pushed off the wall, watching as she approached. She was dressed for the hunt, her long legs encased in a pair of leggings with a long-sleeved shirt covering her arms. Her hair was pulled away from her face and I could see the excitement in her eyes, her cheeks flushed with the possibility of finding something good today.
I hoped that my father wasn’t wrong, and we did find something that would propel her to want to look for more. There was a small piece of my black soul wanting to be the recipient of her excitement and thrill, curious as to what she would do to find what she was looking for.
“Pauper.”
“Royce,” she replied evenly, eyeing my flashlight. “Don’t make me regret trusting you.”
I took a step toward her. “Don’t trust me. Don’t trust anyone in this fucking school.”
She didn’t back down, just like I expected her not to. “Tell me why,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I trust anyone here, most of all you?”
I wanted to tell her the truth. “Because we are all cold, selfish bastards in the end that don’t give a fuck who we step on to make it to the top. That’s why you shouldn’t trust any of us, no matter what lies they tell you.”
Anna straightened her shoulders, giving me a dead-on stare. “Well then, Royce. Shall we get started?”
Damn, she was something else. “Come on,” I said, flicking on the light. “We have to go this way.”
I started down the hall, past the library and to the back of the castle, feeling her presence right behind me. “Did you know that this was first a prison?”
“Really?” she asked, catching up to me to where we were walking side by side.
“Yeah,” I answered, pointing the flashlight up, where I knew the holes would be. “See those holes? That was where the rings were that held the prisoners and their chains. If you look closely at some of the stone, you can still make out the tally marks from some of them.”
“Look at you,” she said with a small laugh. “Royce Whitehall, tour guide.”
I flushed, embarrassed that I had even said anything. “It’s just, you should know there’s a bloody history within these walls.”
Anna laid a hand on my arm, stopping me in my tracks. “I love history. This is really interesting.”
A thrill shot through me even as I tried to ignore it, genuinely surprised that she was interested in what I had to say. Normally the words out of my mouth were some sort of shitty remarks that had her fuming and stalking away from me.
Not touching me.
Just as I was trying to register it in my head, she was already pulling her hand away, apparently realizing she had, in fact, touched her mortal enemy. “I mean, thanks for telling me that,” she said quickly. “Shall we continue?”
Irritated with myself, I withdrew the key from my pocket and inserted it into the lock, pushing against the door to open it. The air filled with a musty smell as the door creaked open and I shone the light inside, revealing a set of stairs. “Careful.”
“Where did you get that key?” she asked as I pulled it out of the lock and placed it in my pocket.
I flashed her a quick grin. “I will never reveal my secrets.”
Anna huffed but pushed past me and I shut the door behind us, locking us in the forgotten passageway. What I hadn’t told Anna was how I had called in a few favors to a few of the students that owed me, receiving both the key and the map of the castle in a matter of hours. This door would lead us directly to the final destination and keep us concealed so that no one would feel the need to follow us.
“Wow,” Anna said as she pressed her hand against the stone wall. “It doesn’t look like this passageway has been used in years.”
“This is one of the many that lead to the bowels of the castle,” I explained as I pointed the flashlight down the dusty stairs so we wouldn’t kill ourselves trying to descend. “The bowels were rumored to be the torture chamber of the first owner. He even put grates in the floor so that the blood could run out of the room and not pool on the floor.”
“Well, I hope none of that is present now,” Anna stated as she carefully walked down the stairs next to me.
“Nah,” I answered, the corridor becoming tighter and forcing her shoulder to brush up against mine. If I moved my hand just a fraction of an inch, we would be holding hands.
She was fucking killing me being so close.
I half jogged the rest of the way to the next door, using the same key to open it as well. “I sure hope you know where you are going,” Anna commented as I held it open for her.
“Not really,” I teased, joining her in the room. “But I think we have arrived.”
Anna took my flashlight and illuminated the wall next to us.
“It’s a crypt.”
I looked around, seeing the cutouts of the stone wall around us. Though most of the cutouts were empty, there were a few that had been sealed tight, the inscription slabs depicting who had found their final resting place here. “Well, there’s definitely no blood here.”
“Or grates in the floor,” she mused, shining the light between us.
“Both myths busted,” I grinned. “Too bad.”
She shared my smile and I wanted to pull her toward me and kiss the hell out of her. What the hell was this connection I felt with her? Was this how Arthur had gotten suckered in with her, finding the need to not share her with the rest of us?
