Reign Check

by Michelle Rowen

  “They’ve changed their minds. Now it’s all dancing, all the time.”

  That was kind of strange, actually. But it was nice to know I wasn’t the only one forced to deal with things I didn’t particularly want to. Not that I could compare my demonic problems with Melinda cramming her feet into satin ballet slippers.

  “Listen, Nikki, can I ask you for a favor?”

  “Sure.”

  “I know it’s soon and Rhys only just started today, but I think I really like him.”

  Here we go again. What happened to changing the subject to something less potentially dangerous, like ballet? “Oh, Melinda, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

  “Why? Because he’s an exchange student?”

  “Yeah. I mean, you don’t want to start dating this guy one day and have him leave the next, do you?”

  “I’m willing to take that chance. Look, I know he’s in biology with you. See if he’s even remotely interested in me, okay? Just be really subtle about it.”

  I bit my lip. I wanted to stop Melinda from being interested in the teenage faery king, but what was I supposed to say? I couldn’t tell her the truth, and if I tried to argue with her, it would just look like I wanted to date him myself.

  Talk about a rock and a hard place. At least I felt like I had a little control over this situation.

  “Of course,” I finally said. “I’ll ask him some really good questions and find out what he thinks of you.”

  “Thanks.” Her voice brightened. “And you know what? Forget about what Larissa said to you. She doesn’t know you half as well as I do. I know you’re a great friend and you’d never do anything to hurt me.”

  “I never want to hurt you.” Or anyone else, I added

  internally.

  “Ditto. Hey, I think I’m going to invite Rhys to my party. It’s going to be great.”

  “Yeah, can’t wait,” I said, feigning excitement as best I could.

  Melinda’s party was this Saturday night. I just had to get through the gauntlet of four more school days first.

  While I tried to get Rhys to stay away from my smitten best friend.

  While waiting for word about what the demon council was planning on doing next about me and my highly unpleasant prophecy.

  Without Michael as my boyfriend.

  I’d considered having some Chinese food for dinner, but now I’d totally lost my appetite.

  8

  I got the strange feeling someone was watching me as I made my way to my locker on Tuesday morning. It was like a burning sensation on the back of my neck. When I turned I saw Chris Sanders standing halfway down the hall from me.

  We stared at each other for a long, uncomfortable moment. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then started walking in the opposite direction.

  “I want to talk to you,” he’d said to me yesterday. “It’s important.”

  I didn’t want to let him have any power over me, so I figured I should deal with him as soon as I could. I started to follow him, ready to demand he tell me what he wanted to talk to me about, when someone tapped on my shoulder.

  Since I was already a ball of nerves, I let out a shriek and spun around to see who it was.

  Rhys raised an eyebrow. “Did I scare you?”

  Seeing it was him did nothing to calm my nerves. “No, but you surprised me. A little. That happens when people creep up behind me.”

  “I wasn’t trying to creep.”

  “I guess you just come by it naturally.” I eyed him. Today he wore blue jeans and a long-sleeved light blue T-shirt that fit tightly against his chest and arms. On his feet were new black leather shoes that looked designer. “So I have to ask—who helped pick out your wardrobe so you can fit in perfectly around here? Do you have a personal faery image consultant?”

  “You think I fit in perfectly?” he asked, with a pleased expression.

  “You blend. High-end blend. Your clothes look expensive.”

  “Money’s not really a problem for me. And yes, my advisers helped me. A few are highly knowledgeable about the human world.” When I didn’t say anything to that, he asked, “So, did you learn more about the prophecy?”

  I glanced at the other students in the hallway and moved toward a nearby corner where the lockers came to an end.

  Rhys followed me cautiously. “Our conversation is shielded. You can tell me.”

  “My father thinks it might be false,” I said.

  “But there is one? For sure?”

  “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I guess you weren’t lying, after all.”

  A smile twitched at his lips. “It’s nearly impossible for a faery to lie about anything—it’s in our nature to be truthful. Although, telling the truth or saying exactly what we’re feeling or thinking sometimes gets us in trouble, even among ourselves.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “But it’s what makes us superior to demons, really. Demons lie about everything.” His lips curved some more. Was he baiting me? Trying to play games? I was so not in the mood this morning. Besides, I’d told enough lies recently that I couldn’t exactly challenge his theory.

  “Thanks a lot for your oh-so-valuable opinion.” I scanned the hallway to see if I could spot Chris, but he was gone. I looked at Rhys again. “Did you know that prophecies are related by dragon oracles?”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “And some of them live here in the human world?”

  “Yes, they do. The prophecies given by dragon oracles are a valuable resource for demons and faeries alike.”

  I stared at him, suddenly realizing that out of everyone here at school, Rhys was the only one I could talk to about this who wouldn’t think I was completely insane.

  I exhaled a bit shakily, wanting to dislike him—this faery king alone in the human world investigating yours truly—but finding it just a bit more difficult.

  As a king, my father lived a life of solitude with only servants around him, not friends and family. I sensed now that it was the same for Rhys. All alone after his parents died, with only his advisers to keep him company.

  Maybe I just had a really good imagination.

  In any case, I wasn’t going to mistake empathy for a potential friendship with someone who might want to kill me someday.

  “I have to go,” I said, and turned away from him. Rhys grabbed my wrist to stop me.

  “What did the prophecy say?” he asked. “I have to know.”

  “So you can figure out how much of a threat I am?”

  His chocolate brown eyes turned serious. “Will you tell me or not?”

  “Fine.” I pulled my hand away from his. “It’s pretty vague, but it says I’m supposed to destroy everyone. But if it makes you feel better, when I ultimately go supernova with my death ray, I promise to make a concentrated attempt to avoid the faery realm as much as possible.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “And you think that the prophecy is false.”

  “It has to be. I don’t have a death ray, at least not the last time I checked.” Even as I said it, that edge of uncertainty crept in at the sides of my mind. I wanted to believe it was a lie, but how could I know for sure?

  “It’s not a good prophecy,” he said.

  “Thanks for the second opinion.”

  “You should get one of those.”

  “One of what?”

  “A second opinion. If you’re so sure it’s false, you should have another oracle confirm that. It could help matters for you.”

  This hadn’t even occurred to me. “I can do that?”

  “Dragon oracles don’t normally like to dispute each other’s prophecies, but it would be worth a try.” He crossed his arms and studied me for a moment, as if trying to come to some clear opinion about me. “I’m seeing a dragon oracle later this week.”

  I blinked at him. “You’re what?”

  “The dragon lives nearby, and it’s another reason I’m here right no
w. One of my rites of passage is to meet with an oracle to receive a prophecy regarding my future as king. There are no dragons in the faery realm, and I preferred to visit the human world than travel to the dark ones. Besides, I can’t stay in the dark worlds that long. It’s just easier this way.”

  I was stunned. He had basically said that a dragon lived in the neighborhood as casually as if he was mentioning a local McDonald’s. “Why can’t you stay in the dark worlds?”

  “I can visit but I wouldn’t last long. For much the same reason your Shadow servant can’t stay here permanently to be at your beck and call. Dark beings must stay in the dark worlds, and light beings in the light.”

  I didn’t like Michael being referred to as a dark being, so I tried to ignore that. “What would happen to you?”

  “I’d get weaker and weaker, steadily losing any magic or power I have until I might not be able to find a gateway home.” He didn’t look entirely comfortable discussing this with me. But he had said faeries were really honest, hadn’t he? Maybe he felt compelled to answer my questions. It was surprisingly helpful, actually. “I can compare it to a human who scuba dives,” he continued. “After an oxygen tank runs out, there isn’t much time to get back to the surface before the human drowns. Faeries must stay in light worlds and Shadows must stay in dark.”

  “And demons?” I asked. “I know my father spent a couple months here before I was born.”

  “Demons are different,” he said with a sour look. “The rules don’t seem to apply to them. Which is why your father must maintain the barrier that holds them back. Otherwise, there’s nothing stopping them from staying in other worlds for as long as it suits them.”

  A steady stream of students passed by us on their way to the first class of the day, the buzz of their conversations muted by the shield Rhys had put up around us. A familiar face caught my eye, though. I could have sworn I saw Michael in the middle of the crowd. I took my attention off Rhys for a moment to search everyone’s faces, trying, and failing, to find him.

  Knowing it had only been my imagination disappointed me.

  I wished he was here. I missed him so much already and I had no idea when I’d get to see him again.

  “What’s wrong?” Rhys asked.

  “Nothing.” I shook my head, then chewed my bottom lip as I attempted to concentrate on the problem at hand. “So when are you seeing the … the dragon oracle?”

  Even though no one was close enough to hear us, it felt so strange to talk about dragons out loud, like we were in a role-playing game.

  “Soon,” he said.

  “How soon?”

  He gave me a guarded look. “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Why? Not in a hurry to find out your future?” When he didn’t reply to that, instead shifting his stance to look past me at the students breezing by, I continued. “So … what’s the dragon supposed to tell you?”

  His attention returned to me and a slow smile crept over his face. “Suddenly you’re interested in me, are you?”

  I crossed my arms. “Just call it morbid curiosity.”

  The idea of meeting with a real live dragon and having it confirm or deny the prophecy was surreal at best, but I could recognize an opportunity when it presented itself.

  “The oracle will tell me many important things,” he said simply.

  That was vague.

  “Can I … can I tag along? Get the oracle to give me that second opinion?”

  He stared at me for a long moment as if considering this possibility. “Perhaps. I do need to know if this prophecy is true or not.”

  I glimpsed Melinda down the hall at our lockers. She’d definitely spotted me talking to Rhys in a semiprivate corner. I waved in her direction and she waved back, mouthing the words “What’s going on?” to me. I shrugged back at her.

  I returned my attention to the faery king. “This is way off topic, but you should know my friend likes you.”

  So much for being subtle. It was good that Melinda wasn’t within hearing distance.

  “Your friend?”

  “You met her yesterday. Melinda?”

  “Oh, right. I remember.” He smiled at that. “She likes me?”

  “I’m supposed to casually find out if you like her in return, but that doesn’t work for me, since I know who you are and why you’re really here. So I’m going to tell her that you have a girlfriend and so, even if you did like Melinda in return, you can’t date anyone else. It’ll be easier for her if you come off all honest and devoted. She won’t take it personally that way.”

  He looked vaguely amused by my master plan. “It’s not that far from the truth.”

  My eyebrows raised. “You have a girlfriend?”

  “Is it that hard to believe?”

  Hardly. If I looked at him as just a guy and not as a faery king with a fondness for sharp swords, Rhys really was megacute. Melinda wasn’t insane for developing a quick crush on him—not that I’d ever tell him that in a million years. “No, but … I don’t know. I guess I’m surprised. You haven’t mentioned her before.”

  “Well, it’s more of a girlfriend in theory,” he clarified. “A fiancée in theory, actually.”

  I scrunched my nose. “A fiancée? But you’re only sixteen.”

  He absently dragged a hand through his short chestnut-colored hair, looking a bit uncomfortable with the direction of our conversation. “It’s faery law that a king must have a queen. If he is unmarried when he takes the throne, the identity of his queen must be prophesied by an oracle.”

  “So that’s why you’re going to see the dragon.”

  “That’s part of it.”

  “Matchmaking by a fire-breathing dragon. Sounds so romantic,” I said sarcastically.

  “It’s not even remotely romantic.” Rhys cleared his throat. “But it’s something I have to do.”

  He wasn’t looking forward to this unknown faery-girl matchup. I could hear it in his voice. He was being forced to accept and do things he didn’t want to do out of responsibility and duty. I felt an odd sense of kinship with him there.

  “It must be hard for you,” I said with not an ounce of sarcasm this time.

  He looked at me. “What do you mean?”

  “Being … alone. Dealing with everything now that your parents are gone.”

  A shadow of pain went through his eyes. “How do you know about that?”

  “I just know. I’m …” I swallowed hard. “I’m really sorry.”

  “I’m not looking for your pity.”

  “I’m not pitying you.”

  The hurt disappeared from his eyes, replaced by something harder and less vulnerable. He turned away from me. “I’ll let you know when I’m seeing the oracle. That is, if I decide to let a half demon join me for such an important appointment. But if I were you, I wouldn’t count on it.”

  Without another word, he walked away, leaving me standing there alone.

  9

  For the rest of the week I tried to act as normal as possible and put the prophecy as far out of my mind as I could. Every day I’d wait for something horrible to happen and was both relieved and slightly surprised when nothing did.

  I told Melinda that Rhys was already taken and, while disappointed, she took it in stride with an optimistic “They’ll probably break up.”

  The faery king attended school every day, although I wondered why he bothered. He didn’t have to go to school at all, did he? But there he was in biology with me and also sitting with the Royal Party at lunch in the cafeteria. After how we’d left things on Tuesday, though, he stayed very quiet. He didn’t ask me any more questions about the prophecy, which was fine with me, since I didn’t know anything more than what I’d already told him.

  Rhys continued to study me when he thought I wouldn’t notice. I wondered what he was thinking, what he planned to do next. But nothing happened.

  Thankfully, there were no more dissections to deal with after the frog incident. Mr. Crane was nice enough to l
et the students who bailed that day—there were four in total, including me and Rhys—do a virtual dissection on the computer.

  I missed Michael more every day.

  I swore I saw him a couple more times that week, a face in the crowd, but the moment I turned to look at him and ask why he was there, he’d disappeared.

  My imagination was seriously distracting and not even slightly helpful.

  I considered using my dragon’s tear to find a gateway back to the Shadowlands so I could see Michael, but I stopped myself. He’d said if my father had anything to tell me, he’d come here. Until that happened, I wouldn’t be a pest to either of them.

  Just after school finished on Friday, I stood by my locker with Melinda. She was going through her list of things to do before the party tomorrow night. After the week I’d had, I was actually looking forward to it.

  “I just realized you haven’t picked a name for the gift exchange yet,” she said.

  “I haven’t?”

  She grabbed a cloth pencil case from the interior of her locker and shook it. “Remember, it’s a ten-dollar limit to keep it fair for everyone.”

  I reached into the case and grabbed a tightly folded piece of paper. Pulling it out, I looked down at the name written on it.

  Chris Sanders.

  Well, that figured, didn’t it?

  “Somebody good?” Melinda asked with a grin. “No, don’t tell me. It’s supposed to be a secret.”

  I had to buy Chris a present. There weren’t many things I could think of that were less awesome than that.

  “Hey, Nikki!” I heard from across the hall. It was Rhys.

  “Yeah?” I replied guardedly.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  “Uh, sure. Just a sec.”

  Melinda leaned toward me and whispered, “Rhys is coming to the party tomorrow night, too. Isn’t that great?”

  “Yeah. That’s … that’s great.”

  “He accepted the invite just this morning.” She grinned. “I’m even being all tacky and putting up some mistletoe. It’s going to be great.”

  “Nikki,” Rhys said again, less patiently.

  “Sounds important,” Melinda said, not without humor. “Maybe he’s broken up with his boring girlfriend and wants you to set things up between him and me.”