If any of her family was going to know, though, Alexandria would do the least damage. Anyway, Natasha had gone along with her parents on a diplomatic trip to California earlier in the afternoon and would be gone until late Sunday, so it wasn’t like the risk of being caught had been very high. Alex had enough of her own controversial relationships, and right now, she probably needed something to smile about anyway after the week’s events.
The sisters stood looking at each other in shock for a moment before Alexandria let out an excited squeal and hug tackled Julia, almost knocking them both to the ground. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” Okay. Well, that could have gone worse.
Julia was beaming and hugged her sister back, half-screaming herself. “We are trying to be careful. I’m sorry!”
I stood there and rubbed the back of my neck. Is this normal?
The two sisters held each other’s hands excitedly jumping up and down before Julia became more serious. “Alex, nobody else can know. We’re already taking a risk with this many people.”
“I get it. I’m just so happy for you two and, even though I’m mad you didn’t tell me, I forgive you.” She smiled at me before looking around excitedly. “Now, where’s the alcohol? This just became a celebration!” She ran to grab herself a drink.
Oh, boy. I took a deep breath and met Julia’s alive eyes as she laughed in relief herself. In that moment I pledged to myself that I would do whatever it takes to ensure we could last and be free to live our lives. She had given me something to lose.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the drink table. “Anything with Alex is a real party. C’mon, you have some catching up to do.”
As I looked at the options, I felt a little out of place. I’d had more than a few beers in the Militia, but the spread of expensive liquors in front of me was a bit overwhelming.
While I was pondering my options, Alex turned up the music, danced over, poured me a mix of either bourbon or whiskey and some foreign soda, and handed it to me in one fluid motion while I stood still in shock. She whispered in my ear, “If you’re going to date my sister, we need to teach you how to party, Red.”
Looking down at the brown liquid in my glass, I just shook my head before looking up at Julia. I met her gaze and took a sip of the sharp liquid, giving her a wry smile as the alcohol burned its way across my tongue and down my throat. She glided through her friends and grabbed my free hand, pulling me to dance with her. I pulled back with a bit of resistance and spoke over the music, “I can’t dance.”
She insistently pulled me closer and bit her lip, her eyes alight. “Well, it’s time to learn.”
Well, here we go… I downed the rest of my drink and quickly realized how little experience I had with hard liquor as my mouth caught fire. Julia laughed at my reaction and took my empty glass, placing it on an end table and starting to dance, leading me along with the bass-heavy pop music. Part of me wanted to fight and stay on guard, but I let her lead me through the dance.
Eventually, the party ended after some casual conversation, and the girls went on their way, leaving me alone with Alex and Julia, who were still busy giggling and laughing together on one of the couches. I slumped down on the one across from them and rubbed my head. “I don’t know if it’s the concussion or the alcohol, but my head is spinning.”
Alexandria laughed and raised what had to be her seventh or eighth drink and slurred a response. “You haven’t seen a real royal party, Ivan.”
She is way drunker than me. “You scared the shit out of me when you walked up.”
Julia laughed. She was obviously less drunk than her sister. “You don’t know Alex well enough.”
Alex gave her sister a sloppy hug. “I’m just so happy for you two. You may be a Red, Ivan, but I see how you make her happy, even if she tries to hide it around us.”
Julia and I’s eyes met, and she blushed as we both grinned like maniacs. We were out of our minds: a White princess and a Red slave fracturing the Prism from both ends.
Alex finished her drink and stood, shakily. “All right. I need to sleep. I’ll leave you two love-birds.” We laughed, and she stumbled off towards her room.
At the last second, I stood, turning towards her and smiled. “And Alex.” She looked back at us, supporting herself with one arm against the wall. “Thank you for a fun evening. I’m glad you came by. Next time we do heavy metal instead of pop.”
She looked down, solemnly for a moment, before looking back at me and almost whispering, “Glad to be a part of it, Red.”
I gave her a soft smile, and she shuffled towards her room. I looked back towards Julia as a wide, proud smile stretched across her face. Shaking my head, I chuckled. “What?”
“Thank you for caring about her. I don’t think you realize how much tonight meant to her, Ivan.”
I slumped onto the couch and put my arm around her. “I just did what you told me to.”
She snuggled into my side and leaned her head softly against mine. “But you cared enough to listen and remember things. That means a lot to her, and me.”
We were quiet for a few minutes, just enjoying the evening breeze and each other’s presence until I laughed. “So, was this a plan to embarrass me or what? I thought we weren’t going to tell anybody.”
She giggled. “We were playing truth or dare. One of the truths they asked me was if anything was going on between us…”
“Was it obvious?”
She bit her lip. “They said I looked at you way more often than most people look at their bodyguards”
“Ah, so it was your fault.”
“Hey, stop looking cute in the clothes I got you and we won’t have a problem. And later for a dare they said that I had to let them interrogate you.”
“That was probably the weirdest experience of my life.”
She giggled and played with one of the buttons on my shirt. “Well you passed the test. In case you couldn’t tell, they love you, and that’s important for girls.”
“Glad to make a good first perception with the friends. So, when do I get to take you to the Enclave and have my team interrogate you.”
She smirked. “Right when we fix the world.”
“I don’t feel like that’s fair, we’ll probably break it first.”
She laughed. “All’s fair in love and war.”
“I love you too, Julia.”
She looked up at me quickly in a bit of shock, her cheeks red. “I didn’t mean…I…”
I laughed. “Don’t worry, it was a joke.”
She stuttered through the shock. “I know… but… I love you too.”
Oh. I stared into her eyes and grinned. “That was payback for the interrogation.”
She was offended and punched me softly. “That’s not funny!”
I smiled and responded softly, “I meant it, though. I love you, Julia. I know we haven’t known each other for that long, but it feels like it’s been years and I can’t imagine life without you.”
She bit her lip. “You know how to talk your way out of trouble.”
I shifted and kissed her softly. “When you get yourself in trouble a lot, it is an important skill to learn.”
Chapter 44
I woke up holding Julia in her bed. The aroma of pine wafted through the air from her candles and mixed with her wintergreen perfume. We had half-drunkenly fallen asleep after we left the living room out of fear of a guard walking past on a post-party patrol. She had asked me to stay, and I remembered falling asleep lying next to her, my arm around her waist. It was weirdly natural to be holding her, not worrying about the world for a few hours.
She wasn’t awake yet, so I just laid there, staring at the back of her head, thinking about the dream from yesterday and what I was going to do about the impending fall of the Enclave. El Capitan needed to keep his head on straight or a lot of people would die unnecessarily. Hopefully Delaware and Poseidon can talk some sense into him. It was a bad situation, but, for now, we needed to focus on the pl
an. I wasn’t going to let all of my work to maintain peace go to waste. Besides, I was slowly gaining the royal family’s trust. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to choose between my two loyalties. If the plan worked, I wouldn’t have to, but there were a million moving parts, and the imminent UPF threat was growing ever stronger.
Eventually, Julia woke up slowly and shifted back into me mumbling. “It’s cold.”
I laughed. “Good morning, princess.”
She coughed. “What time is it?”
I looked at the large platinum analog clock on the wall. “Eight-thirty.” She groaned. “Hangover?”
She sighed and mumbled, “No, I was just enjoying that sleep.”
I kissed the back of her shoulder. “Same. First time I haven’t had a nightmare in years.”
She rolled over to look at me, yawning. “Aww. So that nightmare you had yesterday… that was normal?”
“Yesterday’s was… worse… than normal. But, yes, dreams don’t really like me. That tends to happen when you’ve lived your entire life in fear,” and killed seventeen people.
She smiled softly. “I’m glad I could scare them away.” She ran her hand softly through my hair. “Though this can’t be a normal thing. Understand?”
I chuckled. “Understood, though I was surprised by how rebellious you were. Was that the alcohol?”
She smirked. “No, it was just refreshing to just have fun with my closest friends, my boyfriend, and my rebel sister all in one night. I didn’t have to be what anyone else wanted me to be.” I smiled, and she giggled. “What?”
I ran my fingers along her cheek. “You’re beautiful, and I loved seeing you like that… like this. It’s rare I get to really see you without the princess guard up, not that there’s anything wrong with Princess Julia.”
“We both have two kind of separate lives, don’t we?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t quite equate our situations, but I guess you have a point. Though, the jewelry you got at birth is way better than mine.” I held her hand and fiddled with her ring.
She furrowed her eyebrows, insistent. “You know what I mean. We each have another side that very few people have seen.”
“That’s true, and I’m glad we can trust each other with them.”
She smiled softly and felt my side. “Can I see the scar?”
Which one? I responded, reluctant. “If you insist.”
She slowly lifted up my shirt, revealing the scar from the knife wound as well as a few other scars from years ago. Her hand trembled as she ran her hands across them, her eyes full of worry.
I sighed. “My life… my old life. It came with a cost. Coyote survived, so Ivan could live.”
Our eyes met. “But that’s going to change, right? We’re going to fix things, together.”
Tucking her hair back, I thought for a second. “Things will change, and together we will.” I hope…
She smiled softly and laid her hand along mine on her cheek. “Speaking of fixing things, I wish we could just spend the day here, but Princess Julia is needed in the world, and that won’t change. I’ve got that Sunday roundtable this afternoon on TV.”
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her tight to me. “So, you’re telling me we have a few more hours.”
She giggled, her eyes studying my face. “I need to make an appearance soon or people around the palace will start asking questions.”
I kissed her. “Let them ask.”
She was stern. “Ivan, you know this is important to me.”
“Yes, m’lady.”
She smiled wryly. “Fine, a few more minutes,” and she kissed me for more than a few minutes.
Chapter 45
The Sunday roundtable was a weekly session on the “Collective Chat” show, consisting of a few different well-known faces or at least, debatably, somewhat interesting people who would discuss a bunch of topics that didn’t matter. Occasionally, though, someone would have some guts to bring up a challenging idea and a real discussion could occur. This week, Julia would be joined by Simon Tillman, the show’s Blue host, as well as General Demetrius Johnson of the UPF, a Purple, pop singer Olivia Bowman, a Green, and University of Minnesota running back Xavier Morgan, a Yellow.
The handmaidens had Julia looking stellar compared to the rest of the group, her sapphire necklace shining against her pale skin and white open collared blouse. She was determined to challenge the Purple General on the UPF’s recent decisions to oust the Reds and restrict trade with even somewhat capitalist nations. She knew she had to be careful, though, with the fragile state of political affairs. The international situation with the Anglo-Nordic Coalition was still tense, and the calls within Northern Mississippi for privacy reforms were causing a massive headache for the UPF. The government was responding with increasing levels of force.
Her last interview had made waves, but if she could put the General on the spot, there would be an uproar, especially if he got tough on the cute, innocent-looking princess who seemed to care about people. The two things I love the most: watching Julia be her amazing self and embarrassing the UPF.
As expected, the majority of the show consisted of talk about wishy-washy entertainment news, yesterday’s football game, how the collective is advancing, etc., but then Julia got her chance. The General mentioned the “new strategies” in his statements about why people should feel more secure about the future than ever before.
Julia calmly, but firmly, intervened. “But General Johnson, are these strategies actually anything new or simply a repeat of the camps and failed plans we saw thirty years ago that led to massive starvation among the Red and Orange Tag populations?”
The General raised an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden challenge, and responded, his voice deep and condescending. “On the contrary, princess. This plan allows the Red Tag population access to housing and a more effective and consolidated rationing system than the variable ones of recent memory. These production centers will allow for greater security as well as efficiency for production and oversight of the Reds.”
Julia pushed harder. “But isn’t it true that we have consistently failed to produce enough food internally to account for demand, particularly in the winter? How do you expect to feed the everyday people of Northern Mississippi without access to these foreign markets? Are we going to just prioritize people on the color of an earring to decide who lives and who starves?”
He was stern. “These are questions to be handled by the planning committee of the United People’s Front, not the monarchy, and I struggle to believe that you have a better grasp on the concerns of the people than the collective’s governing body, princess.”
Surprisingly, Xavier, the running back, stepped in. “I don’t know anything about this plan, but the princess was at Minnesota and in more than one class with me. She knows her stuff. She’s seen what we see.”
Olivia, the singer, nodded, remaining silent but in agreement on camera, trying to be careful as a Green. Three on one.
Julia smiled. “Thank you, Xavier. I have seen the concerns of the average person, and I’ve felt the pain of the people impacted by government policy, but this is not about me or what I think.” She turned her attention to the General again and was dead serious, her eyes like daggers. “This is about preventing our already fragile economy from crumbling by repeating the failures of the past and cutting us off from the world while at the same time arresting people who dare to ask a simple question of ‘why?’ We sit at a crossroads, in which the government can continue to increasingly violate people’s privacy and control their lives no matter who they are, or we can prevent the repetition of our parents’ and grandparents’ failures and work together towards a better future through openness and dialogue instead of fear.”
Simon, the host, stepped in eagerly, obviously being instructed to do so by the producers, and changed the topic. It didn’t matter, though, as Julia had brought the General to a personal attack and got in the last word while getting back-up from a popular
football player of all people. It couldn’t have gone much better. She looked bold and determined while maintaining her innocent appearance for the majority the discussion. Meanwhile a general in a military uniform attempted to condescend her and pretend he was more connected to the people than her. Julia, with the help of Xavier, proved that she was speaking for the average person and managed to point out the failed policies of the past.
It was risky, and the UPF’s crackdowns on the growing reform movements would bring them into increased conflict with the monarchy now. This slyly worked into my plan, though, as increased pressure from the UPF could potentially be enough to convince the King that it was finally time to fight back. We were not there yet. Operation Blackout was needed before we could even consider a real political fight, no matter how popular Julia was becoming.
Social media had lost its mind, with videos of the debate going viral, and polls, before they were taken down by censors, showed overwhelming agreement with her. Various reformers had banded together in recent days to create a group named “The Fracture,” inspired by the metaphorical fracture in the Prism that allowed the Whites to remain unfiltered. Popular accounts within this new group had begun hinting that Julia needed to enter the political sphere in some form: be it as the future queen, in the assembly, or some other leadership position. The movement was growing, now we just needed a catalyst to escalate its spread.
Chapter 46
Weeks passed as we plunged headfirst into winter, and Julia turned her public focus towards shifting the opinion of the average people, the Yellows and Oranges, through the occasional TV and radio appearances on top of Q&A’s and live videos via social media. She had to be careful supporting the protestors, but she did everything she could indirectly. While minds were not overly difficult to sway, people lived in fear of being arrested or moved down a color if they spoke up against the UPF. They were people with families, homes, and jobs. Despite their struggles, not everyone was willing to risk everything they had to change things.
The Fractured Prism (The Prism Files Book 1) Page 20
