Page 4 of Lies That Bleed
“Kohen Badshah,” Elaine whispered beside me, and my stomach dropped.
Thatwas Kohen Badshah? Son of the former king of Imbria? It was rumored that after losing his father to the war, and his privileged life, he’d taken to the streets and started a gang to survive. Leader of the Avasan gang, he was said to do anything for money, including stealing your organs and selling them on the black market.
I swallowed hard and glanced around the room some more. When I spied Jace groveling by his best friend Tucker, I rolled my eyes. He was giving me weepy puppy dog eyes, and I wanted to run over and beg my father to take his name out of the Lottery. But if I did that, I knew he would ask questions, and it wasn’t becoming of a woman of my title to do something so emotional. So I sucked it up and then looked for my best friend, my only friend, Tetra. You might think being the future empress would have gained me popularity and an amazing social life. It did not. People either avoided me for fear they would piss me off, or they were fake nice because they wanted something from me. Tetra was the realest person I ever met. She told me my hair looked bad one day in third grade and the rest was history.
When my gaze landed on my blonde bestie, sheraised her cane high into the air and whooped loudly. “Go, Aisling!”
Heat rushed to my cheeks in embarrassment. I glanced at my father to see him roll his eyes. He wasn’t a huge fan of Tetra. She was far too lower-middle class for him. Which was everything I loved about her. She brought a normalcy to my life that I craved.
I gave her a small wave and then used a hand sign language we’d invented in fifth grade, letting her know I needed to talk to her after, that it was important. She nodded, appearing concerned. I hadn’t had time to tell her about Jace cheating on me. I’d had to go right from that back to my house to ride here with my father. I couldn’t wait to hear her plans for a salacious revenge plot after the Lottery was over. When the sun set tonight, all of the candidates would go into The Wilds to claim their creature of choice, and I needed to know that if I died in there Tetra would shave Jace’s head in his sleep or feed him herbs that made his balls fall off.
The Imperial Fleet song played out of the speakers and I brought my hand up in a salute as I stared at the Amersean flag. The two white stars on a black backdrop caused pride to swell within me. One star represented Amersea and the other Imbria. We’d been through a lot as a people, but were finally united under one flag after years of in-fighting—bonded by our shared common enemy to the north, Luska.
When the anthem stopped, Elaine bowed slightlyto me and then took her place beside my sisters offstage.
I lowered my hand and my father stood, walking over to the podium with Zuri by his side. “Today, you will be given the chance to become heroes, future leaders of the Imperial Fleet, defenders of Amersea against the Luskin tyrants.”
The crowd burst into applause, but I noticed the Imbrians gave a modest, halfhearted clap while the others were shouting and even jumping up from their chairs. It had been over a decade since we’d conquered them and wounds still needed to heal. Maybe with the next generation.
My father gave a charismatic laugh. “Now I know you’re excited, but only some of you will be chosen today.”
The sound of groans filled the space and he nodded. “Good luck to all. Make us proud.” He saluted and everyone saluted him back.
Next was my father’s assistant. Lucinda was a young, excitable little thing who spoke in a shrill voice and smiled constantly. She’d been hired about five years ago to improve his public image, and at that point she took over the Lottery ceremony announcements.
I liked her well enough, when she wasn’t talking too much.
“Hello, my beautiful Amerseans!” she called in a high-pitched voice. “You must be so excited to havethis opportunity.” Her creature, a beautiful peacock with electric blue glowing ember lines throughout his tail feathers, pranced on stage behind her.
Most creatures had really badass powers, and they endowed their human to have powers as well. Lucinda’s was no different. Her peacock, Carlyle, could camouflage himself to his surroundings so that he could listen in on conversations without being seen. He had a mental link to Lucinda to tell her everything he heard. She was basically a spy, which I think was another reason my father hired her.
“Before we start the Lottery, we have a special candidate.” She looked over at me and I stood at attention. “Miss Aisling Everhart, emperor heir, who by right of birth can bypass the Lottery system, will be given the opportunity to go into The Wilds and represent her family.” She glanced to my father, who nodded once, and then to my sisters off stage, who clapped excitedly with Elaine by their side. The triplets wore matching purple dresses with white heels, ever the perfect ladies in public even at fourteen years old.
The crowd erupted into applause and I moved to stand in the front of the candidate line. For some reason, in that moment, my gaze flicked to Kohen Badshah. He didn’t clap for me, though he watched me with a cocked head and keen expression.
I peered straight ahead and kept a military stance. Sometimes lottery candidates had a scarcity mentality in The Wilds. Thinking that all of the good creatureswould get taken, they killed the weak candidates off first. I wanted anyone watching to know that I was military trained and wouldn’t take any crap from any of them.
“Alright, let’s see who else gets this amazing opportunity!” Lucinda called out through the microphone as she walked over to a giant glass ball at the side of the stage. It had a big crank on the left, and she reached out and spun it, watching the little white paper names tumble inside and mix around. The Lottery was voluntary, and even though you could die in The Wilds, we still had to cap the number of entrants each year. Citizens were clamoring for the opportunity to bond with a creature which would lead to a hefty sign-on bonus and a great job within the military. This would give them a steady income for the rest of their life. We’d been at war with the Luskins for four decades. This was solid and steady work which wouldn’t be going away anytime soon.
I watched the crowd as they wiggled nervously in their seats. The entire stadium was packed with over two thousand potential candidates. No family members or friends were allowed as there just wasn’t enough room, but they all waited outside to hear the results. I’d barely been able to sneak Tetra in for moral support.
Lucinda pulled the first name. My gaze flicked over to the small white paper to see that it was Angeline Sawyer. I didn’t know her.
“Oh, how wonderful! Riverine’s very own Jace Ledger!” Lucinda trilled, smiling as she then threw Angeline’s name into a small incinerator beside the glass ball. A poof of smoke destroyed the evidence.
So that’s how they rigged it. I had always wondered.
The crowd clapped wildly as my lying, cheating ex-boyfriend smiled proudly and stepped onto the stage to stand beside me.
“Stand at the end,” I said to him under my breath without moving my lips.
“Aisling…” he pleaded.
I turned to him with a giant smile that hopefully the crowd would think was genuine, but it was my eyes that I infused with murder vibes.
He got the message and waved at everyone as he moved ten feet away from me to stand at the end of the white dotted line of the first row.
“Okay,” Lucinda laughed nervously, clearly thrown by our little display. “Next is…” She reached into the glass bowl and I had to control my reaction when I saw the name Kohen Badshah.
