Page 21 of Royal Hunt
Gregory elbowed his way to my side, and Trenton’s gaze finally broke from me to glare at his son. “This is the one you wanted? Looks like the prince got there first.”
I couldn’t control my reaction. I turned beet red. The guards took Trenton’s disrespect as permission to snicker at me, and Gregory’s shoulders hunched in embarrassment. He flung his cloak around me, his hands resting on my shoulders protectively. I had a choice here. Either I could deny it, and have to explain why I was without my dress, or let them draw their own conclusions.
I took a shuddering breath and gathered Gregory’s cloak tight around him. “Why do you think I fought him? Any woman would fight as viciously to protect her virtue.” I made my voice warble just a bit. “I’m lucky to have succeeded.”
It felt wrong to betray Ellis like that, even if he was an asshole. Though he shouldn’t get too bent out of shape about it; it was what everyone already expected of him.Even if Trenton was right, and the princehadgotten to me first, just not in the way he thought.I pinched my lips closed and raised my chin.It’s to protect him. All of this is.
Trenton raised an eyebrow at me. Gregory pushed between us, his expression fierce. Though his hands left my shoulders, he kept his fingers entwined in mine.
“You see?” he argued with his father. “She is a strong lady, a true daughter of the Northern Realm. Our sons will be just as strong.” Gregory shot me a proud look, but I could only blink dumbly at him. Sons? I was not a broodmare!
I yanked my hand away from him, and backed up into the crowd. Trenton waved me away, already bored. He had eyes only for Prince Ellis, who hung silently between his two captors. His eyes were closed, and drool dripped down his chin.
“Charming,” Trenton sneered. “Take him to the hall with the others.” Trenton’s eyes raked cruelly up and down the prince’s seemingly unconscious form. “We don’t have time for anything else.”
Gregory snatched my hand back and together we were hustled along with the rest of the group. We moved as a unit through the front gate, pushing inside toward the main hall. The rest of the heirs must have been taken there as well, but for what purpose? I supposed Ellis’s plan was good in that regard—we would definitely find out.
I shot him a worried glance, wondering if a guard had knocked him out when I wasn’t looking. He looked worse than before, his dark veins showing more prominently through his pale coloring, and his bare chest displaying his odd scars to the entire world. I would hate to be bare like that among enemies. At least I had my undergarments covering most of my skin.
I fought my way toward Ellis until I was only a pace or two from his back. When I got close enough, I dropped Gregory’s cloak on his shoulders. The guards shot me a look, and I scowled at them, daring them to say anything. The one whose foot I’d stomped on glanced away first.
“The rest of the heirs are clothed, aren’t they?” I challenged, and they sniffed but allowed me to tie the cloak around Ellis’s shoulders. His head lolled all the way back until his face was toward the sky. I put my hand on the back of his neck, steadying it. The moment my skin touched his, those golden eyes shot open with such clarity that I jerked and almost drew my hand away.
He was faking it.
Ellis met my gaze with such ferocity that I stopped in my tracks. The guards tugged him away, and my hands fell down to my side. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Ellis went limp. I rushed after the guards to make it inside the entrance hall before the doors were slammed shut.
Once inside, it was apparent that the servants had cleaned. The platform up front was missing the thrones, and the stone floor was slick and wet but devoid of any blood. The scent of vinegar mixed with lemons and rosemary, and my stomach flipped. I’d never again think those scents represented cleanliness.
The heirs Ellis and I had seen on the road stood in a tight line up on the dais, their hands still bound in front of them. Between us was a vast crowd of soldiers and nobles.
Prince Nessian stood stoically on the far left, not a single emotion visible on his face. His two younger sisters were to his right, their blonde hair flowing freely over their shoulders. The triplet brothers were on the other end, resignation in their dark eyes.
Standing in the middle of them like a queen was Viana, silver eyes blazing with fury as she calmly stared down the entire hall. The collar of her dress was ripped, but otherwise she looked immaculate, with not a hair out of place. Her gaze slowly trailed around the hall as if she were personally challenging every soul before her.
Ellis was tugged through the crowd by the guards and shoved up with the others. I wondered what they’d done with the rest of the royal family, wincing as I imagined a pile of bodies in a storeroom somewhere, piled on top of each other like slaughtered stags or discarded meat.
I blinked, realizing someone was shouting my name. I focused and saw Gregory, weaving back through the crowd to get me. I let him pull me up toward the front.
“Eve! Where’s my cloak?” he asked in befuddlement. I was too busy eyeing all the foreigners in the room to hear what he said next—something about changing in an antechamber. I couldn’t hear him over my racing thoughts. It was too hot in this room; too crowded. Different colors and heraldry all mixed together indiscriminately in the crowd, a low buzz of excitement in the air. Murmuring was all around me, but one thing was perfectly clear.
This wasn’t a simple rebellion in the Northern Realm. This was an entire continental takeover. But why? How?
The tension in the room grew. Gregory led me over to a table on the left side, one of the closest ones to the platform.
I sat down numbly, and he frowned. “No ... what are you doing? Weren’t you listening? You need to change. You can't be here wearing only that.”
I’d witnessed countless murders today, but somehow the most offensive thing in the room was me in an underdress. Gregory handed me off to the servant next to him, who gripped my arm and guided me out a side door and into the hallway.
“Down here, my Lady,” she said, pointing at a small antechamber with a thin door. She opened it and gestured for me to enter. The room was dimly lit, but there was a beautiful lavender gown laid out on a velvet chair, sparkling with gems and gold. The stomach panel was overly generous.
The servant held it up. “My Lady, put it on. Here.” She pulled it up against me while I stood still as a board. Nauseated, I wanted to hurl. There was only one person that dress could belong to, and she was dead now.
“I can’t. I—” I protested.
My words were cut off as the servant pulled the dress over my head, then smoothed it down over my body. The fabric puffed out comically in the middle, even when she tried to push it down. “Well, the princess had been expecting, so we must make do.”
We must make do.
