Her threat made me go silent. I wasn’t flirting with Terry. He was flirting with me. But maybe that was still enough to be held against me. “You seduced my brother,” the Luna said, “And you will not get away with it.” An angry flame burned in her eyes. Her usually demure expression was filled with

The ferocity of Nicholas’s protection of me gave me more comfort that it probably should have. I certainly didn’t want Nicholas to kill anyone, but knowing that he would go to any limits in order to keep me safe helped me feel truly cared for. Still, I decided to move beyond that topic, for fear t

Julian was angry, that much was clear, though I couldn’t exactly fathom why. Yes, it would be irritating to be excluded from Nicholas’s confrontation of the King and Queen, but Julian usually handled irritation with cutting humor and sarcasm, not outright anger. “Your presence wouldn’t have made a

“It’s simply difficult to talk about,” I said as an excuse. It wasn’t a lie. Answering the King’s demand about Terry was difficult, though not entirely for the reasons he might have thought. His mouth pressed into a hard line. I couldn’t tell if he believed me or not. “Do the best you can.” I to

“Thank you, father,” Julian said with a flourishing bow. He smirked at Nathan as he entered the room. Nathan glared at him, but said nothing. He stepped outside the room and closed the door behind him. Julian sauntered over to my side, stepping between the King and me. “May I present, an item

I couldn’t believe that. Nothing from the time I had been with Nicholas to what I had experienced knowing him now indicated to me that he only cared about himself. He helped out regularly at an orphanage. He turned the other way to Mark and Susie’s romance. He spent time with Elva. He was so prote

Even imagining Julian in love felt like a stretch, though I felt like a jerk for thinking so. Why shouldn’t he fall in love? She would have had to be a special woman to keep his attention. I wondered what kind of woman Bridget really was. It was possible Julian had rose colored glasses, rememb

“Don’t worry,” Mark told me. “I will not leave this room. Elva will not leave my sight.” I nodded. That did make me feel marginally better. We’d received word earlier in the day that Terry himself was coming to the palace to personally deliver the results of his event. Since then, we’d mostly ba

Terry continued, listing each girl as well as the points they earned. Toward the end, he said, “Susie. Two points.” He offered no explanation. Susie looked relieved. “As for our final candidate,” Terry began. I held my breath because by now, I was the only one who had yet to be mentioned. “I rec

“Stop this at once,” the King said. It was then that I noticed, Julian had swiftly moved around the stage without catching his mother’s attention. I hadn’t seen him move either. Yet there he was, standing behind the King like he had been there all along. Like he had just been whispering in the K