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  I stood tongue tied, not sure what to say, what I even could say.

  Hendrik seemed to read my expression. “Yeah, I should probably warn you…”

  “Warn me about what?” I asked, wondering just how much worse this could all get.

  “Cordelia!”

  I turned at the sound of my name. My mother had reappeared. Behind her was the blond man I’d hugged outside who I hadn’t recognized. He was handsome in a polished way, wearing a formal military uniform adorned with medals. He smiled at the sight of me and bowed low.

  “Allow me to introduce Prince Malik of Maldineya,” my mother beamed. Prince Malik of Maldineya surfaced from his bow mirroring my mother’s expression.

  “It is fantastic to meet you, Princess Cordelia,” he said. His smile oozed from his face.

  I smiled back as best I could and tried to understand exactly what was going on. Mother waved at a passing servant and said, “Please show Prince Malik to his room.”

  “I’ll see you at dinner,” he said, disappearing on the heels of his escort.

  Once he was gone, Mother turned to me. “People want to know who you’re dating. Since you’ve insisted on being in a public relationship, you will be dating Malik now. I don’t want to hear anything else about it.”

  Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked away again, leaving me slack-jawed and horrified at how horribly this had gone.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Alex

  The great hall was empty for the first time since early this morning. All the non-essential staff and guards had been shuffled off to their lodgings in another part of Midtown while those necessary were hidden away in quiet corners, ready to serve at a moment’s notice.

  In theory, I should have been hiding with them. Instead, I stood at the top of the spiraling staircase, looking out over the marble floor, waiting for Cora to appear.

  I hadn’t seen her since earlier, when her family had arrived on the manor’s doorstep like a rolling invasion - riding in limos the size of tanks, an army of the adoring public at their backs. I’d assumed, wrongly, that after the initial rush of hellos and welcomes, Cora would be able to escape back to her room with me. Instead, after a brief moment alone with the family in the great hall, she was caught up in a whirlwind of attendants, rushing her off to the office, presumably to be prepped on what would be expected of her over the next few weeks.

  I’d expected at least a little preparation myself, someone to pull me aside and give me a briefing on what Cora would be up to, where I’d be expected to go and how they’d want me to dress. I hung around for a little while after Cora disappeared, waiting for someone to tell me what to do, but nobody seemed to pay me any attention. They were all too busy with their own tasks. That was fine by me, of course, but still, I was Cora’s bodyguard. Apparently, that position didn’t carry as much weight as I thought.

  At least it had given me some time to get ready. After being ignored for a little longer than my ego could handle, I escaped up to my room. I’d moved into the room right beside Cora’s and, as of yet, nobody had asked me to leave. I changed out of the black suit, my bodyguard uniform, and into a nicer gray one. I’d ordered it custom made from Italy and I hoped that the Harmont family could tell that it wasn’t just some ordinary number off the rack.

  I sighed and tapped my foot, checking my watch for the time. He’d be here soon and the family wasn’t yet in the great hall to meet him. He in this instance was Mayor Blackburn and even though the good Mayor had twice released a public declaration that I was a menace to not just the city, but the entire state of New York, it wasn’t him that was making my heart palpitate unnaturally. Unfortunately, it wasn’t thoughts of Cora either.

  No, my mind was on the Crown Princess and her reaction when Cora told her that we were together, that we would stay together no matter what she thought. It was a bold declaration and, unfortunately, a front. The reality was that it mattered a great deal what Cora’s mother thought and I’d be a fool to think otherwise.

  Beyond just the obvious fact that I knew Cora’s mother wouldn’t care for me, I felt oddly nervous to meet her family. It was a new sensation. I’d never met any girl’s family before. Most of my relationships hadn’t lasted much longer than a single night and those that did ended right before it got serious enough to take this step. I’d never considered it as the defining reason for breaking up with a girl, but I’m sure it had something to do with it. Only one before Cora was ever serious enough to take that step and, as luck would have it, both of Katrina’s parents had died in a mysterious fire when she was young. After that, she’d gone to live in an orphanage, which had also caught fire. Conveniently, that left her with no one for me to meet. Looking back, I wasn’t sure if my experiences with her confirmed those stories or made them obvious lies.

  For perhaps the first time ever, thoughts of Katrina were oddly comforting. Compared to her, Cora was practically normal. Who cared if her family was rich and famous? So what she painted her mother out to be the second coming of Satan? Mothers and daughters rarely got along. I was sure it couldn’t be that bad.

  Whether I truly believed this or if I was just telling myself that to ease my nerves, I wasn’t sure, but, again, who cared? I wondered if Cora had told her mother yet. Was she telling her right now?

  The sound of voices came down the hall, and Sarina Harmont led the pack into the great hall, speaking to a man holding a camera. She was beautiful in a severe way, like Cora if all the joy had been sucked out of her over the past twenty years, leaving behind a papery-white, stiff face. She didn’t look happy at all, though maybe because she was still processing Cora’s news.

  The Queen followed behind her and Cora after. I tried to catch a glimpse of her face, to read a clue as to how it’d gone, but I couldn’t catch a good look at her.

  Two well-dressed young men brought up the rear. I assumed one of them to be Hendrik, the brother Cora had mentioned in passing, but who was the other? Another brother that wasn’t deemed important enough to mention?

  Almost as soon as the clock struck five-thirty, there was a knock on the door and Sarina threw open the door to reveal the mayor and his wife. The photographer click click clicked as Sarina embraced them both like old friends, the grim expression sliding off her face and transforming into the picture of delight.

  As they came into the great hall and introductions were made, I checked my phone. Cora hadn’t called or even texted to let me know how the conversation went. Was that good news or bad? My gut told me the obvious.

  Mayor Blackburn was bowing to the Queen while the photographer clicked. The noise was grating on my nerves as I tried to decide what I should do. As much as I wanted to, I shouldn’t go down unless Cora gave me some kind of signal. I stared as hard as I could at the back of her head, willing her to look up and spot me. Or maybe I should go down, make a show of it, show that I wasn’t as nervous as I felt about daring to join their centuries-old dynasty.

  As of yet, I’d been ignoring the pleasantries, but a snippet of conversation floated up to me and rammed through the cloud of my thoughts.

  “This is my daughter, Cordelia, and her boyfriend, Prince Malik of Maldineya.”

  My eyes widened in horror as I saw that the unknown maybe-brother was most definitely not a brother and had one arm around Cora’s waist, pulling her closer to him.

  Just in that moment, my attempts at telepathy must have reached a pitch so loud even Cora couldn’t ignore. She looked up and for a moment, our eyes connected and the rest of the great hall slipped away. She shook her head slightly and turned back to watch her mother schmooze to the mayor.

  I fell back from the railing like I’d been shoved. What did she mean? Obviously she hadn’t told her mother about us, but did she go as far as to accept that blond asshat as a replacement for me? No, it wasn’t true. Cora had a Pandora’s Box full of issues when it came to her mother, but I didn’t believe, couldn’t believe, that she would drop me from her life the insta
nt Sarina Harmont snapped her fingers. Everything was fine. It was okay. Jumping over the railing and landing with both feet on the back of Prince Fucking Malik’s neck would create problems rather than solve them. I just needed to reign in my fears until Cora could confirm that I hadn’t just been replaced for a shinier, safer future.

  “Oh come on. What did you really expect?”

  I didn’t have to turn to recognize Jackie’s voice. “What do you mean?” I asked stiffly. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, least of all to her.

  I listened to her near silent footfalls as she drew closer, stopping just beside me. Below, the rich and royals talked, unaware of our presence.

  “What was she going to say to that woman? ‘This is Alex. His parents made forty grand between them last year, but we’re going to marry and live happily ever after.’”

  “How’d you know?” I asked, finally ripping my eyes away from Cora and that blond bastard below.

  She gave me a look that said come on. “It was obvious from the moment I saw you in a room together,” she said. She leaned against the railing and looked up at me. Her heels were gone as was her earlier franticness. She seemed a little more human - plastic, beaming intensity traded out for lazy arrogance.

  “I mean, good for you landing that, but I thought you were smarter than thinking it was anything more than a quick fling.”

  “You don’t know everything,” I said, my fingers tightening around the banister. The procession was moving toward the dining room. The Prince still had his hands on my girl.

  She laughed quietly. “Alex, just trust me. I’ve spent the last three months dealing with that bitch down there. She’s never going to let her daughter date someone like us.”

  “Like us?”

  “The commoners, the poor folk, the working class.” Jackie smiled and her red lips parted like the sea. “No matter how hard you try, you’ll never fit into their world.”

  “You seem to manage,” I said.

  She shrugged. “I don’t try. I know that I’m different, but that’s the point. They use me, I use them. It’s symbiotic and there aren’t any illusions about it. At least not on my end.”

  I knew all about that. I shook my head. “You’re wrong. There can be exceptions.”

  “You think you know all there is about being a royal? About how complicated Cora’s life is?” She paused and her eyes narrowed playfully. “Try this. Ask yourself how much Cora really knows about you. That might give you some idea of how much can’t be shared in a week. You still think it could work?”

  I looked away, down at the now empty great hall. I refused to acknowledge that she might have a point.

  “We’ll work it out,” I said finally.

  Jackie sighed and walked around me, trailing one hand across my back. “Oh Alex, I guess you have to live the lesson to learn it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  She left, disappearing on cat-like feet further into the house. I stayed at the banister, thinking about her words. They weren’t anything I hadn’t thought myself. There was nothing new here, only a further complication. Still, I imagined them all sitting around the great dining room table with the mayor and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t picture sitting there with them.

  Banishing the image from my mind, I went upstairs and changed into jeans and a t-shirt before going out into the city to find food more fitting of my position in life.

  * * *

  Later that evening, I waited in Cora’s room for her to return.

  The handle turned around ten and she entered. She started at the sight of me in the shadows, but relaxed once she recognized my shape. I walked over to her and paused a few feet away. She closed the distance between us, pressing her head against my chest, and dispelling all the lingering fears rationality couldn’t beat away. I felt my arms wrap around her, feeling as relieved as I could under the circumstances.

  “Are you mad?” she whispered.

  I rested my head on top of hers. “Of course not,” I said.

  “I just couldn’t,” she said. She sounded close to tears.

  I held her tighter and she melted into me. We stood there together in the glow of the windows, pressed together in silence, both thinking, wondering what we were going to do.

  “Will you ever be able to tell her?” I asked finally, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer.

  There was a long silence.

  “I don’t know,” she replied.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Cora

  I left Alex standing on the landing alone and entered back into a world of my mother’s design. It was a dreamland - vaguely familiar, something I’d tried hard to forget during my time in New York, something I returned to, to some extent, whenever I was summoned home to Athea. But even those visits back to the palace had some semblance of sanity. The country went on as usual, the news stations more interested in the production in the mines and executive decisions than whatever the Queen’s granddaughter was up to.

  The Americans cared more, much to my infinite displeasure. But at least I wasn’t the focal point of the media’s fascination - that would be Mother. The camera loved her and she it. From the family’s first full day in the city, Mother was a tornado of action, whipping the world around me into a swirl of chaos and destruction. Every morning there was a talk show she was appearing on, every evening a prominent member of society to wine and dine in the grand dining room at the manor. And in between dawn and dusk? Meet and greets with members of the public, private tours of the Guggenheim and the MET, a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. There was a photoshoot at Tiffany’s with jewelry made from Athea’s gems, an interview with Vogue, and, of course, another photoshoot to go along with it.

  While Hendrik was given free reign to explore the city, I was dragged along to these events so Mother could introduce me to an ever-changing parade of faceless significants. Without fail, she always called me “the Harmont family’s resident New Yorker” with a sickening smile. The phrase made me cringe harder with every iteration so that by mid-week it was all I could do to keep my face from puckering like I’d just inhaled an entire lemon. Thankfully, I was never asked to do more than show up dressed well, to smile and shake hands and then be shuffled off to a quiet corner where I couldn’t cause any controversy.

  There, at least, was a sign of a small victory from my Humans interview. It quickly became apparent that Mother didn’t quite trust what I’d say to the public anymore. However, if we were scoring that battle, I came out the loser by far just from the very presence of Prince Malik.

  I didn’t know if it was a blessing or not when it turned out that Alex was not going to be by my side quite as much as I’d assumed. On Sunday morning, the day after the family had arrived, the two of us had come downstairs ready for the first event of the day. Mother had taken one confused look at Alex and asked who he was. I’d figured as much. When I’d told her he was the bodyguard she had forced on me and he was coming with us, she’d laughed in my face. Apparently, I didn’t need private security when I was going out with her and her own guard. Alex would be staying behind unless I went out alone.

  As it turned out, I didn’t ever go out alone so Alex was confined to the manor and the only times I saw him were briefly at night when we’d meet in my bedroom and whisper. I’d tell him how awful the day was and he’d hold me and tell me that he wished he could be there with me. And I’d feel ashamed to be secretly glad that he didn’t have to witness me at my lowest, groveling to bigwigs and hanging on Malik’s arm.

  Of course, if he were there, he’d be able to see that this relationship was doomed from it’s ill-conceived beginnings. The Prince was dragged around almost as much as I was, forced to stand next to me, to hold my hand as we waved to the public. It became quickly apparent that as devious a move as it’d been for Mother to bring a stand-in boyfriend for me, it hadn’t been all that well-thought-out, most likely due to the time crunch between my interview’s drop and what I assumed had been insanit
y at the palace getting the family packed and ready for the visit. So corners were cut and Mother had to take whoever she could get on a moment’s notice to date her daughter that was both single, attractive, and of the right heritage. Prince Malik fit the bill, coming from an even smaller European country than Athea who’s king, Malik’s father, had long hoped for a direct trade alliance with my grandmother.

  I assumed he knew he was here completely for political reasons, because he never even tried to talk to me, instead spending all the time we weren’t in front of the cameras playing a football game on his phone and having frequent loud conversations in German that a multilingual agent of my mother’s whispered to me were with his girlfriend back home. It seemed I wasn’t the only one highly inconvenienced by this arrangement and I wondered if Malik’s father was just as bad as Mother.

  However, after a few days, I wasn’t feeling a whole lot of sympathy for my fake boyfriend. I was just as displeased by the situation, but at least I made an attempt to be friendly. Frankly, the entire ordeal was embarrassing. I’d meet important people throughout the city, shake their hand, introduce Malik as my boyfriend, and pose for pictures. Then, the moment the cameras were off, he’d shun me in front of everyone, making it readily apparent that the entire thing was a farce. Mother didn’t acknowledge it at all and I half-wondered if she was behind it. But no, his presence was enough to teach me a lesson, anything extra was just icing on the cake. So in the end, it really was for the best that Alex wasn’t here to see it. It was just another humiliating ordeal forced on me by Mother. And with each passing blow, I was starting to forget why it was I put up with it at all.

  By the time Thursday rolled around, my mother had only been there for four full days and it’d felt like two years. The house hadn’t settled into complacency at all as the biggest official event at the manor in over a decade was planned for Friday. It was the costume ball to reveal the Crown to a guest list of important figures, each paying a handsome fee for a ticket to attend the social event of the year. There was a constant stream of people coming in and out, preparing the food, the music, the ballroom. Jackie speed walked room-to-room looking like she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all since my mother touched down, muttering under her breath and frequently casting panicked looks at her watch.