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Rowan pulled out of me. Just as I wondered if I’d turned him off, he flipped me over and gathered me into his lap.
“Who are you, Sy?” he asked, looking into my golden eyes. “Why weren’t you enrolled in the Selection? The realm rounded up all the eligible candidates, yet you aren’t in the system.” He cupped my face. “Did you come from CrimsonTide? Are you running away from someone?” He growled at that. “You can tell me. I’ll protect you.”
I couldn’t tell him how much I craved to be able to tell him everything, to have my own life, even to be a bride candidate and rise above all the others, but my life wasn’t just my own. I could only fuck him and spend brief moments with him. I wouldn’t put Barbie in danger again.
“What about you, princeling?” I challenged him instead. “You don’t tell me your secrets either. In fact, you don’t say much when you aren’t fucking me. Have I complained?”
He considered me darkly. “Then I’ll tell you my most-kept secret that only my queen mother knows. Can I trust you to be discreet?”
I spread my arms, showing my fangs. “Whom am I going to tell, sugar?”
Barbie stopped thinking about diamonds and moved to the front row, pricking her ears.
“I’m not my father’s son,” Rowan whispered. “I’m a bastard.”
My giggles dropped just as soon as they came at Rowan’s serious expression.
“You’re not joking,” I said quietly.
“Never to you,” he said.
My heart raced, and Barbie inched closer, her two-toned eyes widening. We knew what this secret meant. If it got out, Rowan would be stripped of his heir status. He’d be shunned even if his king father didn’t exile him, or worse, have him killed.
He’d entrusted me with this dangerous secret that he’d never told anyone else. My chest ached and warmed. At that moment, I realized that I was falling for him, irrevocably, though I knew I shouldn’t. It’d only end in disaster if I kept falling for him and grew too attached. The fight between Barbie and me last time nearly undid her.
If she died, I died too.
“I—” I gazed up at him. But I couldn’t share my secret with him despite his trusting me with his. It hurt my bones to be unfair to Rowan, but it wasn’t just my secret. I’d need Barbie’s consent. I touched his face gently. “Your secret is safe with me, heir.”
At the same time, I demanded Barbie to swear secrecy as well, and she made a sign of crossing her heart. Will you still ask him about diamonds? she asked sheepishly. It’s also important that we must gather wealth.
That chick didn’t have a single sensitive bone in her.
“Make me come again, my sugar Rowan,” I said, rubbing my cunt against his erection.
I didn’t have a lot to offer, but I could give him the best lay and let him feed.
He heaved me up, nudged his thick crown at my entrance, and plunged into me with his massive cock until it impaled me. I clasped my hands behind his neck, and we started to move together.
I threw my head back at the pleasure, moaning, my need for him burning in me.
Rowan stilled, holding me tightly against him.
A second later, a broadcast rang through the academy grounds like a tremor. The sound, though faint, reached Underhill through magic. Rowan and I caught every word with our superior hearing.
“This is the final call!” Headmistress Ethel’s voice carried in the wind. “All bride candidates must go to Skyward now. The first trial of the Brides Selection will start in thirty minutes. The kings and queens of the five kingdoms and the Council have decreed it.”
Skyward, the ivory tower, was the symbol of Shades Academy. It had never been opened to the public before.
“Fuck!” Rowan cursed. “This isn’t a normal course of action. They were supposed to inform us heirs first, since this entire Brides Selection is to make sure one of us finds his fated mate and produces the chosen one who will bring back old magic to the realm. The Council fucking changed the rules of the game.” He paused for a second. “I wonder if it has to do with Medea’s death, and that all five heirs have challenged Ethel and banded together to shield Barbie. But Barbie isn’t just any bride candidate.
“We’ve all sensed how special she is, and she might just be the one who will change the realm for the better. Some of the old foundations are rotten. The Council hate changes and cling to power at all costs. I have a feeling that they drew Killian, the most lethal and ruthless among us, out of the academy, then they announced the start of the Brides Selection while he’s deep in his kingdom fending off his queen stepmother. Fuck!”
Barbie grew agitated, fear brewing in her middle. Anxiety twirled in my middle as well. Barbie was the target! This was the reckoning that old crone Ethel had promised. All the princes had gone out of their way to protect a lowborn against a powerful princess, which had never happened before in Shades Academy or the realm. Ethel would never let the matter rest. She must’ve gotten through to the Council and had them back her up.
Pucker said that the Brides Selection was actually a culling. And who would Ethel and our foes want to cull the most?
Barbie, of course.
