The royal eyes me and I feel my skin crawl, heart pounding in my chest. My eyes dart to the sides, looking for an escape route but the crowd is already closing in, anticipating a good show. If the saints have any mercy, a stray spell will break down the wall behind me. I even give it a beseeching look.

It remains standing, mocking me with its stillness.

“Lourianne Tome,” he says slowly, voice dripping with poison. “With all the rumors flying around, I had thought you would be more…monstruous. A twisted creature with drool leaking from a crooked jaw and a body of overindulgence.” He chuckles humorlessly. “Perhaps horns.”

What you’re describing isn’t human anymore, you know? What the hell have people been saying about me?

“Though you are still just as repellent. Tracking dirt into our home and fouling the appetites of others with your horrid smell. Clearly, your father never bothered to teach you manners. What are the doormen doing? You should have never been allowed into the building. Shame on this room for not throwing you out. I’m tempted to do it myself.”

“My prince,” one of the young men in his entourage says, stepping up to his side. He has dark hair, thank the saints, and wears the black and white suit reminiscent of a servant, just far fancier, but his dark eyes hold just as much disdain for me. “You shouldn’t waste your time with this…creature. It would stain your hands.”

“Indeed.”

What am I doing while these two denounce me to the level of worms, the whole room enjoying the verbal beating and adding to the atmosphere with their own toxic whispers? Why, I’m doing absolutely nothing. Which is what I’m going to continue doing. Maybe if I stand still long enough, they’ll forget I’m here.

“Nevertheless, this blight on our personage can’t remain.” The prince steps forward. I step back and cringe away, bumping into the table and knocking a plate to the ground. The action draws a few laughs but I don’t care. Idiots, I’d like to see what you do with a hostile prince staring you down!

“Listen to me. Your actions haven’t gone unnoticed. You may think yourself special because you broke that embarrassment Pottoculli but true nobles aren’t so easily pushed around. You aren’t wanted here. Continue to tread where you don’t belong and you will gain my personal ire. Now, begone.”

A chance! I don’t waste any time, grabbing Alana’s arm and yanking her out of her chair as I drag her with me. I don’t stop until the Gold Dorm is far behind us. Alana pulls her arm free but I ignore her, wiping the sweat from my brow. “Whew. That was close.”

“You are overreacting,” Alana says with a scowl. “I hadn’t finished.”

Ah, that’s why she’s mad. “Sorry about that. I owe you dinner sometime.”

“I don’t care about that. What happened to you back there? You crumpled. As you said, as someone who’ve endured that demon’s lessons, you should be immune to those kinds of weak intimidation tactics.”

I give her a look that questions her intelligence. Because I am questioning her intelligence. “Did you see his silver hair? Do you know what that means?”

“Yes, he’s royalty. That was kind of given away when the other one referred to him as ‘my prince’. Don’t tell my you’re the type to grovel before the crown. I don’t believe it.”

She scoffs. Scoffs! The audacity of this girl.

“The only things I grovel for are beautiful women and glossy elementals, thank you very much. However, I’m not suicidal. You do not mess with royals. End of story.”

“You’re overreacting.”

“Oh, am I? Alright. Tell me this. Say I stand up to him. What happens?”

Alana pauses. Seeing my serious expression, she gives the question some thought. “I can’t speak to his skill but that was a decent blade he carried. I’d imagine as a prince and acolyte of the Hall, he knows how to use it and wouldn’t shy away from a challenge.”

“Exactly. He would have escalated. That would lead to one of two things. Either he challenges me to a duel or tries a roundabout method of getting at me.” The words of a royal can move the country. No matter what the Hall says, titles matter. If the prince puts a bounty on me, real or not, my life becomes infinitely more complicated.

“Either way it’s settled with a fight. You wouldn’t lose to him, not with your thrall.”

I shake my head. Saints protect her, I didn’t know she was this naïve. “Alana, if I touch a hair on his head, I am beyond screwed. If I lose, I will no doubt suffer immense physical pain, poignant embarrassment, and will be in the exact same situation I am in right now.” Not to mention if he takes the opportunity to execute me, which I wouldn’t put past nobility of any kind if your bruise their egos, I’d be forced to reveal my secrets to survive.

“Winning would be even worse. I’d be the one who beat the prince, the one who raised a blade against the royal family. People will talk. The king gets involved. One way or another, my life gets royally screwed!”

“Okay, okay.” Alana holds up her hands in surrender and I notice my voice was steadily getting louder. I take a deep breath to calm my racing heart. Just thinking about it has me ready to jump out of my skin. What terrible, terrible luck. “I take your point. Might doesn’t always make right.”

Isn’t that the truth. If all I cared about was staying alive, I could run away with Kierra to the elven continent, which is my backup plan in case anything becomes unfixable here. No one could stop us. But that comes with its own complications and wouldn’t change the fact that I’d be the most wanted woman in the kingdom. Especially if I dared to run away from a punishment handed down by the king.

And what about my family? No way they escape the fallout. Oh saints, why did it have to be a royal?

Maybe I am overreacting, but I can’t help it. I’ve heard farmers’ wives yelling at disobedient children and their ‘monsters’ are the same. Don’t wander off or a wolf will snatch you up. Lying children taste the best to nasty witches. Go to bed because ghosts wander in the night.

My ‘monsters’ were high nobles. Remember your manners, Lou, or a higher noble will have you lashed in the street. Watch what you say Lou, or a high noble will destroy your family’s reputation and turn you out on the street. Never raise your hand against a high noble or your whole family will be erased.

Once I got a little older, I understood my father was exaggerating. Not in their reactions, they are certainly that vicious, but in urgency. Frankly, powerful people could care less about those below their social circles. My all-consuming fear of them abated but I can’t help it if titles make me flinch.

For me to act against the annoying prince, it would take an offense of great proportions. Otherwise, I am more than happy to be a verbal training dummy for a few minutes and dodge his attention.

“Coo!”

“Bell!” I can’t help the relief as the imp dashes across the grass and leaps into my arms. I know she’s always close enough to come to my aide and can slaughter everyone in the Gold Dorm, including Miss Talia, but I feel so much better holding her in my arms.

I rub my face against her side. “I’m so glad you’re here. You won’t let that nasty, silver-haired ape frame me for treason against the crown or some other nonsense, will you?”

“Coo~” [He deserves a thousand deaths for daring to threaten you. Luckily, we will not have to lift a hand as his compatriot is planning to kill him.]

…what?