Chapter 113

“After I realized who she was, I gave chase,” Charlotte said. By now the nanny had come and taken Elva out of the room. Both guards went with her to a private nursery, though a third guard quickly arrive to take their place at the door.

“She went down into the cellars. I followed closely, but then, suddenly, it was like she had totally vanished.”

Mark’s already heavy frown deepened further. “She must have insider knowledge of all the secret passages in the palace.”

I didn’t understand how my twin, Jane, could so easily sneak her way into the palace. “Is there a passageway that could lead inside from outside?”

Mark seemed uncertain. “Even I’m not privilege to all the royal family’s secrets.”

“Then the royal family would know?” I asked.

“Potentially,” Mark said, “But this palace is very old. Some of the passageways could have been lost to time, and later found. I’m trying at a loss.”

My hands were shaking so I clutched them together. “If she was here, and I’m sure she was,” I quickly added to comfort Charlotte, who appeared distressed at my words. “But why didn’t I feel my wolf? I had felt it so keenly before, even from a great distance.”

“I don’t know, miss,” Mark said. “Maybe she is concealing it with magic.”

“Does such magic exist?”

Mark grimaced, but nodded. “It is of a similar vein which stole your wolf from you.”

“Dark magic, then.”

“I’m afraid so.”

The use of dark magic and abilities were strictly regulated by the crown. They were prohibited except under extremely specific circumstances. Such magic was incredibly powerful but only at the expense of a person or persons.

The use of this magic, in part, was what made the underground organization so fiercely hated and feared.

That at least solved the mystery of why I couldn’t feel my wolf, but other questions remained. Mainly, how did my sister Jane get into the palace at all?

She knew of the secret passages, but another connection could be Terry. A prominent member of the royal family could come and go as he liked without much provocation. Likely, no one would look twice at the girl on his arm, even with prior warnings.

Especially if that girl looked exactly like one of the candidates.

The sooner we could sneak into his mansion and look around, the better.

“Piper!”

Suddenly Nicholas burst through the door. His wild eyes searched over the room before landing on me, then he rushed toward me.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. It’s Charlotte I’m worried about,” I said.

Charlotte gently shook her head. She already had regained her color. “Do not worry for me, Piper.”

I smiled at Nicholas, warmed by his worry… until I saw the lipstick staining the corner of his mouth. Had he been kissing someone? My smile slipped right off my face.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Nicholas asked, noticing the change in me.

Mark cleared his throat. When Nicholas looked over, he motioned toward his own mouth.

Nicholas’s eyes widened. He wiped at his lips with his sleeve, but all he succeeded in doing was smearing the lipstick down his chin.

I glared at it openly, hating that shade of deep red with all of my being. My hate was irrational. Nicholas wasn’t mine to be jealous over, but I couldn’t help myself.

Despite the danger of Jane being in the palace, despite everything, my mind veered in on the fact that Nicholas had been kissing someone else, and I couldn’t see beyond that.

“Piper…” he began.

“It’s fine.” I didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say.

This was the nature of the competition. One man with lots of different women. Nicholas was spending time with other girls, and one day he would pick one of them to marry. We both knew that I wasn’t in his future.

But knowing that in my head and seeing the evidence of it clearly on his lips were two very different things.

Seeing it hurt me in ways I couldn’t have imagined before.

He’d kissed me in the hallway. He’d almost kissed me in self-defense practice.

I hadn’t considered he would be kissing other people too.

“Piper…” he said again, softer.

I couldn’t even bear to look at him. I turned my shoulder to him and dropped my gaze to the floor. “Please go clean up. Then we can talk.”

He was rarely uncertain, but he shifted awkwardly on his feet now. “Very well. I’ll be right back.” He turned toward the door, and I did not look up again until he had walked through it.

Both Mark and Charlotte were looking at me. I felt judged.

Charlotte glanced away but Mark didn’t. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even hold an expression, but I could feel his disapproval radiating off of him in waves.

And in my heart, I understood it.

Whatever Nicholas had been doing, and whoever he had been doing it with, he had dropped all of it to rush here and make sure I was okay. In order of his priorities, I ranked high above anyone else.

This was a competition, and Nicholas was only trying to make the best of a bad situation. I knew, maybe better than anyone, the amount of pressure he was under to find a Luna suitable for the kingdom.

I had been unkind to him.

“May I borrow your handkerchief?” I asked Mark.

He reached into his pocket and then produced a soft blue folded bit of fabric. I accepted it with thanks.

“If you’ll excuse me a moment,” I said, and rushed out the door.

Nicholas hadn’t gone far. He was only a few steps down the hallway, aggressively rubbing his lips with his sleeve. “Damn it all,” he cursed.

“Here,” I said as I approached behind him. “Let me.”

He jumped at the sound of my voice, and quickly turned. His eyes met mine, but he didn’t say anything.

Slowly, gently, I reached up with the handkerchief and wiped away the remaining smudges of lipstick from his lips and chin.

He stood very still as I worked.

When I finished, I slowly lowered my hand. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s not my place to keep you from the other girls. But when I thought of you with them… I’m sorry.”

“You are jealous,” Nicholas said. His voice was monotone. His face, impassive. He gave nothing away.

I half-wanted to deny it out of sheer embarrassment, but I couldn’t.

“I am. I know it’s unfair to want to keep you for myself, when we both know we can’t be together. But when I think of you with one of them… Kissing them…”

Just like that, the deep boil of jealousy reignited in my stomach.

I wished I could claim Nicholas in body and soul. To keep him as my own, and to become his in turn. I wanted us to carry each other’s scents so thickly that no one would dare make a move on him without knowing I was there first and forever.

“This…” He gestured to his lips. “Whatever happened before I came to see you today. It didn’t actually mean anything to me.”

I wanted to believe that, those sweet words meant to comfort me. But it was a struggle, especially when I was caught in the tumult of my ugly jealous.

“Prove it,” I said.

He just looked at me for a long moment. Then his gaze dipped to my mouth.

At once, he grabbed my hand and tugged me toward a closed door along the hallway. He pulled the door open. It was a closet. He yanked me inside with him, then slammed the door closed behind us.

In an instant, my back was against the inside of that door.

Nicholas’s mouth was on mine.

And he was kissing me senseless.