Chapter 201

Nicholas

I was relieved to see Piper rush away, but I was also furious at myself. All my talk about protecting her, and I couldn’t stand up against my own father.

Julian was right. I was a coward. And my cowardice was what was going to cost me Piper in the end.

“Father,” I said, ready to try again. Piper wasn’t here anymore, so his anger should go down. Maybe we if we just talked, I could reason with him.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you, Nicholas, except agreement for what I’m about to say.”

Except, his anger didn’t disappear. Instead, it simmered at a high boil. He didn’t shout anymore, but the ferocity in his voice left little room for argument.

“Do you have any idea how lucky we all are that it was me who caught you, and not the cameras? Have you considered the optics of this at all?”

“Piper is a candidate in the contest, and I’m a prince. It would have been scandalous but –”

“You don’t know at all! Everything we’ve worked for. Every plan we put in place. Ruined! Piper is a candidate, and you are a prince, but you are not the correct one. We built Piper with Julian, and the public must believe that if we are to survive.”

“Piper is well-loved by the public. They would forgive any altercation but her.”

“It’s not her reputation I’m worried about, Nicholas. It’s yours.” The King sighed. “If you are to be my successor, you must be seen as strong, with a capable family behind you. Piper is an embarrassment to you, worse if she turns you into a cuckold.”

“Then let her be with me, and not Julian. Then no one would be embarrassed –”

“I would be! My son, the prince most likely to wear my crown someday, dating a commoner? Ridiculous. Our family would never recover from the embarrassment.” He shook his head. “You need to stop seeing, or fooling around, or whatever you are doing with Piper.”

I was losing this battle. No, I wouldn’t be a coward. For Piper, I had to fight harder, even against the man whose opinion and advice I valued above all others.

Standing tall, I braced my shoulders, and I said, “No.”

The King visibly startled. I didn’t think I’d ever said that to him before, and it showed in his reaction.

“What did you say?” he asked, like he needed to be sure.

I stayed strong. I would not betray Piper. “I said, no. Piper is important to me, and I’m not willing to give her up.”

The King leaned back and looked at me like I was a different person. A stranger. An enemy. He narrowed his eyes. I felt my skin itch. Going against my father went against the perfect son I had been for years. Julian was the rebellious one, not me.

But Piper was important enough to rebel for.

The silence stretched. It was more unnerving than the yelling.

Then the King reached into his pocket and retrieved a neatly folded piece of paper. He unfolded it, then shoved it at my chest.

I recognized it at once as one of the flyers that had been dropped from that plane the other day. I’d heard about it more than seen it, but now, as I accepted it from my father and looked at it more closely, I could see first-hand how disturbing it was.

My family with their eye’s x’ed out. It made my heart ache.

“So you won’t break things off with Piper to save yourself and your position as crown prince. But if you can’t do it for you, then maybe you would to save your family. And your kingdom.”

I gripped the flyer hard enough to crinkle the paper. I didn’t want to be the reason my family lost everything – including their lives.

If my relationship with Piper was truly endangering them…

I couldn’t think clearly when faced with such an obvious threat. My protective instincts kicked into high gear. I would do anything to protect those closest to me. But Piper was close to me to.

I swallowed hard. “I care about Piper.”

The King’s demeanor had shifted. Maybe he could see the hesitation in me, where I had been so firm before, and softened in response.

“You are a prince. Someday, you may very well be a king. Those feelings won’t mean anything in the end. Everything is secondary to your duty.”

His words cracked through my heart until it blistered. I knew what he meant. Even if I cared for Piper, I would never be able to marry her. Unlike the others, she hadn’t been trained since birth to become a queen. She’d probably hate the job, even if it meant we could be together.

Piper and I would have to part ways eventually. Shouldn’t it be now? When I could help protect my family and my kingdom with the choice?

I didn’t know what to do. I was worse than torn, I was agonized.

“I’ll give you time to think it over, but I expect your agreement in the morning,” the King said.

I nodded, numb. Then I walked the halls like a ghost, my lost in the riptide of my thoughts. I weighed every option, but the inner debate mostly came down to my feelings for Piper versus everything else. I still wasn’t ready to decide.

Hours later, as dawn broke, and sunlight crept up above the tree line, I watched from one of the hallway windows as the protesters began to assemble again. Many had been there all night.

Soft footsteps approached me. I didn’t have to look to know it was my mother.

“Did father send you?” I asked.

She took vigil beside me, and watched out the window as I did.

“He told me what happened,” she said in a soft, soothing voice – more motherly than she’d sounded since before this competition began. “I’m worried about you.”

She was never the most feeling of mothers, at least outwardly, but I had never doubted her love. It was only when the contest started that she delved too deeply into it, focusing on finding the perfect bride for her sons rather than remembering they needed support too.

With how little she had said to me in the past months – it wasn’t that I thought she hated me. She was my mother, and that bond was strong. I just thought she didn’t like me very much.

Honestly, I hadn’t much cared for how she was acting, either. Maybe it was a two-way street. Maybe I kept my distance too.

“I know you want to do the right thing,” my mother said. “And that the right thing may seem unclear to you now, especially because of your feelings for that girl.”

That girl, said with such distain. “Her name is Piper.”

The Luna sighed and her voice regained its softness. Yet now that I’d seen the crack, I was suspicious of it. Of her.

“I understand your dilemma, Nicholas, but… you must understand that continue seeing that… Piper, puts her at risk too. Her and her little girl.”

I looked at her sideways. Her face was doing what it should, showing the correct amount of concern. Maybe I imagined the distain I had thought I heard.

“They could so easily be caught in the middle of this,” she said. “They might even be hurt in an effort to affect you.”

“The people love Piper.”

“They do, for now. But how often does public opinion sway. How quickly can it drop?” She motioned toward the protesters beyond the window. I looked too, and that’s when I saw it.

A sign with Piper’s face on it. Her eyes were x’ed out.

The text below it read, TRAITOR.