Page 14 of Fallen Crown

“Whatever gossip source you’ve tapped doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” Wren says as Maren and Joshua wander back to us. “She hurt herself saving me from my own stupidity.”

Her revelation causes me to rock back on my heels. Maren took the fall for a teammate?

“I can tell from your expression,” Maren says to Wren when she’s close enough, “that Prince Brice is being his normal charming self.”

Wren doesn’t answer but instead eyes Maren and Joshua, who are both decked out in climbing gear, including helmets. “Not liking the look of this,” Wren says.

“Maren says her ankle is better.” Joshua proceeds to hook himself up to the ropes, and he motions for me to clip in too. “You’re my belay. Maren and I are racing to the top.”

Beside me, I can’t hear the whispered words between Maren and Wren, but I can tell the bad mood I put Wren in has only increased with Maren’s decision to climb the wall.

While they argue in lowered voices, Maren attaches herself to Wren’s rope. “I’ve got a helmet, and you’re my belay,” Maren says as she heads toward her section of the wall. “I’ll be fine, Wren.”

“Prince Brice, you want to count us down?” Joshua asks as they both chalk their hands. “From five.”

I glance at Wren, who releases a long-suffering sigh. Maren checks over her shoulder and makes a “hurry up” motion with her hand. With that, I count down from five, and as soon as I call one, they’re off, spiders up the wall. Both of them are so fluid and natural, it’s hard to decide who to focus on, but without realizing it, my eye is naturally drawn to Maren, who leaps and scrabbles for hand and footholds without a flicker of fear. Either she really trusts her belay or she doesn’t care if she falls. When she makes one final, daring leap to tap the buzzer at the top a half second before Joshua, a tiny flare of pride at her athletic prowess lights in me.

Joshua and Maren sit at the top of the wall, laughing and chatting to each other, but I’m mentally following their paths up the wall again. They never stopped to assess where to put their hands or feet. Pure instinct seemed to guide them.

“They do that a lot?” I ask.

“Used to,” Wren says. “Before Maren’s fall. Wasn’t sure she’d ever have that in her again.” The hint of a smile tugs at the corners of Wren’s lips. “Impressive, isn’t it?”

It is, and as Maren and Joshua have us lower them back to the ground, I ponder what I need to do to match what I’ve just seen. “Why didn’t you ask him to be on the team?”

“He only enjoys climbing,” Wren says. “That’s the problem with most of the athletes on the island. They enjoy training one discipline only. To truly succeed at adventure racing, you have to excel in multiple areas, and most people don’t have the time or the inclination to do it.”

“Makes me a rare breed,” I say.

“The rarest,” she says. “Adventure racing is not for the faint at heart.”

The only weakness in my heart lies behind the palace gates with a man who now needs to be reminded to eat his meals. He’s taking the medication that’s meant to slow the progression, but if this is slow, I can’t imagine how he’d be unmedicated. The reminder of what awaits me at home makes me reluctant to leave the gym.

Joshua gets called away, and Maren and Wren embrace in a long hug that brims with something I can’t identify. Relief, maybe. Whatever happened to Maren during their last race has obviously had an impact on the team’s dynamics and on Maren’s mental state.

I haven’t figured out how to leverage Maren’s weaknesses, and the annoying part is that she was a good coach today. While I can chalk some of her attitude and patience up to Wren’s influence, it doesn’t change how much knowledge she relayed to me and also how strong of a competitor she is, even when she’s not at the top of her game.

“Tomorrow,” Maren says to me as she loops her arm around Wren’s shoulders, “we tackle Mount Juniper on mountain bikes. Meet at Caspian Car Park after dinner—at seven.”

As I’m unbuckling my harness, Seth Rockton enters with a group of guys I’ve been to Macao with before on a few stress-relief vacations. Not my stress—theirs. Third in line to the throne is all the perks without the pressure. No worries for me.

Seth comes over to me and locks his hand with mine before tugging me into a half hug. “I heard you were on the adventure race team,” Seth says.

“Had nothing better to do,” I say. “Why not, right?” Out of the corner of my eye, I swear Maren rolls her eyes while she gathers her equipment.

“It’s for a good cause this year,” he says. “Looks good on paper.”

“Plus,” I say, “I figured there’d be some hot women who didn’t mind getting dirty.”

Maren lets out a retching sound, but Seth doesn’t seem to notice. Makes me smile to realize she not only heard me but gave me a reaction.

“Only you’d be able to pull women while competing in a long-distance race,” Seth says.

“It’s truly a curse to be this irresistible.” I grin when Maren throws her harness over her shoulder and strides out of the room in an obvious huff. Too fucking easy to get under her skin today.

“Shame she’s married.” Seth watches Maren leave. “Always been a bit of an ice queen. Would’ve loved a chance to heat that up.”

His comments about Tucker almost roll off me, but I can’t quite shake my annoyance with Seth. “We should grab a beer soon,” I say as I check my watch. Tonight is a dinner for No Child Hungry, an initiative to make sure every school-age child in Bellerive has access to a healthy breakfast each morning. “I have to get going.”