Page 31 of Fallen Crown

“I was thinking,” Wren says, “that we should organize a mini adventure for the prince soon. Make sure he’s race-ready or at least on track to being race-ready.”

The thought had occurred to me too.

“Tucker!” Brice calls from the rear. “Where can you find an ocean with no water?”

Ever since we started training together separate from the team, he’s been treating me like I’m one of his buddies. “No idea,” I say.

“On a map.” His chuckle bounces off the cliffs we’re paddling beside.

He loves his dad jokes, and it’s nothing for him to swing his arm around my shoulders now and draw me against him as though we’ve been friends, rather than mortal enemies, for years. Wren has commented on the switch that seemed to flip between us. I blamed the change on the natural evolution of team camaraderie. Spend enough hours with someone, and at the very least, you get used to them.

A sense of teamwork or the hours we’ve spent together aren’t what’s shifted us closer.

The wound in me responded to the wound I saw opening in him the night drunk Brice asked me why I didn’t like him. At a surface level, he’s a good-looking, rich man-child with an easy-breeze attitude. Every other previous interaction had only hardened that perception. Prince Brice was the open book who didn’t take anything seriously. Not guarded or particularly deep.

But that night, I saw hints that his protections are invisible but present, and there’s a part of him that very few people see. The realization surprised me enough to lower the walls I’ve built, ones designed to keep the kind of man I thought he was out. Even two and a half months later, I don’t know who he is, but I understand he’s not who I’ve believed him to be.

“Very clever, Brice,” I say, and I glance over my shoulder to catch him grinning.

“His attempts to get you to laugh are getting progressively worse,” Wren says, her gaze following mine. “It’s been nice to see the ice thaw between you two.”

Maybe the coldness between us has thawed a bit, but Brice is an iceberg, and I recognize the danger he poses. It’s not what’s on his surface that attracts me; it’s what lies beneath. The urge to know him, beyond the superficial, is stronger than I like. So far, I’ve resisted. My life is already complicated enough without forming any attachment to a prince. Realizing he’s not exactly who I believed him to be isn’t the same as knowing he’s the right kind of man.

“I could take him on one of the routes we’ve done before,” Wren says. “A two- or three-night camp out on the island.”

Wren’s idea is solid and likely the best plan. Brice, Wren, and Jag on an island adventure shouldn’t make envy spiral down my limbs. In terms of preparation, Brice and Wren becoming closer teammates is good for the race, and if she wants to show him how to rough it across the island, I should be happy I don’t have to.

“Yeah,” I say. “You should work out the details with Brice. I can map out the course for you.”

“Excellent,” Wren says. “What time is your InterFlix interview?”

“After dinner,” I say, and I try to hide my grimace. Although I’ve never been on the show, I’m familiar with the probing nature of their interview questions. It’s part of the reason I hesitated to even be part of the support team. My emotional wounds are healing, but the edges are still raw and tender. If they prod too hard, I worry about the aftermath. Not to mention what Enzo is going to say when I finally tell him I’m going to Fiji. I don’t know if being a crew member is a compromise, a concession, or in open defiance of what Enzo wants me to do. I’d have to talk to him about it to know, and I’d rather live in ignorance until the last minute. Probably tells me all I need to know.

“If you need to talk after…” Wren leaves the thought unfinished.

“I’ll be fine,” I say, and I remember what my therapist said about that word during our first session. Feelings Inside Never Expressed—the word is a coping mechanism meant to keep people out. She wasn’t wrong. “One interview won’t derail me.”

Hye Jin, the producer tasked with interviewing me, layered her questions in such a way that I didn’t even realize she was prying my scabs up until they were already oozing. By the time my two-hour interview block is finished, I’m exhausted, and when Brice texts me to see whether I want to train, I leave his message unread.

The camera crew is gone from my apartment, and I’m left alone with the ocean view and too much time to contemplate whether Enzo was right all along. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing any of this anymore. Hye Jin didn’t know about my miscarriage, but she seemed to sense there was a bigger reason why I’d turned to coaching rather than racing. A shark sensing blood. Going on the InterFlix show is like throwing chum into the water. With Brice on the team, we’re a focal point. How deep will the show or the press be willing to dig?

I’m drifting to sleep on the couch when there’s a knock on my apartment door. Instead of getting up, I lie still for a moment to see whether whoever it is will go away.

My phone vibrates on the coffee table, and when I check the message, I groan. It appears Brice isn’t taking my unread response very well.

I’m impossible to ignore, Tucker. Answer the door.

I roll off the couch and grab the blanket from the back to wrap around my shoulders before I head to the door. While I could ignore him, I’m well acquainted with his persistence. The last time I disregarded a text from him, he sent me emojis and memes until I was forced to respond.

When I open the door, Brice scans me with narrowed eyes. “Are you pawning me off on Wren?”

“What? No.” His question feels so out of left field given my state of mind that my response is automatic.

“Why is she the one offering to take me on a three-day backpacking trip around Bellerive that you’re planning?”

“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” I run my fingers along my forehead. There’s a vague pressure behind my eyes that signals an oncoming headache. My ability to give Brice a coherent response is hindered by my lingering unease about my interview coupled with my emotional exhaustion.

“Do you have a headache?” He leans against the door to my apartment.