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He burrows into my side when I wrap my arm around his shoulders and lead him up the steps and to the front door. Thankfully, my parents are arguing, and they don’t hear the telltale creak of it opening as Kevin and I tiptoe into the house.
Honestly, maybe we should make some noise so they’ll hear us. Maybe they’d stop. But it’d only postpone the fight until later, when they might wake Kevin with their angry voices.
They’re both under a lot of pressure, but I really wish they’d be more careful around Kev. At the very least, wait until I’m home so I can keep him busy or take him out while they have their spat.
Once we’ve made it to my small bedroom and shut the door behind us, I drop my satchel and pass Kevin a puzzle to build. I’ve always got one in here for occasions like this. He takes it without arguing and sits cross-legged on my narrow bed, drawing the square of cut cardboard from between the mattress and the wall to set atop the lumpy blanket.
Guilt crushes my chest when I realize my parents are arguing about money again, and I do my best to tune out their raised voices.
This is why I couldn’t tell Ms. Frampton the truth about what comes next for me.
I have thought about it, but she won’t like or support the options I’ve come up with.
My parents need help.
I need to make some money, and I need to do it fast. I can’t make my parents wait until I’ve finished the school year before I earn some sort of income to help pay the bills.
If I want to stay in school, which I do, the only other option I have to make money fast is to sell one of my scent glands. It’s drastic, but as I curl up next to my brother with my parents’ argument intensifying on the other side of my door, I know I have to dosomething.
While Omegas from all four corners of the globe are spending tonight dreaming about being selected for the Trials and bonding with a pack of royal heartthrobs, I wonder how one goes about selling a scent gland—and where I might find someone willing to purchase one of mine.
TWO
—
K A Z
On the finalevening of life as I know it, the door to my chambers opens without so much as a knock to precede the entry of my unwelcome guest.
Without bothering to move my gaze away from the twinkling bursts of starlight in the inky sky above, I tighten my grip on my telescope, about to tell the intruder to fuck off until I recognize the crisp voice ringing out behind me.
“Really, Kaspian, have you nothing better to do on the eve of the Trials than to play with that old thing?”
Since not evenIcan tell the queen herself to fuck off, the retort dies on my tongue. I exhale slowly before straightening up. “No, Mother, I don’t.”
Resisting the urge to shove my hands into my hair, clench my jaw, and demand to know what she’s doing here, I turn slowly. I keep my expression stoic and my voice polite but even. “I wasn’t aware you were planning a visit tonight, Mother. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
She arches a questioning, manicured-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life eyebrow at me. “The queen needs a reason to visit her own son the night before such a momentous event? Perhaps I’ve simply come by to check on you.”
“Perhaps.”
I meet her deep brown eyes directly, aware that heads have rolled for less than the tone of voice I’m about to use on her. “If that’s the case, Mother, then if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to spend my final night of freedom alone.”
Her red-painted lips part, chin rising a smidge higher. It’s the only indication I get that she even heard me. Instead of responding or leaving, she folds her hands regally over her stomach and moves to the wall of bookshelves to her left.
Every available wall in my chambers has been lined with books and shelving. If it won’t block a window, there’s a bookshelf there. This is nothing new to her. It didn’t happen overnight, yet she studies them now like she’s never seen them.
“The announcements will begin at five tomorrow morning because of the time zone differences between academies,” she says thoughtfully, like it’s only occurring to her right this minute. “I’ll expect you and your packmates in the drawing room with me to watch the coverage.”
“Yes, Mother.”It’s only been on my calendar since shortly after the event of my birth.“We’ll be there. Is that all?”
“No.”
She tracks the well-worn spine of an astronomy tome with her fingertip before rubbing the pad of her thumb along her finger like she’s ensuring there’s no dust on it.
Once she’s satisfied not a speck of dust would dare stick to her skin without curtsying, she glances at me over her shoulder. “Five am is going to arrive early, Kaspian. All three of you will have to be in top form for the announcements. The entire world will be watching us. Waiting for your reactions to each of the selected.”
I nod. “We’re well aware.”
