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My lungs literally ache as if desperate to fill themselves with his scent. It makes no sense, and I don’t like it. My eyes catch the bite mark on the side of his neck, and for a moment I swear I feel the familiar taste of plasma spill down my throat.
Why is he here?
Why are any of them here?
I need this brunch to be over with so they can go away, and I can get on with …whatever the fuck I’m supposed to do here. Not sure what that is but my own personal goal?
Avoid the future King, whoever he is, like the plague and make sure he hates what he sees when I cannot.
As if reading my thoughts, and to my horror, the Queen of freaking Rathe turns, holding her hand out. “Ah, son, you have arrived.”
Every inch of me goes cold. Son.
Son?!
“Where are your brothers?” she asks him, and I hardly hear it over the crackling in my ears.
When the men at my back say, “Here, Mother,” it’s as loud as an EDM nightclub.
Sons.
They are thesonsof the Queen.
The guy who watched me from across the arena after the hockey game, who I witnessed with a girl on her knees before him, who cornered me in that diner yesterday …
He is the futureKing.
The moment I think it, his turquoise gaze snaps up, locking with mine for the first time today, and it isnothinglike before. It’s … more.
A whirl of emotion gains speed in my gut, as if he’s physically forcing it into me with his own mind.
I feel them.
I feelhim.
Like a storm beneath my skin.
Like a plague that can’t be beat.
Like a walking fucking nightmare with blue eyes and death as a soul.
He had to know I was getting that letter. That must be why he was at the diner yesterday. Normally I would tell myself I’m being paranoid, but not this time. He cornered me and now I'm here, standing fifteen feet from the future King of Rathe as a contestant in a competition of sorts for the place at his side.He's a complete stranger to me and yet I’ll be expected to fight for him.
To obey him.
Probably even to please him, because there is no way a guy like him won’t want to test drive his future Queen before giving her the crown. I shiver. He has another thing coming if he thinks I’ll fight for something, or someone, I don’t want.
And I donotwant this.
The good news is, I’m not the only girl here, so it shouldn't be too hard to avoid his attention. After all, I bet every Gifted girl in existence would give anything to be the one he chooses in the end. So yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard to fade into the background.
As if he can read my thoughts, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking...Lord Deveraux'sgaze narrows, still frozen on mine and as I look to the side, I realize it’s not just the future King’s attention I have.
I have his brothers’ too.
Sixteen
Knight
