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ONE
Cassia
I fluff the prince's pillows with a little extraoomphbecause I’m admittedly pissed. With the fae prince’s return, my workload, and that of all the rest of the maids, has quadrupled. All day long, I’m on my hands and knees running after the fae royalty and their retinues while they shout orders and sit on their entitled asses.
“Yes, my lord.” “Yes, my lady.”All. Fucking. Day. Long.
If I have to pick up one more smelly pair of underwear, tossed by a spoiled fae who uses glamors to make it seem like they know how to wipe their own ass, I’m going to hunt Prince Sulien down and beat him with said dirty underwear. Let’s see howhandsomeandbravehe is with underwear streaked with brown smacking him in his royal face. I bet he’d be shrieking like a little girl in no time at all, and showing us how the “big defender” of the realmreallybehaves.
Though, to be fair, it isn’t solely the prince’s fault. It’s due to the Summer Solstice Ball. The princes from the Fall, Winter, and Spring Courts have arrived at the Summer Court for the big event, which means fae women from all over the four kingdoms have arrived for their chance to be queen.
There’s also just the fae hoping to match with each other, but no one really cares about them. I mean, the fae don’t.Idon’t care about any of them, royal or not. My preference is just for them to be anywhere but here bothering me.
“And they need rooms. Clean rooms!” Bitterness laces my words, which bugs me, so I try again. “But there’ll be extra tasty treats in the kitchen, so it’s not all bad.”
“You’re talking to yourself again!”
Startling, I spin around and spot Beatrix by the door. She’s wearing the same thing I am, an ugly dull burned orange uniform with a white apron. Except, while my blonde hair fell out of my bun a long time ago and now spills down my back in a mess, her pale brown hair is neatly done. Oh, and did I mention that her clothes are ironed, and she isn’t sweating like a hot mess?
I cross my arms over my chest, giving her a fake glare. “You know, it’s not nice to sneak up on people.”
She laughs, and the sound is light and beautiful, like her entire personality. “No one has to sneak up on you. When you’re in your head, you wouldn’t hear a hoard of unicorns stampeding.”
I shake my head, even though she’s right. “I’m better than you are when you see a hot guy. Didn’t you smack into a wall the other day?”
She rolls her eyes. “Never mind that–”
I snort, interrupting however she planned to save herself fromthatembarrassing story.
“Though,” she says, glancing at the door just to be sure. “Icouldsee myself running intoquitea few things if I spotted the fae princes.”
I groan. “Not you too!”
Every woman seems to be obsessed with the fae princes, even though most of the women haven’t actually seen them at the Summer Court in years. For all they knew, the princes could all look like a pile of sickly sticks with tiny limp dicks. Hell, Prince Sulien is the only one who has even been here as an adult. The other three were kids the last time they made their rounds to the Summer Court. So I doubt any of the rumors about theiroverwhelminghotness are anything but that, rumors.
“I’m just saying, from what I’ve heard, the only thing better than one of them would be two of them,” she purrs the last words.
“Two?” I throw up my hands. “Why not make it all four of them?”
She gets this silly look on her face. “You say that like it’d be a bad thing.”
I laugh. “Talk about a nightmare. Could you imagine all the dirty clothes and bragging? I bet even fucking them is terrible. In fact, I’d bet they watch themselves in a mirror the whole time?”
“Cassia!” She sounds scandalized.
Going to the bed, I start smoothing the blankets again. “I’m just saying, I’d take one hardworking, human man over the fancy pants royals any time.”
There’s a sound out in the hall. Faes laughing.
She glances back at me, looking worried. “You need to finish up. We have to move downstairs before the royals arrive.”
“Yeah, because if one of them sees us, they’ll justdie!”
“Cassia…” She’s trying to warn me to be good, but she’s grinning.
I grasp my chest. “Oh, no! Oh, no! I’ve seen a maid! Now I know who scrubs my floor! How will I ever survive!” Then, I collapse onto the floor. It hurts, but it’s worth it when she comes up and pokes me with her shoe while laughing.
“Are you done?”
