Page 19 of Enchanted Kingdom
“Nice to meet you,” Molly smiled back. Molly and Renna were both dark haired, but the similarities ended there. While Renna’s dark hair was sleek and so black it almost looked blue at times, Molly’s hair was curly. Renna was slender and Molly was curvier. “Love your gown, by the way.”
I didn’t have time to thank her. There was a dinging noise, and the king stood from the head of his table. “Tonight begins the first of many meals together. As the weeks turn into months, this room will go from four tables to just one. May you never forget that, or the true reason you are all here.” Then after a pause he added, “And I don’t think I should really need to remind you, but the use of magic by any Enchanted in either Assemblage for the crown princes is strictly prohibited. Not only will you be out of the Assemblage, but there will also be consequences.”
With that, he sat down and the servers began bringing food forward.
I stared at the king a moment. So the Enchanted weren’t supposed to use their magic? To keep those of us without it safe? I also wondered if by “the true reason for being there” he meant love or the crown. I wasn’t sure which one he would find the more acceptable answer. Every time the king spoke, I was left feeling more uneasy about him and I didn’t know why. He had yet to speak directly to me.
While still looking his direction, I saw a man come over and sit next to the king, one wearing the royal blue servant attire. He immediately took a drink and began eating a small plate of food. While the rest of the room began eating and drinking, the king did not.
Seeing the direction I was watching, Renna leaned in and whispered, “That is the king’s tester. He tests the drink and food for poison before the king eats. To make sure it’s untainted.”
My eyes swung to hers, feeling my eyebrows reach for one another. “And if it is, what should happen to the tester?”
Renna simply shrugged, and in that shrug I had my answer. I let the cruelty of that settle in. Nothing I had seen of the castle, as grandiose as it was, made me more acutely aware of how unaccustomed to this life I was.
What was I doing here?
The evening meal dragged on as if time itself was somehow dipped into molasses. Did I know that Aiyana had been seated right across from Prince Keiran for the entire three-hour meal? Yes. The question was, did I care?
Maybe a little, but only because Aiyana was so hatefully rude. Prince Keiran may have gifted me this gown, but I was under no false assumptions. He wasn’t dating me, he was dating all of us. So while he might be charming and thoughtful toward me, there were probably countless others he was also being that way toward.
And if he was looking for someone like Aiyana to be his princess and possible eventual queen, then I was not at all what he was looking for in a partner.
But Prince Keiran had been right about one thing: the dessert was amazing. It was some sort of strawberry cake that was decadent.
“So,” Gwen asked as she placed her dessert fork down and looked around cautiously, “do you really think the princes don’t know which one will rule?”
She had asked me, but Renna interjected with, “Oh, they have no idea. None of us do.”
Gwen went quiet as if gauging if she was being genuine or not.
“What?” Renna asked.
Gwen said innocently, “I always just wondered if that was what the royal family told everyone to keep the true heir safe. And the Valanova family knew all along which of the princes would rule.”
Renna shook her head. “No. Actually, that might have been a kinder way of doing it. It’s just as the story goes: when the twin princes were born, the king and queen locked the information of who was born first away. And yes, like you said, it was to keep the true heir safe while they were growing up. Our princes are now twenty-five years old and still do not know. Imagine wondering your entire childhood and adulthood if you were the heir or not.”
I considered that a moment. “Both princes made it to their twenty-fifth birthdays. It’s a miracle the brothers haven’t killed each other yet.”
Renna smirked. “I have two sisters and a brother and even without a crown in the mix, I still agree with that.”
“I have three older brothers. I can relate too.” Gwen laughed before adding, “What about you, Jorah? Any siblings?”
I shook my head. I didn’t understand why we were doing this, getting to know one another, when we were all just destined to go home and never see each other again. “No. I am an only child. I always wondered what it would’ve been like to have siblings, but those were nothing more than the musings of a lonely child.”
That thought had my eyes flying to Prince Keiran and Prince Krewan. From the minute they were born, they were thrown into competition with one another for the crown, neither knowing who would truly win at the end of the day. And yet, nothing either one did would ever make them the true heir. It wasn’t something they could earn, it just came down to a matter of minutes andwhowas born first.
Did they hate one another? It didn’t seem like it, but given their upbringing, I couldn’t imagine they felt fondly for one another knowing what was hanging in the balance.
Molly added quietly, “I am also an only child who would’ve loved to have a sibling.”
Renna let out a laugh. “I had always wondered what it would’ve been like to have no other siblings vying for my parents’ love and affections. Is this the classic case of the grass always being greener?”
My eyes looked right into hers as I stated, “Except we don’t have grass in Nerede. Not like you do in Savaryn.”
“Just in the fields for the animals, correct?”
Surprised she knew that, I nodded.
