Page 19 of The Stolen Princess
“Fine.” Trev dodged the pen. His smile faded, and he leaned forward in his chair. “I wish you weren’t going as the operative.”
Drake straightened. “Well, I am.”
Trev kicked his head back. “You’re the commander of my army. Surely there is another guard you can send in your place.”
Drakewantedto go. This was the biggest mission since Desolation, and there was no way he was going to miss it.
“I’m going,” Drake said with finality.
“Sometimes I wonder who’s in charge here. Me or you?”
Drake smiled. “Definitely me.”
“So you leave for Tolsten tomorrow?” Trev’s eyes held a glint. “I’m not going to miss you at all.”
“I know. You have Renna, and I don’t want to be here to see that. You guys gross me out.”
Trev laughed. “Only desperately lonely people say things like that.”
Drake shook his head. He wasn’t lonely. He had everything he needed. He had the job he had always wanted and the important mission he craved. What more was there?
6
Myka
The Kingdom of Tolsten
“In the final years before Desolation, the antitrust laws in the United States were challenged,” Ms. Happ said as she leaned her elbows against the table during Myka’s morning lesson. Her teacher’s usually stern face seemed to light up when she talked about antitrust laws. Apparently, they were the way to her humdrum heart. Ms. Happ had narrow features that matched perfectly with her long nose and sharp chin. Myka swore the woman could cut a slice of cheese with that chin.
Why couldn’t Myka have had some intelligent and super-handsome twenty-something man be in charge of her extended education? Someone like the man she’d shot last month. Yes, would Drake have been too much to ask for? She even would’ve settled for the super-handsome part with no intelligence.
“Fascinating.” Myka nodded halfheartedly as she took a drink of her water. It was a little game she liked to play. During each lesson, Myka would choose a word, and whenever Ms. Happ said the magic word, Myka would do some sort of action. Today the word wasDesolation,and the action was taking a drink of water.It was a great way to get in a daily dose of water. Yesterday the word had beenrecession,and the action had been to raise her arms over her head and stretch every time Ms. Happ said it. That one hadn’t gone over well. Luckily, Ms. Happ only saidrecessiona few times. Games like that were crucial during her lessons with Ms. Happ, or else Myka might be tempted to poke her eye out with a pencil.
Ms. Happ beamed some more. “It is fascinating. The Amazon monopoly and the invention of Amazon storefronts like Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, and Amazon Fill Up completely disintegrated the fair competition of an open-market economy. By the year 2033, Amazon owned sixty-six percent of the market.”
“Really?” Myka said, giving the woman a tight smile. She was glad she hadn’t chosen the wordAmazontoday, or that would have been rough.
Ms. Happ continued her lesson on pre-Desolation commerce while Myka nodded, adding a few oohs and aahs in between her gulps of water. Really, Myka’s mind was on the fall market in Tolsten Square. Rommel and Joett would be there selling their goods, and since the market fell on the sixteenth of the month, Myka had arranged to meet them at their booth. The weather was beautiful, and she’d already worked out her escape with Officer Arco.
She thought about her father lying in bed while his secretary, Nolan, sat next to him discussing the affairs of the kingdom—or whatever they talked about. Maybe Mykashouldn’t go through with her plans today. In a way, it seemed kind of selfish to leave her father. His illness had gotten worse. When she had left him that morning after breakfast, he had been weak and tired. If she canceled her plans and stayed at Tolsten House, her father would probably sleep all afternoon. She wouldn’t even be with him. This was the constant battle raging in her mind. She could never find the balance between living her own life and putting it on hold to take care of him.
She decided to go ahead with market day. What could it hurt?
“And that is why antitrust laws were so important before Desolation,” Ms. Happ said with finality.
Myka stood, gulping down the last of her water. She slapped her cup on the table in front of her. “Amen!”
Ms. Happ eyed her, confused by Myka’s sudden enthusiasm. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how our current economy is essential and how it differs from the pre-Desolation world.”
Darn. She was out of water.
“That sounds riveting,” she said. Now, Myka had to wait while Ms. Happ slowly packed up her bag, one item at a time. She’d counted once. Forty-three seconds. That’s how long it took Ms. Happ to shove a few things in her bag. She was probably doing it on purpose to bug Myka, because no one needed to take that much time sticking a pencil and a book into a bag. Myka wished she could leave, but she’d tried that once, and Ms. Happ had quickly stepped in front of her like some kind of educator ninja. Her brows had turned in, and her expression had been harsh.
“It’s extremely impolite to leave before your guest,” she had said.
There was nothing like being scolded by your teacher when you’re an eighteen-year-old princess, but Ms. Happ could be surprisingly scary, so Myka opted for compliance.
“I haven’t seen the king in a while. How is his recovery going from his surgery?” Ms. Happ asked.
