Page 28 of Aries Mated

“Yes, I am fine,” she rasped back, although her eyes told a different story.

“So.” Bear King Mobius clapped his hands together hard, stopping us all from looking at his daughter. “Now that we have that confusion sorted out, I don’t think this is a matter we need to ever talk about again.”

Ah, so that was what this was all about. His version of the story completely exonerated Sly for some unknown reason, and he wanted to make sure we didn’t blow it. Maeve and I had only discussed things with our little group, so it wasn’t as if we had been gossiping, but I suppose he didn’t want us to start. He was stopping that before we could start it. I was more than ready to be done with all of this, but Maeve was not.

“Woman to woman,” she said, speaking directly to Princess Azariyah, “are you okay? Because it wasn’t chaos when I saw what happened to you. I know what I saw. Sly put something over your nose and mouth to knock you out. I know I’d be freaked out if that was me.”

Princess Azariyah’s eyes widened like saucers. But her father rested a warning hand on her shoulder, silencing her before she could even begin. “I am fine,” she said robotically. “Nothing happened to me.”

She had been trained to be silenced, and it seemed that was happening to us as well. Maeve didn’t like it; she sensed that Princess Azariyah was lying, but she also knew there was nothing any of us could do to help her. We weren’t in a position to defy the king.

“Well, I am sure you have a lot to do,” Bear King Mobius said, his voice strained now. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from your training, much as it is a delight to have you here. In only four days’ time you have the final round of the parkour element of the competition. Then more contestants will, unfortunately, be eliminated. Not you two, though, I’m sure. In fact, it might well be one of you who wins and becomes a prince.”

Kai and I exchanged a look that said the same thing:Fat chance.I was already certain that I was done with the Astro Games because a possible future with Maeve sounded much more appealing, but now I was convinced. What a shame that it was against the rules to just walk away from the competition. Elimination was the only way out. I didn’t want to bring shame to the Pisces Clan just because I had chosen a different path. But it was only four more days of this hell and we could be done with this. Maybe even out of here. A part of me wanted to dive into the reason the king saw fit to protect that asshole Sly, even though he seemed to be the absolute worst person in the world, but a much bigger part of me wanted to just forget all of this and move on with my life already.

I was glad to leave the penthouse. Maeve, Kai, and I remained silent as we walked through the building, none of us daring to say anything because we were all worried about being overheard. That was definitely a threat to keep our mouths shut, and for the time being, I figured it better to heed that. Otherwise, who knew what was going to happen to us?

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