Frustrated with the entire situation with Warren and Sophia, and with my stomach aching from eating so much cake, I headed out into the hallway, thinking I would have to co up with another plan. I should have known that simply baking a cake wouldn’t be enough to get to the man’s heart. After all, as a king, he had a ton of chefs to do that.
Almost the second I walked out into the hallway, Theo was there waiting for , an expectant look on his face. “Well?” he asked in a low whisper. “How did it go?”
“Great,” I told him. “The king and I are getting married right this very mont.”
He narrowed his eyes at . “Your face said sothing else.”
“Okay, I failed,” I admitted, but I must have looked very upset.
That was why Theo gave a sowhat sympathetic look. He led around the corner where we’d be less likely to be overheard. “What happened?”
“First of all, your brother is the king.”
“Okay, then?”
“Sophia is the one he is planning to marry.”
“Oh, right.” Prince Theo nodded like it didn’t surprise him at all.
My eyes bulged slightly as I considered that response. “You’re not surprised that the king would rather marry Sophia than ? What? Do you think she’s prettier than ? Smarter? Sweeter?”
“I didn’t say any of that, Ciana,” he said, huffing a little. “Focus.”
I shook my head to clear it. “Fine, so we are going to have to co up with sothing else because he seems pretty set on the fact that she is the woman for him.”
“What did you do exactly to change his mind?” Theo asked.
“What could I do? He didn’t even want to talk to other than telling he was going to marry Sophia.”
“And the cake didn’t help?”
“Yes, it did,” I said, watching Theo raise an eyebrow while I completed my sentence angrily, “It helped to fill my stomach!”
“You ate the cake?”
I thought Theo would be upset, but after only a quick pause, he chuckled lightly. For so reason, I felt he’d been in a fairly good mood lately. “All right, Ciana, what’s going on? You seem way more upset than you should.”
“Do I?”
He nodded. As his intense dark gaze fell on , all of a sudden, I just felt so aggrieved that I needed to vent. “She even talked him into giving her a special bracelet!”
Theo arched an eyebrow in confusion. “What bracelet?”
I was in no mood to explain to him my childhood encounter with Warren, but at that mont, I saw that Sophia had turned the corner, walking toward us.
“Look at you. How pathetic!” Of course she would humiliate whenever she got a chance to. She raised her slender arm and on her wrist was my special bracelet.
“It fits my skin tone really well, don’t you think?”
“No need to rub it in my face,” I snapped back. “And I won’t give up yet. We shall see who laughs until the end.”
Sophia sneered, “Indeed, we shall see.”
After she walked away, I turned around and shrugged. “Well, you asked about the bracelet, and she just showed you.”
“You said Warren gave it to her?” Theo asked, seeking clarification, and I nodded.
I couldn’t quite read Theo’s expression, he seed really shocked. But why?
He mumbled, “How did he even get it...”
“What did you say?” I asked him, confused.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.” He focused back on . “Based on what you said, it sounds to we should move on to plan B.”
It wasn’t my preferred way of handling this situation, but at this point, I needed to be open-minded.
“What do you have in mind?” I asked, folding my arms.
“He’s in love with Sophia in this illusional world?”
I nodded. “It definitely appears to.”
“Very well. Then we’ll make him trade her life for marrying you.” He made the statent like it was not a big deal.
“How do we do that?”
“It’s simple. We’ll find a way to take her prisoner, hold her for ransom, and before we release her, he’ll be forced to marry you. If the king refuses to marry you, we will kill her.”
“You and your killing people,” I said, shaking my head.
“Do you have a better idea?”
I did not. I couldn’t think of anything better, so after a few monts, I said, “No. Fine. Okay. We’ll do it your way.”
I almost thought he was smiling, but whatever that expression was, it faded away quickly enough.
“So... when do we do this?” I asked him, hoping he had already worked the plan out. He seed to be very set on this plan, after all, so surely he had so ideas.
“The day of the wedding.”
“Won’t there be a lot of guards around them both at that ti?” I asked him, slightly confused.
Theo shook his head. “No, there will be at the venue most likely, but we will get her here at the palace before she is on her way to the wedding venue, which is likely going to be the royal chapel. Any royal palaces would have tunnels and secret passages. That should make it easier for us to find her and take her hostage without anyone detecting what we are up to.”
He did have a plan in mind alright. “How do you know that?” We hadn’t been here that long.
“I hear things.”
“All right,” I agreed. “That sounds good. But we will need to take so ti to figure out the map of the place and the terrain. We will need to make sure we have everything under control before we attempt to take her prisoner.”
He nodded in agreent with , and I smiled slightly, satisfied that I had co up with sothing that actually contributed to the plan.
“We should have so ti,” he said, thinking again. “Although I’m not exactly sure how ti works here in this realm.”
“ neither,” I admitted. I hoped we could get all of it done and still get out in ti to use the crystal to help with the berry.
“All right. Let’s go to your chambers for so more planning.”
My chambers?
Imdiately, I felt my cheeks heat up and had to look away from him. I was certain all he wanted to do was speak about the plans we had for Sophia, but just the thought of being in my bedroom alone with him again had my head spinning slightly. I was so out of sorts that I didn’t realize a guard was approaching us until I heard his voice.
“Miss?” he called, and I thought that might have been the first ti anyone had addressed so casually since I got there.
“Yes?” I said, turning to face him. “How can I help you?”
“I am to escort you to Miss Sophia’s palace right away,” he explained to .
Confused, I turned to look at Theo. He shrugged at .
Turning back to the guard, I asked, “Uhm... why is that?”
“You are being summoned to be the new maid for Miss Sophia, and you must report there at once,” he said in a gruff voice.
I frowned. Sophia was not married to the king yet and she didn’t hold any more of a royal title than I did. How could she treat like a servant?
Then I caught Theo’s eyes, and he nodded.
He was right. We needed to figure out all of the secret tunnels and map out the palace. That would be a great opportunity to do so.
I kept my face in a scowl so that the guard wouldn’t think I was happy about it, but it was actually going to work in our favor. To prevent the guard from feeling suspicious, I sighed in an unwilling tone. “Fine. I will go.”
The guard shook his head. “Like you had a choice.” He turned, snapping his heels together, and I followed him, with Theo tagging along behind .
As we walked, I hung back slightly so that the two of us could talk. The guard looked annoyed to have been given this job, so I doubted he would care if I dragged my feet, so long as I was coming without giving him too much trouble.
“Exactly what we needed,” Theo whispered.
He was right, of course. And if I could get Sophia to trust , that would make it even easier for us to take her hostage.
While we were making our way through the palace to a much smaller, beautiful little house set off in the distance, Theo took careful note of everything that was around us. I did, too, including where the guards were positioned, how many there were, and how attentive they seed to be.
After a few minutes, the guard escorted us inside Sophia’s palace. I was surprised that she was already there. I figured she’d be back in the king’s quarters...
“There you are, girl!” she barked at . I tipped my head to her, hard as it was, trying to be respectful. “Now that you are no longer favored by the king, I will teach you so humility! It will be your job from now on to wait on —hand and foot!”
I did my best to look upset by this information. As much as I didn’t want to serve the brat, if she sent on errands, it would actually help get the palace mapped out sooner. But I was too optimistic.
“Now, the first thing I will need for you to do is to go out to the garden!” Sophia swung her arm around dramatically and pointed out at the garden, which was visible through the window.
It was gorgeous, full of beautiful red rose bushes and other flowers.
“What would you like for to do in the garden?”
“Silence!” she shouted her nose in the air. “You will not speak to unless I speak to you first!”
“Yes, miss,” I said.
“I just said not to speak to !”
“Unless you speak to first,” I reminded her. “Which you have.”
She narrowed her gaze at , and I thought I heard Theo snicker, but he was standing far behind , trying to remain unnoticeable.
“You will pick the roses for the wedding ceremony,” she instructed . “And you will not co back in until we have enough for all of the bouquets, table decorations, and the arrangents on the stage.”
“Yes, miss,” I said. “How many do you need? Two, three dozen?”
“Thirty-three,” she replied, and I nodded in understanding. That seed easy enough. “Dozen.”
My mouth dropped open. “Thirty-three dozen?”
Her grin widened into a snarl, showing off her pointy canines. “Yes. Three hundred ninety-six roses to be exact. De-thorned.”
“Great,” I murmured, swallowing the lump in my throat.
I wasn’t going to have ti to investigate how to pull off our plan—I was going to be picking roses for the rest of my life.
I turned to look at Theo, but I couldn’t tell if he was angry... or amused.
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