17 Promise Me One Thing #2
“Not even for me?” She shot him her most winsome smile, knowing he’d crack.
He always did. He wasn’t a cold-enough person to put the ideals of anything above the people he loved.
And, although they were two different people heading in two different directions, people who may not always understand one another, Spie knew he loved her. As she loved him.
He needed her to keep him grounded. To stay his anxiety-prone mind.
Nix let go of the railing. He ran a hand through his wavy locks, tilting his head at her. “You and I,” he breathed. “Always.”
In the rightmost corner of the receiving hall, Spie stood with her arm resting along the top of an ostentatious chair.
With gold filigree and carved, intertwined eagles rising from the chair’s back, the thing looked too much like a throne for her liking.
But Love Galaxy would waste no opportunity to visually remind the viewers of Spie and Nix’s importance.
Opposite her, in the hall’s leftmost corner, Nicky perched on an identical throne-like seat, his gaze fixed on the winding staircase where, any moment now, the contestants would begin to descend.
Camera drones hummed overhead, and Graham Grey sat picking his teeth on one of the staircase’s bottom steps.
Animated chatter rained from the mezzanine suite above.
Twenty minutes later, Kalvin gave the all clear. Spie reluctantly sank atop her gilded throne, daintily throwing one high-heeled leg over the other. Nix stopped twisting his gloved hands together and sat ramrod straight.
Graham rose, plastering a boyish smile on his face.
He spoke into the spate of cameras, reading off a rolling holoprompter, “Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-sixth season of Love Galaxy ! Whether you’re just around the corner on Expan Proper or gathered around your holo three systems away, it makes no difference.
For tonight and for the following eight weeks, the distances between us will be reduced to nothing. ”
He rubbed his palms together excitedly. “And what an extra special season it’s going to be!
Our very own imperial-consort season! I have with me tonight the darling twin son and daughter of Her Imperial Majesty, Gracelin Expani!
And here to date them we have the most representative cast of accomplished contestants ever chosen for Love Galaxy !
Women from as far away as the fabled X System and the industrious Belts, as close to home as the Prop Moons, and as deeply patriotic as New Terra!
Join us as, together, Prince Nix and Princess Spielin search for true love!
“Up first, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to another princess, Her Highness, the Ambassador Cailin Frederik!
The youngest daughter of New Terra’s King Caesar Frederik, Cailin is well known across the Terran System for her brilliant mind and kind heart!
” (Spie scoffed internally. If ever a person had been born deserving the title narcissist , it was Cailin Frederik.) “With an advanced degree in constitutional law, she’s spent the last year advising her father’s administration and influencing intersystem policy for the good of all those within the Terran System!
Come on down and join us, Ambassador Frederik! ”
The New Terran princess descended the staircase without her customary seven-person entourage.
She sported a new hairstyle, her reddish-gold locks framing her sharp features in a severe, chin-length A-line.
A pretty woman, objectively speaking, though too thin for Spie’s personal preference.
Also, there was the little fact about her being a demon in human skin.
Due to the deep ties between New Terra and Expan, Spie and Nicky had grown up attending important galactic events with Cailin and her two older sisters.
Always shoved together at the “kids’ table” during mealtimes, sent away to “play” while the adults discussed politics.
Spie wished she could say that she and Cailin had been childhood friends, but the opposite was true.
They’d never taken to one another. Cailin being a snooty little bitch hadn’t helped matters.
Cailin reached the bottom of the stairs and offered Graham an ice-cold smile.
The woman wouldn’t know warmth if she was placed in a scorching desert.
“Mr. Grey, thank you for the introduction. What an honor to be here.” She held out her hand, fingers angled down, for him to kiss her knuckles. A New Terran custom.
Graham obliged, bringing her knuckles to his lips and then freeing her hand. “The honor is mine, Your Highness. Tell us, you and the imperial heirs grew up in similar circles, did you not? How are you feeling about dating such dear friends?”
Cailin tucked her hair behind her left ear and raised her chin. “If the end goal is the building of a strong and lasting alliance, one that strengthens all of us, then what better foundation exists than friendship?”
“Well said. Dare I ask, then, which friendship you’re most looking forward to building upon? Are you leaning toward brother or sister?”
“I’ve always been a direct woman, Mr. Grey. I see directness as kindness. Therefore, I see no reason to hide my intentions from Their Highnesses or our audience.” Cailin looked directly at the camera. “I’ll be giving my sole attention to Prince Nix Expani, if he’ll have me.”
Spie clenched her jaw. What a cleverly laid insult. No one watching knew that Nicky was their mother’s favorite for heir, so Cailin’s words would undermine both Spie’s desirability and legitimacy. Particularly when it was common knowledge that Cailin was flexible in her sexual preferences.
“How bold!” Graham exclaimed. “Then let me be the first to wish you luck. Their Highnesses await you!”
Cailin offered Graham a curt nod and gracefully stepped onto the hall’s floor. Her heels clacked as she walked the short distance to where Spie was sitting. The lesser princess dipped into a shallow bow.
“Cailin, how long has it been now?” Spie forced a smile. “Six months since the last Galactic Assembly? Or longer? What a daring new haircut.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” Cailin’s tone was perfectly even, betraying not the slightest hint of emotion. “I do hope you haven’t taken offense to my honesty. I find you so very fun, but I wouldn’t want to give you false hope when my heart is sending me in another direction.”
I find you so very fun . Cailin Frederik was the queen of careful insults.
“Oh, not at all! We never would’ve made a good match, after all.”
Cailin dipped her head and took off to greet Nicky. Moments later, she vanished through the ballroom doors, and the cameras focused back on Graham. Spie was already drained, and the night had barely begun.
“Next up, we have Ambassador Arbora VinVanxin of Expan Proper’s moons!
” Graham was either a very good actor or had boundless energy.
“If you’re at home thinking, hm, that name sounds familiar, then you’re right!
Arbora is the Moons’ prime minister, Vestin VinVanxin’s, second daughter and, incidentally, one of Princess Spielin’s past lovers.
The two were often photographed together at local, global, and galactic events when they were blossoming young women.
But their adolescent love ended when Arbora went home to the Moons at eighteen.
In the eight intervening years, we have to wonder, has their past love grown sour?
Or can it be reignited and burn all the brighter?
Or will Prince Nix shock us all and see something in the girl who loved his sister? Let’s meet Arbora and find out!”
Arbora appeared at the top of the staircase.
Her pale-pink pantsuit hugged her sensuously full figure, sashes of silk draped from her shoulders, and her handsome golden eyebrow rings glinted in the manor’s soft lighting.
As she began descending the steps, slowly, almost languorously, her chin held high, Spie rose from her seat.
Sitting for Cailin was one thing, but doing so with Arbora felt wrong.
Graham greeted Arbora, giggling when she leaned in to kiss him on both cheeks.
One would think growing civilization on terraformed moons would create a people as harsh as their environment, but that wasn’t the case.
The harshness had banded the Moons’ people together, made them fiercely loyal, uncommonly communal.
Spie had once dreamed of running away there with Arbora.
Perhaps that childish fantasy could turn into a reality.
Graham told a joke—an awful one, naturally. Arbora laughed politely. Spie knew it was her polite laugh because her real laugh, her full laugh, was a whole-body affair. Kissing him twice more, Arbora swept away. Her liquid dark gaze met Spie’s.
Spie’s mouth went dry. Her awareness of the humming camera drones and the stationary cameras became acute.
Her every twitch, every breath, every hesitation was fodder for the empire.
Oh, how she couldn’t wait for her life to be her own.
To be freed, at least somewhat, from beneath the microscope that was being royalty.
“Your Highness,” Arbora intoned, her voice off-kilter in that high-society Moons accent Spie had once loved. Still did love, if she was being honest. Just something about the way the Moons’ people dragged out their vowels.
Arbora bent at the waist. A one-third bow, the second-shallowest any contestant had a right to give. But Spie hated being bowed to. Unless she was teasing someone like Trash Girl or annoying someone like Cailin. Arbora rose, standing a mere inch shy of Spie’s height.
“It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?” Spie said because what in the nebulas else was there to say? A lot of things, honestly, but none she was comfortable speaking in front of the entire empire.
“It certainly has. When I heard it was your season, I couldn’t not put in for your hand. Our breakup is my biggest regret.”
Spie didn’t know if she could trust the words exiting Arbora’s mouth. She wanted to say: If our breakup was your biggest regret, then why did you ignore my messages for two years afterward? Why did you stop accompanying your father on state visits? Why did you disappear ?
“Is there ever anything as pure as first love?” Spie said, instead. “We’re lucky to have the opportunity to reclaim it.” She dipped her head so Arbora could kiss her on both cheeks.
Her ex’s lips burned her skin.