Chapter 1
MADDISON
Reality is becoming harder to exist in, and it's been worse since I entered the Royal world. I had thought being a northsider came with complications, but this is a whole other level of complexity.
I'm waiting in Grey Devenport's living room for the DNA test results.
I'm restless, tapping my foot up and down against the overly polished floor as I fidget with the watch on my wrist. The battery is dead, so River won't be able to track me.
I want to call him and tell him I'm okay, but my potential new father has my phone. Or, well, one of his bodyguards has it…
I'm honestly not sure.
"Hey," I say to one of the men looming near the doorway. "Can I please have my phone? I need to make a call."
The man tosses me a tolerant look, then rotates away from me and overlaps his hands in front of him.
"Asshole," I mutter under my breath. I face forward on the sofa again.
The material is soft against my skin, and the cushions are beyond comfortable.
The room is massive with high ceilings, and the Royal City sparkles against the starry night just out the ceiling-to-floor windows.
Grey has a lot of money, so if he is my father, that means…
Wait…
Could he be the anonymous person who paid for me to attend the Royal Academy?
That idea bounces around in my mind for a while.
Eventually, I get up and start pacing the room, my jitteriness amplifying.
It's been an hour since they swabbed my mouth for the DNA test. From everything I've heard, getting results for DNA tests can take weeks.
But apparently, having money makes it quicker.
I pull a face at that. People are starving in the streets in northside, and Royals have enough wealth to throw away money on everything.
More time drones by, so I walk around the room, taking in the framed maps on the wall. Some are old, worn, and yellowing, while others appear freshly printed. Is Grey some sort of map collector? What is the term for that?
Why am I thinking about such insignificant things?
I stop in front of a particular one that’s unlike any layout of the world I’ve seen before.
The spaces of land that make up the map are much bigger and differently shaped than what I’ve been taught about geography.
It also has more islands. Five in particular capture my attention because each has a crown in the center, and all the crowns are different colors with a jewel theme that matches the island name.
For example, Ruby Thorn Island has a ruby-embellished crown marking it.
I recall how River told me the rose pendants Royal girls get when they’re younger and how they’re different colors, depending on their family name.
Is there a connection between that and these islands? Or is this merely a decorative map?
The man who turned his back on me a few minutes ago suddenly enters the room. I turn around as he halts in front of me and sticks out his hand. My phone is in his palm. I snatch it up, but am wary at best.
"Mr. Devenport has permitted you to make a phone call to your friend River Averson," he informs me. "But only to let him know you're safe, so he'll remove the missing person's report he's filed."
"He's filed a missing person's report for me?" The question is rhetorical, but the bodyguard nods anyway.
The police won't look that hard for me, even if River files it. I'm eighteen years old and from northside, but my chest erupts with butterflies that someone cares enough about me to do that—to care that I'm missing.
I really like River. Grey said it was dangerous to be around him, but I'm not so sure I can give up the gothic prince that made me feel things I believed only existed in fairytales.
I dial River's number and then turn my back toward the bodyguard, who's watching me way too intensely for my liking.
"Maddy?" River answers after one ring.
"Yeah, it's me." I chew on my thumbnail. "I called to tell you I'm okay, and you can tell the police that too, so they won't look for me."
"Where are you?" he asks, his voice panic-stricken.
"I'm… I'm safe." I wish I could tell him more, and it's so frustrating that I can’t. "That's all I can tell you right now."
"Baby, I can't call off the search because you call and tell me you're safe. For all I know, someone could be making you say this."
"Did you just call me baby?"
Silence fills the line.
"I did… Do you not want me to?" he asks shyly.
Usually, I'd tell a guy off if they called me that. But I think I like it when River says it to me.
"I don't know… It doesn't bother me that much. At least when you say it." A smile graces my lips, but then falters. "Look, I promise I'm okay. No one's making me say this. You know me. If they tried, I'd find a way to rebel."
"Yeah, maybe." He fleetingly pauses. "When am I going to see you again?"
I cast a glance at the bodyguard. "Hey, dude. Do you know when I'll be able to leave?"
"Sometime tonight," he replies vaguely. "Once the results come in."
"I'll see you later tonight," I assure River. "Are you okay, though?"
He hesitates. "Honestly, I'm not sure."
Worry knots in my gut. "What's wrong?"
"I… I'll talk to you when we're together again. I don't want to stress you out about this." He pauses as a man says something to him in the background. "I have to go. I'll remove you from the missing person's list for now, but if I don't see you later tonight, I'm putting you back on it."
With my lips smashed together, I nod. "Okay."
"I'll see you soon." With that, he hangs up.
A second later, Grey enters the room with a piece of paper in his hand.
"Maddy, can we sit down and talk?" he asks, gesturing toward the sofa.
I eye him over, attempting to determine if I resemble him. We have the same eyes and hair color, but that doesn't mean anything. Maybe he's wrong about this.
"Sure." I plop down on the sofa.
He sits across from me and props his foot up onto his knee. "I got the results." The way he's looking at me reveals what he's about to say.
Because he's looking at me in disbelief, as if I'm a goddamn unicorn.
Or his long-lost daughter.
"The results for me and you are a match," he tells me with a slight tremble in his voice. "You're my daughter, Maddison."
To say I'm stunned is the understatement of eternity. Sure, I suspected this might happen. But it also seemed so implausible.
It also leaves me with a ton of questions.
"I don't understand," I scratch at the back of my neck. "If that's true, then… Why in the hell did you and my aunt Ellie let me believe those abusive assholes that raised me were my parents?"
"I didn't know you existed,” he says. “If I had, I wouldn't have allowed that to happen."
"It still doesn't excuse it," I snap, my voice quivering. "Even if you didn't know… and my aunt Ellie did…" I shake my head furiously. "Why did Ellie lie to me?"
"To protect you," he explains. "I don't know why she kept you from me, but I do know that… Your aunt Ellie is an Everford."
I misstep as my brain struggles to wrap my head around what he’s saying. “But…But that still doesn't explain why it'd be better if my mother, or well, I mean Evalynn, raised me. She's an Everford, too."
He shakes his head. "No, Ellie and Evalynn are half-sisters. Evalynn isn’t aware of this.
Their mother—your grandmother, had an affair, and Ellie was a product of it.
Ellie accidentally discovered this when she was eighteen, close to the time we met.
She was looking into it then, trying to figure out how the Everford bloodline still existed when everyone believed it was extinct, but I'm not sure if she ever found answers—her real father had already passed away by the time she found out all of this. "
Is that why she's gone MIA? Was she looking into this, and something terrible happened to her? Or does she have to lie low because someone discovered her real identity?
"Do you know where Ellie is?" he inquires, measuring my reaction closely.
I don’t know why, but something about the way he asks the question bothers me. It’s a valid question and everything, but I don’t know… Maybe I’m just being paranoid.
I shake my head. "No. She sent me this message saying I needed to be careful and that I wouldn't be able to get a hold of her for a while.
And I haven't been able to either." I fall silent, sorting through my thoughts.
"I still don't understand why you suspected I was your daughter.
I know you thought I looked like Ellie, but she's also related to Evalynn.
And even if you wondered if I was her daughter, why would you assume you were the father? "
Sadness floods his features. "This isn't something I'm proud of, but when Ellie and I were secretly dating, she told me she was pregnant.
" He stares down at his hands. "I told her I couldn't be a father, because I was already betrothed to another woman.
And while I didn't love the woman I was betrothed to, going against my family’s wishes felt… ominous, I guess."
The gravity of his words presses against my chest. This sounds similar to mine and River's situation.
"After that, Ellie and I didn't speak for a few weeks, and I hated every second of it.
But when I finally got hold of her again, she told me…
She told me she lied about being pregnant because she was trying to get me to marry her.
I've always had doubts that she was being truthful.
I've wondered if she told me that because she no longer trusted me with the knowledge that her—and you—are Everfords.
And she has every right to not trust me.
I betrayed her." He exhales slowly, then he elevates his gaze to mine.
"But when I saw you in the grocery store, you looked so much like her.
" He pauses. "And you look like me. I can see so much of myself in you. You have my nose and my eyes."
I instinctively touch my nose, but then lower my hand. "I don't know how to feel about this. It's a lot to process. I think I need to go. I'm not sure what you want from me, but I need time to think about this and figure some stuff out." Like figuring out if I actually believe him.
I need to speak to Ellie. She’ll have answers. She’ll know if this is true. But how the hell do I find someone that doesn’t want to be found?
"I understand that. I do. And the reality is that until we can get more answers and find Ellie, we need to keep this as quiet as possible.
" He leans forward. "However, I need to ensure you stay safe, so I'd like one of my bodyguards to watch you once you return to the academy.
Based on rumors, classes start again on Monday.
I have a house near the academy, and my best bodyguard will be stationed there.
He'll do sporadic checkups on the perimeter of the academy. "
I crinkle my nose. "That sounds a little too royal for me."
"Maddison, you are a royal," he reminds me. "Maybe you don't want to be, but most of the blood flowing through your veins is royal blood. And dangerous royal blood." He reclines back in the sofa and considers something. "Are you just friends with River Averson?”
"That's a complicated question," I reply truthfully, causing his brows to knit. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I’m trying to figure out how many people could be suspicious of your bloodline.”
"Well, just for full disclosure, River already suspects I'm an Everford. He and I were looking into it."
A crinkle forms between his brows. "How did that happen?”
"Because River saw this necklace Ellie gave me that has a rose pendant. River recognized it as a royal necklace, so we were looking into that, and it led us down the rabbit hole of the Everfords."
"I don't like that he knows," he states disapprovingly. “From now on, you need to be more careful about who finds out about this.”
“River is trustworthy. There's this society at the academy that came after me, drugged me, and left me in the woods.
River found me by tracking my watch's GPS. He…” I have to catch my breath at how relieved River looked when he found me in the woods.
I've never had anyone care about me like he does.
"But anyway," I clear my throat as emotions surface that I'm unsure how to cope with.
"I trust him. He'd protect me before he'd let anyone hurt me. "
He deliberates this warily. "Just be careful, Maddison. That’s all I’m saying. If the wrong people find out who you are, it’ll be bad. The Everfords… Their bloodline was extinct for a reason.”
“What reasons, though? I’ve heard stuff, but never a full story.”
“That’s for another time. Right now, I need to attend to some things,” he replies, rising to his feet. "Until then, please keep this conversation between you and me. I don't want anything to happen to you. I've already failed you as a father once. I don't want to do that again."
I want to believe him, but like I've said a dozen times, trust doesn't come easy to me, so until he proves that to me, I'll be skeptical of him.
I'll also continue my search for Ellie on my own because I'm not about to leave my fate in anyone else's hands. Including some random man who insists he’s my father.
Because fathers and mothers don’t mean shit to me. In fact, the only mother and father I’ve known, fake or not, stabbed me in the back multiple times. So who’s to say this guy won’t?
Even if he’s the real deal, I can’t trust him.