Chapter 25
Rafe
I stared at the large tapestry hanging right outside my father’s Palace office.
Yes, he had a Palace office as well as a free-standing office, and an office in his private Palace residence. Three offices.
He was such a pretentious fuck.
The tapestry in front of me depicted another pretentious fuck, one of my ancestors I hadn’t bothered to learn the name of. They all started to look the same at some point, which was concerning. Some part of me felt like I was looking into a mirror of my future.
Except I’d have hair. Definitely. I was too funny to go bald.
This bald relative was depicted with narrowed eyes, his jaw set, hands behind his back.
It was a classic military pose, only his eyes had too much life in them to have seen any real action.
That could have been a stylistic choice on part of the artist, of course, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he’d never seen a battlefield.
I glanced down at my watch again, resisting the urge to tap my foot. Alejandro liked to keep me waiting. It was one of his business tactics that was meant to intimidate, but it had only ever pissed me off. I was his son, not a business rival, and I actually had a lot to do today.
Skye and Aiden would be returning to the academy for second term in just a few days, and Skye’s shared dorm with Willow was no longer acceptable.
Skye and Aiden deserved their own space.
A larger apartment-style, maybe with a kitchenette, and some spare rooms. Maybe a spare room for me.
I grinned at that idea. I missed the nights I’d spent as a shadow, watching Skye sleep, completely enthralled with how easily she locked me out of her mind.
I eyed the tapestry in front of me again.
My Key would make for a much nicer tapestry.
The same pose, but with her feminine softness. Her chin a bit higher, her hair down, long and sleek behind her. I adjusted myself as discretely as possible, even though no one was in the hall to see me, and then I froze, shuddering in horror.
Fuck. I was hard in the hallway while admiring a tapestry of my bald uncle-so-and-so.
Where the fuck was dear Alex?
“My Prince.”
I turned, raising my eyebrows in surprise.
There stood my mother’s personal guard, Raaz.
His dark, wavy hair was the same as I’d last seen him, down to his collar with the top half pulled back into a knot.
He wore a relaxed version of the official uniform, simple deep green cargo pants and a matching fitted top under his useless bulletproof vest.
I found myself a bit irritated at that. My grandfather had kept the guard in black, but my mother had quickly changed the official color to green, her well-known favorite color.
So, she hadn’t spoken on the dead students at the academy, but she’d changed the entire guard’s uniform. I stifled a groan of frustration.
“Raaz,” I said. “Interesting you’re my mother’s personal guard and I’ve yet to see you…guarding her.”
Raaz gave me a bored stare in response. “What brings you home?”
“That’s hardly any of your business,” I said lightly, looking back at the bald fucker on the wall. “This is my home. I can return whenever I like.”
“Your father may be a while,” Raaz said.
“Yes, I know his tactics.” I replied without taking my eyes off the tapestry. I’d just noticed my unnamed uncle had mismatched medals on his lapel. What a phony. I’d have Aiden burn this as soon as we moved in.
Wow. One sexy encounter with Skye and I was already imagining the rest of our lives, other Links included. Would she even want to live in the Palace? I’d have to find a way to ask without spooking her. The woman was a runner.
“He’s with a certain business associate,” Raaz went on, his voice dropping in volume. I’d almost forgotten he was here.
I paused, remembering the cult leader my father had forced me to meet with. He’d been so…smug. I’d be thankful I got to leave that meeting in a hurry if the reason for leaving hadn’t been Aiden almost fucking dying.
Wait a minute…
“He’s with the associate now?” I asked in disbelief. “That asshole.”
He was going to try getting me in a room with the Crusader again. I knew there was a shifty reason behind my being summoned. Even if I did have some questions for the cult leader regarding Skye and how he’d allegedly been in the islands with a terrorist, I didn’t have enough info for that game yet.
Raaz cleared his throat. “The Crown Princess is in residence.”
“Is she?” I asked, already heading up the hall toward him. “Well, let’s go pay her a visit, then.”
Anything to get me out of a meeting with that creepy fuck.
Raaz had an ulterior motive for stealing me away from the meeting with my father, of course.
My mother was in one of her famous moods.
I sat on her chaise, as far from the fire as possible, where Hugo was lounging in an armchair, skimming through a magazine like my mother wasn’t on the edge of a manic breakdown. We were in the sitting room in her private apartment while she paced from here, into her bedroom, then back.
“How is it my fault an academy was attacked?” My mom hissed. She was a little disheveled. She wore one of her chiffon dressing gowns over a silk night dress even though it was the afternoon. Her hair wasn’t styled, pulled into a messy braid she must have worn to bed.
I glanced at the clock. It was nearly time for her dinner.
“Why is everything my fault to the lesser? I hardly know all of the laws I’m meant to enforce!”
I almost hissed through my teeth.
‘The lesser’?
This was one of the reasons she got so much backlash.
“You don’t enforce the laws, muffin.” Hugo said, turning a page in his magazine. “You’re just the head of state.”
My mother huffed and I wrinkled my nose. I’d never liked that nickname.
Raaz stood still as a statue in front of the door. I raised an eyebrow at that. Since when did the personal guard stand guard inside the private apartment? Especially when the Princess only wore a dressing gown? Hugo was obviously okay with whatever the fuck that was about, so I ignored it.
“And you,” she said, turning to me.
“Me,” I sighed, leaning back in preparation.
I couldn’t wait to see what she decided to go at me for.
My tattoo was on full display, though she hadn’t glanced at it like usual.
My jeans weren’t ripped today, so it couldn’t be that.
Hmm. I ran a hand along the back of my neck.
My hair was getting a bit long. Maybe that would be the subject of my tongue lashing.
“Since when do you care for a job?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Hugo tensed. Mom narrowed her eyes.
“I was at the academy when the attack happened,” I said easily. “I was still there the following morning when that good-for-nothing fucker–”
“That good-for-nothing is one of my finest investigators,” Mom snapped.
“He’s a fool,” I said. “He left dead students on the lawn all night in the rain like leaf litter. That is why the public is unhappy with you.”
Hugo’s head snapped up in alarm. Raaz’s eyebrows twitched upward. Mom stilled.
I was ready, though. I had a list of things to bring to her attention, and this one had to be first.
“Really?” she asked, her voice icy. “And you know this for certain?”
Never in my life had I resisted an eye-roll so hard.
I loved my mother. She was beautiful, even in her older age, and clever. She would have been a formidable Heir to the throne.
But she was a Princess through and through.
She was very out of touch with the world outside the Palace.
She had no idea what the common people went through, and had no care for their issues.
Even her Links were nobility. Any criticism she received from the public, her Chain was utterly confused by, unable to provide any insight.
Ironically, my father could’ve provided that insight for her. He understood poverty well. He’d even changed his name from Alejandro to Alexander in an attempt to separate himself from his upbringing in Chiapas, thinking it would’ve brought shame to the Royal Chain.
He was such an idiot.
Wyatt wasn’t low-class by any means, but he wasn’t royalty. Being exposed to him and his family from a young age had clued me in over the years. It allowed me to see issues I’d never experienced growing up. Issues I’d never even fathomed.
Now, having met Skye, I saw another new perspective.
The Gulf was different. Many of the people there chose to marry instead of testing for their family Chains.
If Chains did exist, a lot of them were platonic, with a married couple within.
Not every member was involved with children.
Skye was actually an odd case, having multiple fathers and referring to them as such.
And yet, she resisted the idea of a Chain. Even knowing of her secret affinities, I wasn’t entirely convinced that was her only reason for resisting fate.
I suspected turmoil among the parents. Especially after having seen Levi’s attitude toward her. Even now that I knew of his existence, Skye didn’t speak to me about him. Something hadn’t been quite right in that household while she and Zephyr were growing up, it was just eclipsed by their trauma.
I cleared my throat, pretending I’d been carefully considering my response.
“Yes,” I said. “The attack on the academy is a worldwide tragedy. Other leaders have expressed their condolences, haven’t they?”
“Yes,” Mother clipped. “The president of Oceania, the asshole, even offered to visit. What would he need to visit for?” She looked to Raaz, who only met her stare with one of his own.
I took a deep breath. Hugo seemed to sense what I was about to say, and he sat up straighter, like he might launch at me. A shadow wrapped around his ankle, holding him still so I could speak.
“You didn’t visit,” I said softly.
Mom spun around, her eyes taking on that manic gleam again. “I beg your pardon?”