Ten: I’m Not Dead?

I awoke to the soft, distant sound of doors opening and closing, the shuffling of feet across stone floors.

My head was fuzzy, and I struggled to open my eyes, so I left them closed and tried to think back. What happened?

I remembered waiting in the tree forever, going for the money…

And then being fucking darted by Prince Valentin.

What an asshole.

But my heart was still beating. I could feel it pounding away anxiously. I was still breathing. And even more surprising, it felt like I was on a bed, and not on the cold stone floor of a jail cell.

I peeked my eyes open, just a little, to scope out the situation.

Cream colored walls patterned with forest green leaves at the cornices surrounded me. There was no furniture in the room except for the bed I was currently laying on.

There were also no windows, and while there was one door, a close examination of the crack between the bottom of it and floor revealed two shadows blocking the light – feet.

So I was being guarded. But why was I in a pretty room, tucked into a queen-sized bed covered with a fancy duvet?

Valentin knew who I was. He called me ‘match breaker.’

Why wasn’t I dead, or being led to the gallows at this very moment?

Instead of giving me hope that I might not be executed, this situation was actually making me more nervous about what was to come. I’d been evading the palace’s bounty for three years. There was a grudge there, especially so since I had interfered with the princess’s engagement.

I could only assume they were treating me nicely before starting torture. Giving me a taste of sweetness before following it with poison.

Fuck, I was really in for it now.

Well, I’d never been one to just give up. Deciding that I was going to struggle to the very end, I tossed back the covers and leaped out of the very comfortable bed.

Looking down at myself, I was thankfully still wearing my same clothes from before, although all my weapons had sadly been stripped away. Several of those weapons had been under my clothes, and I shuddered imagining the prince groping me in my sleep to find them.

Handsy bastard.

There was nowhere to hide in the room except for under the bed, and if anyone came searching for me, that would be the first place they’d check.

Hiding wasn’t going to work here. Might as well try the door and see what happens.

I tiptoed to the door and pressed my ear to it for a moment. Beyond it, I heard footsteps and gentle chatter, mostly female. The few snippets I caught told me it was probably servants passing by. So I was in a well-traveled area, not an isolated part of the castle, which was weird.

…Why were they keeping a famous criminal so close to everyone?

This stank of a nefarious plot. The vicious prince was planning something, I knew it.

But I couldn’t know more unless the prince came to me himself or I investigated further. So I reached out, grabbed the knob, and twisted.

And to my surprise, it turned. The door was actually fucking unlocked.

What the hell was happening?

I knew there was a guard out there, but somehow, he hadn’t heard the sound of the knob turning, or else he would have already barged in here. That meant I had one chance to fling this shit open and run for my life.

I took a deep breath, and counted to three.

One….two…thre-!

The door swung inward violently, sending me stumbling back. I caught myself on the bed post, and by the time I had regained my bearings, the door was closed again, and there was a certain beastly prince chest to chest with me, breathing my fucking air. He was like a big dog planting his feet and growling to show he was the boss.

I glared at him to regain some of my dignity and straightened up, refusing to back away. I could play these silly male dominance games too.

However, Valentin apparently wasn’t interested in the stalemate standoff thing right now, because he just pushed me in the chest so hard that I was forced to sit back on the bed and then graciously backed up so his back was against the door. Carefully blocking the only exit.

Great.

Valentin crossed his arms over his chest and watched me cough from his push. I settled myself on the bed as regally as I could, waiting for this asshole to explain what the hell he was doing.

When he didn’t speak, I frowned uncomfortably.

…Was he going to stare me to death or something?

Unfortunately, I’d never been one to keep my mouth shut, so I broke the silence first.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” I muttered.

Valentin’s mouth twitched. “I’m looking at the famous match breaker of course. I doubt there are many who know your true face out there, so I’m simply taking it in. I have to admit, you’re a bit more…plain than I thought you’d be.”

Alright, weirdo.

“Any particular reason I’m not dead yet?”

“That can be arranged if it’s your wish.”

I went silent, because for all I told myself I was prepared for death, if there was a chance I could live, I would take it.

“And if it’s not my wish?”

“Then I’m prepared to offer you a deal.”

I scowled suspiciously at this. The vicious prince, offering the match breaker a deal?

…Unlikely that it was in my favor in the slightest, but intriguing, nonetheless.

Valentin crossed one ankle over the other, leaving his body weight propped mostly on one foot. It was a precarious stance – one that might make it easy to take him down if I caught him by surprise.

Never mind that even if I got past him, I’d have to get out of the palace somehow without getting caught by the hundreds of guards constantly roaming the grounds. That was a problem for later.

I leaned back on my hands, feigning relaxation. “What kind of deal?”

“Although your impersonation of Darren Faraman was one hundred percent illegal and punishable by death, the function you performed was, luckily for you, extremely necessary. At any other time, I’d already have you in a cell, waiting for the gallows.”

So he'd decided to spare me because I had saved his sister from a life of misery? No way. I didn't buy it.

“I had been trying to break Beatrice’s engagement with Count Ewan myself, but hadn’t been able to convince my father he was a rat,” Valentin continued, eyebrows jutting down angrily. “Every spy I sent to the Count’s estate to dig out his secrets was sent back, convinced that he was a fine, upstanding man. I was using every method I could to get him to slip up in court. And no matter what warnings I gave the king, he insisted that the engagement was set. Although Beatrice never said anything to me, I also knew she was looking for her own way out of the engagement. When I heard that you interrupted her date, I knew instantly what she had done.”

It didn’t surprise me that Valentin’s spies hadn’t gotten any dirt on Ewan. He was extremely vigilant about people from the palace discovering his indiscretions, and he had a fleet of well-paid, and often blackmailed, servants that kept an eye on such things. Any Pansolum-born spy wouldn’t have a chance.

Luckily for me, I wasn’t from Pansolum, and I had my ways to find things out.

“As much as I hate to admit it, you did what I could not. But although you’ve successfully helped me get rid of Ewan, your job isn’t quite done yet.”

I frowned, feeling my stomach turn.

Valentin smiled, but I felt no warmth from it.

“You see…my sister still needs a suitor. And no matter what identity you presented at the time, you still said yourself that you were in love with her and wanted to marry her. I take promises very seriously, you see.”

I sat up straight, giving Valentin a look that I’m sure conveyed the sentence ‘what the fuck are you on.’

He smiled wider.

“Congratulations. Starting today, you get to court my sister. And I promise you, if you fail to do so properly…” his eyes drifted to my neck. “I’m thinking a red oak pike. It’ll complement your skin tone.”