His eyes shone with an inner light as he spoke, excitement glittering through his cool and calm facade. He reminded me of the cult leaders or serial killers of the twentieth century. I'd seen an old documentary on Ted Bundy, about how he used his looks and charm to lure in young women, then raped, beat, and murdered them. Uriel had that air about him, except he hadn't tried to murder me. Yet.
I cleared my throat and licked my lips, forming words in my head before voicing them aloud. "Am I to understand you rigged the Princess Ballot to see me placed at Arbon Academy?"
He grinned, pride radiating from his very pores. "It wasn't hard. That so-called lottery has always been rigged, since day one. You didn't know that, did you? It's not random at all. It's designed to provide royals with a genetically compatible breeding partner. Turns out that all the years of selective marriages have drastically reduced the royals ability to conceive, and heavens forbid they allow the line of succession to deviate out of their bloodlines."
I did know all of that, actually. But I had no idea the Society had rigged it to place me as the winner. That was staggering in itself that they had grown so powerful behind the scenes to be able to pull that off. Nevertheless, I kept my face neutral and calm. No sense in showing my hand to the enemy—because that's what my sensei was proving himself to be. No friend of mine would set off an earthquake that killed innocents like Jordan's betrothed, Meghan. Nor would they kidnap the two people I cared for more than anyone else in this world.
"Lay it out for me plainly, Uriel," I said bluntly. "Tell me what exactly you want, and I'll take it under consideration."
His lips flattened, and I knew from experience that he was annoyed at me. He’d no doubt carefully thought out this dramatic presentation of what the Society wanted, and I was ruining it all for him.
He frowned at me, then must have decided I wasn't in the mood for theatrics. With a sigh, he sat back in his chair once more. "You're to become the figurehead of the people's resistance, Rose. We're ready to go public and take the fight directly to the monarchies, and we need a face. You're that person."
I stared at him. "Excuse me?"
"You've been groomed for this since childhood, beautiful girl," he said with a coaxing lilt to his voice. Internally I scoffed, because he'd sure as shit groomed me for something. And I doubted that something was the resistance. "You're in the perfect position, from the perfect breeding, and with the perfectly mundane, impoverished upbringing that the vast majority will relate to. We did that for you, Rose. The resistance has guided every step of your life from the day you were born, and now it's your time to shine."
My heart thudded a bit harder in my chest, and my stomach turned to ice. He wasn't just tossing around casual metaphors; he was totally serious. The resistance had been planning on placing me in the Princess Ballot sincebirth, which meant...
"Who was my mother, really?" I asked, unable to help myself. Uriel was telling me they'd mapped out my whole life, meaning everything that had happened to me was due to their influence. The group homes, the foster parents, theabuse... it had all been by design. Forming myeasily relatableupbringing, no doubt. Giving me a sob story that the masses of citizens below the poverty line would rally behind.
Uriel's lips pulled into a smug smile. "She was one of us."
I blinked at him, but that was enough to relay my shock.
"She didn't even die in childbirth," he told me, like he was doing me a favor. "She just never wanted to be a mother. She did her duty to the Society, then handed you over."
My heart shattered into pieces and turned to dust in the hollow cavity of my chest.
"Why her, then? If she didn't want children..." I trailed off, shaking my head. The blows just kept coming, and it was breaking me down.
Uriel folded his legs, bouncing his ankle. "Like I said, you came from perfect breeding. Your mother was the closest descendant we could find to a pre-monarchy royal."
My brows hitched somewhat. "What does that mean, exactly? I'm royal?"
Uriel scoffed a laugh. "Not even close. Your ancestor was a royal by marriage only, and even then she ended up divorced and disowned, prior to having any children. But shewasknown as the People's Princess before she got caught in a scandal and was assassinated in a staged car crash. The common folk love a good rags to riches story, and here you are, ready to echo the original Lady Spencer." He clapped his hands sarcastically. "Bravo on snagging two crown heirs, Rose. You must have really built on those skills from our last training session."
Training sessionwas definitely a euphemism in this situation. He was clearly referring to my skills in bed versus the skills of combat.
"Where is your wakizashi?" he asked, his tone changing dramatically. It was a dangerous tone. I had to be very careful about how I answered this or I might find myself fighting for my life.
"You bombed a ball,” I said flatly. “There was nowhere in my dress for a weapon, and I was forced to follow before I could retrieve it. If you had given me even the slightest heads up that this was heading my way, I would have been better prepared."
I had to throw it back on him just enough that it didn’t feel like everything was my fault, while still taking some responsibility. Uriel had rules. Lots of fucking rules. And if you broke them...
"You disappoint me, Rose," he said softly.
Fuck.
“And even worse, you ran from me.”
Double fuck.
I shifted slightly into a better fighting pose, thankful that the loose-fitted outfit gave me a wide range of movement. Uriel followed that posture change, some of his anger fading away.
"Very good, little one. You remember well."
Little one. That's what my nickname had been when we'd first met and I was a child. When I’d hit puberty, it had changed to Rose. Him using it now, after everything, just made me feel sick.
