Widely.
Wide enough that Elliot, who stood at Jack’s side, lifted a brow, very obviously questioning that smile but he was smart enough to not say it out loud.
Still, she was smart enough to drop her smile the moment that she noticed Elliot, hoping that he didn’t read too much into the action. She knew that there were rules in this life and the fact that she had a mate probably impacted a hell of a lot of them.
Just the fact that Jack had chosen to leave his crown behind to live his own life and not be a part of this strange system had probably impacted a lot of those rules as well.
The only question was how much of his life had Jack left behind?
“There she is, the princess,” Jack said the moment Ashley approached, and she supposed that it was just because he couldn’t help himself. The man had a natural swagger, a way of holding himself that was far too proud, which made clear that he thought the world was his oyster. Turned out, that natural swagger only got worse when in the presence of other people that he knew very well. In this case, Elliot.
Ashley had hardly gotten a good look at Elliot since she was brought to the castle. While she hadn’t interacted with him inher time at the Opal Castle, she had encountered him in the past when he had found her in her diner.
Ashley averted her eyes and tried not to hint that she was already aware of who Elliot was. She had met him as a servant and nothing more, or at least that’s what she told herself for his sake.
Especially because he was far too devious if the fact that he was associated with Jack was to be taken into account.
“I am not the only princess around now, surely,” Ashley said, reminding Jack of that fact and scanning his expression to try to understand what he meant. He didn’t seem to be upset by her challenge, but she had the slightest inkling that Jack was a far better actor than he would ever let on.
“Indeed, you aren’t. The Dragon Games are about to begin, and soon, unfortunately, the Diamond King will come out of hiding, and once he does...” Jack trailed off, obviously knowing more but deciding to keep that to himself. Beside him, Elliot nodded in agreement, in on the unsaid secret. A beat passed, and in that single moment, Ashley looked over at Emma, wondering if she knew more as well. The girl gave no inclination, which was a relief. A second later, Jack cleared his throat, ready to speak again.
“It is of the utmost importance that you understand exactly what’s going on in this situation and all that’s at stake,” Jack said, sounding remarkably more serious than he ever had in the past. There was something about the lack of amusement in his features that meant he was serious and concerned about something.
“We have reason to believe that someone is going to try and cheat in the games,” Elliot said, sounding far too official, and Ashley reacted with a lift of her left eyebrow, wondering what he was up to.
“And you’re worried about that because…?” Ashley had to ask, as he seemed to think he had some kind of authority here.
“There is a council,” he began, his voice trailing off as if he was trying to allude to the level of authority that he had without stating it outright. Maybe he thought it was rude, but Ashley thought not explaining was ruder.
“The council shifters are not too impressed with what the dragon families have decided to do, or at least the ones who still have their sanity intact aren’t too impressed, which is rare, but—” Emma whispered in Ashley’s ear, but trailed off, not exactly an answer, but it did reveal enough.
So, Elliot was a shifter. Ashley reevaluated what she knew about him, wondering exactly what sort of shifter he could be? But of course, no one wanted to explain that either. Would she be forever doomed to live in the dark?
“You need to understand that the dragon families, the kings from many years ago, made a deal with the gods, deciding to send the whole world into an apocalypse to take power. They threw all the other shifter families under the bus, and we just want to know who was aware of what was going on and who decided not to tell anyone. But unfortunately, we have reason to believe that someone is going to grab more power when it comes to the dragon shifters as well, which would knock the already tenuous balance out of order,” Elliot said, sounding far more authoritative than his relaxed exterior would imply, and Ashley suddenly wondered if everyone else was faking their personalities as well and what else they weren’t telling her, because she knew there was more. There had to be.
Since she’d woken up in this fairy tale world, there’d been nothing but secrets and intrigue. They all like it was her duty to figure out exactly who was trying to seize power within the dragon shifter circles, but they expected her to do it with no knowledge, and it was really fucking irritating.
She couldn’t even turn into a dragon herself, but they seemed to think she had some kind of magical powers of intuition that she didn’t have. It didn’t make sense to expect her to fix all of this. But everyone looked at her with expectation in their eyes, acting like she alone should know exactly what to do.
“Listen, you all seem to think I should be able to help you, but I’m not sure why. You give me half-truths, no real information, and then throw out just enough to seem intriguing. But, and I say this with as much respect as I can, what exactly do you expect me to fucking do when you’re leading me around like a marionette?” Ashley glared between the three who, yet again, couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Nobody has anything to say now? You’re just going to stand there and not answer me? This is bullshit,” Ashley was sick to death of this shit. Everyone hated her brother, for reasons she understood, and expected her to save them all, for reasons she didn’t understand. “What’s the fucking point of asking me to save you all if you won’t tell me what I’m supposed to be saving you from? What the hell are you so afraid of revealing?”
“It’s not that we don’t want to tell you,” Jack piped up to answer her, but he still wouldn’t look at her. “It’s that we don’t know if you’re just going to run back to Valys and tell him our plans.”
“Oh, so you don’t trust me? And why should I trust any of you? For all I know, you’ve involved me in this plot to use me, and you plan to kill me later. Because I know this much about coups…you don’t let anyone live that can claw back power if you want that coup to be successful.” Ashley glared back at Jack, daring him to lie or to give her another half-answer. He wouldn’t look at her and that chilled her to the bone.
“Fuck off, all of you,” she said, letting her anger out on them.
But these people could kill her out here, for any number of reasons so she really needed to chill out. Ashley swallowed hardand tried to act normal, like everything was going according to plan, and she had nothing to worry about. Even though she most definitely did.
Her brother had made clear that she had little to no powers, which meant that she was at the mercy of the people surrounding her. And that, also, meant that she needed to play as nicely as possible and keep a stiff upper lip. But those were things that she was least capable of when everything was so fucking frustrating. Still, she willed herself to be the best actress she could be and softened her features.
“Okay, fine, I give up. You won’t tell me what you don’t want me to know. Why do you think someone wants to interfere with the Dragon Games?” Ashley said through stiff lips, trying her best to sound natural, even though she was pretty sure she had never sounded more strained and upset.
The fact that she was slowly backing away from the whole group as she realized exactly what was going on probably didn’t help. But Ashley tried again to smile big and bright, acting like everything was normal. She must not have managed it because Jack decided to step towards her, furrowing his brow as he looked at her.
“I know you’re freaking out,” Jack said, as if trying to soothe a jittery colt.
