I grunted as the light from the winter sun poured angrily through the windows, urging me to stop clinging to the comfort of my bed and seize the day.
"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Faye sang, her cheery voice leaving me torn between glee and resentment.
My body still ached from Art's relentless training last night, bruises branding the skin I hid under my nightgown like paint on a miserable canvas. No healers had been present in the infirmary when I'd stumbled in there during the dead of night, so I'd spent many pathetic hours twisting and turning to find a position that hurt less than others until I finally fell asleep. However, it still delighted me to hear the untroubled spirit in her voice again after so long.
"Master Arthur told Caiden to cancel my classes this morning, Faye," I mumbled into the pillow. "I've been allowed to sleep in."
"I know," Faye said, still humming merrily as if my words didn't touch her. "That's why I've waited until now to awaken you from your heavy slumber. It's almost noon."
"Noon?" I said, defying the burning sun and forcing my eyes wide open. The room was bright, the sun grinning high up on the blank winter sky. I had been sleeping through the morning.
"By the blood of the damned spirits, Will!" Faye suddenly exclaimed.
I twisted my head, worried she might have found a dead animal or something worse. "What?" I said, ready to jump out of my bed if the danger presented itself.
"Haven't you opened the package yet?" Faye said, her brow furrowed as she pointed at the box she'd placed on my vanity table last night.
I groaned, sinking back into my pillows. "I didn't exactly have a lot of time yesterday," I said, careful not to directly admit that I had completely forgotten about that package. "I got back at—"
A gasp drowned the rest of my words, my hands instinctively catching the box that Faye carelessly threw at me. "Open it. Miss Evelyn was very specific about getting this to you as fast as possible."
Then a smile spread on her face, her lips pressed to two thin lines as if she fought to suppress the urge to laugh aloud. "Maybe you should take a shower while you're at it," she said, turning to enter the bathroom.
I twisted my brow, confused by her reaction, until I saw the monstrosity staring back at me through the mirror on my vanity table. My unruly hair stood in every direction, imprinted lines from the pillowcase stretched across the right side of my face, and a trail of dried drool reached from the corner of my mouth across my cheek.
"Master Arthur put me through a lot yesterday, okay?" I shouted to Faye, rubbing my chin to get rid of the drool.
"Sure," Faye replied, chuckling carefully. "I'm not implying anything."
I chuckled. Her laugh soothed my ears. It had been a while since I'd last heard it. "Right," I said, snapping open the golden package in my lap as told.
A golden envelope lay on top of a fitted shirt and a pair of pants. I shortly wondered if this was one of Evie's outrageous exercises, where we would be instructed to burn the pants as a token of our dedication to the dresses she urged us to wear.
"What is this for?" I asked, praying to the ancient spirits these clothes were for me to wear and not burn.
"Read the letter," Faye said from the bathroom.
I slumped my shoulders, closing my tired eyes as I groaned. "Can't you just explain it to me?" I complained, clutching the pants closer against my chest. "I'm too tired to reeeead."
"Read the letter, Will," she said again, determinedly. "Explaining this stuff to you always takes forever, with you constantly interrupting me to ask the questions I would've answered eventually."
I snorted. "I'm not that bad," I said, chuckling when she displayed her head, her face painted with an unimpressed expression. "Fine, I'll read it." I rolled my eyes and opened the envelope to look at the swirling letters.
Dear suitors.
The second trial is fast approaching, and we need to ensure that you find yourself properly prepared for the royal ball. Therefore, we invite you to the first day of preparations and advise you to wear the outfit provided by your chambermaid.
We hope to see you this Thursday in the Oval Room at noon.
Yours truly,
Evelyn Hirsch.
The corner of my lips tugged upward as I went over Evie's signature again. She and Keagan must've gotten married not that long ago. The new year had barely begun.
The rest of the letter contained a list of duties that would replace our regular schedule until the time of the second trial. Unfortunately, it didn't look like they had assigned much time for days without courses.
"What does it say?" Faye shouted before turning on the water to fill the bathtub.
I sighed, already exhausted from just looking through the list. "Just that it's time for us to prepare for the second trial. Evie mentions a lot of tasks that are supposedly meant to replace our regular schedule, but I'm not sure which course we're supposed to attend today."
I scratched my neck, reading through the tasks again. "You're supposed to be in the Oval room today, right?" Faye asked, joining me in the bedroom again. I nodded. "Then I would suggest you put on your most convenient shoes because you'll be dancing until the sun sets."
My body shivered at the thought of dancing. I'd done nothing else all evening yesterday.
"Not a fan of dancing?" Faye asked when she noticed my tense shoulders.
I snorted, throwing my sheets aside to get out of bed. "I'm not a fan of most things Evie puts us through, but I don't necessarily loathe dancing. I've just done it a lot the past few months, and it's not like I love it either," I explained, massaging my sore neck as I placed the heated soles of my feet against the cool tiles.
Faye chuckled as she took the box with the clothes from me. "I didn't know you cared for the traditional royal dances," she said while I dragged my feckless body after her into the bathroom.
I inhaled the calming bath scents, feeling my muscles relax a bit more. "I don't," I said, submerging my hand in the steaming waters. "The dances I'm practicing have little to do with royalty. They're a bit crueler to the human body and require far more precise control, or punishment will befall upon the unfortunate soul."
Faye unintentionally released a surprised gasp when I dropped my robe to sink my bruised body into the soothing bath. "Y-you don't say," she stuttered, her eyes studying my arms and back.
I sighed, leaning back to enjoy the heat. "Don't look at me like that," I said, closing my heavy eyes. "There weren't any healers available when Master Arthur finally released me yesterday. Besides, these are only superficial bruises. They may look violent, but my muscles feel worse than my skin looks."
I inhaled sharply through my clenched teeth when a mass of icy water poured over me, drenching my hair and making me tense my aching muscles.
"Normally, I would chide you until you volunteered to seek the healers, but because you wanted to sleep the entire morning, we have no time," she said, her face pulled into a scary grimace that made me want to flee her eerie aura. "So, you better pray that Miss Evelyn can find it in her squeamish heart to forgive you, or we'll both feel the wrath of her omniscient claw."
I stopped moving, paralyzed by the warning from Faye's tensed lips. Did she feel every mistake I made too? Was she punished every time I didn't live up to the demanding standards of the Crown Trials?
Then a playful grin spread on her face, washing the terror-striking creases from her freckled skin. "You're too easy," she said, laughing loudly as she dipped her hand and sprayed me with drops of water. "I only get punished for the mistakes that are my own. But I wasn't kidding about praying for Miss Evelyn's forgiveness. You'll be in serious trouble if she sees you like that."
"Not funny, Faye!" I shouted, pushing a wave of water in her direction to drench her. She squealed, the sound ringing pleasantly in my ears. "I genuinely thought they were hurting you because of me!"
"Sorry," she said, wrenching the water out of her dress. "I didn't mean to scare the soul from your mind, but it's not like you didn't deserve it. You're a suitor, Will. Looks matter, and you cannot show up bruised everywhere you go."
"I'm not a suitor," I said, sliding further into the water. "I thought I made that clear yesterday."
I squinted my eyes when Faye tossed the scrubbing cloth into the water with me. "You may not be a suitor competing for the hand of our future king, but you're still a suitor. Your name and face are known far and wide across the entire world. People are rooting for you, and your legacy will be written in the history books whether you like it or not.
"So, scrub down so we can dress you up and make that legacy of yours something grander than a queen's."
Bubbles appeared in the water before my mouth as I exhaled, exhausted. "Yes, Mom," I muttered before submerging myself completely into the silent void of calmness.
It didn't please me to admit, but Faye had been right. I may not be a real suitor, but everything I did here would be written in the history books to be remembered. I didn't want to be remembered throughout the world as the fortunate suitor who barely cared yet still—somehow—made it this far. I already had the title of Wildcard weighing heavily on my shoulders.
***
I was already running late—again.
Faye had covered most of the visible bruises with a thin layer of make-up, but only enough for it to be difficult for the cameras to detect. Anyone less than fifteen feet from me could easily see the shades of blue shining through.
"Piper," I said breathlessly when her blond hair came into view.
She turned around, a smile slowly spreading on her face until she caught sight of the countless bruises shining through. "Which animal came to wrestle this morning?" she asked, raising a brow while her eyes examined my exposed flesh.
"Last night," I corrected her, hiding the biggest bruise on my shoulder with my hand. "And it wasn't an animal, but Master Arthur."
Piper nodded, but I wasn't sure she even heard me with the intense focus she kept on my body. "Turn around," she suddenly said, guiding me to turn my back on her before I could do anything.
"What are you—"
A bullet of pain sprung from my back as Piper slapped her palm against my naked back. I opened my mouth to scream at her when a wave of relief struck me like lightning. The pain nagging my muscles and skin slowly faded, leaving the air feeling far fresher through my lungs.
"Better?" Piper asked as my shoulders relaxed, sinking into a more natural position.
"You have no idea," I whispered, leaning back into her embrace when I noticed that all my bruises were gone as well. "Thank you."
"Miss Weldon, Miss Aldwyn! Will you please behave in the presence of royal company!"
I raised to straighten my back, stiffening when I saw Evie's furious eyes burning through my soul from the opening to the Oval Room. Behind her stood half of the royal family, staring at us with humored eyes. Piper's hands had turned icy cold against my skin, threatening to brand my skin with a new mark.
"Our sincerest apologies, your Highnesses," Piper said, pulling me down to offer Caiden and his siblings a remorseful curtsy worthy of their rank. "It won't happen again, Miss Evelyn."
"Good," Evie said, the tone of her voice immediately changing.
I peeked through my lashes to check if it was safe for us to unwind our bodies from the squat we were stuck in when I noticed Caiden's shoulders shaking violently. Tears glazed his shimmering eyes as if he could barely contain the laughter tearing at him from inside his ribcage. Prince Calix was smiling, too, both of them appearing disturbingly amused by the scene.
Princess Eos, however, appeared less amused with the regretful events but exhibited no definite signs of a bad reaction either. Her face remained as blank and expressionless as always.
"Why must the spirits punish us like this," Piper cried by my shoulder.
I snorted, shrugging her off to push her through the doors to the Oval Room. "You never care when Evie scolds us because of your misconduct," I said, chuckling at her long face.
"But that's just when it's Evie," she complained, flailing her hands. "But she scolded us in front of Prince Atlas. How embarrassing is that?"
I shook my head, laughing a little louder. "So you would rather leave Prince Atlas to think of you as a manageable girl instead of the defiant spirit that normally dictates you until you're married?"
"Exactly," Piper said, nodding as if it was the most reasonable concept in the world.
"Piper," I said, rolling my eyes at the heavens. "That's not—"
"Welcome, Suitors!"
I jerked when a sharp voice cut the air, looking up to spot the slender shadow of a woman with white hair as long as her winding cane standing on the balcony beside King Alaric.
"Who's that?" Piper whispered. I shrugged, unfamiliar with the acute features of her narrow face.
We'd had our fair share of tutors during our months as suitors of the Crown Trials, many of them happy to flaunt their status as personnel selected personally by the blood of royalty. This woman, however, seemed different than them. She seemed to know exactly how valuable she was, with or without approval from the golden king.
She wore long, wide-legged pants in obsidian black and a square blazer in the same somber shades, buttoned to reveal only from the clavicle of her dark maroon turtleneck and up. Her cheekbones were as tapered as they came, and her fingers as bony as twigs as they wrapped tensely around the golden handle of her cane, the countless rings shimmering in the dim light.
I swallowed anxiously when her piercing dark eyes examined our group as she waited for the chatter to fade. I did not want to cross her.
"My name is Penelope Adler, and I have come from the Royal House of the Wave to teach you the trade of dancing in accordance with ancient royal traditions before the passing of the second trial."
The hairs on my body stood on edge at the sound of her voice slashing the air before my ears. I didn't recognize the accent. Piper certainly didn't sound like her, nor did any of the other suitors from the Ocean Realm.
"I will expect to receive unconditional respect and attention while I educate you in the practices of the Wave Region. One glimpse of mockery or disrespect, and I will have you at the gates before the end of the day. Have I made myself clear?"
Most of us stayed silent, unaware of the appropriate response to her unnerving question.
"Are we clear?" she asked again, raising her voice for all of us to answer her simultaneously as if she could instinctively spark the correct reaction.
"Yes, Miss Penny."
"Cursed blood, she's scary."
Piper and I narrowly turned our heads to view Calla's pale face hiding behind us from the corners of our eyes.
"Did I miss anything?" she whispered as if she'd joined us less than a minute ago.
"How can you be late again?" Piper whispered, her voice barely detectable. She probably feared being heard by Miss Penny as none of us yet knew her ability, if she even had one.
I stood rigid as a statue, too terrified by the intimidating woman to utter any sound other than breathing. She probably couldn't send me home without Art's permission, but I didn't dare take any chances.
"Um," Calla hummed as if she needed to think of an answer we would find believable. "My dress didn't fit. I may have been enjoying a bit too many of the luxuries, so Saoirse needed to perform a few miracles before I could leave."
I bit my lip to resist the urge to turn around. Calla was lying. She'd been late for our courses at least five times within the past two weeks, and it worried me.
"Please line up in rows of five so we can get started," Miss Penny ordered, clapping her hands twice to make us move.
We walked closer to the others, but Calla appeared hesitant to follow.
I sighed and grabbed her hand. "Just make sure to follow Miss Penny's instructions, Calla," I whispered, dragging her behind me. "And don't be late for this course again, or she'll have you thrown out of the competition without warning."
Calla offered me a warm smile. "I won't. I promise."
Skepticism teased the nape of my neck, unsure whether to trust that her secrets were harmless or pry the truth from her.
Maybe I should've done the latter, given that Calla continued to show up mere seconds before the courses started. She was never exactly late again, but she didn't appear especially present either.
I groaned, fatigue poking me from every direction. "Everything hurts, Piper," I complained, resting my brow against the soft skin of her shoulder.
Time for resting was already sparse with Evie's new, compact schedule, but Art demanded every moment he could steal for me to attend sessions. My body ached all over. My eyes felt heavier than my feet, and they felt as if someone had trapped them inside two stubborn cinder blocks.
I couldn't settle for only one generous soul to watch over me today. I needed several to guide me through today's course safely and with all my limbs intact.
"You only have to suffer through two more days," Piper reminded me, chuckling as she shrugged me off her shoulder before Miss Penny noticed us.
"I'm not sure I'll even make it to the second trial, let alone complete it. I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep," I said, rubbing my eyes.
"Stop being such a drama queen, Will," Piper said, pinching my naked arm. "You'll be fine, but I actually think Calla might be late today."
I raised my head to look around but saw no sign of sandy hair among the people surrounding us. "I can't seem to find her either."
"Find your places, Suitors," Miss Penny called, urging us to locate the areas we'd been assigned on the fourth day. "I have only two more days to shape you, so although I may not be fond of introducing you to the art of Duets already, time simply urges me to skip past many of my original plans. We have therefore called upon a few young men from the closest houses to partner with you for today's lesson."
The doors opened behind us, and young men in suits, appropriate footwear, and slick hairstyles flooded the room.
I waited patiently as the troops found their appointed suitors, searching for the man approaching me to ask for me for a dance. However, none came.
I craned my neck to look for a lonely man in the sea of people, my eyes studying each smile to find one that stood out in the crowd—one that appeared as bewildered as I felt.
Calla stood a few rows to my right, laughing with her partner. I furrowed my brow. There was no way Calla could've made it here in time without Miss Penny noticing her entering. She must've teleported. Maybe that was how she'd gotten here on time every day, or...
I raised to the tips of my toes to get a better look at her. She didn't appear weakened or weary. So she couldn't have teleported. Calla was strong—just like every real suitor in the Crown Trials—but not that strong. Not yet.
"Miss Aldwyn."
A bullet of panic rose in my throat, fear squeezing the air from my lungs and my insides squirming at the sound of Miss Penny's voice saying my name with such profound contempt. I still didn't have a partner.
"I see your partner has failed to spot your location," she said, her eyes searching the faces of our guests. "Has anyone seen Prince EvanderCarras?"
No one spoke up, the room silent aside from a few suppressed giggled and hushed voices. "No one?" she asked again. No answer.
"Then I'm afraid you must use your colorful imagination to conceptualize an invisible partner," Miss Penny said, sighing as she rubbed the tip of her index finger against her temple. "My deepest apologies, Miss Aldwyn. This was not an anticipated—nor ideal—scenario. However, we have no choice but to continue."
I turned my gaze to the floor as the muffled giggles grew louder. I was not one of Miss Penny's favorite students, and this certainly didn't present me in a better light, nor did it make me blend in with the crowd. My cheeks burned with humiliation.
"I do not mind partnering with Miss Aldwyn if my father allows it."
I looked up, my heart jumping as Prince Calix stepped forward with a kind smile to look down at me. Miss Penny turned to the king, her viper eyes softening to win his approval.
The king appeared hesitant. I stopped breathing, praying to whatever spirits were around to permit Prince Calix's kind proposal. I did not want to dance alone when everyone else had a partner. Besides, I'd danced with Prince Calix before, and I could hardly imagine a better soul to partner with than him.
"I guess no harm will come of it," he finally said, sighing with an approving smile behind his trimmed beard. "You may proceed, Calix."
My blood hummed with joy as Prince Calix bowed to acknowledge the king's blessing before turning to locate the staircase leading to our floor.
Instinctively, I shifted my gaze to observe Caiden, who stood rigidly beside his father. He didn't appear particularly pleased with his father's approval of this alliance nor very delighted on my behalf. In fact, he looked slightly annoyed, but I couldn't find it in my heart to care for once.
I inhaled a deep breath when Prince Calix appeared between the shadows by the foot of the stairs, his calming eyes making my heart flutter breathlessly as the giggles around us turned to murmurs of jealousy.
"Are you prepared to put your trust in me once again?" Prince Calix whispered as he kissed the back of my hand, a playful smile hidden in the crook of his lips.
I chuckled quietly, feeling like a little girl being noticed by a handsome boy for the first time. "I suppose you proved yourself more than proficient in this art form the last time we found ourselves in a situation like this, Prince Calix," I said, granting him a gratifying curtsy. "So please, be kind to me."