I couldn't meet the girls the first day they were at the palace.
Coincidentally, that was the day that I would be going to the Players' Place to watch Emmaline perform. Emmaline's last letter had explained that they expected people to be dressed nice enough and they liked darker colors, so I shrugged off my dark gray suit jacket in my room and left it on a chair.
Eadlyn gave me a disapproving look when she saw what I'm wearing. "Seriously? A black shirt and gray pants? Could you get any more boring, Kaden? At least wear a nice color!"
"They prefer dark colors, Eadlyn, and I was already wearing this." I unknotted my tie and tossed it aside, and then I undid the top two buttons of my shirt. She grabbed my sleeve and started tugging it up like she meant to roll it up, and I rolled my eyes but did what she wanted anyway.
She let out a sigh and handed me a small bag. "The money for your entry fee. Don't get yourself killed, Kaden. Losing one brother was enough." Ahren. Eadlyn's twin, who had left in the middle of the night with no warning to marry a French princess that he had fallen in love with.
"I won't, Eadlyn. I promise." I stuffed the bag into my pocket and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." She sighed. "Just be careful."
"I will, Eadlyn. When am I not?"
♚
The room was completely dark except for the candles on the tables and the lone spotlight on the stage. Emmaline was on stage, pouring her heart out through her violin, dressed in a simple and modest one-shouldered black gown. Her hair, carefully tied back, was threaded through with black and silver ribbons.
The room was filled, most tables holding crammed groups of eight or nine. I sat towards the back at a table for two, completely focused on her. I almost didn't notice when someone sat down across from me.
"Hello." The woman's voice was low and sultry, smooth like honey. I looked up. Dark hair spilled over her shoulders, modestly covering the not-so-modest neckline of her red dress. She leaned forward over the table towards me, and if I were looking, I knew that I would've been given a clear shot down her dress.
"Hello." I looked back towards the stage.
"I've never seen you around before," her red painted lips curved upwards, "what's your name?"
I wasn't really paying attention. "Sorry, I just--she's amazing, isn't she?"
"Yes, sure. But I wasn't talking about her. I want to know about you."
"Um, sorry." I said. "But I'm kind of here for the music." The last notes of Emmaline's song rang out, and everyone started to clap. I did too, and the girl looked vaguely irritated.
Emmaline made her way around slowly as the woman continuously tried to get me to tell her my name, and by the time she glided over to me, I was just about to get up and excuse myself. She cast a curious look at the girl. "Carrie? I didn't realize you would be here tonight."
"Well, I wasn't going to." Carrie set her eyes on me. "But then I saw him..."
Emmaline set a hand on my shoulder and slowly slid it up and down my arm, and I wasn't going to lie and say it didn't make me nearly shiver. "Kade? Sorry, he's taken." I saw that she was playing a game, and that she needed me to play along. She smiled down at me, and I smiled back.
"By you?" Carrie snorted. "Yeah, okay."
I pulled Emmaline down onto my lap and pressed a kiss to her jaw. "Actually, that would be the truth." We smiled at each other like we shared a secret.
Emmaline leaned her head against me and rested a hand on my chest. "Sorry, Carrie. Maybe there's some other boy here that'll interest you for the night." She shrugged innocently and pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek. Carrie stood up and stalked off, and Emmaline grinned at me. "Thanks for your help. I can't stand her."
"Who is she?"
"Caroline Reeves," her face twisted in disgust. "Also known as Carrie. A flute player, and a master seductress, which is just a a fancy term for everyone's pretty sure she slept with some major people to get in here, but hey, no judging. She's pretty talented, and I can see why they wanted her in. She's just a colossal bitch that flirts with every attractive man that struts in here."
"Oh?"
She smiled. "Yeah. And she has no boundaries. She'll flirt with anyone--boyfriends, brothers, husbands, fathers. She just wants sex, nothing serious." She turned to look at me. "She writes some really beautiful music. I wonder what her muse is."
"What's yours?"
"Anything and everything." She was serious.
"Well, you write beautiful music too." I leaned in a little closer. "Sorry I didn't pick you."
She just shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Don't worry about it. Have fun with your Selection, and if you forget about me, oh well."
I had let out a laugh that earned us some curious stares. "Forget about you? Emmaline, you act as if that's possible."
"It's easier than you'd expect."
"Doubtful." I said. "I'll have to invite you over to meet my family at some point, by the way. Maybe within the next week or so, before the Selection really picks up. They've been dying to meet you, and to do a background check on you."
"A background check? On a nineteen-year-old small-time violinist that makes money by playing in cafés and exclusive music groups? What's there to look at? My grocery receipts?"
I grinned. "Who knows? There might be a body bag listed on one of those."
"Only if my brothers keep pissing me off." She deadpanned.
"If we can take down my little brother with them, then I'll help." We both laughed.
Someone called her name, and a man in a suit hurried over to her. "Emmaline, you're back on in two." He said.
"Okay, Rod." She waved him off and turned back to me. "I'll see you after?"
"I'll be right here."
♚
She seemed surprised when I was still sitting in the same spot after she finished for the night. She hurried over, clutching her violin in one hand and a small bag in the other. The money from tonight, I would assume. "You're still here."
"I told you I would be."
"Don't you know what time it is?"
"Late."
"It's almost one in the morning."
"Late, early. Same difference." I shrugged.
"You should go home." She said. "Angeles isn't exactly safe after dark, and I'd hate for something to happen to you."
"I'll get there after I walk you home."
"Kaden--"
"I'm not letting you walk home alone." I said. "It's not safe for a girl to be walking around alone after dark, and I'll be damned before I let you walk home alone."
"What if I refuse?"
"I'll get some palace guards and we'll all follow you home."
"I hate you."
"Better for you to hate me and be safe than to love me and be dead or worse."
She rolled her eyes. "You're insufferable."
"I get that a lot."
"I figured. Come on." She lead me outside and down the street.
"Do you want me to carry something?"
"No."
"You're struggling."
"I'm fine."
"You're going to drop your violin."
"It's in a hard case. It'll live to see another performance."
"Emmaline," I groaned. "Please stop being so difficult."
"Not a chance." She walked surprisingly fast for a girl in heels, and I wondered if they hurt her feet. "Did you enjoy the performance?"
"A lot." I said. "You wrote all of those songs?"
"Yes."
"They were amazing." Amazing wasn't a proper word for it, but it was the best I could come up with at the time. I was still slightly high off of the sounds that came from her violin, and it made me wonder why anyone would ever want to ruin themselves with drugs when music was so much more wonderful.
"Thank you." One corner of her mouth curled upwards. "Maybe I'll write you a song sometime."
I laughed. "I'm not the kind of person that's a muse." I said. "I'm more like the kind of person that kills creativity without trying."
"Doubtful," she said. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were girls out there daydreaming about kissing you, Kaden. Even if you do kill creativity, you're awfully nice to look at."
"Don't go all cliché on me and say that my eyes especially are beautiful, because I might stop talking to you after that. I'm so sick of reading about that in books."
"No," she said. "Your eyes are pretty, sure. But I love your smile and your laugh. I'd much rather make music about those." She smiled and turned to look at me. "Maybe that's what I'll do when I get home. Write something for you."
"I'll expect to hear it."
"You'll have to see me again for that."
"You'll have to let me know when it's finished."
"Probably by the time you fall asleep." She said. "I'm currently feeling very inspired. In fact, I might have eight songs about you by the end of the day today."
"Eight? Why eight?"
"That's the most songs I can write in a day. So, eight."
"Surely I'm good enough for nine."
"Maybe I'll give you eight and a half."
"I better get a dedication when you make an album."
"And half of the money?"
"No, I've got enough money."
"Of course you do." She rolled her eyes as we passed under a streetlight. "Eight and a half songs for Prince Kaden Schreave it is. Maybe the other half will come tomorrow."
"I'll be looking forward to hearing that half of a song."
"That'll be the highlight of your day, won't it? Half a song."
"Why, of course. Did you expect me to get excited over a whole song?"
"Well, yeah. They're generally worth more than a half of a song, you know."
"I prefer things most people deem worthless." I said. "You know, books, words, knowledge, physical activity, fencing. That kind of thing."
"Fencing?" She started laughing. "You fence?"
"What were you expecting?"
"Something hot and interesting. You know, like lacrosse." She shrugged. "I'd assumed the hot prince played a hot sport."
"A hot sport? What does that even mean?"
She shook her head. "So innocent." She sighed dramatically. "A hot sport is a sport that girls have deemed attractive. Generally it's the sport that the most hot guys play, like lacrosse and soccer. Lacrosse players are usually pretty hot. You look like a lacrosse player."
"I'm not--did you just call me hot?"
"Don't sound so surprised." She grumbled, her cheeks flushed pink. "It's no secret that you have every girl between the ages of five and fifty-five falling head-over-heels in love with you, Kaden."
"Fifty-five? That's older than my father!" I sounded as horrified as I felt.
"Cougars, honey." She sighed. "You really don't know much, do you?"
"I know a lot!"
"Not about people."
"I wanted to say that's besides the point, but I think that's your entire point."
She smiled tightly. "It is."
I had let out a loud sigh. "People are so difficult. Books are much easier to deal with." I looked over at her. "How far away is your house?"
"Not far." She grimaced. "Be prepared. My mother and brothers probably waited up like they usually do."
"Your brothers still live with you? How old are they?"
"Twenty-five and twenty-three. I was the oops baby." We turned down a street and she didn't even look as she crossed the road to a small house. "Hold this." She handed me her violin and pulled a key from her bra. At my look, she rolled her eyes. "Have you never seen a girl put something in her bra? We do it more often than you think."
"My sister doesn't do that."
"She probably has hidden pockets built into her dresses. Some of us aren't quite so lucky to have a horde of maids to make our clothes for us." I wondered if she was joking, and one look at her wry smile told me that yes, it was just a joke. She took her violin back and pushed through the door. "Mom!" She called. "I'm back."
Sitting at the kitchen table were three people--a woman with long, graying brown hair and two grown men, one with short red hair and the other with longer blonde hair. They perked up when they saw Emmaline. "You're home." Her mother hopped up and hugged her tightly. "You were later tonight."
"They paid extra for that." She handed her the bag, and her mother set it aside. The men stood up and hugged her too, asking in quiet voices about the performance and the night. She kicked off her heels and nudged them when they teased her for being short without them, and I smiled, leaning against the wall with my hands in my pockets.
"Emmaline? Who is that?" Her mother whispered, looking at me. "He looks awfully familiar. Is he a friend from school?"
Emmaline's eyes widened a little, and I pulled myself off of the wall. "Actually, Mrs. Levitt, I'm not." I extended my hand to her. "I'm Kaden Schreave. It's nice to meet you."