It started off as a normal day.
'Morning loser,' Dominik said thickly as I walked into college. I've been here for almost a year now so I'm used to the plebeian treatment, on top of which, everything sounds funnier when said in a German accent.
Dominik Schulz is probably my best friend at IIP, though of course he could never replace my best friend from home – who I'll get to see again in a few weeks when we break for summer. I'm unreasonably excited about this.
BIP – or British International Prep – is the name of the school I go to here in the UK. There are kids from all over the world here, a convenient drop-off for the spawn of various dignitaries, businesspeople, and even occasionally celebrities. Nobody knows how I managed to get in here except me, and I'm sure as hell not about to confide it to anyone.
'Morning,' I said to Dom now, dropping tiredly into the seat beside him. We had a computer lab today which meant six hours cooped up in the IT room, but for now we were sitting in the courtyard, enjoying the late May sunshine and dreading the day we'd have to spend with our most disliked professor.
'Did you do that government project for Lewis?' Anastazja leaned across Dom to ask, blinking her big eyes at me. 'It's due tomorrow, right?'
I rolled my eyes right back at her. 'Sure. I'll email it to you tonight.' The daughter of Polish rock royalty, Anastazja Pawlak never bothered with her homework until the last minute, casually telling herself she didn't need to, until panic about consequences set in and it was up to one of us to help her.
'I handed mine in this morning,' Adrian Williams said smugly, appearing in the chair on my other side. Smarmy British git.
'Bully for you,' I muttered, at the same time as Dominik proclaimed, 'Well fuck you then!' except it sounded like, "Vell fock yhu, zen!"
Adrian's smirk never slipped, and I bit my tongue to stop a retort slipping out. The son of one of Britain's highest ranking cabinet minister after the Prime Minister, he had an extremely elevated opinion of himself and thought he was the most important person in BIP. If he knew who I actually was (and I'm aware of how it sounds to say that, by the way, but it's true) he might crawl back in box occasionally.
Of course, as I was thinking this, I didn't realise how close everyone was to actually finding out. If I'd been smarter, faster, more tuned in, I could probably have prevented a lot of what went down over the next few months, but as it was I was too invested in this pointless conversation to pay any attention to the prickling at the back of my neck, the fact that my senses all sharpened considerably, that goose pimples erupted all over my skin. I ignored all of this until it was too late.
The only thing that finally made me look up and take notice was the unmistakable sound of hooves thundering on asphalt. There wasn't a horse-riding program at BIP, and even if some spoiled prima-donna had insisted on bringing her beloved pony to school with her, it wouldn't have been the veritable herd that careered into the courtyard now.
All of a sudden the courtyard went silent; aside from the noise of the horses huffing and clip-clopping at the ground as they came to rest you could have heard a pin drop. I could feel Dom looking bemusedly at the spectacle over the tops of his sunglasses beside me, but for my own part I knew I'd gone completely pale. I recognised that livery.
The red and gold cloth adorning the horses' flanks, the crest the standard-bearer wielded high above the heads of the troop. Forty in all, if my quick scan was accurate.
That was royal livery.
My heart started thundering in my chest. What were they doing here? Possibilities started rolling around in my brain, moving too quickly to come up with a possible suggestion for their presence.
The men jumped down from their horses and a handful, five or so, began to stride towards our table. I felt Adrian begin to preen beside me, obviously thinking it was some sort of game.
'Your highness,' the man in the lead said quietly, and they immediately dropped to their knees in front of me.
I was too shocked and panicked to worry about any secrets getting out now. It was too late for that anyway. 'What's happened?' I demanded quietly. My voice was steady despite the nervous adrenaline pumping through my veins; sixteen years of royal training hadn't disappeared just because I'd been away from court for a year.
The man in front raised his head to look at me, clutching his helmet to his chest. He looked uncomfortable, but I was too desperate for news to be patient.
'Tell me,' I demanded, my voice taking on its long-suppressed princely edge as I stood up to my full height.
'Your family...' he began awkwardly, lowering his gaze again. 'The Duke of Kinsley...'
'A coup?' I managed to choke out hoarsely.
'A massacre,' he said quietly, and I dropped back to my seat in shock.
'My parents?'
'Dead, sir,' he said quietly.
'My brothers? Sisters?'
'Missing or captured,' he said. 'Lord Trorent sent us immediately; as we left a search party was being organised.' He paused, and raised his face to look up at me again. 'If you'll pardon my speaking freely sir, we need to get you home. As the oldest son you're king in all but name, and you need to be officially crowned as soon as possible. Furthermore your highness, it isn't safe here.' He paused again before delivering the words that chilled me completely. 'They're coming for you too.'
'Excuse me,' Dom said suddenly, still looking like the whole thing was mildly funny but mostly ridiculous, 'but what exactly the fuck is going on here?'
'If anybody's going to suddenly and inexplicably become royalty here,' Adrian added, smirking, 'it's not going to be Nota.'
Before anybody could even blink, one of the men had a knife to Adrian's throat. 'You watch your tongue, boy,' he snarled, his voice becoming low, growling, menacing, unearthly. 'Or you'll lose it.'
'Jesus!' Dom exclaimed, jumping back so quickly his chair fell over. Ana screamed.
'Release him,' I said absently, barely paying attention to what was going on around me. I'd been removed from this for nine months and had been worried I might have experienced a culture shock when I went back at the end of the year, but I needn't have bothered. I'd slipped back into the role of royalty in wartime with unexpected ease.
'Nota, what the fuck is going on here?' Dom demanded, grabbing my shoulder. I raised a warning hand to the soldiers before they could restrain him as well.
'I'll explain later,' I muttered. 'I need to deal with this.' Gently, I removed his hand from my shoulder and walked towards the centre of the courtyard, where the other men were gathered, gesturing the five who'd been in the shade with me to follow. The prickling at back of my neck was agitating me again and this time I didn't ignore my sharpened senses, my suddenly almost bionic sight and hearing. Before I could even comprehend what I was doing, I'd elbowed one of the men in the neck causing him to crumple forwards; I snatched his bow and quiver from his back and simultaneously shot three arrows towards the opening of the courtyard.
Three men dressed in Kinsley livery fell soundlessly to the ground.
There was a beat of silence and suddenly the courtyard was in uproar again. The soldiers sprung into instinctive action, turning their attention to the narrow entrance and firing a hailstorm of arrows down on the opposing troop. There was obviously a lot more of Kinsley's men than Trorent's; we were woefully outnumbered.
'Sentries,' I shouted to the lowest-serving soldiers, and even over the noise of the miniature battle now raging in the middle of my school, my voice thundered out over the ranks. A total of five men appeared at my side, waiting for orders, and I gestured towards the people standing, stock still and shocked, in the shade. 'Take them inside,' I commanded. 'Keep them safe at all costs. This is already a cluster fuck of a situation and we can't risk it getting any worse by letting them kill humans.'
The men gave a nod of consent and started rounding up the lightly protesting crowd and hunting them indoors. I turned my attention back to the attack and felt my jaw set; it was apparent that we were losing, and badly. There were only a few people in royal livery left standing.
And then it was all over.