The culling, p.14
The Culling, page 14
Ainslee’s eyes bulge, and for a moment, I see the flicker there that ignited in front of the bakery. I think she is going to snap at the princess who is clearly just trying to get a rise out of her. Ainslee is clearly underweight. Anyone can see that. And the fact that she has skipped many meals so that other people in her family can eat is something she should be quite proud of.
Rather than fire something off at the princess, however, she simply says, “I have been able to eat well a few times recently, thanks to Prince Rafe.” She turns and smiles in my direction, but she will not look in my eyes, and I know that this is her way of showing me she is grateful for the food but still angry at me.
Riley shrugs indifferently, probably irritated that her dig didn’t go over the way she’d planned. I hope we can change to another topic of discussion, but the king has other plans. “Well, I’m sure that will be different now that you know the truth of who you truly are.”
“Your Majesty—” I begin, hoping to find a way to change the subject before Ainslee gets a chance to ask him what he’s talking about. I told him the truth, but I also explained to him that I hadn’t spoken to her about it yet. Either he forgot that bit of information, he wants to be the one to tell her himself, or he’s just stirring up trouble.
I’m guessing it’s the last option; Riley comes by it naturally.
“What’s that?” Ainslee asks before I can finish my sentence. “Sir? That is, I don’t quite understand what you mean, Your Majesty, King Axel.” She clears her throat and reaches for her water, nearly spilling it. Zeke catches the glass just in time, sparing her further embarrassment since it’s clear she is frazzled. I can only imagine it’s difficult for her to sit in this room with these people. She’s doing a wonderful job. Or she was until the king made that statement.
Now, he’s about to drop a bomb.
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot.” The king takes a long drink from his goblet, leaving the rest of us here to wait for him to continue. I want to interject, but I know he’ll chastise me if I do. He’s made it clear now that this is what he’s doing. He finishes his drink and gestures for a refill. As the waiter finishes, he turns back to Ainslee. “I suppose life will be different for you now that you know you’re the great-granddaughter of that mighty wolf I killed all those years ago, Darius Bleiz.”
Ainslee hasn’t even cut her meat yet, but her fork clatters against her plate as it falls from her hand. “I’m… what?”
Axel looks up at her, an annoyed yet also slightly amused look on his face. “That’s right. You’re his great-granddaughter, and according to our next king, that makes you very important. Welcome to Shadowmanor, Luna Ainslee.”
When she turns to look at me, there’s more fire in her eyes than I’ve ever seen before—and that’s saying something.
I’M A LUNA
*Ainslee*
The king’s announcement knocks the air out of me. I’m still trying to process exactly what he’s telling me when I turn to look at Rafe. His expression isn’t as revealing as normal. I can’t tell if he was aware of this or if it is news to him as well.
If I had to wager, I would say he knows, and he has known for some time. Perhaps since I shouted at him in the street. That would explain why he was kind to me. He must think he can get something out of me.
I turn back to the king, and with the biggest smile I can muster plastered on my face, I say, “I appreciate your hospitality, Your Highness.” Then, I pick my fork up again, take the knife next to my plate, and begin to cut my meat. As I do so, it’s a struggle not to saw through it the way I want to, like an animal. Like this is Rafe’s heart I’m tearing into, but then, I’m not convinced he has one.
Next, the king asks about the culling. I try not to listen. He isn’t speaking to me, only to his lieutenants. I focus on eating. Despite the thoughts swimming in my mind, I am famished, and this steak is delicious. I will eat the whole thing, and if miss snooty britches across the table wants to imply that I am fat again, she can do so to her heart’s content. I was offended on behalf of my starving townsfolk back home, but not for myself because I most certainly have skipped a meal or two. Hundreds of them.
“Ten is a lot,” the king is saying when I tune back in to the conversation. “We shall have to see if your strategy is successful, Rafe.”
“I’ve already heard back from the mayor of Moonfalls, and he is eternally grateful for the change in the rules,” Rafe tells the king. “This will go a long way to mending the rift that transpired there recently.”
“Yes, I heard about that.” The king shakes his head.
I know that Lucia’s father was recently made mayor, but I don’t know the details. I hope they will say more, but they don’t.
Kris chimes in. “It’s guaranteed that the mayor of Beotown will not be pleased to have seven troublemakers back.”
“Troublemakers?” King Axel asks. “Why did he send us only troublemakers?”
“I’m sure not all of the delegates were troublemakers, but these seven are,” Kris explains.
A snort leaves my nose before I can hold it back, and now everyone is looking at me. I feel Rafe’s foot nudge mine beneath the table and almost grimace as I have on shoes that expose my feet, and it hurt, whether he intended it to or not. I ignore the pain and try to pretend I didn’t just make a sound. I shouldn’t have.
“What is it?” The king doesn’t let it slip. “You know these people?”
“I do. It’s just… Mayor Black selected people from families he didn’t like, for the most part. That’s all.”
“You’re saying that he rigged the selection process?” The king sets his goblet down and stares at me. “That’s a major offense. Do you have any evidence?”
“I… uh…” I begin to stammer. What evidence do I have? Only the word of all twenty of the people who were with me on that transport vehicle. But that’s not enough evidence for the king.
“We are already looking into it,” Rafe says dismissively.
Zeke adds, “We’ve also recently received a tip that the mayor and others are holding back the blood donations that are being collected. I’ll be investigating that as well.”
“What?” The king’s eyes widen beneath his graying eyebrows. “Why in the world would they do that?”
I wonder if Nelson has passed the information he collected from his family member to Zeke somehow. Was that what they were speaking about outside of the chapel?
I know why the Blacks aren’t turning in all of the blood they’ve harvested, but I keep my mouth shut. Zeke assures the king that he’ll get to the bottom of it just as Kris says, “I don’t believe any of that. The prince and his second advisor are starting a witch hunt, Your Majesty, simply because they don’t like the family in charge.”
“That’s preposterous, Kris. I only met the Blacks a couple of weeks ago. I have no reason to go after them. When I see a potential issue, it’s my duty to look into it,” Rafe says, sounding more amused than irritated, though I see the tell-tale squint under his left eye that says he’s actually the latter.
“You have all the reason in the world to get rid of them sitting right next to you.” Kris’s eyes cut through me as I turn to meet his heavy gaze. “You’ve been infatuated with that girl since the moment you met her.”
The table goes silent, and I hold my breath, not at all believing what Kris has just said. It’s the second most ridiculous thing I’ve heard all night, right behind the idea that I am somehow a Luna.
Riley speaks first. “Is that true?” Her eyes are the same size as my dinner plate, and I realize then what I suspected earlier. She has feelings for Rafe. Maybe she’s even going to marry him. He seems indifferent to her, but I don’t know the situation at all, so I keep my eyes down.
“Kris, Ainslee is here for the reason I explained to you earlier. She is a politically important ally. That’s all.” Now, Rafe’s tone is a mixture between boredom and annoyance. I even believe what he’s just said, even though I have no idea how any of that could be true.
“That’s not true—”
Kris is cut off by the king. “That’s enough. We will not be discussing such matters at dinner.” He can clearly see that his daughter is upset, and he doesn’t like it. “Zeke, I want to hear about the information you collect as soon as possible. If it’s true these people have been holding back donations, I need to know it. If there’s evidence that they’re not holding fair selections for delegates to the cullings, I want to know that as well.”
“Of course, Sir.”
Then, the king turns his attention to Jerim. “Any word on the deaths amongst the feeders?”
I’m glad I didn’t have any food in my mouth because I would’ve choked. What’s this? Once again, I look to Rafe who refuses to meet my eyes. I turn to Zeke who has recently told me that feeders are well taken care of here.
“No, not yet, sir.” Jerim, who has been very quiet all evening looks at me. “We’ve lost two in the last few days. I’m still working on causation.”
“Figure it out. If I’m not getting the right amounts of blood from the villages, and our feeders are dropping like flies, I won’t be able to feed my people,” he reminds the doctor. “We don’t want to end up like Tormentia where everyone runs around nilly willy killing everyone they damn well please.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I will figure it out.” Jerim glances in my direction again but says nothing, and I decide despite having a significant amount of steak left on my plate I am done. I would really like to go back to my room now, but I suppose it’s not as simple as asking to be dismissed.
Everyone else seems mostly finished now, too, so it isn’t too long before the king announces he is finished and rises from the table. Once he is gone, the others are allowed to peel off.
I would give almost anything in the world for Zeke to be the one to walk me back to my room, but he tells me goodnight, as do Jerim and Sophia. Riley and Kris glare at me as they walk off, and now I am alone with Rafe save some butlers and maids.
“Shall we?” He stands and gestures for me to walk toward the door, but he doesn’t offer me his arm this time, and I’m grateful because the only way I want to touch him is by ramming my fist into his jaw.
It’s a long walk from the dining room back to my room, and all the while, I’m trying to figure out how to ask him the question that’s on the tip of my tongue, but I also don’t want to fight with him right now. I’m still processing everything, and it seems like all we do is fight. He is the prince, after all.
And what am I?
More than I thought I was, apparently.
When we reach my room, Zoey is inside waiting for me. I am grateful. Her presence may be the only thing that keeps me from calling the prince an asshole again.
I enter the room, but he stays on the other side of the threshold. I let out a sigh and ask him, “How long have you known?”
Rafe raises his eyebrows and steps into my bedroom.
IN THE BEDROOM
*Ainslee*
“Zoey, you can leave for now, thank you,” Rafe tells the maid. She hesitates, looking from him to me, as if I also need to tell her it’s okay. He’s the prince; who am I to argue with him? Well, over that anyway. I nod, and she scurries out the door, but I don’t think she’s gone too far. She’ll need to come back in a bit because I’m not sure I can unzip this dress. Thoughts of Rafe being the one to unzip it enter my mind, and I almost laugh out loud. Yeah, uh, that’s not what this conversation is going to be about.
“Well?” I ask him, folding my arms under my chest. I realize I am inadvertently pushing them up to the top of my lowcut dress, but that’s not my intention, and if he notices them, there’s nothing I can do about it.
“Well….” He is staring at my boobs for a moment before he raises his eyes back to my face. “Well, I’ve known you are a Luna for about two days,” he admits. “Zeke told me right before the culling.”
I stare into his eyes, waiting for him to blink, waiting for him to waiver. I’m not sure I believe him. It would be very easy for him to make that story up. But I have gotten to know him better than I want to admit or can explain in the last few days, so I believe him. His tell-tale signs that he’s fabricating are missing.
“How did Zeke know?” I want to sit down on the bed because these heels are killing me, but I don’t dare.
“He did some research. He recognized your last name.” Rafe shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Do you understand now why I needed to bring you here? It wasn’t me who wanted you in the culling, Ainslee. It was the Blacks. They want you out of the picture because they see you as a threat.”
The laugh that comes out of my mouth sounds enough like a donkey braying that I am momentarily embarrassed at the noise before I remember that I don’t give a rat’s ass what Rafe thinks about me. “Me, a threat? Don’t be ridiculous. They see me as a weak child, that’s all.”
“Really? Then how do you explain the lengths they went to to make sure that you were part of the culling? Do you think they see those other people the same way? Granted, the blonde girl who got lost rather quickly is likely here because of something her mother said, but the rest of that outfit had done something to make the Blacks think they might turn against them, hadn’t they?”
He has a point. We’d discussed it. Almost everyone could pinpoint what it was they had said or done to make the Blacks angry. And some people, like me, had more than one event.
I let out a sigh and turn away from him. It’s too much. I’m having issues processing it all. I wish I’d known before dinner. Having the king spring it on me like that was overwhelming. I have a fucking tear in my eye as I turn back to him. I’m so over crying all the time like a little baby. “You could’ve told me before.”
“When?” His eyes go wide for a moment. “After the culling you were ready to kill me again. I didn’t have a chance.”
“You could’ve told me during the culling,” I remind him. “Fuck, Rafe, we were lying next to one another in a deep black hole for five hours.”
He stares at me for a second, and I realize I have just called him by his first name—very disrespectful. I want to apologize, but I can’t. He shakes his head as if to undo it and says, “I couldn’t tell you then, Ainslee. I wasn’t me. I was John. Why would John know who you are?”
“I don’t know. Maybe John asked me my last name, and when I told him, he recognized it.” I shrug, thinking he could’ve came up with something. “Really, it wouldn’t be that hard.”
“So when John, the guy in the dark, told you that you were a Luna Queen, you would’ve just accepted that, huh? And not have jumped to any conclusions? Like maybe that’s the reason I wanted you here, as a political prisoner?”
“Isn’t that what I am?” My forehead knits as I go over the conversation we’ve just had. The king admitted at dinner that he killed my great-grandfather. Whether he meant he had him killed or did it himself, I don’t know, but he essentially erased my family from power and from existence, save me. So here I am, a nonthreat, in the castle for—what reason?
“No, you’re not a political prisoner.” Rafe runs a hand through his hair. I wear him out, I know. Maybe I should stop doing that. “I brought you here to protect you from the Blacks.”
“But the king probably wants me dead, too, don’t you figure?” It only makes sense he’d want to finish the job.
“He can’t. If he does, he’ll start a war. He is trying to avoid those right now. Come on, Ainslee, I know you’re not really happy with me at the moment, but you can’t think I’m that stupid, do you? By now, your cousin is very much aware that you’re alive and well and living in the palace. King Axel doesn’t know that he wasn’t aware of you until today. But he does know it’s not worth it to piss him off. For all Axel knows, you were working on the inside for your cousin, and now you’re here because I got you out.”
I stare at him for a long moment before I admit, “I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. My cousin? This all sounds like political espionage to me.”
“In a way it is, but only because I had to keep you safe. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have turned to our enemy to let him know you were here. And I wouldn’t have lied to the king to make him think there was even the remotest possibility you were a spy for Warfang.”
“Warfang?” I am aware of the kingdom on the other side of the wasteland at the border of Shadowglade territory, but I don’t know what that has to do with me.
“Yes. Alpha King Striker is your cousin, Ainslee. The Blacks essentially swallowed up your family when they came to power. Axel wouldn’t let your grandfather stay, so he disappeared, but then your father came back, and the Blacks got rid of him. I doubt Striker knows you even exist.”
I sink down on the edge of the bed, despite previously thinking it was a bad idea, trying hard to process what he’s telling me, but it’s all too much. Alpha King Striker is my cousin? I go over what I know of his family in my mind, but there’s not much there. I try to remember what I know of our last Alpha King. It’s very little. We were told it was best not to learn such things in school, and all my mother knew was that his name was King Darius. It hadn’t been that long since he was on the throne, yet, no one was able to speak his name, so our history faded away.
“It’s a lot.” Rafe’s voice is calm and soothing. “I’m sorry to spring it all on you.” He sits next to me, only a few inches between us.
We both stare at the wall for several seconds. I’m trying to figure out who I am, and he’s probably second guessing all of his life choices that have brought him to this moment. I turn to look at him, noting his perfect jawline, how symmetrical his face is, how he holds is lips while he’s thinking.
When he turns to face me, the distance is closed, and all of the information overload suddenly melts away, as do our titles, who we are, who we’ve been, everything. All I see is a handsome man who smells like masculine flowers in a way I can’t describe, and I want him. My ability to think gone, I do the unthinkable.
