Chapter 0010

But Julian would know, because he was there.

In another life, being near Nicholas would have given me enough reason to want to stay.

But he’d made his feelings about me clear. And I had other priorities.

My gaze slid to Elva, playing with her dolls at the foot of the bed.

“I don’t want to play house,” I said. “Nor do I want to partake in this game of undercutting nobles and

chasing princes.”

I had been away from nobility for a long time, but I hadn’t forgotten their cutthroat politics, where an action as small as selecting the wrong utensil at dinner could start a blood feud. Backstabbing, betrayals, pretending to be nice just to make someone vulnerable…

The memories made my already tired body even more exhausted.

reclaimed my attention. She recovered quickly this time, thank God, and returned

is frail and sick often. I have to work hard to care for her. I can’t waste

chin. “Piper, you realize this is the

“Yes, but-

have access to all the royal

I froze.

Would the royal family truly be willing to use

must have seen the disbelief on my face. “While you are here, you are under the

away a sick child would surely

horrible, be

so

know the

roguish light danced in his eyes. They were different

than gold, with no flecks

not so different than I was

a trickster then for sure, constantly teasing or performing elaborate pranks. Nicholas, the more serious one, had always accused him of never taking

had put a smoke bomb in the teacher’s lounge, and in a panic, the fire department had been called in. Julian had laughed and said it wasn’t a real fire. He couldn’t

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