Chapter 0167

I followed Lilliana further into the gardens to a small rod–iron table with two chairs. Lilliana motioned for

me to sit and then sat in the opposite chair.

“I’m glad we could finally have a chance to talk like this,” Lilliana said. She rested both hands on top of

the table.

I’mirrored her for a moment, but it felt unnatural having my hands lifted so high. I lowered them into my

lap instead.

“What was it you wanted to

talk to

me about?” Nervousness prickled at my skin. While it wasn’t unusual for the candidates to talk to each other, this still felt like a special event. Lilliana had called me out in front of Nicholas himself. She very nearly broke character to do it.

She gave me a sour kind of look. The way a disappointed principal would make to a rowdy student in. their charge. “Prince Nicholas. I want to ask you to please leave him alone. You are a distraction to him.”

we are friends.”

“I’m not doing anything to bother him, or at least, not trying to. But we

Nicholas had come to my rescue more than once now. And somehow when I needed things or support, Nicholas was always around to help. But that’s what friends did.

Lilliana narrowed her eyes. It was unusual for her to show any emotion. Tiny alarm bells started sounding in my head.

“What is your problem, Piper?” she snapped, voice suddenly much sharper than it had been before. Her narrowed gaze had become a fully blown glare.

I was shocked silent for a moment. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish.

If you are after Julian, you should stick with him and leave Nicholas

hands now, palms forward in defense. “I’m not after any

supposed to believe

“It’s true!”

“You are constantly all over both of them. They won’t both pick you in the next elimination, Piper. Focus your efforts on Julian, who I shouldn’t need to remind you that you have

threat to her so much as she was a threat

deserved a partner.

lifted my chin. “I am friends with Nicholas.

want him to be with someone he actually likes and not someone who just agrees with

the time.”

threw her head back and laughed. “Piper, you are

royalty works. What did you think he was

fun of me but she didn’t have

love.” She didn’t even look sad about it. She had simply just accepted it as fact.

just for the sake of

laughed again, harder than before. “You want to save us all, huh? Oh, Piper. You need to just accept this is how things are. This is how they’ve always

to accept that, and you should too.”

a riot,” Lilliana said,

stifled herself. In the blink of an eye, she

didn’t even need to look to know that Nicholas had approached us from

said. “I’ve never heard you laugh so… boisterously before,

her hand over her mouth and cleared her throat. “She can be

to be.”

I had said was a joke.

that smile dimmed into an expression of confusion. “I know it was probably a fool’s hope, but I always

that statement, when everyone in the whole kingdom

was common.

smile pulled tight. Her desire to put me down seemed at war with her will to want to

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