“That isn’t the point!” Kiran’s voice rose to meet his father’s. “She is back, I got her back. There is no need to make our people suffer anymore!”

“You are wrong about that,” Lucan vowed softly. “Our people cannot be trusted any more than she can. Apparently everyone needs to be reminded of who they serve.”

“What are you saying? What do you mean everyone? Are you telling me that there are more than just Shape-shifters down there? Are you saying that you imprisoned others?” Kiran demanded, taking a step forward, his hand falling helplessly to his side.

“Kiran, they are plotting against us,” Lucan explained slowly, as if to a small child, “they want to take our throne…. Destroy our bloodline. They have forgotten what we’ve done for them, how we rule justly, fairly. They have listened to her, and they believe her lies. I did what had to be done,” he growled and turned his narrowed eyes on me.

“No, you’ve gone mad,” Kiran shook his head slowly in disagreement. “They haven’t forgotten, and they haven’t turned their backs on you! How could they? You have broken her! She bends to your every whim, at the very movement of your thumb! We all do, we all serve you. And yet you punish us. You lock us up and repress our magic because of this deranged paranoia!”

“How dare you lump yourself in with those…. With our subjects. You are a prince. You are a Kendrick. I have done nothing to you but offer you everything you want. I have made countless sacrifices on your behalf. I gave you her! I brought her to you; I put her in your possession. There is nothing I haven’t done for you. Don’t lower yourself to their standard because you are afraid of my wrath.” Lucan stood up slowly and enunciated every syllable carefully.

“Yes, Father, you have done all of that. You have given me what I wanted, everything except your trust,” Kiran finished sadly.

“What do you mean by that? Of course you have my trust! You are my son,” Lucan argued defensively, proudly.

“Then why don’t you trust me with her?” Kiran turned to me, but didn’t really look at me. “You say that you do, yet you imprison half the kingdom to insure her silence! She has promised to obey you; she has promised me, yet you do not trust that I can contain my own household!”

“I see your point,” Lucan conceded carefully. “Forgive me, Kiran. I had not looked at it like that.”

“So you will let them go?” Kiran asked cautiously, trying meticulously to hide his hope.

“Unfortunately, I can’t do that, you know that,” Lucan sat back down and smiled at his son as if seeing him for the first time. “But I will stop collecting them for now.”

“Thank you father,” Kiran bowed in gratitude.

“Kiran,” Lucan began again. “In the future, if I…. act out again, it is not for you to interfere. Not everything is about you son, and my actions are taken for a reason. Do you understand?”

“Yes, of course Your Majesty,” Kiran nodded his head in humbled obedience.

“Good,” Lucan’s smile grew into a wider, wicked version of evil. I shuddered, next to Kiran, trying to hide myself in his shadow. “Anything else?”

“Yes, I am going to move Eden up to our apartment tonight, I don’t feel she is safe in the tower. Talbott will stay next door. I will feel she is safer that way,” Kiran commanded more than asked permission.

“And until Talbott returns?” Lucan raised an eyebrow.

“I will stay with her of course,” Kiran answered briskly. “The other thing,” he continued when it looked like Lucan would turn his attention from us, “Eden has chosen her attendant.”

“Yes? And who has the future queen chosen?” Lucan asked, his other eyebrow rising to meet the first one in the middle of his wrinkled forehead.

Since I didn’t remember choosing a maid, I was just as curious as Lucan.

“She chose the Shape-shifter, Lilly Mason,” Kiran explained. I nearly fell over at his boldness, hardly believing he would risk his father’s anger on such an outrageous request.

“And what makes you think I’ll agree to that?” Lucan scoffed. “Surely you know what kind of ridicule would emanate from the kingdom if they found out I let a Shape-shifter serve a princess in my castle.”

I wondered the same thing, but stayed silent per my promise beforehand. I felt very confused by Kiran tonight; my emotions spun violently in a turbulent tornado that threatened to knock me off my feet. Part of me believed I witnessed the real side of Kiran, the side that strove to please his father and saw me as nothing more than a trophy to be won. The other half of me argued that we just spent hours with my parents and he obviously didn’t hand them over to an army of Titan Guards waiting for them. In fact, it seemed as though they actually trusted him. They had to trust him or they never would have agreed to see me. On top of that, something about the scene I watched with his father didn’t seem genuine, didn’t seem real. He wasn’t as concerned with controlling me as he wanted his father to believe he was. And now he argued a case to have Lilly brought to live in the castle with me. Who was he, really?

“The kingdom won’t find out, because Eden won’t tell them. She has too much to lose, you have seen to that,” Kiran slowed his words to sound respectful, but to me it sounded more like a dig…. more confusion…. Kiran continued, “It won’t matter if there is a rumor anyway, Lilly will stay in the apartment and have very little reason to leave and with the dungeons full, nobody would believe they heard the story right. They would assume she was a prisoner here and nothing more,” Kiran laid out his case carefully, methodically, simultaneously contributing to Lucan’s deranged, greed-hungry pride and challenging his intelligence in a flattering way.

“You argue a convincing case,” Lucan nodded humbly to Kiran and then smiled. “Now, tell me the real reason.”

To my surprise, Kiran’s cheeks flamed red and with a little reluctance he obeyed, “I want someone as devoted to Eden as I am to be with her at all times. I cannot stand the idea of losing her again,” he looked down and cleared his throat emotionally so that I almost believed him before continuing, “And after what Eden has been through, I think it would be best for her…. emotionally, if she had someone close to her that she loves.”

“All right, I will allow it,” Lucan conceded before turning his attention to me, “but I hope you understand what is at risk. I shouldn’t have to say that if you step out of line just once, she will be the first to die.”

“I understand that,” I mumbled, suddenly fearing for Lilly’s life more than enjoying the idea of her coming here. “Your Majesty,” I added quickly.

“And she must stay out of sight!” Lucan commanded loudly as Kiran bowed and I curtsied awkwardly in response.

Then a Titan was there with another document and Lucan had all but forgotten about us. Kiran turned on his heel and I followed after him. He held the door open for me but didn’t look me in the eye. He hurried up the stairs and I ran to keep up with him wanting to ask him a million questions.

“Kiran, what if-“ I started.

“Not here,” he insisted quietly and kept up his steady pace to the top of the stairwell.

By the time we reached the apartment doors, I was out of breath and more exhausted than ever. I silently cursed the no elevator system in this ancient castle, and pushed magic through my veins to cover how out of shape I was. Apparently, I needed yoga in my very near future.

Kiran hesitated outside the double doors for a few moments, glancing between my feet and the stairwell. I wanted to ask him what on earth was going on, but he answered my question before I got the chance to ask it.

“It’s just that…. Well, this apartment is supposed to be for after the wedding, after the wedding you don’t even,” he paused and cleared his throat before clarifying, “we don’t even want to go through with. So you see, it comes with some certain…. I don’t know…. expectations,” he finished meekly.

“Oh, you’re worried that once we go inside those doors, I’m going to try to jump you?” I laughed, finding his idea of propriety suddenly hilarious. We had been living together for months, well technically just sharing a bedroom we never really shared at the same time…. But still, it wasn’t like the concept was shocking. And the room was called an apartment, so surely it would be big enough to find our own privacy in.

“As your last resort future husband, I’m only concerned with your virtue,” Kiran smirked a little as he said it, but I could see the gravity in his eyes. I wanted to laugh out loud at the idea.

“That doesn’t sound very promising,” I retorted, walking over to the door and trying the handle, “I’m sure my virtue will be just fine.” I twisted the handle but it didn’t budge and I stubbed my toe with a premature step. I mumbled a curse word under my breath, frustrated by more than just the door handle.

Kiran walked up behind me, his chest pressing against my back and reached around my arm to lay his hand on top of mine. He dipped his head so that his face rested against mine and he could see around my tangled hair to the handle. My breathing quickened and I resisted the urge to close my eyes at his closeness. His other hand rested gently on my stomach and suddenly I wanted to stay there in that moment forever and scream, kick, and fight my way across the hall at the same time.

With his palm on top of mine, he released magic through my hand onto the door handle where it glowed similarly to the doors at the Omaha club that glowed and then clicked, signaling that the door was open. Mentally, I knew I should turn the handle and walk through the door, but something about the way his magic had moved through my hand in a very non-aggressive intimate way paralyzed me. I struggled to regain my senses and when I went to pop my neck I inadvertently leaned my face closer to his.

I cleared my throat then, and turned the handle violently, stepping inside the door and out of Kiran’s semi-embrace.

“Just as long as you are sure your virtue is not in question,” Kiran reminded me playfully.

I cleared my throat again, sucking in deep breaths of cleansing oxygen and enjoying our separation. “I trust you,” I relented honestly. Damn it if I didn’t trust him.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Kiran warned, and the twinkle appeared in his eyes again.

“Trust you?” I gulped.

“At least not with your virtue,” he finished impishly.

I tried to laugh it off, but I started to sweat instead so I turned around to take in the giant apartment. Kiran said something about calling Talbott and telling him to pick up Lilly on the way home, and so I was finally left to my own thoughts.

I wandered around the enormous apartment that took up the entire top floor of the castle tower. Besides the luxurious living room, dining room and chef’s kitchen, there were three bedrooms. One bedroom, a giant master suite, centered with a four-poster king-sized bed like something we had seen in the Louvre not that long ago, and a bathroom with tiled, walk-in shower with five different shower heads, girls and guys toilets, a whirl-pool bathtub and Jacuzzi that almost made me weep on sight. Another bedroom had been turned into an office and the third remained a guest bedroom. Overall, I was very impressed with the apartment. The style was simple and comfortable and felt I could have designed it myself.