Reign Check (13 page)

“Leave now, Princess,” she said evenly. “King Rhys’s reading is to be given in private.”

I looked at Rhys. He nodded. “Wait in the hall. It’s okay. I won’t be long.”

He looked disturbed by what had just happened. About what Irena had said? Or because he now knew a dragon had died to give me my pretty wrist accessory? After all, I’d already seen him get upset about a dead frog. This was … well, a bit bigger than that. To say the least.

Ten minutes passed, but it felt more like ten weeks before Rhys finally emerged from Irena’s office. While I waited, I tried my best to process what I’d heard, but I didn’t know where to begin. None of it made any sense to me. And none of it was particularly helpful.

“Here,” Rhys said as he thrust something small and rectangular at me. “Thought you might want one.”

It was Irena’s business card with her phone number on it. Not that it was likely she’d ever want to talk to me again.

“Thanks.” I shoved it into my wallet inside my backpack and scurried to keep up with Rhys as he quickly walked toward the waiting car outside. “So how did it go?”

“Fine.”

“You got the answers you were looking for?”

He didn’t look directly at me. “I did.”

If nothing else, I was grateful to be with Rhys right now. No one else in the human world knew what I was going through, but he did. He might be able to help me make sense of everything. Plus, Irena had all but confirmed I was no threat to faery life. Maybe Rhys and I could be friends, after all. The thought gave me a weird sense of hope in the middle of a bizarre situation.

“Do you think I should find another dragon oracle and try again?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

The flippant, disinterested way he said it was anything but reassuring. Snow blew past me as we reached the car and I felt the cold bite into me. “Is there something wrong?”

He looked at me. “What?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you upset about the dragon’s tear?” I covered it with my hand. “I feel terrible. I never would have worn it if I had known it would upset her.”

“I don’t care about your bracelet.”

“You don’t? But a dragon died.”

“Did you kill it?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Then I don’t care.”

He looked away as he got into the backseat of the car before I did.

I sensed a major chilliness between us. What happened? Had I said something to upset him?

I got in the car and tried to catch his eye. He was looking anywhere but at me.

Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes. I felt utterly alone at that moment.

There was a long pause after the chauffeur shut the door behind me. I sat as far away from Rhys as I could and put my seat belt on.

The car began to move, starting on the half-hour drive back to Erin Heights. I pressed my lips together, my arms crossed tightly in front of me.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Rhys finally said after several minutes passed. “I know that was rough for you. You wanted a clean answer—to hear that the prophecy’s a complete and total lie. I thought that’s what you’d get, but it doesn’t always work that way. Dragon oracles are never completely cut-and-dried when it comes to seeing the future. Even with the best readings there’s always a great deal of interpretation that needs to happen. My advisers usually spend ages trying to decipher a dragon’s visions. But … she didn’t tell you it was absolutely the truth, either. There’s still a spark of hope, isn’t there?”

“A spark,” I agreed. “A teeny, tiny, pathetic little spark.”

His jaw tightened. “And yeah, I got answers. Mostly vague, and mostly not what I wanted to hear, either.”

Despite his breaking the uncomfortable silence between us, I couldn’t help but feel a major amount of tension in the car. Rhys wasn’t happy right now, to say the least. Even less happy than I was, if that was humanly—faerily?—possible.

I struggled to find something else to say.

“Did she help you figure out who you’re supposed to marry?” I asked.

He snorted. “You could say that. But she’s wrong.”

“You think she was lying?”

“No … not lying. Just …” He shook his head and sighed. “I figure she’s unclear. She couldn’t see your prophecy clearly, so I bet the same applies to mine.”

Wow. Majorly unhappy reaction. Was this what had put him into cranky-faery mode? He obviously didn’t approve of his intended. Maybe it would make him realize that getting married at sixteen was stupid and unnecessary, even for otherworldly royalty.

“So, what?” I asked, latching onto this as a good subject for us to discuss. “Is your future faery bride too ugly for you?”

Rhys leaned back against the head rest and studied the seat back in front of him. “That’s not it.”

“Too old or too young?”

“No.”

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. This was why he was upset. He hadn’t landed the perfect bride-to-be. “Her pretty faery wings aren’t the right shade of sparkly lavender and pink?”

His eyes flashed with anger. “Actually, she doesn’t have faery wings.”

“She doesn’t?”

“No. As a matter of fact, the dragon oracle tells me the girl I’m supposed to marry, the one destined to someday become the queen of the faery realm, isn’t a faery at all.”

Okay, that was surprising. Not a faery?

“She isn’t?” I said. “Then who is she?”

His expression was severe as he turned to look me right in the eye.

“You,” he said.

11

I stared blankly at Rhys for what felt like about three days.

“Me?” I finally sputtered.

He nodded.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Not kidding.”

I laughed then, and it sounded slightly hysterical. “I’m not going to marry you.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“Good.”

He eyed me. “And you can wipe that horrified look off your face because it’s obviously not true.”

“Do I look horrified?”

“Yes, you do.”

I grimaced. “Nothing personal, Rhys, but—”

He held up a hand. “Say nothing else. I shouldn’t have even mentioned it to you. I’ll find another dragon to help me.”

“Second opinions are really important,” I said.

He just glowered at that.

We rode the rest of the way back to Erin Heights in silence. Now I had even more information crowding my already full brain. Maybe that Irena chick should go see a shrink, herself. She was one crazy dragon lady.

Marry Rhys? That was completely ridiculous. Sure, over the last couple of days I’d started warming up to him a little. He knew I was a demon princess when no one else in the human world did—not including Chris, of course—and that was both reassuring and a bit scary, depending on the hour of the day. But that didn’t mean I wanted to date him, let alone marry him and magically become the queen of the faeries.

Some of the books I’d studied in history class talked about arranged marriages. A few years ago, before my mom wrote about vampires and other monsters in love, she wrote historical romances, and a major plot point usually involved the heroine having to marry somebody she didn’t want to in order for her family to survive and prosper.

But this wasn’t two hundred years ago. It was now. And nobody, at least not in Erin Heights, got married because it had been arranged—especially not by a dragon in human form who saw fuzzy and indistinct images of the future.

Once we got back to town, I leaned forward so I could tell the chauffeur my address. He approached my street and pulled up at the curb. The sight was a relief after such a stressful, emotional day.

“Do you go back to the faery realm every day after school?” I asked Rhys, feeling strange at breaking the heavy silence between us but wanting to say something before I left.

“No.”

“You stay in Erin Heights?”

“Yes.”

“With who?”

“At a hotel.”

“All by yourself?”

He nodded.

“Isn’t that lonely?” I asked.

He raised his brown eyes to mine, and I saw there was now zero humor there. “Time for you to go, Nikki. It’s been a long day.”

“Wow, somebody’s touchy, isn’t he?”

“We’ve arrived at your house. Please get out of this car now.”

I wasn’t quite ready to move yet, or to follow the king’s every order. “Are you still going to Melinda’s party tomorrow night?”

“I don’t know. Probably not.”

The chauffeur exited the car and came around to my side to open the door. “You don’t have to feel weird about this, you know. I’m not going to tell anyone. The dragon must have given you a false reading.”

“I know that. There’s no way she could possibly be right about this.”

He sounded pretty darn certain.

“Oh, well, good,” I said.

“And do you know how I know?” he asked, his teeth clenched. I hadn’t realized it until then, but he was actually angry about this. “Because you’re a
demon
.”

“Half demon,” I corrected.

“Whatever.” He looked at me, and there was more distaste in his perusal than I remembered ever seeing before. “Demons are evil creatures of darkness and I want no association with them, now or in the future. I
hate
them.”

I glared at him as my own level of anger rose. He was basically saying he hated
me
, wasn’t he? “Any particular reason, or just because hating demons is in fashion right now?”

He held my gaze steadily, but after a moment I saw his bottom lip quiver just a little bit and pain flicker in his eyes. “A demon killed my parents.”

That unexpected statement knocked the breath right out of me. “Rhys, I didn’t know—”

“Please, Nikki …” He shook his head and turned his face away from me. “Seriously. Leave me alone.”

I wanted to say something but I wasn’t sure what. Words escaped me. So instead, feeling sick inside, I did what he asked. I got out of the backseat and the door closed behind me. The car drove away and soon disappeared into the distance.

The whole next day, I tried to keep a very low profile. I stayed home, mostly in my room. I even caught up on some homework. As it was the beginning of the weekend, this was not overlooked by my mother.

She practically had to drag me away from my safe bedroom and English homework for a mother-daughter lunch early Saturday afternoon.

“Everything okay, honey?” she asked. I could tell she was still concerned about what had happened earlier that week—my lie about going to the mall with Melinda. Her trust in me was on shaky ground and would be for a while.

I missed Michael desperately. When he said he wouldn’t come to the human world to see me again until my father sent him, he hadn’t been lying. Despite thinking I’d spotted him out of the corner of my eye a couple of times this week, it had been five whole days since I’d last seen him for real.

And Rhys … well, he obviously hated me. I figured it was mostly because his parents had been killed by a demon, leaving him all alone and forced to take the throne whether he wanted to or not. While I didn’t think this was cause to hate an entire species—even if that species was
demon
—I couldn’t really hold it against him too much. It still kind of bothered me, though. I didn’t want to be judged because of something I had absolutely no control over. I was half demon and I wasn’t going to be changing any time soon.

And the prophecy—make that
prophecies
—well, I had no idea what to do about them. The next time I saw my father, I’d ask if he could find another dragon to help me get to the bottom of things. Yes, that was the sum total of my fabulous plan of action. I was working on something better, but nothing was immediately coming to mind, unfortunately.

Add to that the fact that I knew Mom was still hurt, so I was trying my best to be a good daughter.

“No, nothing’s wrong,” I told my mother. I could tell she knew I was lying, but luckily she didn’t press for more information. Maybe she figured it was simply the same boyfriend problems. “How was your date with Mr. Crane?”

“It wasn’t really an official date.”

“Dinner, then.”

“It was nice. You’re lucky to have him as a teacher.”

She wasn’t gushing about how wonderful he was, so I hoped that meant there were no wedding bells in her immediate future.

Finally some good news.

“Are you seeing him again?” I asked.

“We have dinner plans tonight.” She looked at me innocently. “I know you’re going to Melinda’s party, so I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

Good news status removed.

“Why would I mind?” I said tightly.

She brightened. “I’m glad to hear it.”

Admittedly, with all my distractions and problems, I hadn’t been a stellar friend to Melinda lately, and I wanted to show her that I was helpful and reliable—at least
sometimes
. Besides, my only other choice at the moment was to hang out at home and feel sorry for myself.

I could still feel sorry for myself. But I decided to do it at Melinda’s party, where I could make myself useful and where there would be loud music—the louder the better—to drown out most of my thoughts.

I got to her house just before five o’clock, but when I knocked no one answered. After a minute, I noticed the front door was unlocked, so I let myself in like I’d done a couple times before.

I was wearing a thin red sweater and black jeans under my winter coat. I forgot about adding any festive green to the outfit when I realized I didn’t own anything other than a supremely tacky pair of green earrings.

Besides, green just made me think about Michael’s amulet. And his eyes.

Before I could yell out Melinda’s name to track her down in her huge house, I heard raised voices coming from nearby. It was two people arguing loudly.

“I hate this,” Melinda said, sounding angry. “I keep practicing and practicing and I’m not getting any better.”

“You are,” an unfamiliar male voice soothed. “You need to trust your instincts.”

Was this one of her dance lessons? I hadn’t known she took them in her own house. That was convenient, wasn’t it?

“Why can’t you get someone else to do this instead of me?” Melinda asked.

“The power to do this is in your blood, Melinda. You need to work with me instead of fighting me all the time.”

She laughed, but it didn’t sound happy. “I thought you wanted me to fight you.”

“I do, but …” He sighed. “You’re only making this more difficult on yourself. You won’t be ready.”

“Ready? For what?” There was a mocking tone to her voice. “I haven’t seen anything that makes me believe all the crazy things you’ve told me are even remotely true.”

I didn’t want to eavesdrop on a private conversation, but they were being so loud I couldn’t help myself. It sure didn’t sound like a discussion about dance lessons to me.

“You haven’t been reading the books downstairs, have you?” the man said.

“I’ve read all the stupid books—the ones in English, anyway—and I don’t believe any of it.” She took in a shaky breath. “You’re trying to ruin my life. Everything was great until I met you.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” He sounded weary of arguing. “Today’s lesson is over.”

“Good. I have a party tonight—”

“A party?” His words twisted with sudden annoyance. “You need to forget about parties and friends and focus on what’s important.”

“It’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t fair, Melinda. And you’d best get that through your head now so we won’t have problems in the future. Your duty is to learn and to get stronger so you won’t fail when the time comes to prove yourself. I’m counting on you not to let everyone down.”

“Just leave me alone!”

The next moment Melinda came storming into the foyer and froze in her tracks when she saw me standing there. Her face was red and shiny with perspiration. She looked the least fashionable I’d ever seen her. She wore a black T-shirt, gray sweatpants that were a bit ripped, and Nike running shoes. Her long light blonde hair was pulled back in a tight braid, her bangs slicked to her forehead.

“Nikki, hey,” she said. “I … I didn’t know you were here already.”

I felt confused and more than a little awkward. I knew I wasn’t meant to overhear whatever they’d been arguing about.

“You told me to come early to help set up, so here I am. The front door was unlocked.”

The bearer of the male voice entered the foyer behind her. He was tall and muscular and dressed in sweats. He had broad shoulders and dark red hair. He didn’t look that much older than us—maybe a few years. His blue eyes moved from Melinda to me. They narrowed.