“It is a beautiful country filled with beautiful people,” I answered.
“Yes,” he mused, studying my face way too close for comfort. “It could be so much more,” he insisted. “The resources we have. The money. We could be a powerful nation. Respected.”
“Feared?” I asked.
He chuckled. “What is fear but love that knows its limits?”
I tried to pull away, but he held me firm. “The dance hasn’t ended yet, Princess,” he said softly. “You wouldn’t want to upset the Queen.” His eyes scanned my face. “I feel sorry for you, honestly.”
I felt my fur rise. “Oh, really? And why’s that?”
He chortled. “You’re so completely out of your element. A peach,” he remarked snidely, as his fingers dug into my delicate flesh, “in a bowl full of diamonds. You know you don’t belong. Your eyes give it away.”
“You don’t know me.”
He pulled me closer. “I think I’d like to. What is it about you that would make a man run away from the chance to be king?” He paused. “Unless he isn’t really a man at all.”
“He’s more of a man than you,” I snapped under my breath. “I know what you did.”
He chuckled. “You know one version of what I did. A fair person might want to know both sides of the story.” He held me closer. “Maybe I could get you to write it for me. Two million dollars still the going rate?”
I felt my face flush. “Fine. Let’s start with why Eloise is here on your dad’s arm and not yours.”
His face hardened. “Like I said. You don’t know the whole story. Maybe one day, if I deem you worthy, I might share it with you.”
“I have nothing to prove to you,” I hissed.
He chuckled. Amused. It pissed me off even more. “You don’t get it, do you? You have everything to prove to everyone in this room. You don’t belong here, Peaches,” he said, using my name almost like pejorative, lacing it with condescending pity. “They can play nice to you and your hick family, but you know it’s true. Down deep inside. Feel it,” he said in a low, ominous tone that reminded me of Christopher coming for me in that bathroom stall.
I pushed him away before I rushed from the ballroom.
Why was I always running away from something at Shimmering Falls?
I stopped outside to take a deep breath. When the twigs snapped behind me, I whipped around, expecting to see Auggie.
Instead it was Allan Byrne. “You’ll have to forgive my son. As a single man, he’s still rather boorish with the ladies. It’s the hunter mentality, you understand.”
I had many questions. But it wasn’t like I expected him to tell me the truth. “Am I to understand I’m the prey?”
He laughed. “Oh, no, my dear. You’re not enough of a challenge to be prey. He’s an educated man who has traveled the world. You’re a girl named Peaches that a foolhardy boy plucked from a farm. You’re a distraction.”
“For Cillian? Or for Auggie?”
“For both,” he stated simply. “But as long as you keep Auggie occupied and away from Aldayne, I have no quarrel with you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that after nine centuries, it is time for the Quinns to release their hold on Aldayne. With Auggie gone, that can finally happen.”
I cupped my tummy. “Auggie isn’t the last Quinn heir,” I said, tipping my chin. At this point I was willing to say anything to wipe that arrogant smirk from his face.
“Isn’t he?” he said. I did my best to hold my gasp.
He stepped forward, brandishing a business card. Christopher Tyler’s business card from PING. “You’ve had your fun. You’ve had your ‘fairy tale,’” he added, disdain dripping from his tone. “But you will never be queen. A queen is a status of perfection. Look at you. You’re fat. You’re a whore. You’re inked up like a graffitied wall, and about as attractive. You come from a family of derelicts, celebrating oddities and perversions, like that little sissy prancing around in a tutu.”
My blood burned. I didn’t give a shit what title he held. Nobody talked that way about Dash. Nobody.
Then he hit even lower.
“Even that imbecile Giselle is better fit to lead than you. At least she’s smart enough to know not to take the job. You? You’re as common and as perishable as your name.”
I studied him, trying to envision any one of that evil family sitting on the throne, and how the country would change if they did.