Three seconds into my kiss with Raul, I forgot that I was supposed to disengage from the kiss when the boys went through the bend and came to hallway we were in, I forgot that they were coming, I forgot that I had made a plan like that, I forgot that this was a kiss meant to deliver a piece of information, not for pleasure.
When Raul grabbed my ass however, and squeezed, when I moaned into the kiss biting his lips, enjoying the moan that escaped from his, there was an intentional cough that brought reality into my vision again, that brought my attention to the burning mark on my neck.
Oh my god. This was good. I concluded, when I remembered myself. Raul was a good kisser.
Despite knowing that there were more than three people watching us, I was adept enough to still play the game. I smiled at a Raul who was shocked by my gutsy kiss and smile, but who remembered quickly how to smile flirty. Satisfied with our interaction, I disengaged from the hug. Slowly.
With infinite flourish, I turned aside, my smile not leaving my lips, and faced the intruders. I increased my lips capacity to smile when I saw that the Lycan boys were with Duke and Rachel. They must have gone for a walk, must have returned when they had seen the live feed.
“I see that both of you decided to get cozy after setting the community on fire…” Duke started, walking toward us. The others remained standing behind him.
Rachel’s face was just as blank as it had been when I had seen her in the office a few days ago. But I knew from the dim light in her eyes that she was happy that Adam had caught me kissing another boy, not minding that the boy was her twin. I was happy too, especially seeing the looks on the faces of the Lycan triplets.
For the first time since he came here, Noah was sporting a scowl. So much for remaining aloof. Adam and Daniel were competing with the level of anger on their faces. But Adam reclined back to his signature coldness, when his gaze met mine, as if seeing that haughty smirk on my lips had knocked some senses into his head. Daniel, however, was a different case.
“Dora, what are you doing with my brother? You have your eyes on the throne?”
Who is this idiot? I asked myself, then asked Raul with a pique of my eyebrow. Raul laughed. We were going to be great friends.
“Are you two making fun of me? Raul, did you forget who you were betrothed to?”
I inhaled sharply, and before I could help it, stepped away from Raul. Rachel chuckled then, the first sigh of visible emotion. It was evil.
I looked at Raul to deny the claim, but he stood there, glancing at me with hurt in his eyes, as if he was the victim in this case, and not me. I was angry. Not because I cared much about him-my heart wasn’t exactly broken-but because he had lied. I hated liars; never mind that I was one.
“I’m not going forward with the betrothal rubbish, Dora. You can ask my mother. She accepted my denial last night.” He finally spoke, finally finding his voice.
Duke furrowed his eyebrows. He wasn’t aware of this piece of information. The humor on Rachel’s lips dried too. She too wasn’t aware of this information. I folded my hands across my chest, and smirked again. No harm caused.
“I’m not sure why she hadn’t told the family, but I am not moving forward with that. I am a free man.”
For a moment, I was tempted to ask Raul who his betrothed was, especially as he covered the distance between us, and placed his hand around my waist; looking at the people, as if daring them to make a comment, as if it was us against the world.
But then, I left it, choosing to make the query when we were alone. After all, I wanted to ask for his aid to find my true lineage-his mother had given me some clues. I was a mage, from a royal lineage. That ought to narrow the search right?
“I ask again, Dora, what is your plan? Why are you ensnaring my brother?”
Raul opened his mouth to answer his elder brother, but I daringly cocked his face to face mine in a fraction of a second, and dealt his lips a chaste kiss to his surprise-one that he couldn’t even hide from the people watching us.
“Are you bewitching my brother, because if you are…”
“You mean like you bewitched Zande?” I asked, interrupting his charade fueled by anger.
Silence dropped in the hallway, as if on cue. As if knowing what was happening, no one came close to the hallway-I didn’t even hear the sounds from walking feet. It was like the earth was on standstill, like time was on standstill.
The anger that had been riding on Daniel’s face shifted to confusion, the same expression that buttered the faces of his brothers as they looked at Duke who kept twitching his eyes, and fists. He wanted to fight?
“My brother didn’t bewitch Zande. The girl was in love with him…”
“And then what happened?” I asked Rachel, piquing an eyebrow, proud of myself for maintaining a cool facade, even though I wanted to throttle the siblings, including the one that had his hand on my waist, hand that was beginning to get uncomfortable. I guess it came with the topic.
“Well, she got killed fighting in the war. She is celebrated here as a hero.”
I chuckled drily. “That sounds chill, but that’s not the way I know it.”
Suffocating silence filled the hallway-everyone was holding their breath, intent to hear what I had to say.
Subtly, I shrugged Raul’s hold off me. From the nonresistance and the air of humility suddenly around him, I knew that he was aware of what had happened, to an extent.
“From what I know, she had turned you down when you had asked her out…” I sauntered toward Duke now, making sure that my magic energy was right at my finger tips, should the prince get physical.
“Or am I not getting this piece right?”
I was right in front of him; my hands folded across my chest, my eyes staring into his keenly. Duke was cold, he had chilled his emotions. Right now, he looked blank, as if humoring me to say the nonsense in my mouth. But I wasn’t deterred. I knew the buttons to push. My other didn’t stop me, so I had no qualms in pushing them.
“She turned you down in public, and you got so angry that you wanted to punish her. For not agreeing to date you-because doing that will entail you sleeping with her and then dumping her for the next girl-you vowed to make her life miserable. And you did make her life miserable. Through her lessons with the Queen, your mother, whose eyes had been drawn to Zande’s potential-just like mine had caught hers now…” I chuckled softly, as if contemplating on the similarity of the issues, allowing the others to contemplate on the similarity of the issues.
“Through those meetings, you sunk your claws into her; slowly but just as deep. You took your time. You were patient. If you were that patient with your magic classes, you wouldn’t have been attributing the throne to your younger brother, you would have been useful as a wizard to your community….”
Duke hissed then, and tried to make a grab for me, not minding Raul’s shout then, or Daniel’s annoyed grunt, but I was faster than his large hands. Before he could make contact, I was already by Raul’s side. That surprised him, that surprised the Lycan boys: they had never seen me in action after all.
“I would have asked you to play ‘catch me if you can’, but that would be useless. Your magic is useless to me, just as it is to your mother. No wonder she already struck a betrothal for Raul. He is next to the throne. Well, that is if he spurts the white hair, seeing that you are way past that, and Rachel’s hair isn’t looking any whiter…”
I cackled when Rachel gritted her teeth. “Oh, that hurts? Don’t hate me much, I heard it from Chyra. The girl talks a lot. She also hates you a lot, low key things. I have it on record. I have a lot of things on record.”
I cocked my head to the side with a psychotic smile, happy for the panicked look that suddenly grazed the faces of Duke, and Rachel. It only lasted for a second though, before they both huffed as if on cue. They didn’t believe me, and I was almost tempted to pick my recording from my bag, and play it. But it wasn’t edited yet. I didn’t want them to hear the totality of it.
Once I get home… I mused to myself.
.. I will divide it into parts to be used as leverage.
“I don’t believe you. Do you have proof?”
“Only a fool looks for proof in this situation.” I answered Duke’s question, causing him to grit his teeth again.
“I don’t know what’s giving you the ….”
“Audacity? Please…can’t you see my hair?”
That got their attention. They seemed to have forgotten that piece of information, or they hadn’t waited for the live feed to get to that part before hurrying here, considering the shock that buttered each of their faces.
“Just wonder how much audacity that would fly now. You haven’t seen anything, Duck.”