Chapter 284


    Chapter 0284


    Julian was angry, that much was clear, though I couldn’t exactly fathom why. Yes, it would be irritating


    to be excluded from Nich s’s confrontation of the King and Queen, but Julian usually handled


    irritation with cutting humor and sarcasm, not outright anger.


    “Your presence wouldn’t have made any difference,” Nichs said.


    “Oh? You don’t think the person who has been investigating the underground organization. wouldn’t


    have had evidence and knowledge to help your case?” Julian scoffed.


    Nichs sighed. He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “It wasn’t personal, Julian.”


    “Like hell, it wasn’t. I was the one who helped find the evidence, and I even have some of my own. You


    should have looped me into your ns. Aren’t we a trio in this? When did you decide that you’d rather


    do everything alone?”


    Nichs shook his head.


    I didn’t necessarily want to take a side here. I could see the situation from both angles. But the fact was


    Nichs hadn’t told me his ns either. He simply left me before I had woken up. He’d apologized, I


    was no longer hurt. But I could understand Julian’s upset.


    Still, I decided to stay out of their conversation, mostly because it felt deeper than this one. singr


    argument. This issue may have been the one that finally brought them into an open. conflict, but


    underneath the surface, this resentment had likely been festering for a long time.


    “Admit it,” Julian said, a sharp edge in his voice. “You purposefully excluded me. You genuinely do not


    believe that I am capable.”


    Nichs crossed his arms. He didn’t deny it.


    “Nichs…” I whispered, feeling pity for them both.


    “You’re such an as shole,” Julian said.


    “You may be capable, Julian, when you want to be, but you aren’t reliable. You have been a foolhardy


    y boy since our youth,” Nichs said. “You may be doing the right thing right now, but I can’t trust


    you to always make the best choices.”


    “You think I would have, what, stood in front of our father and then sided with Terry?”


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    “I don’t know what you would have done,” Nichs said. “You are unpredictable. Your whims are


    fleeting. You do whatever you want without worry of the consequence.” Julian huffed out augh too


    short and loud to be genuine. “That you honestly believe that tells me you don’t know me at all, brother.


    You think I’m some kind of monster. You think I would throw Piper to the wolves.” “He doesn’t mean it


    like that,” I said. “Doesn’t he? Because that’s what he’s saying,” Julian said. I looked at Nichs,


    expecting him to take back some of the harsher things he’d said, or at least rify them so they weren’t


    so hurtful. Surely he couldn’t believe that Julian would actually want to see me harmed? But stubborn


    Nichs kept his mouth firmly closed. I wondered what the stories were that I wasn’t privileged to.


    These two had a lifetime of history, memories upon memories where their capability and reliability were


    disyed and practiced with each other. For Nichs to so firmly believe that Julian was such a cad,


    something terrible must have happened to imnt that conception of him.


    “Forget it, Piper,” Julian said, snorting. “He’ll never see me as anything but a nuisance, and honestly,


    I’m tired of trying.” Julian dipped his head to me in goodbye, then turned and left. “Nichs,” I said


    when Julian had gone. “There’s no need to be so cruel.” “I’m being honest, Piper,” Nichs said, voice


    t, void of emotion. “He can’t be trusted.”


    I sighed, unsure how to resolve this rift between the two brothers, or if resolution was even possible at


    this point.


    “You don’t agree,” he said.


    I didn’t. “It’s unhealthy for two brothers to fight like this.” Nichs shook his head. “What would be


    unhealthy is to pretend everything is fine between him and me. My expectations of him are all the way


    down on the floor and he still finds ways to go beneath him.”


    Nichs set his jaw. There seemed to be no peaceful end of this conflict, so for now, I simply let it go.


    Maybe, someday, if I could discover more of the things that went wrong between them, I could make


    another, better effort to help push them to resolution. But for now, perhaps the best course of action,


    was simply to keep the two brothers apart. After lunch, I was walking back toward the room when I was


    stopped by Nathan. “The King wishes to speak with you.” He did not wait for a response. He just turned


    and began walking. The expectation, I was sure, I was led into a sitting room and ushered inside. After


    I walked through, Nathan stepped outside the room and closed the door, leaving me alone with the


    King.


    The King stood behind a small couch. His back was turned toward the room as he gazed out a window.


    Uncertain where to stand, I moved into the center of the room.


    “You must be curious why I wanted to speak with you, Piper,” the King said.


    I had a few guesses. I wasn’t in the meeting with Nichs and the King. I had no idea what exactly


    Nichs had told the King regarding the previous event. But I imagined whatever he wanted to speak


    about with me now had to do with Terry.


    Yet I didn’t want to say his name, not even to guess. I half worried to say his name allowed might make


    him magically appear.


    The King, fortunately, seemed entirely unaware of my inner conundrum, and proceeded without any


    reply from me.


    “I have heard Nich s’s side of the story. My Queen has told me Terry’s. This leaves only one side left


    for me to hear and to know: yours.” Slowly, he turned away from the window to face me. “Tell me


    everything you know about Terry’s involvement in the underground organization.”


    My breath caught and my blood ran cold.


    I had been men tally preparing myself for questions about Terry’s assault on me. I didn’t want to talk


    about it, but I had been willing to, for the sake of justice.


    But this? How could I tell the King everything I knew without mentioning my sister Jane? Jane was my


    main connection to any knowledge I had rued on Terry. She was the catalyst. Without that piece of


    the puzzle, the King might be suspicious of me.


    Though to tell him about Jane felt dangerous as well. If he knew I had a twin, and that she was involved


    so deeply in the underground… What would his reaction be? Would he assume I was also involved?


    Or were things deeper even than that?


    Julian had told me not to speak about my sister to anyone, not even the King. He had made it seem


    like no one in the royal family could be trusted but him and Nichs.


    This could be some kind of trap. The King could be testing me to see how much I knew, or how much I


    was willing to reveal.


    My head was starting to hurt from all the possibilities of this moment. Every possible answer I could


    give felt like a wrong one.


    I was frozen with indecision. And with fear.


    The King narrowed his eyes. “Are you keeping secrets, Piper?”