Chatper 357


    Chapter 0357


    “Then, what?”


    He nced at me. Slowly, he stopped walking. We were alone in the hallway though there was talking


    up ahead. Around the corner was the dining room. Some of the girls must have gone down to lunch


    early.


    “Joyce called you out to that balcony,” Julian said. “He said it was because you are too


    reckless, but when has he ever cared about something like that before or since. You aren’t one of his


    selected candidates, and he’s never taken an interest in any of Nichs’s or my rtionships before.”


    “You can’t think… he had ulterior motives?” I asked.


    “I don’t know,” Julian admitted quickly. “It does seem unlikely. Joyce has never been rebellious. He’s


    always done just enough to stay within the rules our parents set for him. I suppose he could have seen,


    as I did, how fond Nichs is of you, and wanted to step in, but…”


    My throat went dry. “But?“”


    Julian squeezed my arm. “The timing is what concerns me. He locked you out there the same night


    Nichs was almost taken. It felt wrong to me, even then I felt something was off. That was why I was


    so insistent we check on Nichs.”


    My worries culminated into a dark jagged swirl that sliced mercilessly inside my chest. I had to voice an


    unhappy question. I felt guilty even thinking it, so I whispered it to Julian rather than saying it too loudly,


    “Could Joyce be working with the underground?” o


    Julian looked at me. There was a hard edge to his gaze. “You should be careful around him.”


    “You do suspect him, then?”


    “Piper,” he said, and for a small moment, he sounded so very tired. “I suspect everyone.”


    I had no reply to that. He rendered me speechless.


    After a moment’s more quiet, Julian urged me into walking again, and we finally turned that corner into


    the louder hallway.


    Belongs ? to N?velDrama.Org.


    Only it wasn’t the candidates in the dining room making the noise. Instead, it was two different camera


    crews trying to capture every angle of Nichs and Olivia as they stood in the center of the hallway. A


    producer was holding a microphone in Nichs’s face and asking Nichs questions.


    In the chaos, I couldn’t make out the question, but it made Nichs dip into his reservoir of


    unpleasantly cold princely faces.


    Julian might have heard it better than I did, because in the next instant, he called out, Nichs! How


    funny meeting you here!”


    1. e. that you


    Suddenly every eye in th


    turn, looked at me.


    crowded hallway turned to look at Julian instead, and then, in


    I half wanted to hide, but Julia..


    ulian’s hold on my arm was fierce, like an unrelenting vice.


    Julian led me straight you?


    Nichs and Olivia. Both


    the crowd until we were standing directly in front of


    with displeasure. It was eerie hatching faces of cool indifference, while their eyes burned


    y heart ache


    simr the nces were.


    too. Maybe the


    truly were perfect for each other. More perfect than


    It made truly Nichs and I had ever been, perhaps.


    “Are you also on a date?” Julian asked.


    Nichs frowned deeper. “Yes, Julian,” he said it like it was obvious. Which, honestly, it was.


    “About to have lunch, then?” Julian asked.


    Nichs narrowed his eyes. “Yes.”


    “Great!” Julian brightened, smile wide. “Then we should eat together.”


    “That’s not…” Nichs began.


    Julian spoke to the camera crews now. “Surely you guys would love to see a double date with the


    princes and their favorite candidates, right?”


    The crews cheered, vocalizing their agreement.


    Looking at Julian, I wondered if he had somehow nned for this entire arrangement, just to upset his


    brother. I had no idea how he would have pulled it off, but that didn’t ebb my suspicion. If anyone could


    have figured it out, it was him.


    “What do you say?” Julian asked Nichs.


    Nichs glowered. “I guess.”