Lissa's POV
There was a knock on my door and I slowly sat up in my bed. Rubbing my tired eyes I stumbled over to the door and opened it.
"Hey Rose" I yawned as she walked into my room.
"Ok I get your my guardian and my best friend, but do you have to barge into my room this early?" I asked.
"Lissa. It's 9 in the morning. You were supposed to be at that meeting half an hour ago" she sighed. Oh crap.
I started pulling off my clothes as she chucked some at me from my cupboard.
"Really?" I asked holding up the black dress that was a little too short for a simple meeting. She gave a cheeky grin and I rolled my eyes.
She brushed my hair as I quickly applied makeup and sprayed on some perfume.
"Thanks Rose, I owe you one" I called to her as I half walked half ran off.
I quickly made my way down the hall and a few minutes later I arrived at the room. I straightened my clothes and took a deep breath as I entered.
"Your majesty is late" a royal said as I walked in and they all stood up until I took my seat.
"I'm very sorry, I got caught up" I said.
I had noticed that since becoming Queen I'd had to learn to lie much better.
"Ok, let's begin" I said and some woman started talking.
After about 10 minutes of her non-stop discussion I started zoning out. My finger traced the wood patterns on my chair as she continued to talk.
Nathan Ivashkov's POV
I watched the Queen traced patterns in the chair with her finger; I seemed to be the only one who'd noticed she wasn't paying attention.
I personally would rather see anyone else on the throne but her. She was a disgrace to the Moroi race.
But she has been Queen for over six months and her bastard of a sister was in hiding, so it looked like she was going nowhere.
A few days ago all the Royals had gathered in secret to talk about the Queen. Most of the gatherings had been about ways we could possibly get rid of her, but this time we, well everyone but me, had decided we needed a change of action.
We couldn't get rid of her, so we'd change her. Make decisions for her, shape her into the Queen we want. What she wears, what she says, who she talks to, who she dates and marries.
If we were going to do this the first thing we needed to get rid of is that strigoi-wanna-be Ozera boy. It took a few days, but we managed to find the perfect man to take his place. He would make an excellent King one day. Plus his bratty sister would be able to get rid of the Ozera boy for good.
So all we had to do was put this plan into action.
Lissa's POV
About half an hour had passed and all that had been said was pointless little unimportant things. Just then another man stood up to speak.
"Your majesty. It has come to our attention that you will be 19 soon and have been Queen for over half a year. We have been thinking that maybe you should be thinking seriously about who you are seeing" he said quietly.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean" I said, confused.
"We want nothing but your happiness, but we all agree that Mr Ozera is not the ideal choice for who will be King alongside you" he said.
My mouth hung open and there was silence.
"What? Are you all mental? There's no way I would stop being with Christian just because you don't like him!" I shouted.
"It's for your own good. It's for the good of everyone" he said.
"I don't care" I said harshly at him.
Sure Christian and I were going through some tough times, but I wouldn't do this to him.
"You won't have much of a choice your highness" he said just as harshly.
Just then the door opened and someone walked in. A guy about my age, maybe a bit older walked down the aisle. He had dark brown shaggy hair and soft brown eyes. He's hair was tanned a bit more than most Moroi's and he was at least a head taller than me. He was slender yet muscular and all in all was what most girls would call 'hot'.
"This is Zander. Your future boyfriend and maybe husband" someone said and my mouth swung open.
Christian's POV
I punched the bag, hitting it as hard as I could, but still not as hard as I would have liked.
The past 6 months I have been practising my fighting skills. Just because I'm Moroi doesn't mean I have to sit around being defenceless.
I threw a few more punches at the bag, my arms hurting but I tried to ignore it. Most times I worked through the pain, taking all my anger out on the bag.
Lissa and I weren't doing so well again. It was two main things getting in the way.
First off being that she was Queen, so she was always in some dumb meeting and we never ever saw each other, especially in privet.
The second thing was she was trying to force me to be who I wasn't. Two nights ago we had gotten in a fight because she thought I was acting immaturely at some stupid dinner party she had dragged me too. It just wasn't me. I wasn't some show pony, I was just me, Christian.
I threw two more punches then grunted and came to a stop. Sweat poured off me and I grabbed my towel and started patting my forehead.
"Feeling a little hot?" someone asked and I spun around.
Standing at the entrance of the gym was a girl leaning against the door frame.
"And you are?" I asked grumpily.
"Just admiring the view" she grinned and I shyly pulled a shirt on.
"I'm Arianna, but you can call me Aria" she said.
"Christian" I nodded. "I haven't seen you around before" I noted.
"I'm new around here" she said.
"What are you here for?" I asked.
"My brother Zander has been brought here to see the Queen" she pulled a face.
"What for?" I asked.
"You're her boyfriend aren't you?" she asked and I nodded.
"Yeah why?" I asked.
"Here's the funny thing. He's been brought here to marry her" she said and my eyes widened.