HOLA IM BACK AND NOW WITH ONLY MINOR PAINS IN MY JAW INSTEAD OF LIKE STITCHES AND HELL

It's February and 72 degrees Fahrenheit here, so my mom said that she didn't want me in my dark room all day.

My solution – open my usually closed blinds and one window. Boom. It isn't dark any more.

Chapter Thirty-Six

❂Of Truest Heart❂

Prince Logan

Another stitch in the seam holding together my world snapped. The doctors say that it was a heart attack, and my grandfather will be fine. Yet they insist on keeping an eye on him, which makes me doubt the fact that he'll actually be fine.

Lucille tried to convince me that it's just a precaution.

I sat on the chair beside Grandpa Will's bed, and Juliette bounces over to me, her fiery tendrils framing her face like a halo.

"Hey there, little princess. What's up?" I asked, picking her up and letting her perch on my knee.

She stared at me with her wide blue eyes, and a shiver coursed through my body. Some day I would be in a similar situation, with a young child near me, but that child wouldn't be my sister. It would be my daughter or son.

That thought was terrifying.

I had been so caught up in finding a wife, I never considered being a father.

"Logan," she started, the word sounding more like "Wogan", "Do you still love mommy?"

I glanced down at the five-year-old and my heart caught in my throat, "Jules, of course I do." A partial lie. I wasn't sure. Relationships were built on trust, and I don't even know if I can trust her. Still, I am her son. She is my mother, and I don't think a relationship like that can break over something as trifle as eliminated a potential threat to everyone in the castle.

Even if it did cause me to doubt her.

She's still my mother.

I pulled the young girl into a hug and set her on the floor. "I have an errand I need to run, okay?"

She nodded, and I ran to my room, and shrugged on a black blazer over a gray t-shirt, not changing out of my jeans and converse.

"Xavier, I'm going out into the city, and I figured you would kill me if I didn't tell you and 'invite you along to protect me'." I said, after I was halfway down the hall.

My guard, and friend, murmured something under his breath and jogged over beside me. "Do you plan on taking a car?"

"Nope." I replied, flashing him a smirk.

"Care to tell me what's so important that you don't want to get a staff member to get it for you?" He pestered.

"I'm trying to mend relationships, and it's not really heartfelt if you don't get the gifts yourself."

He nodded, but still skeptical about this endeavor.

❂Of Truest Heart❂

Xavier looked seemingly uncomfortable in the florist's store. Surrounded by fragrances and flowers of all sorts.

No one had really paid attention to me –they were all unaware that their future king was amongst them, and that's just how I enjoyed it to be.

Though I doubted it would last long.

I sifted through bouquet after bouquet, looking for just the right one for my mother. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

The sound of drumming came from the ajar door, and then deep voices began a song, trying to scavenge up what money they could.

Shock overwhelmed me as I noticed that they were practically a street choir in rugged clothes and hollow cheeks.

I turned to Xavier, "This isn't an unusually sight to see in the provinces, is it?"

He pursed his lips, but reluctantly shook his head after a moment, "Unemployment has been steadily increasing, but since it's happening quite slowly, it's just pushed aside and not brought up as a matter to discuss with you and your siblings."

Grimacing, I handed a bouquet of flowers to him, "Can you buy these? I have something I need to take care of." My friend's strong hands took the flowers out of my hands, and I walked out the door.

The street choir finished up a number – one of their hat's filled with only a few coins.

I dug into my wallet and pulled out a twenty, then placed it into the cap. One of them glanced up at me in shock, only to be utterly flabbergasted that it was the prince.

"Yo-You-Your Highness." He stuttered, quickly bowing. The rest turned their attention towards me, and a few gasped.

I smiled, and someone in the back glanced at the money I gave to them, "Is that all you could muster for us? Twenty dollars? Out of the billions upon billions your family has access to?"

My smile disappeared, and my jaw tightened, "What's your name?"

He rolled his eyes, "Kaleb Wallace, your highness." His back curved as he dipped down into a mock bow, "Pleasure to meet your royal acquaintance."

I found myself chuckling, "I don't keep billions upon billions of dollars in my wallet, Kaleb. Especially when I only intend on buying a bouquet of flowers."

My eyes skirted over all of them, and the first one piped up, "We appreciate any donation we get."

I shook my head, "It's not a donation. It is money well earned."

His face broke out into a grin and he extended a hand, "I'm Arron Brecken, by the way."

Accepting his greeting I responded, "Logan Reyes, but you already knew that, I guess."

Arron chuckled, his shaggy blonde hair draping into his face. "We aren't even employed."

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, "I know. Which is why I fully intend to help you all get jobs."

Kaleb's head swung back around in my direction, "You're kidding me right?" his jaw went slack, and many of the other members of the choir they had going started to murmur amongst themselves.

I thought about the reason why I was here in the first place, to mend relationships, and an idea came to my mind.

"First, I need your help with something."

Aralynn

I wanted to scream, yank out my hair, and make them pay. Make them all pay for what they did to Enzo.

He was dead, but not mercifully. He didn't get that respect. Not like the way he deserved.

It was their fault. The Royals. They didn't protect him until his execution. Anger broiled in my stomach and I traced the markings along my face.

The moment I hid out in the safe room, I covered every piece of glass, metal, and reflective substances, afraid of what I would see.

But now I walked over to the canvas cover draped over the one mirror in the room, and yanked it off, now willing to see what other people saw.

Long twisted pink marks traveled along my nose, forehead, cheek, and neck – all on the left side. A birth defect. My dark hair was gritty and knotted, my cheeks hollow, and my eyes sunken in and colorless. My skin had a sickly green tint to it and looked thin as a sheet.

A single tear rolled down my unmarred side and I quickly moved to get rid of it, unsure how I felt about any emotion that wasn't pain or hatred.

I shoved the mirror onto the floor, causing it to shatter into dozens of pieces. The noise reverberated in my ear, and I hoped the room was as sound proof as I assumed it to be.

Lady Sawyer

Bash seemed as if he was in a whole other world. His gaze was off in the distance, and he hardly paid attention to anything that was said at the meeting beforehand.

Of course I fell in love with someone who was an utter mess at times. And someone who wasn't the prince. The person I came to compete for in the first place. Rather his half-brother who seemed to not be handling drama incredibly well.

"Bash!" I yelled, but trying not to raise my voice above a whisper.

He jumped, and looked at me as if he'd completely forgotten I was there.

"Are you taking drugs or something? Because you seem like you've totally lost it." I asked, my eyes narrow. Being a seven, working at a Gentleman's Club, it wasn't uncommon to run into people high. And it was disgusting.

Sebastian's face twisted into a sickened expression like the one I felt, and he gaped at me, "As the future king of Scotland, do you really think they would let me anywhere near anything like that? Or that I would let myself near anything like that?"

My heart sunk again. He was engaged. His fiancé was a legitimate Princess, and the heir to a throne. And he and I could never be together.

But that was always something I subconsciously knew. I placed a hand on his bicep, "Hey, what's on your mind?"

He pursed his lips, "I told Úna. I thought it was a good idea at the time…but now I'm worried she's not the person I thought she was, and she'd tell my father…my mother...the queen…Logan."

I cocked an eyebrow, "Tell them what? What did you tell Princess Úna?"

Inhaling deeply, his pale green eyes stared at me, "That I love you."

My lips nearly went off the sides of my cheek in a wide grin, and I wrapped my hands around his neck, planting a quick kiss on his lips. "I love you, too, Bash. We'll figure this out. It'll be okay."

He nodded, looking as if a weight had been lifted off his chest – at least part of it.

I brought my lips back down to his as the sun peaked through the bushes that concealed us from all other view. His fingers wrapped around my waist and pressed me closer to him, moving one hand to the small of my back.

Pulling back, I gasped for air – but Bash continued to plant kisses along my neck. I giggled as his stubble tickled my jaw. It was so blissful.

I felt safe and happy in his arms. I loved him. He loved me.

The pinnacle of my time at the Selection was right here in this moment.

And fear gripped me in the heart that the only way to go from there…was down.

Lady Aretha

The rebels I had met with - obnoxiously referring to themselves as Pike, Red, and Kane – sent word that the plan was beginning to take motion.

Once the staff had given me the sealed letter, and I had read its contents, naturally, it was burned.

I glanced out my window, seeing the outline of Sebastian and Lady Sawyer McAlister through the bushes. Smirking, I took a sip of my Champaign.

When I first saw them together, I had been tempted to go tell my son to cut any ties they had. But as time progressed, and they stopped seeing one and other, I figured maybe he'd come to his senses on his own. But then it started up again recently. Beginning with a kiss. After the engagement.

I was mortified, after all the work I did to get him that position, and he was willing to throw it away for a bartender, and a seven at that.

First. It started with her. Motivation for my son, and a step closer to the result I want.

Then another one of the girls.

Then another.

Continuing until the Schreave family gives Sebastian Le Tourneau the throne as the only way for them to achieve the peace they need.

Because as the Selected girls were to be disposed of, other rebels within Pike's regiment would take down city after city. Province after province.

A full out war.

Those in the south scavenged up all the weapons and soldiers they could for years.

And now was their chance to finally put them to good use.

YAYAYAYA NEW CHAPTER

HEHE

I'm going to go eat food now.

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Bye Lovelies!

~Hailey