The Prince's Quarters, The Palace, Angeles, July 29th, 8:47am

Elijah

The sun shone in through the open curtains into Eli's eyes, and he brought a hand up to cover them. "What the fuck, Micah?"

"Dude, it's Monday, you should be up by now." Micah stood by the now open curtains, not looking guilty in the least.

"Clearly I wasn't." He groaned, and sat up. "Adrienne is trying to kill me."

"Were you seriously drinking again last night? You've been drinking every night since they got here, if that's the case." Micah shook his head.

"I only had a couple." He tossed back the blankets and climbed out of bed, pushing his hair out of his face with one hand. "I need a hair tie, aspirin, and some coffee."

"Just remember that you need to get ready for Ixchel and Yunuen's birthday."

"I didn't forget, I have an alarm set for nine o'clock. It should be going off in like…" He glanced over at the clock. "Nine minutes." He ran his fingers through his hair before heading into the bathroom to have a look in the mirror. "Maybe Dad is right and I really do need a haircut."

"You'll regret it if you do."

"I'm thinking like two or three inches maybe." He grabbed a hair tie off the counter and used it to pull his hair out of his face. "Nothing drastic. My life hasn't gone to shit that much." Yet.

He reached up to get some aspirin out of the bathroom cabinet. "And wouldn't it be funny if I told Dad I was going to get my hair cut and then showed up with it barely any different?"

Micah laughed. "And there's the Eli I know."

Eli flopped back down on the bed. "The Eli you knew is dead, you're talking to his reanimated corpse."

"Don't talk like that." Micah turned to Matthias, who had just come into the room. "Get him some coffee, he's saying horribly depressing shit again."

"It's true."

"What, that you're saying depressing shit? Yeah. You're making me sad and it's not even fall yet."

"Oh, shut up. It's not that bad."

"For the guy who's been lying since the age of four, you sure are an awful liar sometimes. It is that bad. You're just in denial."

"I'm not in denial."

"You're literally denying being in denial, I call that denial alright."

"I'm fine."

Micah laughed. "I think that's the funniest thing you've ever said."

Eli sat up again. "Enough about my fucking mental health, which is fine. We've got a Selection to plan."

Micah didn't look happy about Eli's refusal to discuss the topic, but Eli didn't care. Micah could be unhappy all he liked. Eli was fine, and he didn't need to talk about it.

Micah grabbed a file off of Eli's desk and flipped it open. "Lindsey thinks it would be a good idea to do some group dates. She's suggesting five groups of five, and is leaving the activities up to you."

There was a knock on the door, and Matthias stepped in, holding a cup of coffee, which he passed to Eli. "Jay is outside, should I let him in?"

Eli nodded. "Yeah, go ahead and send him in." He took a sip of the coffee.

Matthias nodded, and turned and left the room. A few moments later Jay stepped into the room, and sat down in Eli's desk chair. "Alright, what's up?"

"Group dates," Micah said, pulling out a blank sheet of paper. He wrote the words, 'Group dates' on the top with a sharpie, then drew a line beneath those words. "Alright. Activity suggestions."

"Karaoke. Making a fool of yourself singing is always a safe bet."

Eli made a face at Jay. "Hey, I'm a great singer."

Jay gave him a skeptical look. "I really doubt that."

"No, he's not actually bad." Micah scribbled Jay's suggestion down. "I'm writing that down, it's a good idea. What else?"

"We could go to the beach," Eli said.

Micah nodded, writing that down as well. "Of course. You and your obsession with water."

"Hey, there's worse things to be obsessed with." Jay gave Micah a dirty look.

Micah looked up from the paper at Jay. "I'm just going to ignore how cheap a dig that was, if you give me another good idea."

"The zoo?"

"Sure." Micah wrote that down too.

Eli glanced over Micah's shoulder to see what he had written down. "Why don't you just let me do that? My handwriting is better."

Micah looked over at him, surprised. "I guess if you want to." He passed over the paper.

Eli crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash, before reaching for a fresh sheet.

"What did you do that for?"

"You used sharpie, it bleeds too much." He grabbed a pen off his desk and started rewriting all the ideas on the new sheet.

"I thought old Eli was dead."

"Sometimes his ghost comes back to haunt me," Eli replied absently as he wrote 'Group Dates' on top of the page in elaborate, loopy, clearly well-practiced handwriting. "Karaoke, the beach, the zoo, right?"

"Yeah. Add painting to the list too."

Eli paused, pen hovering over a tiny doodle of ocean waves. "What? No. I don't paint."

"You don't do that either." Micah gestured towards the tiny doodle. "Just put it on the list. You'll have fun."

Eli glanced down at the doodle he had made unthinkingly, and immediately crumpled up the paper and threw it at the trash can. "You're right. I don't do that either."

Micah sighed, and reached for a fresh sheet of paper, and wrote all the date ideas out again, including painting. Eli was annoyed, but didn't say anything. Micah could meddle all he liked. It just wasn't going to happen. Eli wasn't that person anymore. He hadn't done anything creative in more than a year.

Once he had finished rewriting their ideas from before, Micah looked up and asked, "We need one more. What else?"

"Laser tag."

Eli rolled his eyes at Jay. "Think less eight year old's birthday party, please."

"Mini-golf?"

"Still eight year old's birthday party, but whatever. Put it down. Jade likes golf, and that's the best she'll get from me."

Micah laughed. "Not even remotely close, but okay." He wrote it down anyway. "And how do you want to do groups? Jade with mini-golf, right?"

Eli nodded. "Yeah. Lennox, Isla, Violet, Wilhelmina, and Cassandra with painting, Brielle, Thea, Elaine, Marlee, and Nefertiti with karaoke. Flo can go to the zoo. Zenya, Addie, Lydie, Gemma, and Cali can be the beach group. Lena, Ixchel, Jade, Yunuen and Liath can be mini-golf."

Micah wrote most of it down, but then shook his head. "You're nuts if you put the twins together. That's a recipe for trouble."

Eli groaned. "Damn it, you're right. Fine. Send Yunuen to the zoo, Nefertiti mini-golfing, and Flo with karaoke. There, is that better?"

"Yeah, that works. I think. I have no idea if anyone else hates each other."

"God, this might be a total disaster." Eli sighed.

"What's new? Everything is always a total disaster for you."

"Shut up." There was a knock on the door, and Eli heard Matthias answering it. Then he heard his father's voice outside the door. Shit. He was suddenly even more glad he had wadded up and thrown out the paper he had done the writing on.

His father stepped into the room, with a judgemental look at Jay's tattoos. Micah carefully pulled his sleeves down, which had been rolled up, in order to hide the marks from needle after needle over the years.

Eli shot him a look that clearly read, 'Get out of here,' and Micah immediately stood up, set the list on Eli's desk, put a hand on Jay's shoulder and pushed slightly so he would get the message that it was time to go.

They made their way out of the room, leaving Eli alone with his father. Dad reached out and pulled the hair tie out of Eli's hair. "You just need to cut that mess already."

Eli didn't respond, just ran his fingers through his hair self-consciously then held out a hand to get the hair tie back.

Dad dropped the hair tie in Eli's outstretched hand, and Eli set it aside on his desk. Dad turned away, and took a look at the list of group dates, which was still sitting out. "I see you've been making plans."

"Yeah." Thank God he had pitched the list he had been doodling on. He didn't need Dad's judgement for that too.

"That's good. I'm glad you're taking this process seriously. I was starting to think that you really were as gay as you look."

Eli was tempted to laugh and tell him that if he thought Eli looked gay he should get out more often, but it just wasn't worth it.

He turned away from the paper on the desk, back towards Eli. "Is that really what you sleep in?"

Eli looked down at his clothes. A worn t-shirt from a concert he had attended in college and sweatpants. Nothing out of the ordinary. "Yeah. What's wrong with it?" He pulled slightly at the collar of his t-shirt.

"You look homeless."

Old Eli would have said, 'Thanks, that's what I was going for.' But Eli wasn't him anymore, so he just mumbled something that sounded vaguely like agreement, and waited for Dad to continue, to find something else to criticize.

"It's not very fitting for the crown prince to look like he would fit better sleeping on the streets like a lazy eight."

Unless a photographer broke into his bedroom at four in the morning, chances of someone seeing him wearing anything like this were slim. But he didn't say that, just nodded.

"Did you just get out of bed? When I gave you the morning off I meant for you to be getting ready for the twin's birthday party, not lazing around with your friends."

"I woke up a while ago, and Micah and Jay and I were working on date ideas." Eli gestured towards the paper on the desk. "You saw our list." He technically hadn't been awake for that long but whatever. That was just unnecessary details.

"Huh. Well, you'd better be dressed properly by eleven. And don't forget about the things you need to sign off on by this evening. There's a stack for you in your office. If you can get that done, maybe I won't have to be so ashamed that a son of a bitch like you had to be the first born." He turned and left the room, leaving Eli alone.

As soon as the door closed, Eli flopped back on the bed, closing his eyes and waiting for Micah and Jay to come back. It didn't think them long to come back. Jay returned to his seat in Eli's desk chair, and Micah laid down next to him on the bed. "You good?" Micah asked.

"It shouldn't bother me." It really shouldn't. He should be used to hearing that he dressed wrong, talked wrong, was lazy and worthless and should have been the youngest son. He thought it all the time himself, he had been hearing it all his life, why did it still sting? It didn't even make any sense.

Micah sighed, but didn't say anything. Eli knew that Micah knew exactly how he felt, so Micah didn't need to say anything to tell Eli that he understood. That maybe someday it would finally stop hurting. For both of them.

Eli wished that day would hurry the fuck up.

Eli spent some time laying back, staring up at the ceiling, while Micah tried to get him involved in other future plans for the Selection. He had been giving the Selection the best shot he had in him, but he still hated that he had to do it at all. All he wanted was her.

She should be here with him today.

The King's Quarters, The Palace, Angeles, A Day That Never Happened

Elijah

Eli woke up to hair in his mouth. He tried to bring his hand up to his mouth to remove the hair, but found there was something heavy and warm on top of his arm. He opened his eyes, blinking sleepily against the morning light, smiling faintly as he spotted Isabelle, her long dark hair making a stark contrast against the pure white of the pillow.

She stirred next to him, turning over to face him. "Good morning, babe." She smiled slightly at him, and reached up to tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear. "Sleep okay?"

He shook his head. "You know I never do."

She wrapped an arm around his shoulders, engagement ring and wedding band clear on her left hand as she lifted it. "Guess I need to do a better job of wearing you out first," she said teasingly. "We don't have shit to do this morning, you can go back to sleep."

She didn't have to tell him twice. He closed his eyes again, moving in closer to her as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair. It didn't take him long to fall asleep again.

If only reality could have turned out so perfect.

Beach House, Sonage, Another Day That Never Happened

Elijah

The waves crashed gently on the beach as they walked together, hand in hand, leaving footprints in the damp sand behind them. They stopped farther down the beach, and together they stared out at the rising sun, which made streaks of orange and pink across the purple sky.

They stood there for a moment in silence, until Isabelle turned to him and asked, "Do you ever regret it?"

"Sometimes. I think sometimes about what I could have done. What I could have changed."

She squeezed his hand slightly. "Jenn will do a good job."

"She will," he agreed. "A better job than I would have ever done."

"Don't be so hard on yourself." She turned and leaned in to kiss her. "I think you would have done a good job. Might have destroyed you, but you would have done a good job."

"You're happier this way, be honest." He smiled slightly at her, resting his forehead against hers.

"I am. But so are you, be honest."

"You're right. You're always right."

She laughed, and shoved him slightly, sending him staggering into the shallow water. "You'd better remember that."

He grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the water too. "You're terrible."

"Better believe it." She bent down in an attempt to splash him, and he took the opportunity to scoop her up. She squealed as he carried her out to deeper water and dumped her in so she would get completely wet.

She came up spluttering, wet hair plastered against her face and neck, and Eli made a mental note to put the scene down in ink on paper later. "Fuck you, you got my watch wet." She held up her wrist, which had a smartwatch on it.

Eli just laughed. "You should have thought of that before you pushed me into the water. You can put it in rice when we get home, it'll be fine." He leaned in to kiss her, brushing a strand of her wet hair out of the way.

She rolled her eyes. "You asshole, your hair's not even wet." A flash of inspiration suddenly crossed her face, and she deepened the kiss, putting one hand on the back of Eli's head to hold it in place. Then she ducked down under the water, pulling him down with her.

Eli hadn't expected it, even though really he should have, so when they came back up he just laughed and kissed her again, reaching for her hand. "I guess I deserved that."

She nodded, smiling. "You so deserved that." She started heading for shore, and he followed, still holding on to her hand. When they were back up on the beach she pulled her hand free of hers and wrang some of the water out of her hair, before pushing it back out of her face. Eli took a moment to appreciate just how pretty she was. She was short and slim, but muscular, and Eli knew she could take his ass down if she really wanted to. When they play-fought and he won, it was because she let him. She wore a tank top that exposed a collection of tattoos up and down both arms, across her shoulders, and up the back of her neck, and he knew there were more on her thighs, which were covered by her leggings. The mostly black ink stood out against her tan skin. She was one of his favorite subjects to draw. He had dozens of sketches of her scattered around the house.

She turned back towards him, grinning mischievously. "And what the fuck are you looking at?"

"You," he said, grinning back.

She took a step closer. "Any thoughts you want to share?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

"I was actually thinking about drawing you."

She laughed, shaking her head fondly. "Why did I ever marry an artist? I think he's checking me out, but nope, just wants to draw me."

"You married me because I'm awesome."

"Oh yeah, there's that." She took off sprinting through the sand. "Race you back to the house."

"Hey, no fair." He started running after her, but there was no chance he would ever catch her. She ran several miles almost every morning for fun, she was faster than he would ever be.

Sure enough, she beat him to their back door, which faced the beach, easily enough. She waited there for him, since he had the key. He unlocked the door, and held it open for her to step inside after him. "I made it in the house first, did I win?"

"I said back to the house, not in the house." She shook her head at him. "You're such a cheater."

"You got a head start, and you run every morning. Is that not cheating?"

"Oh, you're right, I suppose." She sighed playfully. "I suppose you can have this one. Not like it matters, though." She placed her hands on his shoulders, and gently pushed him up against the wall, tilting her head upward to press her lips against his jaw. "The winner and the loser both get what they want."

The Gardens, The Palace, Angeles, July 29th, 11:00am

Elijah

There had never been a chance Eli would be late for this, even before his father had come in. By eleven o'clock exactly, he was in the part of the gardens where the twins' birthday party was being held.

Dad was already there, making small talk with the twins' father. Eli avoided the two of them. He didn't need to see Dad again, and meeting the father of two of the Selected so early on was the last thing he wanted to do.

He made his way over to Ixchel first, who was chatting with Nefertiti. "Happy birthday, Lady Ixchel," he said.

As he approached, Nefertiti turned away and went to talk to Lennox, who was sitting alone at a nearby table writing in a notebook. She probably wanted to give one of the birthday girls her moment in the spotlight. That was nice of her.

"Thank you." She nodded slightly at him, smiling a smile that was about as genuine as his usual smiles. Except she was worse at hiding it.

Eli made a small gesture towards Micah, who was with Gemma and Thea, and upon seeing it, he came over and passed Eli a small rectangular package done up in pale green paper. Eli handed it to Ixchel. "Here. For your birthday. Don't let your sister see, I didn't know what to get her so I went with jewelry. And I felt like I had to get you the same thing to make it even, but I wanted to give you this too."

She tore the paper off to find a copy of a history book about Mexico, the country that was once where Paloma was currently. "Oh, thank you." She flipped through it slowly, skimming the pages. She closed the book, and reached up to rearrange her hair. "How are things going for you right now?" She asked.

"About as well as they could be."

"I'm sorry if this isn't something I should ask, but what's it like to be in your position? I'm just curious. I have been studying law for quite some time now."

Eli hesitated for a moment, trying to decide just how honest to be. Did he tell her the truth? An idealized version of the truth? A straight up lie? Did he tell a joke about it? A joke probably wasn't the best idea, he knew she was most likely fairly politically aware and probably had a lot of thoughts about him and his reputation. Especially given the fact that her background check had said that she was partially raised by her mother, who was a six. "It's a balancing act," he finally said.

"A balancing act? What does that mean?" She asked, raising her eyebrows and taking a sip of her drink.

"There's never a moment when everyone is happy with what you're doing," he said carefully. That much was certainly the truth. Do something for the people and the corporations who had too much of the government in their back pocket would cry murder, maintain the status quo and the people get restless. Dad liked to play the game of making insignificant changes to shut them up, and Eli hated it.

It hadn't been so long ago that Eli had been determined that he was going to make real change in the world someday. He still was determined. The only problem was that he wasn't really sure that someday was ever coming anymore. He felt more and more powerless every day.

Ixchel nodded. "I suppose you can't please them all. You don't have to answer this either, but how involved are you in the government directly?"

In reality he spent most of his time on busywork, doing things that could easily be delegated, as part of Dad's strategy to make sure Eli stayed in line, but he wasn't about to tell Ixchel that. It was a constant whirl of meetings and deadlines and trying not to bang his head against a wall when stupid decisions were made and he didn't even get a say.

He went with a joke. "I'll get two weeks of vacation after I get married, and that'll be the first and only pure vacation I'll ever take as an adult, if that tells you anything." That wasn't technically true, he had taken more than one spring break trip as a college student, but close enough. He smiled slightly, to make it clear that that was intended to be funny. It wasn't funny to him, because it was all too true to be funny. There was always something he ought to be doing. He got a lot of leeway because of the Selection, but as soon as it was over, he'd be lucky to get another moment to breath, until he was king. By then, either Dad would have succeeded in breaking him, or he would have his work cut out for him trying to actually change anything.

One of those outcomes was looking all too likely from where Eli stood, and he hated it.

Before Ixchel could respond, Adrienne appeared next to him, a glass of champagne in each hand. "Hello, Eli, Lady Ixchel. Happy birthday." She held one glass out towards Eli.

"Thank you…" Ixchel trailed off, as if waiting for someone to give her Adrienne's name.

He accepted the glass of champagne from Adrienne, but didn't drink. "Lady Ixchel, this is Princess Adrienne, from France."

"Oh. It's nice to meet you, your highness."

Adrienne rolled her eyes, and finished her own glass of champagne. "Don't bother with that bullshit, I'm ninth in line, after all. I might as well not be royalty." She turned to Eli. "Are you going to drink that, or can I have that back?"

He shook his head, and passed it back over. It was really too early for alcohol, so he was happy to let her have it. "It's eleven in the morning, not eleven at night," he said teasingly.

She looked at the glass in her hand for a moment, then abandoned it on a nearby table. "You're right. When did you get responsible?"

"Not all of us are as lucky as you are, Adri."

"You didn't have any problem drinking this weekend, " she pointed out.

Eli rested a hand on his arm. "Not now, okay? Go find Zach."

She nodded, and headed off. Eli turned back to Ixchel, suddenly realizing that if she had changed her opinion of him even a little before Adrienne had showed up, it had been shattered again. "She's something else, isn't she?"

"I guess so," she agreed.

Eli nodded, glancing around at the other people gathered for the party. "I'd better go wish Yunuen a happy birthday too."

Ixchel nodded. "Of course." She headed off into the crowd again, and Eli did the same, but headed in the opposite direction, looking for Yunuen.

On his way to find her, he ran into Cassandra, who was staring at a glass of champagne that she was holding. "Hey, are you alright?" He asked as he came up next to her.

"Oh, yes. Of course." She hastily set the glass aside, and smiled at him. "How have you been? We haven't seen much of you since the ball."

He had spent every free moment either missing Isabelle like hell or trying to ensure that Micah didn't do anything else stupid, so he hadn't felt like dedicating himself to spending more time with the Selected than was required of him. But that had to change before someone started getting on his ass about it, he knew. "Some things have come up that have demanded my attention." He would let her believe that it was government business. That was for the best.

Most likely, not even the woman he would marry would know anything about what he really felt about most things. And that too was for the best. To talk to someone else the way he had talked to Isabelle would be a betrayal, he felt, even though he knew she was dead and didn't give a shit what he was doing with his life now.

Probably, she would want him to move on, to find someone else he could trust. But how could he do that? She was the only girl he could have imagined a life with, a future with.

She had been everything. She had kept him going. She had been incredible. And now she was gone.

Somehow he had managed to keep on going, but life was never going to be the same as it had been with her. There would never be another Isabelle.

Cassandra nodded, and said, "That's understandable," interrupting Eli's thoughts. He returned his attention to her, even though all he really wanted to do was be by himself. To lock himself away and not have to pretend for his father, for the Selected, and for the cameras. It was probably for the best that he wasn't alone, really. Probably for the best that he wasn't allowed to get too deep in his own thoughts.

But just because it was for the best didn't mean he had to like it.

He heard the sound of a camera going off nearby, and remembered just in time that he needed to keep up his smile. It wouldn't do to be photographed with anything less than a smile when around the Selected.

It was also a reminder that he did need to find the other birthday girl quickly. He made an excuse to Cassandra, and moved on, determined to find Yunuen so there would be pictures. It wouldn't be good if it looked as if he was favoring one sister over the other. People had already noticed that he hadn't danced with Yunuen at the ball, and there was nothing he could do about that now, but he could at least try to do a better job of being more equal with his time in the future.

He spotted Yunuen, and started heading in her direction, but before he could reach her, a servant pulled him aside. "Your father wants to see you."

"Can't it wait a minute? I was just about to say happy birthday to Yunuen."

The servant shook his head. "He says you need to come right away."

Eli sighed, and left the party as instructed. It wasn't worth arguing, but he was annoyed. Did Dad want him to take the Selection seriously or not?

He headed upstairs to a meeting room, where Dad, Director Burns, General Ellis, Councilor White, General Middleton, General Allen, and Father Walsh had gathered. Shit. That was not a good combination. The king, the director of intelligence, all three of the council members responsible for defense and the military, and the council's religious advisor. What the fuck had happened?

He took a seat at the table, and watched as Director Burns stood up and began to speak. "For those of you who aren't aware, I received word this morning that Kendall Gibbs, the recently-eliminated Selected from Dominica, was found dead in her bedroom. Rebel involvement is highly suspected. Words were found written on the walls suggesting that this killing was motivated by a desire to see the royal family fall." She set a file folder down in the center of the table.

Eli knew he shouldn't look, but he did anyway. It was his fault. They had killed her because she had signed up to date him. That meant it was only right that he look.

Kendall's body was almost unrecognizable in the pictures, thanks to her injuries. Eli had never been one to be squeamish about blood, but this was on a whole different level. He closed the file and set it back down, feeling sick. He couldn't bring himself to pay attention as the others in the room talked about the press and what to do about the rebels, lost in thought about too many things.

The Selection wasn't supposed to play out like this. Eli wasn't supposed to end up with bodies on his conscience. There was no doubt in his mind that he was responsible for what had happened, and it could never happen again.

Suddenly every eye in the room turned to him, and Eli realized that they were expecting him to answer a question. "Sorry, can you repeat that?"

Annoyance was clear across Dad's face as he said, "The Selected. What do you want to tell them? I thought I'd ask your opinion, since this is your Selection and you ought to have an opinion."

Eli stood up abruptly. "It doesn't matter, because it's over. I'm not doing this anymore." He walked out of the meeting room, not waiting for anyone to argue with him.

As he walked out of the meeting room, he realized that that was the first time he had made a direct attempt to go against his father's wishes in more than a year. He felt as if some of the numbness that had been his life for the past year had been washed away by the blood that was now on his hands.

Something had to change.

AN: So that just happened. Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think of this chapter!

I'm sorry this one was a little shorter than my most recent chapters have been. I had another scene that it was supposed to end on but I decided to move it to Chapter 19 because this made a better ending point for the chapter.