I returned her smile, glad to hear that she had some common sense about all this. I would be an idiot to let this pass by. I had to trust Royce and believe that he was truly trying to help me and remember at the same time that he could have an agenda.
God, why couldn’t this be easy? Why couldn’t I just find what I needed and moved on with my life?
“You need to let me know every step of the way though,” Johanna warned. “I have connections too. I can see if what he is telling you is legit.”
“Thanks,” I answered.
She gave me a shrug as she picked up her earbuds. “That’s what friends are for.”
Friends. I had at least one friend in this crazy academy.
Chapter 4
Royce
I leaned against the stone wall as I waited for Anna to arrive, tossing the flashlight in the air aimlessly. When she had told me in passing that she was willing to meet my demands, I wasn’t surprised.
Anna was desperate and she wasn’t getting anywhere with any of her other research or those that claimed to be her friends.
I snorted. I had no friends. The kings had a mutual understanding between us, bound together by our need to be on top and by what we dealt with with our families.
But friends—we wouldn’t be friends after we graduated. No, we would go our separate ways and do whatever the fuck our families wanted us to do, eventually taking positions that would hold power.
Then there was a good chance we would be enemies.
Anna appeared at the end of the hallway and I pushed off the wall, watching as she approached. She was dressed for the hunt, her long legs encased in a pair of leggings with a long-sleeved shirt covering her arms. Her hair was pulled away from her face and I could see the excitement in her eyes, her cheeks flushed with the possibility of finding something good today.
I hoped that my father wasn’t wrong, and we did find something that would propel her to want to look for more. There was a small piece of my black soul wanting to be the recipient of her excitement and thrill, curious as to what she would do to find what she was looking for.
“Pauper.”
“Royce,” she replied evenly, eyeing my flashlight. “Don’t make me regret trusting you.”
I took a step toward her. “Don’t trust me. Don’t trust anyone in this fucking school.”
She didn’t back down, just like I expected her not to. “Tell me why,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I trust anyone here, most of all you?”
I wanted to tell her the truth. “Because we are all cold, selfish bastards in the end that don’t give a fuck who we step on to make it to the top. That’s why you shouldn’t trust any of us, no matter what lies they tell you.”
Anna straightened her shoulders, giving me a dead-on stare. “Well then, Royce. Shall we get started?”
Damn, she was something else. “Come on,” I said, flicking on the light. “We have to go this way.”
I started down the hall, past the library and to the back of the castle, feeling her presence right behind me. “Did you know that this was first a prison?”
“Really?” she asked, catching up to me to where we were walking side by side.
“Yeah,” I answered, pointing the flashlight up, where I knew the holes would be. “See those holes? That was where the rings were that held the prisoners and their chains. If you look closely at some of the stone, you can still make out the tally marks from some of them.”
“Look at you,” she said with a small laugh. “Royce Whitehall, tour guide.”
I flushed, embarrassed that I had even said anything. “It’s just, you should know there’s a bloody history within these walls.”
Anna laid a hand on my arm, stopping me in my tracks. “I love history. This is really interesting.”
A thrill shot through me even as I tried to ignore it, genuinely surprised that she was interested in what I had to say. Normally the words out of my mouth were some sort of shitty remarks that had her fuming and stalking away from me.
Not touching me.
Just as I was trying to register it in my head, she was already pulling her hand away, apparently realizing she had, in fact, touched her mortal enemy. “I mean, thanks for telling me that,” she said quickly. “Shall we continue?”
Irritated with myself, I withdrew the key from my pocket and inserted it into the lock, pushing against the door to open it. The air filled with a musty smell as the door creaked open and I shone the light inside, revealing a set of stairs. “Careful.”
“Where did you get that key?” she asked as I pulled it out of the lock and placed it in my pocket.
I flashed her a quick grin. “I will never reveal my secrets.”
Anna huffed but pushed past me and I shut the door behind us, locking us in the forgotten passageway. What I hadn’t told Anna was how I had called in a few favors to a few of the students that owed me, receiving both the key and the map of the castle in a matter of hours. This door would lead us directly to the final destination and keep us concealed so that no one would feel the need to follow us.
“Wow,” Anna said as she pressed her hand against the stone wall. “It doesn’t look like this passageway has been used in years.”
“This is one of the many that lead to the bowels of the castle,” I explained as I pointed the
