*Ainslee*
Lying back on the soft grass, I stare up at the sky, watching the stars beginning to glitter overhead as the sun drops below the tree line. I have one hand on my full stomach, the other under my head.
“Your belly aching?” Nelson asks, sitting next to me.
I don’t even look up to answer him, knowing he’s talking to me. “A little.”
“I told you guys not to eat so much. That was all a hoax, you know. They pretend to be nice to you, pretend to care, and then rip your throat out.”
I hear Annamarie whimper and sit up, despite my aching stomach. “Stop it, Nelson. You’re scaring her. They won’t rip your throat out, Annamarie.”
She pulls her legs up to her chest and wraps an arm around them. It won’t be long now until we have to get ready to run, and I am not prepared. Neither is she, but for different reasons. I can tell fear is pulsing through her, the sort of fear that makes a person paralyzed, not persistent.
“So you think they fed us to slow us down?” Travis asks, picking at his teeth. We aren’t used to eating so much meat, so it gets stuck in our teeth easily, at least, I think that’s why we all have fragments of steak and chicken lodge between our pearly whites.
“Yep. And then that one guy came out and tried to make it sound like it was a bad thing,” Nelson continues. “Shouting that it was enough or too much, or whatever.”
“Kris,” I told him. “That was Kris Moore, the king’s advisor.”
“How do you know that?” Travis asks me, not in a rude way, but he’s genuinely curious, I can tell by his tone.
“I met him when they visited the village. That other guy who came out to stop him from yelling is Zeke Winters.” I realize I don’t know what Zeke’s job is. He’d been so shocked to see me, I thought he’d actually become even paler somehow.
“Kris doesn’t work for the king anymore.”
I turn to see a girl who looks like she’s only about thirteen sitting near us. She has long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She’s a lovely girl, but I don’t know her. I stare at her for a moment, wondering if she’ll finish. She doesn’t. “What’s that?”
“I said Kris Moore isn’t an advisor to the king anymore. He visited our town a few weeks ago, and our mayor told us who he was. I’m Lucia, by the way. Lucia Horn.”
I give her a little wave. “Ainslee Bleiz. Nice to meet you. What pa--village are you from?” I almost asked her what pack she was from for some reason. We haven’t had packs since before my dad was born.
“I’m from Moonfalls,” she says. “You?”
“We’re from Beotown.” I’m not sure why we’re having this conversation. Does it matter? I’ve heard that all of the feeders are kept in cages by themselves once they’re in the castle anyway, so it’s not like I need to make friends.
Besides, I’m going to escape.
“You say Kris doesn’t work for the king anymore?” Travis asks. “Why is he here then?”
“Oh, well, my father is the mayor of our town.” She turns a bit more to face us, and I am shocked at what she’s just said. “And he got a letter early this morning that said the king isn’t in charge of this culling. There are some new rules. Like we’ll have three hours to get a head start. It said to expect more people to come back this time than in the past. I’m hopeful that will be the case. I really want to go home.” Tears began to form in her eyes.
“Wait—your father is your mayor?” Nelson asks her. “How the hell are you here?”
“My father just became mayor a few months ago. We had a….” She pauses and looks around, and then shrugs one shoulder. We understand. A revolt. It’s a word none of us want to say out loud, but it’s one we all think about a lot. Since she’s not from our village she can’t mind-link with us to say it, so she just skips that word. “Anyway, my father was elected, and he wanted to keep things fair, so he put my name in too. He cried when he pulled it out.”
“That’s… I’m sorry.” Kevin shakes his head. We all feel the same way.
“Thank you. I’m sorry you’re all here, too, but I shouldn’t be treated any differently just because I’m the mayor’s daughter. My father has met with Kris several times in the last few months since the… incident. No one else from the castle has been out to visit. I’m not even sure the king knows what happened, or else he might’ve come himself of sent another royal. Kris is the one who convinced my father we needed a culling.”
“He was pushing for it in our village as well,” I chime in.
“He was?” Travis sounds surprised.
“Yes. When I spoke to him after he brought my family that food, he was talking about how we’re all lazy and need to pull our weight. He said he doesn’t understand why we aren’t contributing more blood.” I remember that conversation quite well, despite my rage.
“I’m telling you, something’s going on with the blood supply,” Nelson says, shaking his head. “Someone needs to tell someone important about this.”
“Who? Kris? He won’t listen.” The guy is an arrogant bastard. “Zeke might.”
“Or the prince,” Lucia suggest.
“Good point. He’d probably do something about it,” Nelson agrees. “Once he’s king, things will change.”
I am confused. “The prince? Isn’t he more of a figurehead or a fictitious person we’re supposed to believe in to make us feel safer somehow? Like… the winter’s elf that used to allegedly bring candy on Solstice before the war?”
I look around at the faces surrounding me, and everyone looks confused. “What are you talking about, Ainslee?” Nelson is looking at me like I have suddenly grown a second head.
“Yeah, how the hell can you of all people not know who the prince is?” Travis has a smirk on his face. “I was in the bread line that day.”
“Maybe she was so deliriously hungry she’s blurred it all out in her mind,” Kevin offers as they all chuckle.
But I barely hear him as I work through everything they’re saying. Prince. His Majesty. A royal. Holy fuck. “Wait—that guy I yelled at?” All the blood leaves my face, and I feel a cold sweat coming on. How is that possible?
Is that why I’m really here? For revenge for what I’d said to him that day?
“Holy fuck.” I say it aloud this time. “I screamed in the face of the prince?”
“That’s right, Ainslee.” Nelson has a smirk on his face as he pats my arm. “You yelled at—”
There’s a commotion on the far side of the meadow, and everyone starts to clamber to their feet as a form cuts through the crowd, and Nelson and I speak the last two words together as my eyes fall on a face I’ve only seen in my dreams these last few weeks.
“Prince Rafe.”