Kaden | ✓

part six ♚ outdated

Emmaline's mother looked about ready to faint, and her brothers scrambled to quickly bow, despite my insistence that formalities weren't necessary. Emmaline was blushing wildly as her brothers demanded to know why she hadn't told them she was hanging around a member of the royal family.

"I'm sorry for stopping in and surprising you like this," I said to her mother. "I was walking Emmaline home to make sure she was safe."

"And he was just leaving." Emmaline smiled tightly and dragged me from the room. "Damn you, Kaden Schreave. I was going to tell them! Now I'm going to have to explain everything at one in the damned morning."

"Guess I'm only getting eight songs," I sighed.

She shook her head. "You are so lucky that slapping you would probably be treason." She hissed. "I'll write to you tomorrow if I have time. Good night, Kaden."

I pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and grinned at her. "Good night, Emmaline."

♚

Officer Leger was not happy with how late I had been out. That much was obvious from the stiff way he walked me back towards my room and the tight grip he kept on my upper arm. "Kaden, that was too late."

"I wasn't letting her walk home alone at nearly one in the morning."

He had let out a loud, irritated sigh. "Your mother is going to kill me if your father doesn't manage to first."

I waved that off. "Just tell them I came back at eleven or something. They'll believe it if it comes from you."

"I'm not lying to your parents." He said firmly. "Do you know how long I've known your mother?"

"Too damn long," I nodded. "Since you were really young, right? Didn't you two make out in her treehouse?" I knew for a fact that they did--Mother told Eadlyn something about that years ago, and after much begging she told me. I just liked to tease Officer Leger about it because he and Dad always get so flustered when Mom and Dad's Selection--and the time before it--are brought up.

"Are you drunk?"

"No."

"High?"

"You know me better than that."

"Just checking." He said. "If you have a hangover in the morning, I'm kicking your scrawny royal ass."

"I'm not scrawny!" I argued. "And I'm not five! You wouldn't be able to kick my ass anymore."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Really, Kaden? Do you think you could take me?"

I didn't. Officer Leger had years of experience in the military behind him, and years of defending himself as a Six before that. He could most definitely snap me like a twig over his leg, but I don't admit it. "Maybe."

"We both know you couldn't."

"Doesn't mean I'm going to admit it."

He shook his head. "You definitely didn't inherit your personality from your father."

I said cheerfully, "I hear that he was a lot less aggravating when he was my age."

"Well, I never felt the urge to kick your father through the wall or throw him out the window, so I'm going to agree with that." He said.

"You just wanted him away from my mother?"

"Of course I did," he said. "She was my first love and I was convinced that I was still in love with her. I was nineteen. A love triangle never killed anyone."

"Except when it did." I nodded somberly.

He had let out a short, agitated laugh that he abruptly cut off. "You're frustrating. Is it the time of day? Because you've never been the difficult child. That was always Eadlyn and Osten."

I shrugged. "It's the fact that I'm being practically dragged down the hall by my mom's ex-boyfriend that's basically my uncle at almost two in the morning because he's mad that I walked a pretty girl home after she performed some of the most beautiful music I'd ever heard."

He rolled his eyes and let me go once we reached my room. "Good night, Kaden. If you're late for breakfast, I'm dumping a pitcher of ice water on you."

"You wouldn't."

"I would. Queen's orders. Good night." He stalked off down the hall, and I rolled my eyes and went into my room. I made quick work of changing and adjusting the papers that someone had lazily thrown onto my desk--Dad or Eadlyn or Mom probably left them, but they're neat freaks, so I'm not sure why they would've let them scatter like that--and then I collapsed onto my bed, but I couldn't fall asleep.

So I rolled out of bed, flicked on a light, and found tiring things to do. I went over the names of the Selected and their pictures and things about them until my eyes watered and my vision blurred. I pulled out an encyclopedia from my bookshelf--why I had an encyclopedia in my own personal collection, I didn't know--and I found the most boring subject in it, and read it until I had nearly fallen asleep on top of the book. I laid down and tried to sleep. Still nothing.

I closed my eyes and counted sheep. I flipped over my pillow a dozen times. I rolled around to try and get comfortable. I tried sleeping with my head under the pillow. I laid at the opposite end of my bed. I hung my head over the edge of my bed and let the blood rush to it. I tried to force myself to yawn and then ended up wiping tears off of my face when it only succeeded in making my eyes water. I hummed lullabies that my mother used to sing to me, I read from a little book of stories that had always put me to sleep when I was younger, and I even tried quietly playing relaxing music. Nothing. Still.

Finally, after what felt like hours and probably was, I decided to count backwards from a hundred with my eyes closed. I was asleep before I could even reach fifty.