Royal 2 (Book two in my Selection series)

Chapter 17

It was hours before we were allowed to leave. I step out into the bright circular room with the doors leading to the other Selected rooms and my own. Vases were crashed on the ground with soil from the plants scattered across the floor and a light fixture had even fallen. Two painting had slashed through them.

I turn to my room and start towards it. Liliana and Amelia rush out with red eyes and tears streaming down their faces.

"We're so sorry miss." Liliana whimpers. My heart races and I look around in search for Tina. I tried to form words but it was almost like I could remember them.

"We were trying to help the other maids back to the safe room and they shot Tina." Amelia says. I shake my head and step back a step. I close my eyes and try and control myself.

"Are you sure it was her? I mean couldn't it be anyone? Maybe they just didn't look for good." I say quickly with a weak, broken voice.

"We watched it ourselves miss." Liliana says, another sob racking her body.

"Let's go back to the room." I whisper to them and lead them back into my untouched bedroom. I turn around once and see Will standing where I had just left. I bite my lip and close my eyes to keep from breaking down. I hurry into my bedroom and shut my door behind me.

Liliana, Amelia, and I sit in a circle on my bed and cry. Liliana laid her head down at one point and sat up with a wet spot on the sheets.

"You guys just take the rest of the week off. I'll wear old gowns I've worn before they all look bran new still." I put my hand on their hands. And they look up.

"No, miss. If we aren't working we will be moping around and feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to work." Amelia shakes her head.

"Well take the day off. I'll see you all sometimes tonight but take the day for yourselves." I tell them. They nod and thank me and leave.

After they leave I make way up to the top of my bed and lay my head down and let sobs rack my body. I hug my blanket to my body and curl up in the sheets. My hair was displayed over my pillows and my face had grown splotchy with tears, but I didn't care.

A knock comes to my door and I lift my head up.

"Come In." I say as loudly as I can manage but it comes out in a sickly croak. I see Will stand at the door, still holding the knob from opening it.

"I heard." He whispers and makes his way across the room. I just look at him blankly and sit up in the bed a bit. I take my glasses from my face before I break them, wipe them off, and set them on my nightstand.

"Yeah." I manage. The pure pity projected on his face mad me want to hide under my blanket. He walks over to me and sits beside me in my bed. "Death is just something you watch on films. It's not really supposed to happen."

"I know." He mutters and hugs me closer to him.  "You Can cry, I don't blame you."

And I did. I cried, even though I was an ugly crier. And I cried even if he was the prince of Illéa and future successor. I cried even though one day I may even be his wife because I didn't care. I didn't care if he judged me because I felt that he wouldn't be here to comfort me if he cared that I was crying.

For nearly a half an hour it seemed I just lay there shaking and trembling. I could imagine what my other maids were doing. If barely known Tina but she was still gone and I knew her enough.

"After the attack all the girls were allowed to call their families. I'll take you down and you can have as long as you like. All the other girls have already went." He whispers quietly.

"Thank you." I say and stand up from my bed. He stands with me and walks with my out the door and through the hallways. He takes me to a small office room and holds the phone out to me. I take it eagerly from him and punch in the numbers of James's house number.

As I wait for him to answer I slide my fingers along the slinky like line that connected the phone to the wall. I looked at Will and attempted a smile as I wait for the phone to ring.

"Hello?" Someone says on the other end of the line.

"James?" I ask with happiness hinting at my voice.

"Autumn? Is that you? Why are you calling? Are you coming home?" He asks in back to back questions.

"It's me. The palace was attacked." I say more solemnly now. "We were allowed to call our family."

"Wait are you okay?" He asks.

"No I'm fine. You'll probably see it on the Report this week too, but I'm fine. How is Colton?" I ask with a smile on my face.

"He can hear you right now if you want to say something." James tells me.

I grin and wipe away stray tears on my face. "Hey buddy. This is Autumn. I'm sorry I still haven't come home but I miss you so much and I love you more than anything. Now be good for James and don't get into any mischief."

"He loves you too." James says. "So how's everything going with the prince?" He asks.

"Better than I thought." I say simply since he was standing right across the room from me. "He's with me right now."

"Can he hear me?" James asks. I look up and Will was looking off somewhere else.

"No." I reply.

"Is he treating you well?" James asks quietly.

"Yeah." I nod though he can't see me. I knew that if I answered vaguely Will would never know what James asked me.

"Do you like him?"

"Yeah, I do. Though there's a lot of others." I shrug and lean against the wall.

"I get that. Just write me if you want me to get you home. I can think of plenty excuses why you'd need to come back if you needed them." I hear James chuckle.

"Okay James." I couldn't help but smile. "I gotta go. I love you. And I love you too Colton."

"Love you. Bye." James says.

"Bye." I whisper. I take the phone from my ear and set it back in the holder. As soon as the phone hung up I was back in the real world. "I'm going to go back up to my room, but you really don't have to come too. You have other important things to do." Though, I wanted him to come.

"That's why my brother's here." Will smiles a bit and walks me back up to my room. There we sit on the edge of my bed and I lean against him.

Just a few weeks ago my brain would've been screaming that this was too early and we'd only been on two dates but now my heart was screaming that it was never too early to feel a certain way.

"Thanks for being here." I mutter and squeeze his hand slightly.

"I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else."