just fall | ✓

21.

The best thing that came out of the attack was that three girls were so scared shitless by it that they voluntarily went home. Macie happened to be one of these two girls.

By the following day, Clara and the princes were all fine and healed. A few of the princesses had suggested that they have a redo on Alexander's birthday party, but he swiftly rejected that idea. I wasn't sure if it was because of what had happened or if it was because he just really hated all of the attention it brought on him; I suspected it was more the latter than the former, but he just smiled when I asked.

The attack had brought too much focus to me, most of the girls trying to sit with me during meals to find out what had happened, where I'd gotten a gun, and how I knew how to use a gun, because those were definitely illegal for anyone not in the military. They didn't seem to take my silence as a hint that I wouldn't be sharing anything and continued to question me. None of the royals asked anything; I think that they'd guessed already, but not even the king and the queen would say a word to me. Maybe it was because everyone had accepted that we'd be having a funeral if I hadn't somehow ended up with a gun. I thought it was better to not ask, especially because asking would lead to an interrogation, which would probably lead to my imprisonment. Or my execution. I had shuddered a little when I first came to that realization. Just because I'd accepted that I would die young didn't mean that I was quite so accepting of my death being made a spectacle for the whole country, especially when it wouldn't have been hard for them to hide my death in Kent to keep up the fear, but on live TV? There was no denying that.

Since there were guests at the palace, our lessons were cancelled. We didn't have many dates, either, since the princes were busy entertaining and catching up with their friends, so we spent most of our days in the Women's Room or in our own rooms. I didn't care much for the pestering of the other girls, so I generally kept in my room.

Friday afternoon, not two hours after I'd returned to my room from lunch, there were a series of quick, sharp knocks on my door. I stood from my chair on the balcony, setting aside the book I was reading, and hurried to the door, disliking the urgency of the knocker.

Clara was on the other side of the door, her face very pale. "I need you to come with me," she said. "Quickly. And you cannot tell anyone about this."

I didn't even grab shoes; I nodded and followed, shutting the door. The hall was empty. 

Clara was something like a foot shorter than me, a few inches less than that in heels, yet I was having trouble keeping up with her quick pace. "What is it?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Not here," she said. "You'll see."

She led me straight upstairs to her family's private rooms. She stopped outside of a door that wasn't hers and knocked sharply, and it cracked open. One of Salvatore's dark eyes was visible through the crack. "Good, you brought her." He sounded relieved, and he opened the door to reveal what was, simply put, complete chaos.

The room was completely torn apart, the curtains torn to ribbons and the windows cracked. Papers were scattered everywhere and fluttering in the breeze from outside, books were torn to shreds, and all of the furniture was overturned and broken. Mason, Alexander, and Liev were in the process of repairing the bed, the frame of which had been cracked. Even the wallpaper was torn, like someone had dragged a knife over the walls.

I'd have been lying if I said that it wasn't a familiar scene.

Salvatore shut and locked the door quickly behind us, and Clara's expression was grim. "This is what happened," she said darkly. "We needed help."

"What kind of help?" I asked.

"A lot," Mason said, standing and brushing off his dress pants. The mens' jackets were nowhere to be found, all of them working with their shirtsleeves rolled up to their elbows. They looked less like princes when they were like this. "We need all of this fixed, and our parents can't know about it. Please tell me you know someone." He sounded hopeful.