A/N: Small edits
A/N: So I don't usually put songs in this book but guys. GUYS. You literally have to listen to this song, it is PERFECT for this book and for August.
I want to text Casey. I want to call her. I want to figure this out, I want to make it all right.
My life is falling apart - I'm falling apart. I slouch farther back in the chair in my father's study, knowing how much it will annoy him. I came here right after leaving Leah, still shaking from the aftermath of the nightmare.
Still shaking from the loss of control.
"You can't keep me from her," I say, teeth gritted. "She's the one thing - I won't compromise. Not on her."
My father smiles, thin-lipped, a thing with no real joy in it. "I've already dealt with Miss Anderson," he says, and my blood runs cold. "I've found her most cooperative. Unlike you, I might add."
My father waits for my reaction, brows raised, but I hold my tongue. If I react now, he'll never tell me what he means. He'll never tell me what he did.
What did he do?
I sit down, rub my head. I'm not thinking properly. I'm not awake enough for this.
The nightmare is running through my head, stamped on the back of my eyelids whenever I blink. I can't unsee it. I don't know what it means.
Today was just the last in a string of increasingly bad days. Before this week, I'd been having the dreams maybe once a week, and they wouldn't be half as vivid. But today was the third this week, and the worst one I've ever had.
I can't go on ignoring them and hoping they'll go away, like I was before. Clearly, it isn't working.
The magic is getting worse, and I don't know what to do. I don't know what it means.
I haven't told anyone else apart from Leah, and I've tried to hide how bad it is from her. I don't think I'm fooling her, though - Leah's always been too perceptive.
I want to ask her more about the magic. I want to figure out why it's affecting me in this way. But I'm scared to talk about it.
I'm scared to find out something I don't want to know.
The sound of my father clearing his throat pulls me out of my thoughts.
"You seem preoccupied," he says, and there's a sharpness in his eyes that lets me know I'm not going to like whatever he has to say next. "Maybe you're thinking of that... hooligan I found in your room this morning? Straying from Miss Anderson already?" He raises an eyebrow. "Ah, how fickle the heart."
"Kinsey and I are just friends," I growl. "There's nothing between us. Casey is the one - " I break off. Swallow. "What do you want, father," I ask. "What plan have you come up with."
YOU ARE READING
Royally Marked
RomanceCasey Anderson isn't expecting much from her Mark - but when her soulmate turns out to be Prince August, the boy next in line for the throne, everything changes. ******** In a world much like our own, Casey Anderson is trying to navigate her senior...