Chapter 28 Part 1

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The following morning, wearing my maid outfit, I waited outside under a nearby tree. The Crown Prince came early on. I stood and waited for him to walk the rest of the way. From nearby I could hear servants gossiping, discovering the ridiculous rumors of a maid requesting a picnic to be true.

"Come." He said, continuing to walk in the same direction. We were moving towards the same gardens we visited the day before, but he took a different path.

As we rounded a corner the garden opened up, an old willow grew on the side of a large pond. He held out his hand as if inviting me to sit on a throne, my laughter rang out lightly as he continued towards the tree. A smile spread across his face as he leisurely sat down and leaned against the wide trunk. Not far beside him I laid down on my side in the grass. What a scene this would be, I could already imagine the gossip.

"What's the plan?" He asked, making me laugh again. At least he knew I wasn't here for a picnic.

"Just luring out some mice." I replied, causing him to laugh in return.

"Blake thinks you've invited me out to seduce me." He laughed.

"Does he think there's a specific place and time I'd need to do that?" I asked. What exactly did Blake think about all day? "That does remind me though, who has he been practicing on?" I asked.

"I really don't think he's kissed anyone..." He trailed off as his expression grew distant. "Well, there was once, but it was forced on him. There was a girl, she drank too much and kissed him. We left afterwards, Blake deemed the place unsafe." He laughed at the memory.

"And you?" I asked. The Crown Prince made a choking noise and cleared his throat as he looked away. I remembered back to the carriage when I supposedly passed out. He hadn't really kissed me, could that be enough to embarrass him?

I sighed out loud before rolling onto my back to look up at the sky through the tree branches. The branches hung down like hundreds of hands stretching back to the earth. I smiled to myself. If I were a tree, would I stretch higher to the sun or after tasting the light would I turn around?

"Are you always like this?" The Crown Prince asked, confusing me.

"Like what?" I questioned. He looked at me, staring down momentarily before turning away again.

"Are you always so exposed?" He thought he elaborated, but I still wasn't clear on where his thoughts were.

"Speak plainly." I frowned. "What are you trying to say?"

"Are you always.. Do you lay around talking to men like this often?" He was looking anywhere but at me. The thought of lying around casually speaking to men on Demon's Peak made me laugh lightly.

"No. We're from different worlds, you and I. I'm a Demoness, a hired killer. You might be rather shocked to see what I'm normally like." I teased. In the distance I could hear the morning meeting sounding, the officials started their routine business.

The patrols on this wall had been thin at best the day before when we left the palace. With how light the security was, it became obvious that either someone had bribed guards in the area, were led by someone corrupt, or had been killed and replaced with their own people.


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