Adelyn

*17*

POV Theo (Previous Day)

"She is so stubborn," I grunt after leaving Ad's room. "I don't know what he will do when he finds out." Granted I didn't know what he would think if he found out I have a girlfriend who he doesn't approve of to be queen. I enter the throne room where large projector screens have been set up, one displaying names of the people in the Tournament, and two others with no feed yet. 

"Ah, son, so glad you could make it. Where is your sister?" Step-father inquires and pats the seat beside him. 

"She isn't feeling well, I went to check on her myself and she was throwing up. Gwen is with her. She thinks she has a case of food poisoning." I reply with what Ad decided for her cover story. Our step-father looks at me, trying to decipher any hidden meaning. 

"So she just didn't want to come. Disappointing." he scowls and casts his eyes up to the middle screen. 

"Here you go, your Majesty." A young man, Ad said his name was Felix, hands him a microphone. 

"Thank you, now where is Andrew Carmichael? He's announcing the Tournament?" Step-father looks about impatiently. 

"Here! Sir!" Andrew Carmichael exclaims and steps forward. 

"You may begin," Andrew takes the mic hesitantly and looks up at the screen. Videofeed of the contestants piling out of a metal tunnel flashes onto the screen, and there in the midst, I see the red hair of Adelyn. Andrew starts his speech and the people on screen look around bewildered, and then I see the metal door slide closed behind the last contestants. 

"Look around you, someone among you will win the Princess Adelyn's hand in marriage. Some of you may not come out of this Arena! Your first task is to climb the mountain! First one-hundred contestants to make it to the top stay in the Tournament! Go!" Andrew looks back for approval and the King nods, satisfied. The camera feed switches back and forth between contestants, but when it lands on Adelyn and Asher climbing to the top of the mountain my heart drops into my stomach. I glance over at our step-father but I don't see recognition in his eyes thank goodness. We watch the feed long into the night as the contestants try to survive the tundra, a child cries out at the sight of the first wolf. It appears that we are watching what happens from a tree when the beast leaped out of the woods with teeth shining in the moonlight. The contestant the wolf leaped at dives out of the way and his hood slips down, revealing a mess of red curling hair. Ad! My eyes bug out of my head and I lean forward in my seat. The camera pans closer and showers her terrified face as she dashes through the snow to get away from the beasts. 

"Is that Princess Adelyn?" Felix squints through his glasses at the screen. 

"Uh no! Ad is sick in her room!" I quickly shout, but it's too late. Step-father rises from his throne and takes a few steps closer to the screen. 

"Zoom in on that contestant," Step-father commands, the camera angle changes and then we see Ad climbing up a pine tree, the camera looking down at her from branches above. Her fingers slip from a branch and she falls back, cradled in the bows around her." Step-father gives me a look and then storms from the room, I trip after him and skid across the tiles to make it around a corner. The sound of his boots thunder through the hall, stopping servants in their tracks. He wrenches open Ad's bedroom door and peers inside. 

"You lied to me," he turns on me, his words dripping venom. 

"No, Father, please! It was her choice!" my back meets a wall and he slams his fist beside my head. 

"I let you mess around with your little girlfriend, and this is how you treat me?" He bellows loudly in my ear. "You didn't think I would find out about your Maered? I have spies everywhere, and yet this alluded me!" I gulp and look up at him terrified. 

"There will be reckoning!"