Shadow's Throne

Chapter Fifteen

Evangeline's Pov

My lovely betrothed and I are currently sitting in front of a camera practicing our lines for our lovely video debut where we announce our engagement.

Yippee.

Anabel had told Cal and me at breakfast that we'd be filming our engagement announcement today, and right after we'd finished eating, she had whisked us away to a private study my father had given her, where we were forced to memorize some cheesy lines.

But at least the whole situation gave me a great opportunity to be around Cal.

Right when I'd walked into breakfast, I knew something was up with him. The bags under his eyes had lessened and he seemed happier than he had been in days. After announcing that he wasn't going to be leading his army into battle, something he enjoyed so much, you'd expect the guy to be almost depressed. But Cal was the exact opposite. And the weirdest part was the fact that he never snuck glances at Mare or flinched when he heard her name like he usually does.

Something was up and I was determined to find out what.

"Again. You need to make it more believable Cal," Anabel says, drawing me out of my thoughts.

"It's hard to make it believable when there's nothing there to begin with," I hear Cal mutter to himself.

"Let's just take it from the top," Anabel says annoyed.

We nod and I smile into the camera acting like I'm hopelessly in love with the idiot who's standing next to me.

"Hello citizens of Norta. I, your future King, have a very important announcement to make," he says before turning to look at me with a fake smile.

I return the gesture.

"I'm happy to announce that Princess Evangeline Samos, a magnetron from House Samos, daughter of Volo Samos, King of the Rift, and I, are now engaged."

I make my fake smile widen and let out a small girlish giggle.

"I'm honored to help strengthen the alliance between the future King of Norta and the Rift. Especially if I'm doing it with the man I love," I say, trying my best not to throw a spear at Anabel for making us read this stupid script.

Cal and I turn to face each other, both of us sporting our fake smiles. Time for our absolute favorite part. The kiss.

As Cal leans in, I do my best not to gag or stab him in the back. I kiss him back, trying to make it seem passionate. When we pull apart, we put our fake smiles back on and Cal looks into my eyes to say his last line.

"And I'm so happy that the girl that I love is going to be my queen," he says and we continue to smile at each other before we get a thumbs up from Anabel confirming that we're done.

I immediately turn away from Cal and don't hide the look of disgust on my face.

"Please tell me we're done," Cal says to his grandmother, practically begging.

"I don't care if we are or not. I'm not kissing you again," I say earning a glare from Cal and Anabel.

"That was believable enough," Anabel says rewatching the footage. "You two can go. And Davidson wants to meet with you guys in his study."

I look to Cal who looks as confused as I am and I follow him out the door and down the hall.

"What could he possibly want?" I ask Cal.

"Probably just some last minute plans," Cal answers like he's trying to convince himself.

I speed up so I'm ahead of him and I turn around to face him, almost causing him to run into me.

"What happened?" I ask him causing him to raise an eyebrow.

I roll my eyes. "You've been acting weird all morning and you actually look like you've gotten some sleep for a change. So tell me. What happened?"

He stares at me for a few moments, debating over wether to tell me or not.

Finally, he speaks. "If you really must know, I've finally let her go."

That's all he says before stepping around me and continuing down the halls towards Davidson's study.

I stay standing in the middle of the hall completely confused by what he just said.

Let her go? What's that supposed to mean?

I quickly clear my head and run to catch up to Tiberias who's almost there.

"You owe me an explanation later," I say before opening the door and stepping inside.

~~~~———————————————~~~~~

Cal closes the door shut behind us and we walk further into Davidson's little study.

"Ah, Cal, Evangeline, how nice of you to join us," Davidson says while giving us a smile and pointing to the empty chairs around the room. I take the one by Mare, who's also here, and Cal takes the one on the opposite side of me.

"I'm sorry for calling an unplanned meeting, but I thought you guys might want to meet a key player in your master plan," Davidson says walking to the door.

He opens it and a boy who can only be about 16 walks in. He has messy dark brown hair and burning blue eyes. He's lean and has decent muscles, but compared to Cal, he looks like a short stick. He's dressed in a green Montfort training uniform that contrasts against his olive skin.

"I'm Sam," he says giving all of us a friendly smile.

He walks around to each of us and shakes our hands before returning to his spot next to Davidson.

"Sam is the Newblood whisper. I'd thought you'd all might like to meet him before the battle," Davidson says offering us a smile.

I look back at Sam who still has a trace of his smile on his lips. How can someone so happy have such a terrible power?

"Nice to meet you, Sam," Cal says giving him a curt nod. "We can start going over your mission and begin your training today."

Sam smiles. "Thank you Tiberias."

I look over at Mare who's been very quiet this entire time. She seems frozen, eyes locked on Sam. I guess I understand why she's so afraid. After what happened to Maven and her own experiences with whispers, I wouldn't trust them either.

But come on, Sam seems like one of the nicest people you'd ever meet. What could he possibly do?

"Tiberias, Sam, why don't we head down to the training area?" Davidson asks and both boys nod and follow him out the door.

I hear Mare exhale after the door closes behind them. I get up from my chair to walk over to her.

"You wouldn't happen to know what's going on with Cal, do you?" I ask, almost positive she'll know.

Her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "What do you mean what's going on. Is he okay?"

"He's fine. He just seems, happy again. And like he's actually getting sleep for once," I reply.

Mare sits there, telling me that she actually has no clue what's going on.

"Well you clearly don't know, so I'm heading down to the training arena so I can do something useful with my time," I say as I walk out of Davidson's study.

I start to make my way down the halls and towards the training arena. The long walk gives me time to think, and no matter what the topic is, I somehow always come back to the same question.

What is going on with Cal?

Yay! We finally met Sam! So what did you guys think of him? Was he what you expected? Leave a comment and let me know!!