The Five Princes - Preview

Chapter 4 - Tasks and Assignments

"We can't go in," Evann said. "It's 7:57."

I blinked, looking at the oversized door in front of us, then at Evann. "We're supposed to meet Cyrus at 8 o'clock, right?"

"Yes. Three more minutes."

I laughed. "You're not serious, right?"

Evann looked at his watch again, not answering. I gave up, humming We Don't Talk Anymore passive-aggressively until he motioned for me to follow.

He opened the doors to the same parlor where I'd met King Cyrus yesterday. He was at the chair by the chessboard, Nikos lying on the couch across the room.

King Cyrus stood when I arrived. Prince Nikos slid further into the couch.

"Marina!" Cyrus greeted me. "You came on time. Excellent." He pressed some buttons on his watch. "Did you sleep well?"

I raised an eyebrow at him purposely. He raised a hand to the back of his neck.

"Yes, well, I suppose it might have been difficult," he muttered.

"She didn't even bother to put on makeup," Nikos added. "I can tell from here."

I felt my lip twitch.

Cyrus approached me, taking my hand in his and kissing the back as he had the first time. If anyone back home did that, I'd punch them immediately. But Cyrus had a strange warmth to him when he touched my hand and brought it to his lips, as if my hand was something he was supposed to hold delicately, so I couldn't be offended at the gesture. Also, it was his country and his culture.

"I took the liberty of making your schedule," Cyrus said, handing me a folder.

I opened it up and looked at the first page. "Diplomat meetings? Video conferences? A UN meeting? Wait, why are there bathroom breaks scheduled in here?"

Cyrus frowned. "My apologies. That's my schedule. Your schedule should be over here."

He took the front page from me and flipped to the third page of the folder. There was a list of subjects, followed by times and locations.

"My brothers will tutor you in these subjects," Cyrus explained. "I've already extracted the books you will need from our library."

He waved his hand over to the table beside us.

My jaw dropped.

"You have to be kidding me!" I said. "There's at least fifteen books in that pile!"

Cyrus's eyebrows mashed together. "Are you unable to speed-read?"

"She's probably been hit in the head too many times," Nikos muttered.

"You know, I'm pretty good at hitting people in the head as well," I replied.

Nikos's lip curled. I glared at him.

Cyrus turned back to the tower of books. "Is it really impossible? I thought I had curated a reasonable amount. Not a problem, I can go through them again, I suppose." He looked at his watch. "But when to schedule such a thing? How long would it take? An hour? Two?"

Between Nikos's comments and Cyrus's constant button pressing, I was about to lose it.

"I can do it," I lied. "I can read all of them."

"It's not a problem if you can't—" Cyrus began.

"I said I could, so I will."

Cyrus dropped his watch, pouting slightly. "Very well. If you insist. Evann, could you assist Marina in taking these textbooks back to her room?"