The Five Princes - Preview

Chapter 1.5

He walked away, leaving his book on the bench. I leaned over and picked it up, running after him.

"Wait!" I called. "Who are you? Why don't I belong here?"

But he was already gone. The vineyard was too much of a maze to search for him forever, and after a few minutes I gave up. Dinner was more important. I could just hand the book off to someone else in the castle. It would have been easier to return the jerk's book to him if I had gotten his name, though.

I looked down at the book.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Huh. Maybe he was looking for the other half of his personality. The nice part that was destroyed by scowling and half-assed sentences.

I flipped open the book, hoping to see a name, but there wasn't one. Shrugging, I put it in my bag.

"Marina! We lost you for a moment!"

I jumped as the tour guide's smile came into view.

"Sorry about that," I said.

"Please, come with me," she said. "We're late."

The tour guide took me back through the castle and up the staircase.

"Is the dining room upstairs?" I asked. "Aren't we going to dinner?"

"Oh, dinner will be a bit later!" she said happily, as if it wasn't the most disappointing thing she'd said all day. "We have another stop before that. This way, please."

I kept following, down the wide hallways lined with crimson carpet and white tapestries with gold patterns. With how large this castle was, my feet were starting to hurt.

The tour guide stopped at the last door in the hall and knocked.

"Enter," a strong male voice said on the other side.

The tour guide turned to me. "Best smile, my dear."

She reached up and, taking me by surprise, pinched my face into a smile. Did she think I was six? I complied but dropped the fake smile as soon as she turned away.

The door opened to a grand parlor, with large leather couches and a bar at the back. I expected to see the rest of the tour group assembled, but there was just one person: a man in a white suit reorganizing the pieces on a chessboard in the middle of the room.

The same man who had been watching me from the mezzanine.

He jumped up when he saw us, knocking over the chessboard and pieces.

"How many times ..." he grumbled, looking at the mess he had caused.

He left the pieces where they were and stepped over to us, giving me a bright smile with his pale lips and dark eyes. He couldn't have been much older than I was, but the way he stood up straight, pulling his broad shoulders back, showed the maturity of someone twice my age. Clumsy perhaps, but mature.

He lifted his wrist, looking down at his watch. "You're seven minutes late, Catie."

She bowed deeply. "My apologies, Your—"

"You realize my schedule can't be rearranged," he said, tapping on his watch. "I have a meeting at 5:35. If that meeting is pushed back any further, it will cut into my video conference with New York. And if New York goes over its allotted time, that will push back my other tasks, and I'll lose possibly 30 minutes of sleep. That will disrupt my REM, and the entire balance of my sleep cycle for tomorrow's activities."

He kept tapping on his watch, frowning. Wow, this guy was worse than my dad. Why was I here to meet him?

He looked up from his watch, an eyebrow raised as if he'd heard what I was thinking. "You must be Marina?"

I raised an eyebrow back at him. "Yeah, that's me."

The tour guide nudged me. "Try to be a bit more formal, dear."

I frowned. "Uh ... Yes ... that is I?"

The tour guide grimaced. The man chuckled.

"Formalities are not your specialty," he said, tapping on his watch again. "I'll have to note that while scheduling."

"Scheduling what?"

"We'll talk about that in a moment. First, I must introduce myself."

He stepped forward, holding out a hand decorated in gold rings. I took it for a handshake, but he brought it up to his lips instead. He gently kissed the back of my hand, then put his other hand on top of mine. I'd never had a stranger kiss my hand before. Well, except for the guys I had punched in the mouth. That probably wasn't the same thing, though.

"Catie, please wait outside for a moment," he said.

The tour guide looked between us, then bowed and left.

"Allow me to officially welcome you to my home," the man said, still holding my hand. "I'm King Cyrus."

I drew my hand back. "King?"

He smiled ear to ear. "Yes. And it's an honor to finally meet you ... Your Highness."