I knew it wouldn't last.
Having my heel pressed against someone's throat felt both sickening and empowering at the same time. It had been a while since I got to flip someone over my shoulder or break some bones, and I guess I kind of missed it. I wasn't the best at it, but it helped clear my mind for a few seconds.
As the remnants of danger dissipated, I felt my adrenaline recede as well. Who knew my ball would be this exciting?
He was right here. Right here. The boy with the curly hair.
The morning when the East Garden's pyramid exploded, Raza told me that the people he believed were the Ravens would attack the Chinese fields. There was no attack on China - not then, not now, never will be, but there was an explosion in a Chinese Field - the field in Lesya.
The boy who walked into my ball, invited, with a white raven's feather proudly in his hair was a killer and... he was inches from me. He could have killed me.
He didn't.
The curly-haired boy made me hide when I was thirteen. When I got back up to the surface, my brother and father were both dead.
Then he almost killed hundreds of people right in front of me by folding the fire into itself under the pyramid. But he didn't.
A White Raven.
He won't kill me. I thought as I shoved the bottle back into my pocket, rising from the bar stool I was sitting on, mere minutes before my fist first made contact with his jaw.
If he wanted me dead, I'd already be.
Distracted by the constant booming of music, I rose from the stool to find somewhere quiet, to go where he wanted me to go... once I figured out where that was.
I was glad and anxious for a reason to leave the party.
"Your imperial majesty!"
It was a girl who called. "Lady Yamanni." I nodded my head to her giving her a smile to be polite, wondering why she was coming at me. She was a distant cousin of mine, a billionaire of diluted royal blood, but we rarely talked these past few years as she was married to an MP of the opposition, and I wasn't allowed by Upapa to take sides.
"Have you met my brother, Empress Lizaveta? This is-" Of course. He was a famous cricket player, and one of the thirty.
"I have somewhere to go. I'll meet him tomorrow." I smiled and ducked away only to be haggled by more of the strangers. I had the entire imperial tour to meet all of the thirty. They were staying after tonight anyway, so why the rush?
Another woman blocked my exit. This one I knew. "Senator Morgandez."
She smiled at me, raising a glass of dark red wine. "Pity that darling Theo couldn't make it... but have you met my son, Ender?"
I just ducked out that conversation before it got worse.
Many people came to me, mostly women trying to be wingmen for their sons or brothers who apparently did not have the guts to introduce themselves. I blocked Lady Maebh with President Leibling, hid behind Princess Lyton, evaded the hug of the drunk Lady Jhessa of Wales with the help of a shocked Minister Mandela who I shoved against her.
Somehow, I even managed to stumble on to Princess Mika and her cousin, Princess Jhade as they were talking to the Pakistani billionaire sisters, Heisha and Hannah. Even the Empresses of Amazonia Malae, Rea and Penelope tried to block me from going out, but they were no match against my will to disappear.
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Science FictionLizaveta has always looked like the enemy, but her blood has always been of the throne. After leaving her life on a choice she made with a letter opener above a king's throat, a friend reveals that she has gained a continent. The last heir from a l...
