I stared at Julian, disbelieving my ears. Did he really just ask me for a solo date?

Yet everyone in the whole ballroom was looking at us. Julian still held the microphone up to his mouth.

This was definitely happening. It wasn’t a dream.

Which meant that Julian was up to something.

“Why?” I asked, before I could think better of it.

A few girls around me gasped. Only then did I realize my mistake and covered my mouth.

Julian also looked shocked, his eyes going wide for a moment. But then, just as quickly, he burst out

laughing.

His good humor seemed to erase the surprise of the other onlookers. Everyone seemed to think I had

been telling a joke.

With the microphone lowered, he said to me, “I insist this request is genuine, Piper.”

I didn’t believe him.

Julian always played the angles. Asking me on a date had to be some kind of move for his benefit, but I

couldn’t begin to figure out how. I’d only scratched the surface of the inner politics of the royal family.

for my answer. Everyone

knew he was using me, even if I didn’t know how, but I couldn’t exactly turn him down. He was a

this was a competition. I was just a pawn in a

I said,

microphone, he announced, “She said

nobles cheered. Most of the

be tomorrow,” he said, no longer speaking to me, but to the

His

stared

I

that this didn’t mean anything. Julian

for the sake

reach him without publicly dismissing

need an

anymore

triggered something inside of

of me screamed to soothe away

like that

looked at Nicholas now, that look had dimmed. Now he seemed

and, even an hour

by Julian and his

me, they could not stop telling me how funny

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