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.

waited for my answer. Everyone

if I didn’t know how, but I couldn’t exactly turn him down. He was

a competition. I was just a pawn in

said, “I

the microphone,

cheered. Most of the girls clapped politely. A

no longer speaking

His face was an emotionless

stared straight

I

him that this didn’t mean anything. Julian was only

again, likely just for the sake

without publicly dismissing Julian.

realized that Nicholas didn’t need an

anymore

triggered something inside of me,

screamed to soothe away

like that to

that look had dimmed. Now

me and, even an hour

charmed by Julian and his

from me, they could not stop telling me how funny he

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